Does Anyone Home School (Not Diet Related)

MeTime37

My daughter is in 3rd grade & has Autism, She is considered High functioning & this school here is not following her IEP at all. My child is very smart & bright but since starting this school she seems to be having problems, one after another. Ive been up to the school for meetings several times & only one being an IEP. Today she got her report card & I was floored that she has 2 D's 2 C's & a B. WTH?? She's never had anything lower than a B. Instead of being in a special needs class, she is in a regular one & taken out for speech & reading, Shes supposed to have an OT, but yet has had any. Im to the point of Home Schooling. But I dont know how to get started or sure if I can do it. Any help would be great, Thanks :O)

countrygirl_717

I was homeschooled myself, and have quite a few friends on here that do currently home school their children. I figure if I post on here they might see this forum and give you some advice! Hope it helps!

Brannock8

I don't homeschool (no kids) but I was homeschool for quite a long period of time. The regulations change a lot depending on what state you are in. However if you want to PM me I'll help you out the best I can.

Moneicalynn

hello!! i home schooled my kids for 2 years & put them in to public schools bc they wanted to be put in school.... I am to the point where i want to take them back out of school bc my kids are bilingual and their school takes them out of their normal classes each day and puts them into a class with other kids who speak Spanish... it makes me mad bc they can speak English and Spanish both very well!!
I went through this place to get all of the kids books and stuff.... ... it gives you all of the books you need for the kids and then the set of books for you (the teacher).... If you want the info to get the books just let me know....

macpatti

I don't homeschool, but I also have a child with autism. David is in 6th grade and attends public school. He's labeled 'special ed', but he's in mainstream classes because he's high functioning. Since you're not even sure where to begin with homeschooling, my advice is to make some serious complaints at the office of the school district where your daughter is. By law, they have to follow the IEP and provide all the extra classes (OT, behavioral therapy, speech therapy, group therapy). She shouldn't have those kinds of grades if they are giving her the appropriate accommodations. I'd make some calls before pulling her out to homeschool. High functioning autistic kids NEED the social interaction they get at school.

Patti

inotnew

my son has high functioning autism (PDD-NOS), I don't think taking away the social part of school is a good thing. I understand the frustration you have. I don't know what laws your state has, but Michigan has to abide by the IEP, if they don't they can get into serious problems with the state. It probably will take a LOT of your time to get the school to stick to the plan. Good luck.

starbucksbuzz

I was homeschooled all the way (kindergarten through highschool) while it's not a choice I plan to make for my hypothetical children, if I were in your situation I might consider it. Either that or look around for a magnet / more specialized type of school? There may just be more of those around here because I live in CT.. not sure what you have in your area.

Edited to add a note on the social subject: This was the hardest thing for me with homeschooling. My mom gave me an awesome education but it really wasn't 100% relatable to the outside world. I've adjusted into it, but I would be careful to make sure she has some good social outlets. It doesn't have to be school, it's just something that's easy to forget about when you're so focused on providing a good education.

momcindy

sorry, it posted twice.

momcindy

I homeschooled one of my four kids from grade 5 through graduation because of her struggles with dyslexia. It was the best thing for her to be able to learn at her own pace and in an environment that wasn't intimidating.

Don't buy into the old, tired, and totally unproven argument that the only way to get proper socialization is in school. Real life is NOT sitting in a room with 25 other peers all day. Social skills begin at home and develop in many ways that don't have to be a school setting. Most homeschoolers are involved with a homeschool group that does all kinds of field trips, outings, etc., and most homeschooled kids are involved in the same extracurricular activities as public-schooled kids.

No one knows your child better than you do and there are so many good ways to homeschool that make it easier for the parent. You don't have tto come up with your own curriculum, you don't have to do it alone, and in most states, local schools are willing to help.

Yes, I'm a big supporter of homeschooling as a valid choice. lol!

