Can we talk about Homeschooling?

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Ok, here's the deal. I currently Homeschool (HS) my NT 7 y/o son. In my heart, I want to HS my 4.5 y/o pdd-nos son. BUT, he is SO, SO, SO trying sometimes . I'm honestly not sure if I could HS him. I'm feeling more and more lately that *I* need a break from him .

In the next few weeks he'll be doing testing to see if he qualifies educationally for help at school. Also, the Autism Specialist the school uses to help determine if he needs special services will be coming into our home to observe him.

I'm just really torn at this point! When he's not having meltdowns and annoying the boogers out of everyone, I really want to keep him home. BUT, when he's having his "problems" and being more than I hand-full, I'm going, "HELP! I NEED A BREAK!!". Is this wrong of me? Should I just "buck up" and deal with it and just HS him?

Most of me thinks maybe I should just send him to Kindy next fall (every other day--all day) and see how he does??

Another thing that I'm scared to death of. I've read so many stories about kids on the spectrum that have HORRID experiences with "bullies" or just with getting taken advantage of. I'm very afraid of this happening to my son. He's so naive and sweet. And SO literal, lol! I know some ppl are of the school of thought that getting "bullied" is just the way it is, but I don't think like that.

Anyone have experience in HSing their AS kiddo(s)? How is it? Or does anyone have a comment about what I've "said"?

Thanks so much for your input!

I think that sending him to school would be best -- for now. I know that a few people might disagree with this, but when he is surrounded by typical kids in a classroom setting, he will have more opportunity to socialize and learn social skills. I can say from experience that it will be hard at first -- with both of my sons (now 21 and 11 years) it took until about fourth grade for them to begin to "fit in." BUT, they had terrific teachers, and WONDERFUL speech therapists who helped to work on their social skills and pragmatic language skills, and it was more than worth the effort.

Having said this -- if for one minute I thought my child was being bullied, say, in middle school, I would yank him out in a heartbeat and homeschool him. It's not worth the pain and permanent damage to self-esteem to send a child to school if they are being constantly belittled.

My son went through a brief period in third grade when some boys were kind of making fun of him. I daily asked him what he was doing at recess, and through this realized that he was being somewhat bullied. I made an appt. to observe at recess, but before I could even arrive, the school vice-principal immediately took care of the situation -- called in the "offending" boys and called their parents. Haven't had an issue since then.

Hope this helps a little.

Kris

Hi there -

I am new to the boards, but I have been homeschooling my 12 yo with AS since March. Even is a special education building setting it just was not working for him despite a good staff that loved him. He is making some nice and noticeable improvements in behaviors (was very physical with rages in meltdown - now not so much ). He is also improving on his academic skills nicely.

For the first time ever he is enjoying being with groups of kids. He attend home school group events - game days, ice skating, and so on. I am so proud of him!! ! I never thought I would see him be able to go ice skating, much less be able to handle being in a room with about 20-30 others where it was loud for a game day!

My older son (16) is in a regular setting high school with some special education time and also takes some classes at home via virtual classes.

So as far as what is best - I think the child with be the final determiner. Maybe start working with him on home schooling now before he starts in public school and see if you will work with you at all (if you have not tried it yet). I find that having my younger son learn from practical experiences works best for him - shopping, discussing the news, and so on. Also having him doing something physically active while working on his school work - for instance - jumping on a small trampoline while working on math facts, playing music CDs that incorporate learning into the songs. Also letting him tell me what he is interested in learning about. He has asked to learn about Egypt, Venus Flytrap plants, how things work and so on. If you feel it is not working - you know you will ALWAYS have the option of the public school setting.

If you start with the public school setting, he may surprise you! My older son did very well in elementary grades. We did not run into major difficulties until jr. high. Again - you can ALWAYS bring him home if it does not work out. I know of some families that have alternated years with public school and home school.

Good luck and I hope this helps a bit.

Smiles
Jan

I really think homeschooling is a personal decision. That said, kindergarten is a good time to introduce your son to "school" and its structure and peer modelling. It's radically different from anything else he's dealt with and he may just like it. 1st grade is a whole other ball of wax and I'd see how he does with Kindergarten first.
Personally, I'm the opposite with my son. When he's good, I want him out and about, learning. When he's in Nightmare mode, I want to protect him and help him get back on track. My son started "regressing" in first grade and I pulled him out of school for a quarter. Last week my son was facing an unexpected punishment at school, I pulled him out too.
My logic is that the better he is, the better he'll be. But if he's having trouble, he'll get nutso and we'll go nutso. Things snowball.

When I wasn't happy with Pop's services, I found that "getting a break" wasn't worth it. His time at school wasn't beneficial and I wasn't able to relax until we fixed the problem.

Thanks for the insights!

I'm thinking to just give ps a try for Kindy next fall. When he progresses through to 1st/2nd grade, we'll see how it's working (or not working) out.

Thanks again!

Good luck - he will let you know what works for him.

Smiles!