Re: homeschool

June 8, 2003

Last year was our first year homeschooling. I love it. I have 3 children. A

9 yr old, a 6 yr old and a 4 yr old. My 4 yr old has apraxia and he is a bit

more challeging to work with, because his attention is short, but I see so much

of what he is taking in through his older brother and sister.

Go to homeschooling.com and if you want to use Christian material you can go

to

abeka.com

rocksolidinc.com

cbd.com

These are all really good sites-rocksolidinc is good for everything even if

you do not want a christian approach they offer so much. It is where I would

start.

good luck and if you have any questions e-mail me at chickintoe@... and

if you start a support group, I am interested in being a part of it.

February 11, 2005

Dear Jen,

Thanks for the advice and in a good school that might work, but my son's school

refused to let him even USE OUR COMPUTER to do his homework let alone provide

him with a laptop. One of his teachers said (in front of the school

administration) that they didn't care what ANYONE said; they would never let him

do his homework on the computer.

They just continued to mark him off for his handwriting. Because of that and

other more serious problems with the schools lack of cooperation I now home

school my son. He does everything for his schoolwork on the computer now. I am

just looking for something to help him with his general writing.

Jerlyn

February 12, 2005

Jeryln,

I have been away from the site for awhile so am coming in on the middle of

this conversation. Hearing this sort of discouraging dialogue about schools

that seem unable or unwilling to accommodate difficulties, really makes my

blood boil. It is really tough deciding what to insist on and what to

accept--the major task of life--but it seems to me that the school is

withholding services that it could and should provide. Not only should he

be allowed to use special equipment (computer), the school may be required

to purchase it for him. I am 58 years old, have CMT, and fortunately was

able to survive school--no one, absolutely no one understood that I had CMT.

They thought I was " nervous " and clumsy. In elementary school, no effort

was made to understand it further, but thanks to a great mom who supported

me and did not allow self pity, I graduated 8th grade at #1 in my class and

high school at #3 out of a class of 70. So--for what it is worth--I would

suggest you push and push hard on the school to meet their obligations and

insist they go the extra mile, but never give in to the temptation to

believe that they can cause your son to fail. Hope these thoughts are not

too intrusive--certainly I offer them knowing very little about your

situation.

Respectfully,

Tom Bates

February 13, 2005

Jerlyn,

I don't know where you are located but your school is terrible. My niece has

trouble writing (she has CMT) and the school provided her with a lap top at no

charge. It's her's till she graduates. Due to my job ( retired school bus

driver) I know for a fact that they cannot discriminate against your son.

And that is just what they did. Even though you are now home schooling you need

to contact your county school board. In Michigan here its called RESA and

advise them as to what happened and what is going on. They cannot do that and

that teacher CAN NOT do that. And if she was here she'd be fired and what the

heck is the school board doing besides sticking their heads in the ground and

pretending they are smart. Shame on them all

If you want to email privately, you can.

Elaine.......Michigan

August 27, 2005

Thank you for all the wonderful responses to my homeschool question. At this

point we have pretty much made the decision to move to homeschooling. Now it is

just a matter of getting everything in place.

I am already working with my daughter on homework things, and I absolutely love

it. She is not and never has been a discipline problem. That is also why I think

sometimes she is the kid at school who gets less attention while they are trying

to control the harder to manage kids.

She will work independently and doesn't cause problems. For the most part she is

a happy cooperative child, and right now is learning faster and easier than I've

seen her do.

Even the teacher who has worked with her for years, and is wonderful, admits she

would probably do better with an opportunity for one-on-one with me. They just

don't have the time, resources or help to give that one-on-one instruction. She

is also a very visual learner. If she can see what you want her to do, she can

get it much easier. Tell her and she just stares at you with a blank look on her

face. She is also a child that is thrilled when she accomplishes something new,

and I love seeing that happen.

As for socialization, that is not a concern for me. She isn't get it at school

now.

Anyway, thanks again. I'm going to email a couple of you off list if that is OK

and pick your brains about how you got started.

February 7, 2008

> I've heard nothing but good stuff about it from those of you who

>already homeschool. My ex is against it (he, who knows nothing about

>it, other than he thinks our son will lose out on the social aspect of

>public school...I think the " social aspect " he gets at his school does

>more harm than good. Any thoughts?>>>>>>>>

I have to agree on you about this as my hubby keeps saying that I cant

homeschool our 12 yr old son because our son doesn't listen to us now

since he is in public school why would he listen if he is home all

day? I told him our son would not be under as much stress if he were

home and hubby said " well thats life and are you going to be around all

his life so he doesn't have to do anything in the real world? " GRRRR

Marj

February 7, 2008

> I have two aspie kids (one is also moderate mr) that I home school.

> Year one for my 8 yo son and third for 13 daughter. They have

> blossomed socially and jumped miles academically. I wouldn't ever

> send them back! Just my experience.>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Lilybugs,

That is good to hear. I feel this way about having my son (7th grade

and 1st year in middle school) not go to public school but my husband

says " He doesn't listen to us now what makes you think he will listen

if you homeschool him? "

Anyone have any ideas of how to get my hubby to change his mind about

this???

Thanks,

Marj

February 8, 2008

I have seen quite a few posts supporting the idea of homsechooling your son, and I'm going to offer some of the flip side.

I have some friends (two separate families) who homeschool their kids, and the kids are all socially awkward, even though the one family of kids does soccer during the school year. There education is not meeting their talent levels - the one boy could be a computer whiz except that he isn't getting the coursework and challenge necessary to tap into that potential. The speaking skills of all the kids are horrible, as in the kids in the one family speak with poor diction and very fast and the kids in the other family speak very softly or avoid speaking to adults altogether, including my husband and me whom they have known for 6 years. At the same time, my husband's one teacher in high school had seven kids, all homeschooled by his wife who had also been a high school teacher, and these kids were all polite, well spoken, highly educated, and skilled in other things such as sports and musical instruments. The parents challenged those kids academically and the kids socialized through their extra-curricular activities, always expecting a high level of social skills. None of these kids I have mentioned had any special needs, so those are just examples of the average homeschooled kid.

Your question sparked some conversation between my husband and me the other night, and our immediate reactions were the same - our AS son will definitely be going to public school and will most definitely not be homeschooled. Even though I am college educated and both of us are much higher than average IQ, we don't feel that we can offer as much expertise and variety to our kids as our school can. Our son will also get great therapy in school and will be able to continue to work on his social skills, which is our biggest area of concern for him.