MeTime37

Thanks for all your responses. I am not against public schools at all, first off. Zoe loved her last school. As for socializing I was the Organizer of a SAHM's group in Greenville, SC so Zoe is very well socialized. We are also members of a moms group here with Homeschooling parents. I have been complaining & complaining & nothing has been done at all. This school has a very low ratings, so its already a crap school anyways. None of Zoe's peers like her because she is the minority. We live in a nice place but we're in a horrible school district, there are Charter schools but they do not deal with Special needs & you have to be on a waiting list forever. She was super excited to start school & after the 3rd day of coming home having melt downs she finally broke down & said she had no friends cause the brown girls wont play with her & she doesnt speak spanish. So doesnt participate in class cause the kids dont like her & shes scared that if she gets the answer wrong they will laugh. She is basically being tortured. I want better for my kids! They are very very bright & Id hate to see them lose their interest in learning just because their boredom or the way they are being treated.

momcindy

That is a big reason why we decided to homeschool our dyslexic daughter. The kids were brutal. If that's socialization, they can have it.

We had a very good experience with homeschool. I think you would enjoy it, especially if you used a program that was already planned out and all you had to do was supervise.

Best of luck as you decide. I think you sound very capable of making it a success.

mrandolph69

If you are not already in one and there is one locally, consider joining or at least contacting an ASD support group in your area. They should be able to refer you to a advocate / attorney who specializes in helping with forcing schools to comply with IEPs. I am about to contact an attorney north of Atlanta for some help in this area with my 5 year-old who is autistic and not getting the level of services I think he needs. Good luck and friend me if you would like.

Kassielin13

I myself was home schooled for 2 years. I loved it. My parents used Christian based materials through Gateway Christian Schools. Currently I am home schooling my 13 year old brother. We are half way through the year and because he is lazy, he complains about the work! The curriculum we chose was ACE (Accelerated Christian Education by School of Tomorrow) and it does help the children to learn on a higher level than other children their age. However, you can test your child to see which grade level she should be placed on. You set the goals and the pace for her. You can google School of Tomorrow and Gateway Christian Schools for any further info!

MeTime37

You are all so Awesome! Thanks so much, my husbands isnt to thrilled with the idea & thinks its just another form of me spoiling them. Which I admit I do to a point. When we were transferred here my husband moved a month before us because I wanted to wait til Zoe finished out her school year in Greenville. I was told by my ex-husband (which I shouldve know better, LOL) that there was Great schools here. He used to live here so I figured he would know a little more than me. Thankfully, he's back in Missouri, LOL! I have a really good friend in Greenville that homeschools her daughter cause she's dyslexic & is very happy & hooking me up with the info I need. Next year I will have all 3 in school & finally my freedom back, LOL! If we can find them a respectable school then I have no problem with them going but this one I just cant do it anymore. My child is completely stressed out & takes it out on our family. Its not her fault & since we are not poor enough to be able to transfer our kids out then this is what we are dealt with. We are basically going to have to move, but our lease isnt up until May & we really like where we live. Our neighbors are great, the people that own this place are wonderful, etc.. but I cant sacarfice my childerns education just because I like where I live. We still intend to go to the school board about the problems, its not only her grades & the fact no one likes her. One of her teachers has been a real problem as well. She got married before school started & took a month long honeymoon. Zoe had a sub which she got adjusted to then along comes this chick & she wants to get an attitude because Zoe wouldnt work with her. I asked her if they prepared Zoe for her coming back, she said yes. One days notice was all, but the chick claims shes been working with these kids for 10 years. One day she called me & said Zoe didnt want to do her work. So I told her to tell Zoe if she wanted to go to a Halloween party we were having to get on it. She said Oh shes doing her work now. An hour & 1/2 later she calls & says Zoe wont do her work again. Come to find out she goes to her class at 9:45, this person kept her in her class the entire day, made her eat lunch, no recess & wouldnt let her attend speech or her other classes. So I had a meeting with the principle & every single teacher she has & it took everything I had to not go across the table at this person. They started it out as her IEP & wouldnt let me express my concern about what she did. Just was like oh it was a mistake on their part & blew it off. They have told me at every meeting, every phone call that she was doing great then report cards come & her grades are poor. Why wasnt I notified? Why didnt they let me know what I needed to work with to help her?? Why lie to me??? Sorry but this is the last straw! If they cant transfer her then I will do it myself! But before they even got home they sent an automated call that the school had been on lock down until 1:45 because someone robbed a pharmacy O_O We live in Wilmington, NC now so Im not sure what sights to go to & co ops to sign up for yet but Im keeping my kids out tomorrow & having another talk with the principle. Im just fed up & dont need this stess, LOL!

