Even before Big Poppa and I started our family, I knew I
wanted to homeschool. Just the thought of being able to teach my kids in fun
ways has always been enticing to me. So when Mr. All-Star was old enough for
Kindergarten (he’s in the 7th grade now), I decided to give it a go.
Truth be told, there wasn’t much “school” as there was fun
and goofing off. We dabbled in learning the alphabet and counting to ten, and
we worked on writing his name, but other than that, our days mostly consisted
of watching Disney shows (Bear In the Big Blue House) and playing with the
gazillion toys in the playroom. I did worry that he wasn’t learning what he was
“supposed to”, but for the most part, we had fun.
I did send Mr. All-Star to 1st grade because by
then, Mr. Awesome was ready for school and I was battling with (undiagnosed)
depression and anxiety, so I wasn’t able to continue with homeschool.
This year, I decided to pull the Princess from school after
she failed to thrive due to some bullying. We struggled at first with finding
our “groove” but, we’ve found it. She’s doing well and really grasping the
concepts that she failed to understand in school, and her interests in other
things have taken off. She’s also a big help with encouraging the Fire Pig in
learning the alphabet and numbers, and they really enjoy doing school together.
With Mr. Awesome approaching middle school next year, I’ve
been worrying. At the moment, he’s enrolled in a special class that caters to
kids like him (Autism Spectrum, learning disabilities, etc.), and it’s a really
small class (I think they have 12 kids right now). He spends all day with his
amazing teachers, learning a modified curriculum of his grade level, goes to
speech therapy, and sees the school psychiatrist for group sessions on social
behaviors. It’s structured and designed to help him.
However, in talking with one of his teachers during a recent
parent-teacher conference, the designated middle school that he’ll be enrolled
in does not provide him with that. The only thing remotely close to it will be
a homeroom at the beginning of the school day with other students like him, and
then he’s off mainstream classes.
7 different classes, 7 different teachers, 20-25 other
students in each class.
Sorry, that’s not going to work. Mr. Awesome has Aspergers,
and that kind of environment isn’t ideal. And, I’m worried that he’ll slip back
into his behaviors before we got him into the EXCEL program (hysterical
tantrums, throwing desks and chairs, etc.).
So after months and months of talking with Big Poppa, and
equal amounts (if not more) of prayer, we’ve decided we’re going to homeschool
Mr. Awesome. When we broached the subject with him a few weeks back, he didn’t
seem very interested. However, when he was sick from school last week and saw
what the Princess and Fire Pig were doing, his curiosity was peaked. And, it
led us to a long, open conversation about homeschool, the pros and cons, and
the different things we can do to create the “perfect” curriculum for him.
As it stands, he’s now all for it. Since that day, he’s
constantly reminding me to research online curriculums and he’s been leaving me
lists of things he’s interested in to see if we can incorporate them into his
curriculum.
The Princess and Fire Pig are excited that he’ll be home
with them, and have been telling him all about the things we’ve been doing
(field trips to Krispy Kreme, library days, kids museum). I think they’ve got
him sold on the idea.
Now, if I can only choose his curriculum; there are so many
fun ones out there!