That said, we moved to this state 6 years ago with a bunch of animals and no children and immediately started house hunting. We first read all that we could about the different school districts within a tolerable commute to my husband's job, going so far as to talk to librarians at different community libraries about their opinions on the school districts and the teachers and asking new friends their opinions and experiences, plus reading the local papers and requesting copies of school newsletters. We picked the five school districts that we liked the best and then only looked for houses in those school districts, finally buying one in our favorite school district. By the time we bought a house, our son was four-months-old. Our work is paying off now because this school district is fantastic for our situation. There are limitations - only Spanish is offered for language courses, there isn't a school theater program, the school is too small to offer its own sports team for some of the sports. There are also compensations - the class size is under 20, the community theater program is strong which means that students work with people of all ages in productions not just kids their own age, and sports like ice hockey are done by making a team with two neighboring school districts. We also live an hour from a U of W satellite campus and 30 minutes from a technical college, so the kids can take a special course or two not offered by their high school like advanced biology or computer courses if they wish.

Find out a bit more why your son doesn't like school, as homeschooling might be jumping from the frying pan into the fire if he hates school because he feels alienated and lonely. If the socialization is what he hates, then doing the program you are considering might be just the ticket. How will you continue to challenge him academically and socially? What is your back-up plan if the homeschooling isn't working out because he still hates school? As for the ex, see if he would like to do some sort of regular social activity with your son which would remove some of your burden and ease his worries about your son's socialization.

Anyone have any negative ideas about homeschooling? I am going to a homeschooling conference tomorrow and am highly considering it. I've heard nothing but good stuff about it from those of you who already homeschool. My ex is against it (he, who knows nothing about it, other than he thinks our son will lose out on the social aspect of public school and only has him on the weekends) but personally I have heard nothing negative about it. My son isn't haveing any behavior problems at school but he SO hates it and lets me know it. The homeschooling program I am looking into (Greater San Diego Academy) has electives he would do with other kids and field trips. I think the "social aspect" he gets at his school does more harm than good. Any thoughts?

February 8, 2008

I MUST address this one; FIRST---your son will get great therapy at SCHOOL---AMEN to that---you have that at school? WOW---you better consider yourself lucky but please know you are a very small percentage that is getting services like that; most of us with Asperger's kids are fighting and getting little to nothing, so you are rare.

Secondly, we were told to move where we live for our wonderful school system, so we moved 3 plus hours one way away to be here; it STINKS here, and they have nothing but failed my special needs students; in fact, my 8th grader was still doing 4th grade work when we pulled him in October 2007; thanks to us and tutoring, we are bringing him back to 8th grade level on must subjects now but WONDERFUL SCHOOL has failed him (AND US) and cost us thousands.

And, you home school analyses: while those are two extremes, and I know they probably exist, this SOCIALIZATION stuff is a 'myth.' And, how does someone know that there is not any special needs involved for sure? I meet people all the time that still deny the existence of issues in their home / family. Beyond that, I have always taught proper language and pronunciation in my home, daycare, etc. HOWEVER, to say SCHOOL will FIX that is ridiculous in my opinion; our schools are NOT even correcting SPELLING, pronunciation, etc. AT ALL TODAY---look at all the people now using DON'T / DOES, double negatives, OF-TEN instead of the correct way of Off-en, etc.; teachers in public school NEVER correct these kids; we have been appauled with how that goes. And, when I question why my son still at school use all this misspelled words, it is phonetic, writing, and putting it on paper; that bugs us to death; if NOT corrected, how will they ever learn to spell it correctly? My 8th grader now home schooling has the answers in his writing; they DON'T; they continue it, and wish someone corrected them earlier, as they don't know the right spelling; good 'ol public school.....

To say you will NEVER home school is simply fine FOR YOUR CHILD if that works; however, IN JUNIOR HIGH, it IS often necessary to do something else especially with Asperger's children; if YOUR SCHOOL IS SOOOOO WONDERFUL YOU ARE LUCKY AND AN EXCEPTION BY ALL MEANS----it is RARE; our kids are not lonely and wishing for socialization--- they could CARE A LESS ABOUT SOCIALIZATION---in fact, they would love it if they could be home bodies in their rooms and own spaces; we MAKE them participate and be social. We work HARD to get everything outside of their bedroom and comfort level that we can and meltdown free!! Those are miracle moments, in our opinions.

I just wanted to make sure that you know you are addressing the biggest misconception and MYTH possible about home schoolers and that is SOCIALIZATION. If you go out to eat, church, grocery shopping, etc.; you socialized....if you are in your yard playing, you may have chances to socialize; if the kids don't know you, don't feel comfortable with you, have been told NOT to talk to you unless parents around, or whatever the situation, that should NOT lead someone to jump to such conclusions; not all PEOPLE ADULTS INCLUDED ARE SOCIAL--friendly--and whooped up about talking to everyone; I know my kids would just soon not (two are aspies)----if a person is SHY (for real) now they are 'non-social?' I just want to make sure this is made clear it is a myth.

Remember, I home school one, public school two; I would do both all over again, and my home schooler will NEVER go back to public school!! He has made that very clear. I said I would never home school him either but I was open minded to all the myths.

Ruthie Dolezal

Re: ( ) homeschool

I have seen quite a few posts supporting the idea of homsechooling your son, and I'm going to offer some of the flip side.

I have some friends (two separate families) who homeschool their kids, and the kids are all socially awkward, even though the one family of kids does soccer during the school year. There education is not meeting their talent levels - the one boy could be a computer whiz except that he isn't getting the coursework and challenge necessary to tap into that potential. The speaking skills of all the kids are horrible, as in the kids in the one family speak with poor diction and very fast and the kids in the other family speak very softly or avoid speaking to adults altogether, including my husband and me whom they have known for 6 years. At the same time, my husband's one teacher in high school had seven kids, all homeschooled by his wife who had also been a high school teacher, and these kids were all polite, well spoken, highly educated, and skilled in other things such as sports and musical instruments. The parents challenged those kids academically and the kids socialized through their extra-curricular activities, always expecting a high level of social skills. None of these kids I have mentioned had any special needs, so those are just examples of the average homeschooled kid.

Your question sparked some conversation between my husband and me the other night, and our immediate reactions were the same - our AS son will definitely be going to public school and will most definitely not be homeschooled. Even though I am college educated and both of us are much higher than average IQ, we don't feel that we can offer as much expertise and variety to our kids as our school can. Our son will also get great therapy in school and will be able to continue to work on his social skills, which is our biggest area of concern for him.

