homeschooling

[Guest guest]

I am sure this has been asked many of times on here, but I am looking into

homeschooling til she is older or can communicate better. Right now

she is 15 months old and coming in at 13 months on her evaluation. The only

thing she can say right now is mama and dada of course. I have seen so many

people talking about how un happy they are with the school systems, and I know

that it is preferred to have our blessings start school at three years old. I

myself am not feeling it. How many of you have home schooled and How do or did

you go about it?

[Guest guest]

I can't speak from specialized parenting (I'm the one who wrote in earlier

asking about picture book ideas), but I chose to homeschool my average kids

and I think a great way to start for any kid is with lots of reading aloud

and (if you have the energy) Montessori-style approaches.

A resource that talks about bringing those techniques home is the book *Mommy

Teach Me* by Barbara Curtis. She is a Montessori-trained mother of four

boys with Down syndrome (three adopted) and has talked about the usefulness

of these hands-on activities for them.

(She's got other kids too, and a rather political blog, but even if you're

not interested in that stuff this book is great for looking at early

education at home.)

If your heart wants to hang on to your baby, don't ignore it. There's

plenty of time for you to " let her go " when you're ready.

I will admit my primary reason for keeping my kids home (at first) was the

very one Mrs. Curtis articulates in that book: I didn't want some other

woman stealing their hearts. I enjoyed being my kids' " sun and moon " and

wasn't ready to share that. Now that we're all older that's less of an

issue, but I'm still not ashamed of it. I'm glad I " listened to my heart. "

No regrets.

--Amy Jane

[Guest guest]

thanks so much for replying yes I do want her here a bit longer, with the other

children I had them til they were at least 5 years old! I knew they would tell

me if something wasn't right or if someone hurt them. I don't have that so far

with  . 

From: Amy Helmericks <snow.ffairy@...>

Subject: Re: homeschooling

Date: Thursday, October 27, 2011, 11:39 AM

I can't speak from specialized parenting (I'm the one who wrote in earlier

asking about picture book ideas), but I chose to homeschool my average kids

and I think a great way to start for any kid is with lots of reading aloud

and (if you have the energy) Montessori-style approaches.

A resource that talks about bringing those techniques home is the book *Mommy

Teach Me* by Barbara Curtis.  She is a Montessori-trained mother of four

boys with Down syndrome (three adopted) and has talked about the usefulness

of these hands-on activities for them.

(She's got other kids too, and a rather political blog, but even if you're

not interested in that stuff this book is great for looking at early

education at home.)

If your heart wants to hang on to your baby, don't ignore it.  There's

plenty of time for you to " let her go " when you're ready.

I will admit my primary reason for keeping my kids home (at first) was the

very one Mrs. Curtis articulates in that book: I didn't want some other

woman stealing their hearts.  I enjoyed being my kids' " sun and moon " and

wasn't ready to share that.  Now that we're all older that's less of an

issue, but I'm still not ashamed of it.  I'm glad I " listened to my heart. "

No regrets.

--Amy Jane

[Guest guest]

I put Maverick in a head start program 3 days/week when he was supposed to go to

the sp ed preschool. That is when he was three. When he hit 4 we moved to a

district that had an inclusive preschool. It helped because they knew much more

than I did what things to look at that Mav needed. That was 17 years ago.

LOL. Things are different now.

When we adopted Logan he was already 6 and was in a horrible school situation.

When he moved in with us he changed schools but the school wouldn't let us come

and look at the classroom set up so we refused to send him there. We kept him

home and repeated Kindergarten. We wrote our own IEP which the school wouldn't

recognize but it helped us stay on target as far as his development.

One thing that is an issue is that our children need so much socialization.

That wasn't a problem in my home because we have so many children and we had

grandsons living with us that were the same age as Logan.

The next year I felt he was ready to move on to school and the new teacher

welcomed us in to observe and he had a great year.

Important for you to know... even if you DO decide not to send your child to

preschool at 3 yrs old, the school is still responsible for providing the PT,

ST, and OT. You will probably have to take her into the school at their

convenience but it's her right. You will have to have an IEP with the school.

I feel that parents know whether it's right or wrong for their children to go to

school that early.. every child is an individual and every family make up is

different. Go for what you think is best for your child.

[Guest guest]

>

> I am sure this has been asked many of times on here, but I am looking into

homeschooling til she is older or can communicate better. Right now

she is 15 months old and coming in at 13 months on her evaluation. The only

thing she can say right now is mama and dada of course. I have seen so many

people talking about how un happy they are with the school systems, and I know

that it is preferred to have our blessings start school at three years old. I

myself am not feeling it. How many of you have home schooled and How do or did

you go about it?

>

>