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

The school is required to follow the IEP-- get an advocate. I had a student with Asperger's Syndrome whose mom had to go to that point and she's still fighting with the school, but because of his special needs she feels unqualified to teach him. She also had him moved to a smaller district with a better special ed department. Don't let up on the school-- squeaky wheel gets the grease and all. Unfortunately she's been demonized by the teachers but who cares? It's her kid and it's his right to have his modifications. If you'd like pm me and I'll give you her email address so you can speak to her.

AshDHart

http://www.hslda.org/ incredible resource for homeschooling. They can point you in the right direction for additional resources in your area.

Annie092

I was homeschooled all of my life except for first grade. I loved it. You can work at your own pace and I will admit that I was not as socialized as I could've been, but that is not simply because of the fact that I was homeschooled. As mentioned before, there are homeschooling groups everywhere and homeshooled kids can do as many extracurricular activites as public-schooled kids. Our family just didn't get out there and join a group. I would recommend homeschooling to anyone, just because I think public schools are a joke. Period. I wouldn't know what to recommend as far as autistic curriculum but we used the ACE stuff that someone mentioned before. It was great. I loved it. My little brother has dyslexia pretty severely, and my mom had to do a lot of research on it and use some different techniques than she used for me and my other brother, and it took some time, but my dyslexic brother is doing fine now, as far as schooling goes.
Again, I wouldn't know what to tell you as far as curriculum goes or anything like that, but I would totally recommend homeschooling because it gives you, the parent, control over what your kids are learning and it's so much more flexible, in a good way.

_VoV

I started homeschooling my children when my son was 8, and my daughter was 5. My son was losing ground academically in an open Montessori classroom, so we felt he needed a year of homeschooling to round out his education before putting him into a more conventional school. In reality, we found he had attention difficulties and needed a lot of time moving around outdoors. I never bothered with psychosocial diagnosis, but I have no doubt he would fit the criteria for ADHD. Instead, we just tailored our days to meet his and his little sister's needs, and it worked beautifully. We continued to homeschool him until he was 12, and started taking part-time community college classes. He is now in his first year of law school at the age of 19, has good friends from his former homeschooling circles and the university he attended to finish out his bachelor's degree, and has matured out of some of the problems he had as a young boy in a classroom setting.

My daughter is now 16 and has all the credits she needs to graduate from community college. This early college route has been good for her, too, but she is still too young for her age to live on campus, so we are slowing her down a bit. This is a girl who cashiers at a store, takes 4 courses a semester, yet likes to swing on her swing for hours a day, and play with her kitties.

The beauty of homeschooling is the flexibility inherent in it.

leannmanderson

Might I speak as a certified teacher? And PLEASE read the whole thing before judging what I'm going to say, whether you're pro-homeschooling or not.

We tend to frown on homeschooling for several reasons. One is the lack of socialization. Another is that we feel like we're being slapped in the face when a parent tells us that his or her child is being home schooled. While there are some cases where it's necessary, such as an autoimmune disease, these cases are very rare. I tend to group homeschooling parents into three groups:

1) Medical. These are the rarest group. Their child simply cannot undergo the risk of exposure to so many other people.

2) Religious: There are some communities where families who prefer a religious school environment cannot find a school that meets these needs.

3) Arrogant: This is the most common group. If you are not homeschooling your child for medical or religious reasons, this is how you come across to many teachers. We feel that you are saying "You're not good enough to teach my child. Even though you have the training and degree that I lack, I clearly know better than you do how to make sure that my child gets a good education and how to meet all of the state's standards. I can teach my child English, science, math, history, geography, and any other subject better than any teacher who has had the training in this area even though I may have barely passed high school, myself."