That said, we moved to this state 6 years ago with a bunch of animals and no children and immediately started house hunting. We first read all that we could about the different school districts within a tolerable commute to my husband's job, going so far as to talk to librarians at different community libraries about their opinions on the school districts and the teachers and asking new friends their opinions and experiences, plus reading the local papers and requesting copies of school newsletters. We picked the five school districts that we liked the best and then only looked for houses in those school districts, finally buying one in our favorite school district. By the time we bought a house, our son was four-months-old. Our work is paying off now because this school district is fantastic for our situation. There are limitations - only Spanish is offered for language courses, there isn't a school theater program, the school is too small to offer its own sports team for some of the sports. There are also compensations - the class size is under 20, the community theater program is strong which means that students work with people of all ages in productions not just kids their own age, and sports like ice hockey are done by making a team with two neighboring school districts. We also live an hour from a U of W satellite campus and 30 minutes from a technical college, so the kids can take a special course or two not offered by their high school like advanced biology or computer courses if they wish.

Find out a bit more why your son doesn't like school, as homeschooling might be jumping from the frying pan into the fire if he hates school because he feels alienated and lonely. If the socialization is what he hates, then doing the program you are considering might be just the ticket. How will you continue to challenge him academically and socially? What is your back-up plan if the homeschooling isn't working out because he still hates school? As for the ex, see if he would like to do some sort of regular social activity with your son which would remove some of your burden and ease his worries about your son's socialization.

Anyone have any negative ideas about homeschooling? I am going to a homeschooling conference tomorrow and am highly considering it. I've heard nothing but good stuff about it from those of you who already homeschool. My ex is against it (he, who knows nothing about it, other than he thinks our son will lose out on the social aspect of public school and only has him on the weekends) but personally I have heard nothing negative about it. My son isn't haveing any behavior problems at school but he SO hates it and lets me know it. The homeschooling program I am looking into (Greater San Diego Academy) has electives he would do with other kids and field trips. I think the "social aspect" he gets at his school does more harm than good. Any thoughts?

February 8, 2008

Anyone

have any negative ideas about homeschooling? I am going to a homeschooling

conference tomorrow and am highly considering it. I've heard nothing but good

stuff about it from those of you who already homeschool. My ex is against it

(he, who knows nothing about it, other than he thinks our son will lose

out on the social aspect of public school and only has him on the

weekends) but personally I have heard nothing negative about it. My son isn't

haveing any behavior problems at school but he SO hates it and lets me know it.

The homeschooling program I am looking into (Greater San Diego Academy) has

electives he would do with other kids and field trips. I think the " social

aspect " he gets at his school does more harm than good. Any thoughts?

One great advantage you have living in CA

is the option of chosing a charter school that allows homeschooling. That

is what we did when we lived in CA. It was great, the best of both

worlds. They took the electives the school offered-jewelry making, Akido,

art, and several others. They also had access to all the services they

would if they were in public school (without having to go through what you have

to to get services if you are homeschooling). The school we were involved

with was wonderful. They had an OT that specialized in ASD that they sent him to, as well as speech.

They paid for SOMONAS, Interactive Metronome, his Body Sock, and many other

things that are considered “experimental”. You are also

given a “support teacher” that makes sure your kids are on

track.

Jolinna

February 8, 2008

Hi . First,,,,I gotta say that it's wonderful that you are in such a wonderful school!!!! Also,,,and I hope I gathered this correctly,,,but is your son pretty young? 6? School was good for my son for years. The school was kind and knowledgeable and had plenty of things set up for Ian. Then he got older. By the end of 5th grade, we pulled him. I am in college, my parent were teachers, and I still felt that it was time for my sons' pubic education to end. There may come a time in your life when your son has so many frustrations and so much stress that you worry about his future. Physically and emotionally. There may come a time when you see that being in school doesn't automatically socialize you. That being in school isn't appropriately giving your child good social skills. You, as a parent, taught your son to talk and

to socialize. Yes,,,,,,,they will learn to work as a group. They will learn more pragmatic speech, to a point. But,,,,they WILL learn that they don't fit. It may not be until they're older. But,,,they're smart cookies and because they have aspergers, which is a social disorder, they will not fit like others. Now,,,,,hopefully, your son won't pick up on the fact that other kids think he's odd. Hopefully, the kids at the school won't notice that he doesn't "carry" himself like others. Or that he simply doesn't care to be there. Or that he "freaks out" at things that they don't. But,,,,,,I gotta tell you.....it's devastating when you realize that you have to make a decision. To let him learn at home where he won't be emotionally frazzled. Honestly,,,,with the right curriculum or direction and some hard work, I believe a kid

can learn academics anywhere. But,,,,,,,if they are so upset and stressed being where they are,,,,,they can't learn to their potential. And like I said,,,these guys are smart!!! So,,,,,,I was speaking for myself. I hope I didn't offend you. I didn't mean to. Oh..also,,,,,,,,,,,I don't think it's terrible anymore that my son is happy doing his own thing. He can talk. He chats with us and those he knows. He can answer people when need be. And we will continue to work with him on pragmatics.But,,,,sometimes a mom has to pick what's more important. I hope you never have to. Many don't. Academics IN school and anger,sadness and frustration. Or academics at home, calm surroundings, happiness, learning at his own speed....which I gotta say is fast. He's surpassed what was expected. I

personally, didn't believe a kid could really want to learn more and do more than what is expected for the day.....and still be happy.....simply by changing the environment!!! Aesthetics!!!!!! Have a super day!!!Robin Adam & Meg Ritterpusch <ritterpusch@...> wrote: I have seen quite a few posts supporting the idea of homsechooling your son, and I'm going to offer some of the flip side. I have some friends (two separate families) who homeschool their kids, and the kids are all socially awkward, even though the one family of kids does soccer during the school year. There education is not meeting their talent levels - the one boy could be a computer whiz except that he isn't getting the coursework and challenge necessary to tap into that potential. The speaking skills of all the kids are horrible, as in the kids in the one family speak with poor diction and very fast and the kids in the other family speak very softly or avoid speaking to adults altogether, including my husband and me whom they have known for 6 years. At the same time, my husband's one teacher in high school had seven kids, all homeschooled by his wife who had also been a high school teacher, and these kids were all polite, well spoken, highly educated, and skilled in other things such as sports and musical instruments. The parents

