Considering Homeschooling

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I have an 8 yr old Aspie that I am considering homeschooling. Have any of you tried homeschooling your aspie, and how did it go?

My son is 8 and has been homeschooled since he was K. So we are on our 4th year and loving it. We make sure he is active in all the local homeschool groups, and he has a nice bunch of friends, homeschooled and public schooled!

Look up homeschool groups in your area and join up, there are so many activities and programs we are often overbooked

any specific questions feel free to ask!

That's the really tough part. There don't seem to be very many homeschooling groups where I am, and the ones that are there are Catholic and don't allow those who aren't Catholic to join. (I am not Catholic) I just worry because I am not a super structured person, but I also worry because I don't like the way public school is going especially with Common Core. I also really worry because with my son being an Aspie, he takes everything literally, and I worry about when we get to a point where what is being taught at home is at odds with what is taught at school. Or what is he being taught that I disagree with that I don't even know about that he is taking for gospel truth, ya know?

I also have 7, 4, and 2 yr old neurotypicals and I don't know if I do homeschool, does that mean I am now homeschooling all 4 of my kids?

I have one child so I am not going to have any productive input on attempting a dual PS/homeschool system other than if you go that route, I suggest having a structure that enables smooth transitions involved with picking up or dropping off your PS kids to minimize disruptions to the home schooled child (If your kids take the bus, never mind that one otherwise make sure your home schooled kid's day begins after the drop off and ends before the pick up. basically so the flow is smooth.

I have a 3rd grader who I have been homeschooling for less than a year. We are very isolated, and I no longer get speech or OT. It is still worth it to us to do b/c my son could not handle the environment and it was causing him to act out. We do the best we can, and I think it was the best decision for us under our circumstances. We take him out and about a lot to try to keep him engaged with other people. He cannot handle unsupervised, unaided socialization and the school was zero help in this regard and we had a ton of problems. So we are stuck with too little socialization instead of too much. I am trying to find a special interest group, but we live in a place that prioritizes interests and aptitudes our son does not have.

I did a lot of preparation over the summer, but ended up making a lot of changes because I realized what worked and what did not. We have a schedule with some flex in it, and a lot of downtime so I don't have to worry about compliance issues or meltdowns completely tanking our day. He can be an efficient learner when he is focusing so it mostly works. The bulk of the more structured learning happens in the A.M, when he is freshest and the early afternoon. Then we transition to more creative things so he can decompress before homework. We have the same hours as his old school, and use some of the same academic resources to have continuity and so he understands it is school even though it is home. He has homework and tests, and all that, too b/c if I get too loosy-goosy with him he will think it is play time all day.

Your mileage will vary b/c your child's individual nature will determine what approach to take. My son is a visual and kinesthetic learner, so we don't don't require too much sitting around, and I have a lot of colorful resources.

I will be honest and say this is not the path I would have chosen. On the plus side, I can adjust the curriculum for his needs as well as his special interests that are more academic. I am frazzled quite a bit though b/c as much as I love my son, it would be nice for me to have more downtime for me. It is still easier and better than having to deal with the school.

I homeschool my 8-year-old aspie and it is the best decision we ever made. As far as homeschool co-ops go, not much around here either. But you really don't have to have them to socialize. Take your kid to the park in the evenings when other kids will be there. Go skating and bowling and stuff. Sign him up for karate or some type of martial arts. That actually helps with a lot of stuff, discipline and coordination issues and such as well as social interaction.

Something I am trying hard to do with my son is teach other social interactions. He goes up to the counter and orders movie tickets, and orders for himself in restaraunts and such. There is more to social skills than how to talk to other kids, and the public schools seem to teach kids that there is some invisible line and they are in a different social caste than adults or older kids. One of many PS cultures that I despise.

for socialization when you don't have many groups:

YOU can start one! Become an organizer, and spread the word I bet there are many people who would love to join.
Libraries have many programs that are FREE
join sports clubs/groups
karate
bowling league
look for meetup or face book groups that are for getting kids together regardless if homeschooled or not.
volunteer opportunities are awesome!! ! look up a cause and join or better yet organize one yourself!

as for multiple kids...here is how that can go. You can choose to homeschool em all! Gives you the MOST flexibility, cause you wont be tied down to the other kids school schedules. OR you can homeschool any number of them and send the others to school. I know several homeschoolers who do that, and many who homeschool them all. Right now my oldest is homeschooled while my middle is in pre school, but she will be homeschooled eventually too! My baby, he is homeschooled lol!

My wife and I have homeschooled our three children. It can seem intimidating at first, but once you see how low the public school standards really are, it takes a lot of the pressure off. Also once you see how much your children can enjoy learning and start to devour books, you will thank God for having chosen this path.

