I just finished writing an email to someone asking for advice on how to homeschool their kid who has autism. At first, it was a lengthy rambling of history. After the computer accidently deleted half, I got more focused, and realized I had a blog post by the end! So here are my personal helps on homeschooling a kid with special needs. Every kid and their struggles are different, so keep that in mind here.
Make a list of rules. Maybe give him a reward (a sticker, a skittle, iPad time after schoolwork is done, whatever ways of working to a reward works for him) for each day he goes by them.
Keep your goals low early on - for him & for you. For example, we started our year with Bible, math & handwriting (Bible is just important us and his handwriting is atrocious - we had to start back at preschool in Handwriting without Tears). Math he is great at (although it is getting difficult now), and handwriting was his weakness. We did one of each so he would remain motivated. That's all we did until I realized he was ready for more. Then we added science. Then we added history the next week. Reading we did thru Bible, history & science, but I have recently increased it with outside literature. For now, I'm reading to him, based on advice from other older, wiser homeschoolers who say some kids, esp boys, take longer with the reading and it clicks between ages 10-12, and that he is developmentally delayed. We still get books from the library that he chooses that he does read on his own, but they are things like Ninjago. :) Not very educational, but it's something. If he's behind on several subjects, start small. Start with things he likes. Build on it. I still don't feel like I'm covering enough with my kids, but I don't know if homeschool moms ever do. I don't do spelling or grammar, he doesn't write stories or poems yet, there are so many things we don't do yet. And yet, I want what he does know, he knows well. He does have memory issues and decoding issues from auditory processing disorder. Then we'll build on that. And he can't do 7 hours a day. He just can't. He can barely do 2 hours in a row. The reward, I think, if you can stick with it, is that YOU get to see them learn before your very eyes. You get to see that what you are putting in WILL come out. And you will be right there with them when that happens. Learn that you set the pace, and you know the pace he can go at. The beauty of homeschooling is there is no gage to go by. Eventually our kids will know the same things their peers will...perhaps they will know even more. But they will do it on a different path than their peers. And maybe be less stressed out and enjoy it more in the long run.
Keep your goals low early on - for him & for you. For example, we started our year with Bible, math & handwriting (Bible is just important us and his handwriting is atrocious - we had to start back at preschool in Handwriting without Tears). Math he is great at (although it is getting difficult now), and handwriting was his weakness. We did one of each so he would remain motivated. That's all we did until I realized he was ready for more. Then we added science. Then we added history the next week. Reading we did thru Bible, history & science, but I have recently increased it with outside literature. For now, I'm reading to him, based on advice from other older, wiser homeschoolers who say some kids, esp boys, take longer with the reading and it clicks between ages 10-12, and that he is developmentally delayed. We still get books from the library that he chooses that he does read on his own, but they are things like Ninjago. :) Not very educational, but it's something. If he's behind on several subjects, start small. Start with things he likes. Build on it. I still don't feel like I'm covering enough with my kids, but I don't know if homeschool moms ever do. I don't do spelling or grammar, he doesn't write stories or poems yet, there are so many things we don't do yet. And yet, I want what he does know, he knows well. He does have memory issues and decoding issues from auditory processing disorder. Then we'll build on that. And he can't do 7 hours a day. He just can't. He can barely do 2 hours in a row. The reward, I think, if you can stick with it, is that YOU get to see them learn before your very eyes. You get to see that what you are putting in WILL come out. And you will be right there with them when that happens. Learn that you set the pace, and you know the pace he can go at. The beauty of homeschooling is there is no gage to go by. Eventually our kids will know the same things their peers will...perhaps they will know even more. But they will do it on a different path than their peers. And maybe be less stressed out and enjoy it more in the long run.
Be flexible. When we first started, I showed LJ what we had to accomplish. I said, these are the non-negotiables about the schedule (Bible always comes first - I am doing a theme on putting others first/humility to focus on character), but everything else you can change the order of. We can change where you sit while you do it. The only other thing that is non-negotiable is that you do the work I ask you to do. And I at least communicated, we have a structure, but if it doesn't work for you, you have choices. Of course, sometimes he tries to manipulate that, and then he starts getting fewer choices. Or like the other day, he kept resisting me on his math worksheet, so I finally started putting one math problem on the dry erase board at a time, so he wasn't visually looking at the whole page. After we got thru the tough stuff, he did the rest of the worksheet by himself. For awhile we did math & handwriting on the days Mon/Wed when he had speech & I had allergy shots, then Tues/Thurs were science or history days (1 day for each so we could take time doing the activities with them) and Friday/Sat our field days or catch up days (his dad sometimes works on Sat, so sometimes I did my errand running on Friday & make up on Sat).