challenged those kids academically and the kids socialized through their extra-curricular activities, always expecting a high level of social skills. None of these kids I have mentioned had any special needs, so those are just examples of the average homeschooled kid. Your question sparked some conversation between my husband and me the other night, and our immediate reactions were the same - our AS son will definitely be going to public school and will most definitely not be homeschooled. Even though I am college educated and both of us are much higher than average IQ, we don't feel that we can offer as much expertise and variety to our kids as our school can. Our son will also get great therapy in school and will be able to continue to work on his social skills, which is our biggest area of concern for him. That said, we moved to this state 6 years ago with a bunch of animals and no children and immediately started house hunting. We first read all that we could about the different school districts within a tolerable commute to my husband's job, going so far as to talk to librarians at different community libraries about their opinions on the school districts and the teachers and asking new friends their opinions and experiences, plus reading the local papers and requesting copies of school newsletters. We picked the five school districts that we liked the best and then only looked for houses in those school districts, finally buying one in our favorite school district. By the time we bought a house, our son was four-months-old. Our work is paying off now because this school district is fantastic for our situation. There are limitations - only Spanish is offered for language courses,

there isn't a school theater program, the school is too small to offer its own sports team for some of the sports. There are also compensations - the class size is under 20, the community theater program is strong which means that students work with people of all ages in productions not just kids their own age, and sports like ice hockey are done by making a team with two neighboring school districts. We also live an hour from a U of W satellite campus and 30 minutes from a technical college, so the kids can take a special course or two not offered by their high school like advanced biology or computer courses if they wish. Find out a bit more why your son doesn't like school, as homeschooling might be jumping from the frying pan into the fire if he hates school because he feels alienated and lonely. If the socialization is what he hates, then doing the

program you are considering might be just the ticket. How will you continue to challenge him academically and socially? What is your back-up plan if the homeschooling isn't working out because he still hates school? As for the ex, see if he would like to do some sort of regular social activity with your son which would remove some of your burden and ease his worries about your son's socialization. Anyone have any negative ideas about homeschooling? I am going to a homeschooling conference tomorrow and am highly considering it. I've heard nothing but good stuff about it from those of you who already homeschool. My ex is against it (he, who knows nothing about it, other than he thinks our son will lose out on the

social aspect of public school and only has him on the weekends) but personally I have heard nothing negative about it. My son isn't haveing any behavior problems at school but he SO hates it and lets me know it. The homeschooling program I am looking into (Greater San Diego Academy) has electives he would do with other kids and field trips. I think the "social aspect" he gets at his school does more harm than good. Any thoughts?

Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Mobile. Try it now.

February 9, 2008

Well, I have to say I am ALL FOR homeschooling!! That conference I went to was FANTASTIC! Even if my son didn't have AS I would still do it after learning all this stuff about it. And my son is SO excited. He went to the conference to and got to meet the other kids that he would get to do feild trips and family events with. I feel that he will actually get a much better education. I have the time to do many wonderful things with him and with so many resources being in San Diego. We can go to the science museum and learn some things required for the science standards, take pictures, put together an art project for it, write up a summary of it, chart a graph, etc. to meet requirements for other subjects as well. There are so many options of things we can do. I'm really excited about it and can't wait to get started. I was worried about math because I'm not good at it but they have a website we can go to, put in the topic that we're having trouble in, and there's actaully a

video that shows how the math is done as well as different techniques. I also talked to the other parents about social stuff and they said there kids have made more friends in this program than they ever did in school. I'll keep you all updated with how it works out but I think this is definately what he needs and to see him SUPER excited is great. Oh yeah, and we can work household chores into the school program so that's a plus! and/or Robin Lemke <jrisjs@...> wrote: Hi . First,,,,I gotta say that it's wonderful

that you are in such a wonderful school!!!! Also,,,and I hope I gathered this correctly,,,but is your son pretty young? 6? School was good for my son for years. The school was kind and knowledgeable and had plenty of things set up for Ian. Then he got older. By the end of 5th grade, we pulled him. I am in college, my parent were teachers, and I still felt that it was time for my sons' pubic education to end. There may come a time in your life when your son has so many frustrations and so much stress that you worry about his future. Physically and emotionally. There may come a time when you see that being in school doesn't automatically socialize you. That being in school isn't appropriately giving your child good social skills. You, as a parent, taught your son to talk and to socialize. Yes,,,,,,,they will learn to work as

a group. They will learn more pragmatic speech, to a point. But,,,,they WILL learn that they don't fit. It may not be until they're older. But,,,they're smart cookies and because they have aspergers, which is a social disorder, they will not fit like others. Now,,,,,hopefully, your son won't pick up on the fact that other kids think he's odd. Hopefully, the kids at the school won't notice that he doesn't "carry" himself like others. Or that he simply doesn't care to be there. Or that he "freaks out" at things that they don't. But,,,,,,I gotta tell you.....it's devastating when you realize that you have to make a decision. To let him learn at home where he won't be emotionally frazzled. Honestly,,,,with the right curriculum or direction and some hard work, I believe a kid can learn academics anywhere. But,,,,,,,if they

are so upset and stressed being where they are,,,,,they can't learn to their potential. And like I said,,,these guys are smart!!! So,,,,,,I was speaking for myself. I hope I didn't offend you. I didn't mean to. Oh..also,,,,,,,,,,,I don't think it's terrible anymore that my son is happy doing his own thing. He can talk. He chats with us and those he knows. He can answer people when need be. And we will continue to work with him on pragmatics.But,,,,sometimes a mom has to pick what's more important. I hope you never have to. Many don't. Academics IN school and anger,sadness and frustration. Or academics at home, calm surroundings, happiness, learning at his own speed....which I gotta say is fast. He's surpassed what was expected. I personally, didn't believe a kid could really want to

learn more and do more than what is expected for the day.....and still be happy.....simply by changing the environment!!! Aesthetics!!!!!! Have a super day!!!Robin Adam & Meg Ritterpusch <ritterpuschcltcomm (DOT) net> wrote: I have seen quite a few posts supporting the idea of homsechooling your son, and I'm going to offer some of the flip side. I have some friends (two separate families) who homeschool their kids, and the kids are all socially awkward, even though the one family of kids does soccer during the school year. There education is not meeting their talent levels - the one boy could be a computer whiz except that he isn't getting the coursework