That's not to say that all homeschooling parents are high school dropouts. That is not at all what I am saying. I am just saying that we have the training to teach your child a certain subject or all subjects, depending on grade level. We know what the state standards are. If you are a doctor, I would never presume that I know how to treat my child's medical needs better than you. If you're a banker, I would never come in and presume that I understand economics better than you do. If you're not a teacher, please do not assume that you understand a child's educational needs better than I do.

Now, all of that being said, my step-daughter was home schooled by her biological mother, who used the unschooling method, which is basically saying to the child, "Study what you wish. If it's not important to you, then it's not important at all. If you don't want to study math, you don't need it. If you don't want to study science, it's fine, you don't need it. Only study what you are interested in, and if you feel you need it later on in life, you can always learn it then." My step-daughter is now 17, without a real education, pregnant, and unable to count money, read an analog clock, cook from a recipe, or read anything above a 3rd grade reading level. She is, effectively, unemployable because she can't even read and write well enough to fill out a job application, because her mother, who had full custody, told her it wasn't important if she wasn't interested, and as a kid, she wasn't interested.

So if you do choose to homeschool, do NOT use the unschooling method. It will be the worst, most detrimental thing you could ever do for your child.

Now I speak as both a certified teacher and someone with experience with autistic children.

1) Sue the school if you must. They are REQUIRED BY LAW to follow your child's IEP, and if they are not, then they are breaking the law. Most schools tremble with fear when they see a lawsuit against them, and they tend to get in line pretty quick. She is entitled BY LAW to a free, appropriate public education.

2) If you feel you must remove your child from this school, another option is virtual schooling. Your child would get online for class and would have the routine that autistic children need. She would be taught by licensed teachers and have the same homework assignments that she would get in a brick and mortar school building. It would just all be done on the computer, allowing her to have face-to-face, one-on-one time with her teachers, and she would only interact with other students if she felt comfortable doing so. There are many virtual schools out there, and a lot of them are free.

3) My brother-in-law is low-functioning autistic with mental retardation and a heart condition on top of that. If you wish, you may tell your daughter about him. His name is John, and he managed to get his high school diploma. Knowing that there are others like her and even with worse cases of autism who managed to beat the odds could help her self-esteem a lot.

4) If you find that virtual schooling is not an option and you still must resort to homeschooling, there are many organizations out there that can help you. Choose a program that gives your daughter a sense of structure and can help prepare her for life after school. Find homeschooling groups where she can get the socialization she needs. Make sure that you know your state's educational standards and review materials carefully to make sure that they are appropriate for your daughter's level of achievement and inline with state standards. If you belong to a certain faith group, there are also religious-based homeschooling programs, and they tend to meet the state standards quite well.

nevadjinn

I was unschooled from first grade through middle school. No, I am not pregnant. Yes, I can count. In fact, I've never gotten anything lower than a "B" since entering high school. I'm taking six Advanced Placement courses this year and the lowest grade I received for the first quarter is an "A-" in macroeconomics. I've set the curves for a test and a quiz in my Advanced Placement government class even though, if the previous poster is to be believed, my parents barely graduated high school (just for the record, my dad has a law degree from UC Davis, and my mom has her BA).

Learning, for me, has never been the odious task my peers complain of. Yes, I didn't know my times tables until I was fourteen. But that summer I caught up - I taught myself everything I needed to know and while I'm not passionate about mathematics in the same sense that I am passionate about literature or history or cultural anthropology, I enjoy immensely.

It is ridiculous to say that home/unschoolers suffer from a lack of socialization. In every city one can find numerous play groups or classes specifically geared toward homeschoolers. In my city "park days" were the most common form that these took - parents would socialize while a large group of kids played at the park. Kids made friends with other kids they met there, and get together outside of park days for play dates and sleepovers.

While I'm sure that there are a few cases of illiterate pregnant teenagers who were unschooled, I have yet to see an unschooled teenager end up anywhere other than college.