Take breaks (use a timer, or do before lunch, then after lunch), do sensory stuff (I keep theraputty, play-doh, mini trampoline, noise putty, etc handy) and have snacks at hand.
Get creative. Ok, this one is a very difficult one for me. Teaching has never been my gift. Creativity is like my long lost relative...I'm supposed to be related, but I can't remember the last time I saw them. But I'm slowly learning to go with my gut. I saw these Story Cubes at Target. They were like $7. While Lucas is not at a point to write a story...or maybe I'm not ready to dig in to the process that would require teaching him because last year at school he writes a bullet point story that is more like a list of facts....these story cubes you toss & tell a story based on the pictures that land face up. Someday, I may write the story as he tells it on the easel and work our way towards storytelling & writing. But I do things SLOW. I have 4 kids 8 & under...nothing around here gets accomplished quickly! :) And for now, it's a great way to break up the other school work while still counting it as school work! One of my friends posted that she got this new game Bird Bingo. Well, we are doing a science curriculum where we are only studying birds. I totally bought it on amazon for $7 I think, and it counted, with the math bingo game that I think my mom picked up in the Target $1 section, as school for today. I had appointments today, and very little time to school, but I know they actually were learning something today. This part might be the hardest part, but after you get in a routine, it will get easier to be creative. Or start creative and fun, and work towards the routine. Use the new creative stuff to motivate getting thru the hard stuff. One day, we were doing ancient Egyptian history, and I looked up apps and found one on pyramids. Downloaded it, and made it fun for them.
I love, love, love how flexible homeschooling is. Make it something that works for him & you. And finding what works just takes time. It's ok if he's "not learning" at the same rate as his peers while you find your way. In the long run, he will probably learn things better, in that he will understand the information better and more thoroughly. We recently just missed a month of school because of Christmas/New Year's/moving/visiting family from out of town. I feel very behind, but have to remind myself it's a marathon, not a sprint. They don't have to have diplomas at 17. It can be 19. But regardless, that sense of accomplishment will really be something, won't it?? I was thinking about it the other day, and IF he gets there (we have such a long way to go!), I will surely be an emotional mess of a mother, so proud, and so emotional of all the obstacles he will have overcome.
Take breaks (use a timer, or do before lunch, then after lunch), do sensory stuff (I keep theraputty, play-doh, mini trampoline, noise putty, etc handy) and have snacks at hand.
Get creative. Ok, this one is a very difficult one for me. Teaching has never been my gift. Creativity is like my long lost relative...I'm supposed to be related, but I can't remember the last time I saw them. But I'm slowly learning to go with my gut. I saw these Story Cubes at Target. They were like $7. While Lucas is not at a point to write a story...or maybe I'm not ready to dig in to the process that would require teaching him because last year at school he writes a bullet point story that is more like a list of facts....these story cubes you toss & tell a story based on the pictures that land face up. Someday, I may write the story as he tells it on the easel and work our way towards storytelling & writing. But I do things SLOW. I have 4 kids 8 & under...nothing around here gets accomplished quickly! :) And for now, it's a great way to break up the other school work while still counting it as school work! One of my friends posted that she got this new game Bird Bingo. Well, we are doing a science curriculum where we are only studying birds. I totally bought it on amazon for $7 I think, and it counted, with the math bingo game that I think my mom picked up in the Target $1 section, as school for today. I had appointments today, and very little time to school, but I know they actually were learning something today. This part might be the hardest part, but after you get in a routine, it will get easier to be creative. Or start creative and fun, and work towards the routine. Use the new creative stuff to motivate getting thru the hard stuff. One day, we were doing ancient Egyptian history, and I looked up apps and found one on pyramids. Downloaded it, and made it fun for them.
I love, love, love how flexible homeschooling is. Make it something that works for him & you. And finding what works just takes time. It's ok if he's "not learning" at the same rate as his peers while you find your way. In the long run, he will probably learn things better, in that he will understand the information better and more thoroughly. We recently just missed a month of school because of Christmas/New Year's/moving/visiting family from out of town. I feel very behind, but have to remind myself it's a marathon, not a sprint. They don't have to have diplomas at 17. It can be 19. But regardless, that sense of accomplishment will really be something, won't it?? I was thinking about it the other day, and IF he gets there (we have such a long way to go!), I will surely be an emotional mess of a mother, so proud, and so emotional of all the obstacles he will have overcome.