and challenge necessary to tap into that potential. The speaking skills of all the kids are horrible, as in the kids in the one family speak with poor diction and very fast and the kids in the other family speak very softly or avoid speaking to adults altogether, including my husband and me whom they have known for 6 years. At the same time, my husband's one teacher in high school had seven kids, all homeschooled by his wife who had also been a high school teacher, and these kids were all polite, well spoken, highly educated, and skilled in other things such as sports and musical instruments. The parents challenged those kids academically and the kids socialized through their extra-curricular activities, always expecting a high level of social skills. None of these kids I have mentioned had any special needs, so those are just examples of the average homeschooled kid. Your question sparked some conversation between my husband and me the other night, and our immediate reactions were the same - our AS son will definitely be going to public school and will most definitely not be homeschooled. Even though I am college educated and both of us are much higher than average IQ, we don't feel that we can offer as much expertise and variety to our kids as our school can. Our son will also get great therapy in school and will be able to continue to work on his social skills, which is our biggest area of concern for him. That said, we moved to this state 6 years ago with a bunch of animals and no children and immediately started house hunting. We first read all that we could about the different school districts within a tolerable commute to my husband's job, going so far as to talk to librarians at different community

libraries about their opinions on the school districts and the teachers and asking new friends their opinions and experiences, plus reading the local papers and requesting copies of school newsletters. We picked the five school districts that we liked the best and then only looked for houses in those school districts, finally buying one in our favorite school district. By the time we bought a house, our son was four-months-old. Our work is paying off now because this school district is fantastic for our situation. There are limitations - only Spanish is offered for language courses, there isn't a school theater program, the school is too small to offer its own sports team for some of the sports. There are also compensations - the class size is under 20, the community theater program is strong which means that students work with people of all ages in productions not just kids their own age, and sports like ice hockey are done by making a

team with two neighboring school districts. We also live an hour from a U of W satellite campus and 30 minutes from a technical college, so the kids can take a special course or two not offered by their high school like advanced biology or computer courses if they wish. Find out a bit more why your son doesn't like school, as homeschooling might be jumping from the frying pan into the fire if he hates school because he feels alienated and lonely. If the socialization is what he hates, then doing the program you are considering might be just the ticket. How will you continue to challenge him academically and socially? What is your back-up plan if the homeschooling isn't working out because he still hates school? As for the ex, see if he would like to do some sort of regular social activity with your son which would remove some of your

burden and ease his worries about your son's socialization. Anyone have any negative ideas about homeschooling? I am going to a homeschooling conference tomorrow and am highly considering it. I've heard nothing but good stuff about it from those of you who already homeschool. My ex is against it (he, who knows nothing about it, other than he thinks our son will lose out on the social aspect of public school and only has him on the weekends) but personally I have heard nothing negative about it. My son isn't haveing any behavior problems at school but he SO hates it and lets me know it. The homeschooling program I am looking into (Greater San Diego Academy) has electives he would do with other kids and field trips. I think the

"social aspect" he gets at his school does more harm than good. Any thoughts? Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Mobile. Try it now.

February 9, 2008

Yep, I think that if I leave my son around the kids he's around in school now, he'll end up turning to drugs and alcohol (like I did) in order to fit in. I don't think socially he was growing at all in school and seeing him so happy that I'm pulling him out he has even told me that he will be a good listener for me. "Jo T." <jort2001@...> wrote: No, we may not be around to protect our kids later on, BUT, if we equip them with a better and stronger self-image NOW while they are younger ... and while their esteem is

SO fragile & prone to peer ridicule, at least later, when they are older and people are MORE MATURE in their relations with others, I feel then our child(ren) will be better equipped as they can enter adulthood without their esteem and self-image totally shattered by others! That's one of my main goals as a HS mom. I want my son to become sure & satisfied in WHO he is, and therefore, stronger when he does have to enter the "real" world. Just my 2 cents. Jo kellystar734 <kellystar734 > wrote: > I've heard

nothing but good stuff about it from those of you who >already homeschool. My ex is against it (he, who knows nothing about >it, other than he thinks our son will lose out on the social aspect of >public school...I think the "social aspect" he gets at his school does >more harm than good. Any thoughts?>>>>>>>>I have to agree on you about this as my hubby keeps saying that I cant homeschool our 12 yr old son because our son doesn't listen to us now since he is in public school why would he listen if he is home all day? I told him our son would not be under as much stress if he were home and hubby said "well thats life and are you going to be around all his life so he doesn't have to do anything in the real world?" GRRRRMarj Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Mobile. Try it now.

February 9, 2008

My husband's response to me homeschooling was "how are you going to get him to do all the schoolwork when you can't even get him to do his homework?" Well, I think that homework after a whole day of being in a school you hate is something that shouldn't have to be done anyway. But I think that some people have this misconception that the kid has to sit in a chair at home and do hours of schoolwork when that's not really the case. You can make it fun which is I think all my son will need to be motivated to do work. Sitting in a classroom full of people you don't like doesn't sound like fun. BRYAN DOLEZAL <DOLEZAL123@...> wrote: That IS my son---he never listened (and it has always been that way but he does listen about doing his work; he gets 'lippy' or oppositional about it, I ask him if he really wants to be home schooling, because if he wants to treat me like that or NOT do the work, he will have to go to school or elsewhere (like public school again) because he has to have an education and learn; he snaps it right together every single time, and does it. We don't tell him WHEN to do anything anymore; we give him the work, and a deadline; he does it when he wants to; he always does. My son has lived over 4 months in the hospital (mental health), 30 months in residential treatment for his behaviors, and been in therapy since he was 18 months of age---has 10 diagnosis, and I AM SUCCESSFULLY home

schooling him, to it CAN work and it does. I SAID HE WAS NOT HOME SCHOOLABLE, and am SHOCKED STILL that he really is!! So, one never knows until they try; I WOULD do the un-schooling method to start though, or he won't want to do it!! Ruthie Dolezal ( ) Re: homeschool > I've heard nothing but good stuff about it from those of you who >already homeschool. My ex is against it (he, who knows nothing about >it, other than he thinks our son will lose out on the social aspect of >public school...I think the "social aspect" he gets at his school does >more harm than good. Any thoughts?>>>>>>>>I have to agree on you about this as my hubby keeps saying that I cant homeschool our 12 yr old son because our son doesn't listen to us now since he is in public school why would he listen if he is home all day? I told him our son would not be under as much stress if he were home and hubby said "well thats life and are you going to be around all his life so he doesn't have to do

