home school goals?

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My son is 8 and has very low functioning autism, We have been talking about home schooling him because our districts special needs classes stop at grade 5 and they put them in a one room class till they are 21 and don't really teach anything the entire time they are there.
My question is since my son is so below the grade mark for his age how do I set goals for him through a home schooling setting? Is there a modified lesson we can do or are they all set up for normal age grade kids? Any help, links, or advice would be great thank you. Oh we live in Wisconsin.

I don't know what your state's requirements are, but the first thing I would do is to see what their requirements are, for example, if there is mandated state testing etc. Sometimes, depending on where you are, it can be tricky if the system is set up to verify that homeschoolers are doing grade-level work, when the school district is not mandating that for themselves for those same students.

Once you figure out what legal requirements you have to meet in your state, you should try to customize realistic goals depending on where your child is, currently. You want to make a lot of foundational goals that are small steps from each other. If you can summarize your child's skills that might help us think of how to proceed. Don't worry about grade level think of needing skills ab and c before being able to do d.

I am no expert but
I did after schooling instead of homeschooling
I felt it gives my child the best of both worlds. I do wish school was only 3 to 4 days a week. I feel I could get even more done.
While I hadn't had my child held back a year yet that's an option as well.

I had to create my own curriculum most of the time which included going to speech pathology stores to come up with my own products. I lived isolated and I didn't want to wait months for products to arrive.

My curriculum that works for me might not work for you. My child is high functioning socially but low functioning academically.

Talk to teachers teachers or former teachers or even teachers aids.
I have a former teacher's aid friend who worked in a Montessori school she's often steered me in amazing directions.
I find short repetitive lessons helpful with math

Your lessons depends on your child.
Can you do pecs does your kid use sign language or speak or not communicate?
Can your child use video games. I use video games and apps as reward because my kid loves video game.
Can your child write?

Also do you know your state homeschooling laws?

Start here

http://www.hslda.org

They can help you figure out the legal stuff and stay on the right side of the bureaucrats (or know if it's almost predatory, like my state, and so hard to stay on the right side of the bureaucrats that homeschool is a last-ditch effort to be avoided if possible).

Other than that, I don't think I'd worry too much about grade level, more about starting where you're at and building skills from there.

Everybody worries about academics and I understand why. I understand why for ALL kids.

But PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE don't denigrate life-skills instruction (what I figure they quit pushing academics in favor of when they lump them all together in one room). I'm not saying this because your kid is considered low-functioning, I promise. I'm super-high functioning; I could have done with a little less trigonometry and advanced literature, and A LOT more life-skills instruction. I would have been completely up the creek if I hadn't spent six years as the only child of a single father with a 60-hour-a-week job. EVERYONE THAT LIVES NEEDS LIFE SKILLS.

I see an awful lot of NT teenagers and 20-somethings that could use life skills. You have your whole life to learn academics. If you don't have some life skills by the time you leave your parents' home (whether that's for your own house, an apartment, a dorm room, a group home, or an assisted-living facility and whether you're 18 or 25 or 40), you're going to have problems no matter how great your academic education is.

I know life skills are stigmatized as being "drool school," but that's a HUGE DISSERVICE that is propagated by stupid immature kids and their stupid immature parents. If you haven't seen it already, there's a great book on it.

http://www.amazon.com/Teach-Life-Skills ... 1935274139

I don't agree with Dr. Grandin about everything, but I do agree 110% about this. I bought this book when I thought my son had Asperger's. I read it three times and implemented some of her suggestions for myself. We make a lot more appointments, forget a lot less stuff, and get a lot more housework done now. Life is easier with life skills.

That one might be aimed a little too much toward the Aspie end of the spectrum; it's basically everything she (an Aspie) learned from watching her parents teach her "low-functioning" brother (and wishes she had been taught instead of having to figure it out herself the hard way).

But it's a jumping-off place anyway, a place to start looking for things you can use for that end of education (and an EXCELLENT argument about why life skills should NEVER be dismissed as "drool school" REGARDLESS of "level of function").

Well as to how my 8y/o little guy is, he is non-verbal and is about a 3 y/o lvl in academics in school. He has really no social skills at all. Most the time is in his own little world, kicking up dirt to watch I fall, rolling a pencil around, jumping in place.
We have gotten no response from doing pecs are any reward programs so far. When he needs something its a guessing game that we are very good at lol.

I think your main goal is probably going to be communication of some type. It is hard to teach anything else without it. If you do not mind, describe the guessing game. This way we can see what foundational skills to build on. You may need a therapist of some type also. If PECS does not work, have you tried photos instead of pictures to see if that works better? How about ASL?

Have you looked to see if there special needs schools for low-functioning autistic kids in your area? If you can make a case that he is not meeting goals such as developing communication skills in the current school, you might be able to get a placement in a "non-public" school like this. You might need help from a good educational advocate, and possibly to go through due process to get there.

As far as homeschooling, I doubt an umbrella charter would take him, but many people file paperwork to set up their own "private school" so they can have complete control over the curriculum. You'd need to consult a local homeschool group to find out the procedure and laws in your state.

My little guy can bring me into a room he wants something ie: kitchen, living room, by taking my hand and leading me there. That is the extent of his communication. We have tried pecs, pictures, sign language, he has an ipad with at least 3 assistance speech or communication programs on it. None seem to spark his interest as of yet. We do however use the ipad ones on a daily basis for at least and hour at a time just in case it clicks one of these days.

As far as a special needs school there aren't any within an hour and a half drive for us. I believe us setting up our own "private school" will be the only way to move forward.

It sounds like you've tried some form of ABA already. Have you looked into DIR/Floortime? Their focus is to help the parent or therapist join in whatever activity the child likes to do, even if it looks like a stim, and to help the child expand that gradually into joint attention and back-and-forth communication. It wasn't something my son needed, but I was impressed by what I read about it.

I have never heard of DRI/floor time, but will gladly look into it. Thanks for the idea.