I didn't spend my childhood in classrooms, but I love learning more than the people I know who did. Modern public schools depend on high standardized test scores for funding, and so learning the subject often takes a backseat to learning how to do well on a test. My teachers have never included anything but the tiniest of excerpts from Locke, Marx, and even the Constitution in the curriculum. What's worse, my classmates, even the highest achievers among them, don't care. I could count the number of public school students I've met who exhibit genuine intellectual curiosity on one hand.

I have had a few truly amazing teachers. But they have been amazing teachers in spite of the educational system, not because of it.

Last year my English instructor was a student-teacher. After taking her class, I simply cannot agree with your assertion that teachers' special training gives them a monopoly on education. After she had taught us grammar for a semester, we wrote our junior research papers. When it came time for peer evaluations, I was shocked. The papers I was expected to evaluate did not contain coherent sentences.

I have a friend with Aspergers Syndrome who was homeschooled. He is happy and healthy and well read and I am certainly not his only friend.

The belief in blind submission to authority, whether it be the authority of the school or the banker or the state, goes against the deepest values of democracy. Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.

_VoV

@Leannemanderson: Since my reasons for home schooling my children were neither medical or religious, I suppose you would classify me as 'arrogant.' Truly, I don't think I am. And, I am truly sorry you see my educational choice as a slap in the face to you and other teachers. I have to ask: Why do you think virtual schooling should be the only option other than an actual classroom in a brick building? You say that the largest group of homeschoolers is arrogant, but do you realize how what you are saying comes across?

I tailored my own curriculum based upon a classical education model (The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer). Mornings were devoted to core curriculum; afternoons were varied--each day was a different group activity with other home schoolers. I found this model to be very common in our area. Socialization was a definite part of each day, but not revolving around same-age people all the time. I found this to be an advantage, and actually more 'natural' than the traditional classroom model.

I am sorry that your limited experience with home schoolers--your step-daughter, no less--taught you to be distrustful of the home schooling model. I assure you there are many successes. I am not saying home schooling is for everyone. Traditional schooling works fine for most children--in fact, it works MORE than fine for a good many. But, I suggest you open your mind to parent-lead education. It works well, too, in the vast majority of cases.

l00zrr

I was Homeschooled my whole life, and I was accepted into Harvard, Stanford, ect.
It's a really good program for children with disabilities, as it caters to THEM, not a whole class.
You work at your own pace, and can get help whenever you need to, depending on the program.

I was with several different programs, one for elementary school, one for middle school, and two different ones for high school.
Some of them the parents teach you, others the students attend weekly or bi-weekly sessions, always one on one, and then take the homework home with them. My last and most recent one, my instructor gave me a box full of bookets to do throughout the year, with about 4 lessons each. I was able to teach myself, at my own pace. My instructor came to colect one each week, and gave me help when I called her, every time.

Not ALL homeschools are like this though. Some of them are online based, some are like charter schools. Google is your best friend if you live in the US. Take your time in picking a school, you need to think carefully about how your daughter will do in each of the different styles, so she will succeed!

I'm proud of you for considering what's best for your daughter!



EDIT: I agree wholey with the poster above me. My own brother went through the process of unschooling. He's in medical school now.
If you honestly beileve we're "arrogant" for not having medical or religious reasons to go to public school, you are sadly mistaken. I feel bad for your experiences, but your statement, in my opinion, is just biased. There are TONS of reasons some people can't go to public school, and religion and medical reasons, are just a few.

_VoV

Another point I wanted to make about this: "Sue the school if you must. They are REQUIRED BY LAW to follow your child's IEP, and if they are not, then they are breaking the law. Most schools tremble with fear when they see a lawsuit against them, and they tend to get in line pretty quick. She is entitled BY LAW to a free, appropriate public education."

My husband is an attorney who has represented parents of SPED students in these situations. The public school system can use many temporizing measures to prolong the agony, and the students don't get those precious months or years of education back. If it ends up in the courts, years can go by, and just as with family law, there's very little actual law to inform judgments. It will usually reflect who had the better, most persuasive experts testifying. Oh yes, and then there's the cost. Lawyers typically don't work for free.