anything in the real world?" GRRRRMarj

February 9, 2008

. That's awesome that you had such a great time!!! Keep us posted. Hey....when are you starting? Robin Essenfeld <lessen@...> wrote: Well, I have to say I am ALL FOR homeschooling!! That conference I went to was FANTASTIC! Even if my son didn't have AS I would still do it after learning all this stuff about it. And my son is SO excited. He went to the conference to and got to meet the other kids that he would get to do feild trips and family events with. I feel

that he will actually get a much better education. I have the time to do many wonderful things with him and with so many resources being in San Diego. We can go to the science museum and learn some things required for the science standards, take pictures, put together an art project for it, write up a summary of it, chart a graph, etc. to meet requirements for other subjects as well. There are so many options of things we can do. I'm really excited about it and can't wait to get started. I was worried about math because I'm not good at it but they have a website we can go to, put in the topic that we're having trouble in, and there's actaully a video that shows how the math is done as well as different techniques. I also talked to the other parents about social stuff and they said there kids have made more friends in this program than they ever did in school. I'll keep you all updated with how it works out but I think this is definately what he needs and to see him SUPER

excited is great. Oh yeah, and we can work household chores into the school program so that's a plus! and/or Robin Lemke <jrisjs > wrote: Hi . First,,,,I gotta say that it's wonderful that you are in such a wonderful school!!!! Also,,,and I hope I gathered this correctly,,,but is your son pretty young? 6? School was good for my son for years. The school was kind and knowledgeable and had plenty of things set up for Ian. Then he got older. By the end of 5th grade, we pulled him. I am in college, my parent were teachers, and I still felt that it was time for my sons' pubic education to end. There may come a time in your life when your son has so many frustrations and so much stress that you worry about his future.

Physically and emotionally. There may come a time when you see that being in school doesn't automatically socialize you. That being in school isn't appropriately giving your child good social skills. You, as a parent, taught your son to talk and to socialize. Yes,,,,,,,they will learn to work as a group. They will learn more pragmatic speech, to a point. But,,,,they WILL learn that they don't fit. It may not be until they're older. But,,,they're smart cookies and because they have aspergers, which is a social disorder, they will not fit like others. Now,,,,,hopefully, your son won't pick up on the fact that other kids think he's odd. Hopefully, the kids at the school won't notice that he doesn't "carry" himself like others. Or that he simply doesn't care to be there. Or that he "freaks out" at things that they

don't. But,,,,,,I gotta tell you.....it's devastating when you realize that you have to make a decision. To let him learn at home where he won't be emotionally frazzled. Honestly,,,,with the right curriculum or direction and some hard work, I believe a kid can learn academics anywhere. But,,,,,,,if they are so upset and stressed being where they are,,,,,they can't learn to their potential. And like I said,,,these guys are smart!!! So,,,,,,I was speaking for myself. I hope I didn't offend you. I didn't mean to. Oh..also,,,,,,,,,,,I don't think it's terrible anymore that my son is happy doing his own thing. He can talk. He chats with us and those he knows. He can answer people when need be. And we will continue to work with him on pragmatics.But,,,,sometimes a mom has to pick what's more important. I hope you

never have to. Many don't. Academics IN school and anger,sadness and frustration. Or academics at home, calm surroundings, happiness, learning at his own speed....which I gotta say is fast. He's surpassed what was expected. I personally, didn't believe a kid could really want to learn more and do more than what is expected for the day.....and still be happy.....simply by changing the environment!!! Aesthetics!!!!!! Have a super day!!!Robin Adam & Meg Ritterpusch <ritterpuschcltcomm (DOT) net> wrote: I have seen quite a few posts supporting the idea of homsechooling your son, and I'm going to offer some of the flip side. I have some friends (two separate families) who homeschool their kids, and the kids are all socially awkward, even though the one family of kids does soccer during the school year. There education is not meeting their talent levels - the one boy could be a computer whiz except that he isn't getting the coursework and challenge necessary to tap into that potential. The speaking skills of all the kids are horrible, as in the kids in the one family speak with poor diction and very fast and the kids in the other family speak very softly or avoid speaking to adults altogether, including my husband and me whom they have known for 6 years. At the same time, my husband's one teacher in high school had seven kids, all homeschooled by his wife who had also been a high school teacher, and these kids were all polite, well spoken, highly educated, and skilled in other things such as sports and musical instruments. The parents

challenged those kids academically and the kids socialized through their extra-curricular activities, always expecting a high level of social skills. None of these kids I have mentioned had any special needs, so those are just examples of the average homeschooled kid. Your question sparked some conversation between my husband and me the other night, and our immediate reactions were the same - our AS son will definitely be going to public school and will most definitely not be homeschooled. Even though I am college educated and both of us are much higher than average IQ, we don't feel that we can offer as much expertise and variety to our kids as our school can. Our son will also get great therapy in school and will be able to continue to work on his social skills, which is our biggest area of concern for him. That said, we moved to this state 6 years ago with a bunch of animals and no children and immediately started house hunting. We first read all that we could about the different school districts within a tolerable commute to my husband's job, going so far as to talk to librarians at different community libraries about their opinions on the school districts and the teachers and asking new friends their opinions and experiences, plus reading the local papers and requesting copies of school newsletters. We picked the five school districts that we liked the best and then only looked for houses in those school districts, finally buying one in our favorite school district. By the time we bought a house, our son was four-months-old. Our work is paying off now because this school district is fantastic for our situation. There are limitations - only Spanish is offered for language courses,

there isn't a school theater program, the school is too small to offer its own sports team for some of the sports. There are also compensations - the class size is under 20, the community theater program is strong which means that students work with people of all ages in productions not just kids their own age, and sports like ice hockey are done by making a team with two neighboring school districts. We also live an hour from a U of W satellite campus and 30 minutes from a technical college, so the kids can take a special course or two not offered by their high school like advanced biology or computer courses if they wish. Find out a bit more why your son doesn't like school, as homeschooling might be jumping from the frying pan into the fire if he hates school because he feels alienated and lonely. If the socialization is what he hates, then doing the

program you are considering might be just the ticket. How will you continue to challenge him academically and socially? What is your back-up plan if the homeschooling isn't working out because he still hates school? As for the ex, see if he would like to do some sort of regular social activity with your son which would remove some of your burden and ease his worries about your son's socialization. Anyone have any negative ideas about homeschooling? I am going to a homeschooling conference tomorrow and am highly considering it. I've heard nothing but good stuff about it from those of you who already homeschool. My ex is against it (he, who knows nothing about it, other than he thinks our son will lose out on the

social aspect of public school and only has him on the weekends) but personally I have heard nothing negative about it. My son isn't haveing any behavior problems at school but he SO hates it and lets me know it. The homeschooling program I am looking into (Greater San Diego Academy) has electives he would do with other kids and field trips. I think the "social aspect" he gets at his school does more harm than good. Any thoughts? Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Mobile. Try it now.

