Anyone Homeschool??

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Hi all
I Hs my 12 year old Fragile X, AS daughter, it got to the point that she could not function at allin school so for the past year I've been Hsing. I've now decided to HS my 10 year old FX, Autistic girl and my 8 year old recently diagnosed As princess next year. Partially due to moving and the stress this would cause them but also due to the fact the system is not working for them.


I was wondering if anyone Homeschooled multiple children at different levels doing different programs? Also what have you found the pros and cons to be?? What have been the most sucessful strategies in making it work? and any other advice:)

Thank you in advance

Rachel

I homeschool, I think it is the ideal environment for an AS child, especially if they are close to their parents and siblings.

I have mixed feelings about homeschooling for NTs. After 5 years of homeschooling I've concluded that unless the homeschooling parent is extremely motivated socially (I'm not), homeschooling won't provide enough socialization for a very NT child. But since an AS child really doesn't need as much socialization as an NT, especially not of the the "group" socialization variety, hsing really can be a perfect arrangement. NTs are like parakeets... they need the extensive social contact as much the AS child doesn't (think parakeet vs cats, as cats are somewhat solitary animals-- put a bunch of parakeets in a cage and they are happy; do the same thing with cats and they will be traumatized).

Right now my NT daughter is in school and my AS son is homeschooled. My others are too young to be one way or the other.

A lot of research has shown that the most treacherous period for a child in school is middle school (about 5th or 6th to 8th grades). This is when a child is most likely to be bullied and their grades to suffer. I may pull my NT daughter out of school for those years and then re-enroll her in highschool.

As far as teaching different levels, just make sure you are emphasizing the basics (reading, writing, math) and keep the TV and video games off at least during "school" hours if not all day during the whole school week. When a child doesn't have TV or video games to lose themselves in, they will inevitably learn something on their own just by reading, experimenting, or playing.

One site I like is http://www.robinsoncurriculum.com/, I like their philosophy about independent learning. I don't use their books and we're not fundie christians, but the core philosophy of independent learning and covering only the basics is something I admire.

Homeschooling also allows an AS child to follow their obsessions. My son can spend a whole day reading about history, I think that is great.

I was homeschooled some months in 3 grade, since I beat up some bullies. Then I went to another school. I made most of the school work for 3, 4, 5 and 6 grade at home in 3-4 months, but had to go through these grades the regular way anyway. Talk about wasting peoples lives and resources...

Yes, we homeschool our only child. We use a mix of materials and not any one packaged curriculum.

Thanks for the response all. My situation is slightly different in that I don't use a pre packaged curriculum for my 12 year old because of her needs she needs a variety of curriculum or resources.

But my Ped has insisted I use Distance Education for my 10 year old mainly this is because she can achieve level 1 VELS in our state also she may be integrated P/T into school at some stage. I'm sceptical as to whether this will work given her dual diagnosis and special needs but am willing to give it a go. It was an absolute disaster for my 12 year old but its not my intention to ever let her back in a school given that she needs to learn not only academics but life skills and personal care skills. Its abit more complicated.

My 8 year old is floundering in the system and my OT told me that if she does not have intervention now she will probably never read or write properly. I will probably use a variety of resources for her concentrating mainly on literacy and maths but still wanting to give her a well rounded education so that at anytime if she feels ready she can have the opportunity to go back to school if she chooses and will be up to date with their work.

Litigious I am sorry you had to go through that what a downer, but thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the link!! I'll check that out and thanks for sharing your experiences.