Hi, I don't know if anyone already wrote this, but you do not have to homeschool all your kids. Just one or two is fine. I know several people who homeschool only their Aspie. I would focus on getting started, and worry about finding other families later. I bet there are secular groups around. Ask your librarian if they know of any homeschool families and go from there. I wish I lived where you do. I'm Catholic, and there are no Catholic groups close by.

I know several families who have only home schooled one child. They have used all different types of programs. I know one who loved the K12 online school. Although, I have heard that others don't like it, but it worked for them until he was ready to rejoin public school in high school. Another family I know home schools part-time and sends their child to a part-time Veritas school. Others I know do it all on their own. Most larger areas have social groups for home schooled children. Are there none in your area so you could see what options there are where you live?

Off topic: It is interesting reading this thread and seeing none of the controversy that would have dragged into it a decade ago. I think that is becoming quite accepted that many Aspie kids do need homeschooling to thrive, and that concerns about their social skills being harmed just have not born out.

On socialization - just like school, it is hit or miss. My son was in a great an academic co-op for years until I had to take him out for social reasons while I kept my daughter in. There just wasn't the right mix of kids for him. I had him out of co-ops for a year while we used local classes and then found another that works really well for him. It is amazing how different the co-ops are socially - and there is no real reason for it. It just happens that the second one has a bunch of great kids.

As far as the OP's concerns...
Finding others: Ask about homeschooking groups or individual families everywhere you are. Chat up the grocery store clerks if you have to. Look for homeschool classes at the local community college. Search for homeschool Yahoo Groups for your area. Once you find a curriculum basis, you can find others in your area who use the same. Like someone else wrote, start your own groups. I just started a chess club, and I'm amazed how many people show up. For 2 weeks we had 8 games going at once. Yesterday we only had 5, but that's still great.

Structure issues: We loved using K12, which has it's structure and scheduling online. So you buy the materials, and the online scheduling tells you what to do. If you skipped something, the activity is moved to the next day. It is a very high level curriculum. Our problem was that you weren't supposed to do it all. I didn't know how to say no to any of the activities and scale it back. I was too hard on my kids. It is very expensive, although in some states you can do it for free through a virtual academy. Many of those are too bureaucratic, so do some research.

Online schools, local classes, and co-ops are other ways to build structure. I find for myself and many others, we get done the subjects where there is some level of accountability.

We pulled DS from public school in fall of first grade in a crisis situation, and plunged into homeschooling through a charter with a phenomenal curriculum library with only a week's break. At the time, I also had just-turned 3 year old twins.

The school work part actually went reasonably well. I was figuring out how to pace the day and let DS have plenty of trampoline breaks. What didn't work for us was that we could not do ANYTHING with the twins in the house. DS was completely distracted by whatever they were doing, whether it was playing or watching TV (and they had already given up naptime) and would run away from the lesson to interact with them. They were in a preschool program for 3 hours 3 days a week, and it just wasn't enough time (especially considering I lost 1/2 hour to dropoff and pickup). I was seriously considering either putting them in daycare 5 days/wk or hiring a nanny to make more breathing room for school.

I happened to discover a small non-public school specifically for kids with AS, and that was a better solution for our family at that time. Altogether I homeschooled full time for about 6 weeks, and part-time for another month. I still think I was doing a better job with the academics than the AS school, but the AS school beats me hands down for socialization and teaching DS emotional regulation.

Since it's likely you don't have a similar school available, based on my experience I would say YES to homeschooling, but you need to have a plan in place for taking care of your 2 and 4 year olds during the hours you are doing school. You may be able to give the 4 yo "lessons" so he or she feels like she's doing school, too, or sign up for more preschool time.

This is our 7th year of homeschooling our 12-year old son with Asperger's and it has worked well for us. When it was time for Kindergarden, my son was still not potty-trained but was reading on his own the third book in the Harry Potter series. Homeschooling allowed us the time to concentrate on all of his therapies while providing an academic environment which excited him. He is currently in 6th grade and is grade level on some topics while doing collegiate work on other subjects. Most states have a homeschooling organization who will help parents learn about homeschooling and there are many great Facebook groups to get additional ideas. Good luck!

Another angle might be that the people posting on this thread, and their children, are being let down very badly by their public school systems, and local authorities. I'm saying this as someone in a country where home-schooling is very rare, and in an area where people are supportive of the state school system, despite it's not being perfect, and would work to improve those areas where it fails, rather than step out altogether.


Just another perspective.

Marcia, that sounds good in theory. In practice, there is not enough of us in each school, and the majority of parents of NTs in many areas of the U.S could do without the disruptions to their own kids' educations and the diversion of funding.

I was just commenting, really, on the very different cultures we come from here.