Never miss a thing. Make your homepage.

February 9, 2008

You are overreacting a good bit on this one, I believe, as I said up front that I was trying to give examples of the negative side of homeschooling since there were so many positive examples. I mentioned two families whose homeschooled kids have poor social skills even with doing some sports, but I also mentioned a family with homeschooled kids who had excellent social skills. Knowing all of the kids and knowing what I do about special needs in general from our own experiences, I would make the unofficial guess that the kids are nice, middle of the road, average kids - average weight, average height, average intelligence, average illnesses, average behaviors, average times for reaching milestones physically, emotionally, and linguistically. We're talking pretty average kids!

When we investigated our school district, we specifically asked questions about special needs and learning disability education since my husband had been diagnosed with dyslexia as a child. I would be pretty disappointed in myself if we had horrible schooling for our son with AS after doing that research myself. I am also really confident that my son will be fine in school for the duration of his public education because there are only two schools in our district - the elementary for JK - 6 and the middle/high school for 7 - 12, and my son's grade will have only about 40 kids in it, so problems will be limited simply because there aren't that many kids. Not to say that there won't be problems, but there just won't be as many opportunities for trouble. Not to mention that all of the kids we've ever met (heck, any of the people we've met in our entire zip code of 3,000 people) don't give a damn if you have disabilities - you're a neighbor and that's good enough for them, and they're always there to lend a helping hand. Even the horse 4-H contact person in our county is the Special Education teacher at a school 30 minutes away from us.

Homeschooling is not for everyone, nor is public school for everyone. I was trying to give an alternate viewpoint. We are in a situation where we will have not only a good education but a great life experience with the school system, and I am glad. There are a lot of negative things spewed on this list about public schools, and I'm going to stand up and say that some public schools are fabulous!!!!

Re: ( ) homeschool

I have seen quite a few posts supporting the idea of homsechooling your son, and I'm going to offer some of the flip side.

I have some friends (two separate families) who homeschool their kids, and the kids are all socially awkward, even though the one family of kids does soccer during the school year. There education is not meeting their talent levels - the one boy could be a computer whiz except that he isn't getting the coursework and challenge necessary to tap into that potential. The speaking skills of all the kids are horrible, as in the kids in the one family speak with poor diction and very fast and the kids in the other family speak very softly or avoid speaking to adults altogether, including my husband and me whom they have known for 6 years. At the same time, my husband's one teacher in high school had seven kids, all homeschooled by his wife who had also been a high school teacher, and these kids were all polite, well spoken, highly educated, and skilled in other things such as sports and musical instruments. The parents challenged those kids academically and the kids socialized through their extra-curricular activities, always expecting a high level of social skills. None of these kids I have mentioned had any special needs, so those are just examples of the average homeschooled kid.

Your question sparked some conversation between my husband and me the other night, and our immediate reactions were the same - our AS son will definitely be going to public school and will most definitely not be homeschooled. Even though I am college educated and both of us are much higher than average IQ, we don't feel that we can offer as much expertise and variety to our kids as our school can. Our son will also get great therapy in school and will be able to continue to work on his social skills, which is our biggest area of concern for him.

That said, we moved to this state 6 years ago with a bunch of animals and no children and immediately started house hunting. We first read all that we could about the different school districts within a tolerable commute to my husband's job, going so far as to talk to librarians at different community libraries about their opinions on the school districts and the teachers and asking new friends their opinions and experiences, plus reading the local papers and requesting copies of school newsletters. We picked the five school districts that we liked the best and then only looked for houses in those school districts, finally buying one in our favorite school district. By the time we bought a house, our son was four-months-old. Our work is paying off now because this school district is fantastic for our situation. There are limitations - only Spanish is offered for language courses, there isn't a school theater program, the school is too small to offer its own sports team for some of the sports. There are also compensations - the class size is under 20, the community theater program is strong which means that students work with people of all ages in productions not just kids their own age, and sports like ice hockey are done by making a team with two neighboring school districts. We also live an hour from a U of W satellite campus and 30 minutes from a technical college, so the kids can take a special course or two not offered by their high school like advanced biology or computer courses if they wish.

Find out a bit more why your son doesn't like school, as homeschooling might be jumping from the frying pan into the fire if he hates school because he feels alienated and lonely. If the socialization is what he hates, then doing the program you are considering might be just the ticket. How will you continue to challenge him academically and socially? What is your back-up plan if the homeschooling isn't working out because he still hates school? As for the ex, see if he would like to do some sort of regular social activity with your son which would remove some of your burden and ease his worries about your son's socialization.

Anyone have any negative ideas about homeschooling? I am going to a homeschooling conference tomorrow and am highly considering it. I've heard nothing but good stuff about it from those of you who already homeschool. My ex is against it (he, who knows nothing about it, other than he thinks our son will lose out on the social aspect of public school and only has him on the weekends) but personally I have heard nothing negative about it. My son isn't haveing any behavior problems at school but he SO hates it and lets me know it. The homeschooling program I am looking into (Greater San Diego Academy) has electives he would do with other kids and field trips. I think the "social aspect" he gets at his school does more harm than good. Any thoughts?

February 9, 2008

You, as a parent, taught your son to talk and to socialize.

Actually, no, I didn't really teach my son to talk and did a poor job on some of the socialization, I'm sad to say. We did everything we thought we should be doing, everything that was recommended by family, friends, doctor, and still he didn't speak. We learned a lot working with the Birth to Three speech therapist, and it wasn't until she had been working with him for a month until he started even to use "more" and some sign language. His socialization has been typical either, and it's been largely the amazing teaching by his Early Childhood teacher that has helped him to learn so many great social skills. I know what you are saying, but I will sadly admit that I really needed the help of a Federal program and the public school system to get him to the point he is at now. It takes a village to raise a child and all that.

Yes,,,,,,,they will learn to work as a group. They will learn more pragmatic speech, to a point. But,,,,they WILL learn that they don't fit. It may not be until they're older. But,,,they're smart cookies and because they have aspergers, which is a social disorder, they will not fit like others.

I usually didn't fit in because I was always the super smart nerd with the weird memory (my memory is excellent, to the point that I can remember what page a passage is on that I want to reference in a novel in the middle of a class discussion). My husband didn't fit in because of his undiagnosed AS, his dyselexia, and his gifted IQ. In fact, my husband's middle school had such a large Jewish population that they had off for all the Jewish holidays, and he's the son of a Lutheran minister, so he was different at school in a way most of us don't think of. I had some tough times being the nerd, but I found my way. My husband had some tough times, but he says that his most difficult times had nothing to do with his AS or his dyslexia and everything to do with being the son of divorced parents with one of them being a minister - he couldn't always do things with the other kids because he had to be at one parent's house for part of the week or because he had church functions that he had to attend or just some stricter rules because of being a PK with an older brother who'd already followed the traditional route of being the PK who causes trouble. We believe that our son will have struggles like every young person out there, and that it will be how he learns to get through those struggles that will form him. Our way is not for everyone, but it is our way and does work for us and our family.

Now,,,,,hopefully, your son won't pick up on the fact that other kids think he's odd. Hopefully, the kids at the school won't notice that he doesn't "carry" himself like others. Or that he simply doesn't care to be there. Or that he "freaks out" at things that they don't.

One thing I've heard about our school is that the teachers, administration, and student population are all very open minded and accepting. One woman I work with has a daughter who is graduating this year, and her daughter has a panic disorder that means that she can have a bad panic attack in crowds. Her classes are grouped so that she doesn't have too far to go in between classes, she's in the smallest gym class, and she's allowed to sit at the end of the row for school assemblies so that she can leave if she needs to. Sounds nice to me!

February 10, 2008

Taken from my 'original posting:' Remember, I home school one, public school two; I would do both all over again, and my home schooler will NEVER go back to public school!! He has made that very clear. I said I would never home school him either but I was open minded to all the myths.

Ruthie Dolezal

I STILL have have two in public schools, so you are lucky to have a great school: you really are; I don't think I was over reacting but I WAS YOU a few years ago (before I even knew it was aspergers---saying I WOULD NEVER HOME SCHOOL and here I am; We are NOT a pro-home-school group as far as I know; we are a pro-kids group and seems a bunch of us just since we joine about 6 months ago now have had to pull kids and start home schooling; so, if you are newer, you have probably missed out on our journeys; If you knew me personally, you would now that I was not trying to sound harsh but I am sure it may have come across that way; YOU ARE LUCKY and an exception to have a school actually MEETING your child's needs.

Additionally, we were told to move and go to school where we are now too, and are SOOOOO angry that we are moving to a new district; we cannot believe they have failed us and our children this way; we heard soooo many wonderful things about them because it was time for US to need services; so, it was not as good as we were told; quite and contrary actually.

Have a great day; and know that home school and public are not the onlly ways; but there are LOTS of ways and I / we firmly believe the biggest thing is that we all maintain the RIGHTS (without government telling us no) that we can do whatever to ensure OUR CHILDREN have the education they deserve and learn how they can no matter their abilities and / or lack thereof; everyone HAS that right; in Iowa, we are battling again to keep the rights to home school; it is always a 'battle' when you have special kids (or for most of us it is); if you are the exception, that is WONDERFUL!!! Good luck, and thanks for sharing;k have a great day, and keep sharing your opinions.....just know that NEVER may not always be NEVER and do what is best at all times for the child; in junior high, teachers want our children to change for high school and do things they cannot do; so it creates mental health issues (often) for a lot of us; and mix 'it' with puberty, and fun we all have (NOT!).......

Ruthie Dolezal

From: ritterpusch@...Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2008 19:15:31 -0600Subject: Re: ( ) homeschool

You are overreacting a good bit on this one, I believe, as I said up front that I was trying to give examples of the negative side of homeschooling since there were so many positive examples. I mentioned two families whose homeschooled kids have poor social skills even with doing some sports, but I also mentioned a family with homeschooled kids who had excellent social skills. Knowing all of the kids and knowing what I do about special needs in general from our own experiences, I would make the unofficial guess that the kids are nice, middle of the road, average kids - average weight, average height, average intelligence, average illnesses, average behaviors, average times for reaching milestones physically, emotionally, and linguistically. We're talking pretty average kids!

When we investigated our school district, we specifically asked questions about special needs and learning disability education since my husband had been diagnosed with dyslexia as a child. I would be pretty disappointed in myself if we had horrible schooling for our son with AS after doing that research myself. I am also really confident that my son will be fine in school for the duration of his public education because there are only two schools in our district - the elementary for JK - 6 and the middle/high school for 7 - 12, and my son's grade will have only about 40 kids in it, so problems will be limited simply because there aren't that many kids. Not to say that there won't be problems, but there just won't be as many opportunities for trouble. Not to mention that all of the kids we've ever met (heck, any of the people we've met in our entire zip code of 3,000 people) don't give a damn if you have disabilities - you're a neighbor and that's good enough for them, and they're always there to lend a helping hand. Even the horse 4-H contact person in our county is the Special Education teacher at a school 30 minutes away from us.

Homeschooling is not for everyone, nor is public school for everyone. I was trying to give an alternate viewpoint. We are in a situation where we will have not only a good education but a great life experience with the school system, and I am glad. There are a lot of negative things spewed on this list about public schools, and I'm going to stand up and say that some public schools are fabulous!!!!

Re: ( ) homeschool

I have seen quite a few posts supporting the idea of homsechooling your son, and I'm going to offer some of the flip side.

I have some friends (two separate families) who homeschool their kids, and the kids are all socially awkward, even though the one family of kids does soccer during the school year. There education is not meeting their talent levels - the one boy could be a computer whiz except that he isn't getting the coursework and challenge necessary to tap into that potential. The speaking skills of all the kids are horrible, as in the kids in the one family speak with poor diction and very fast and the kids in the other family speak very softly or avoid speaking to adults altogether, including my husband and me whom they have known for 6 years. At the same time, my husband's one teacher in high school had seven kids, all homeschooled by his wife who had also been a high school teacher, and these kids were all polite, well spoken, highly educated, and skilled in other things such as sports and musical instruments. The parents challenged those kids academically and the kids socialized through their extra-curricular activities, always expecting a high level of social skills. None of these kids I have mentioned had any special needs, so those are just examples of the average homeschooled kid.

Your question sparked some conversation between my husband and me the other night, and our immediate reactions were the same - our AS son will definitely be going to public school and will most definitely not be homeschooled. Even though I am college educated and both of us are much higher than average IQ, we don't feel that we can offer as much expertise and variety to our kids as our school can. Our son will also get great therapy in school and will be able to continue to work on his social skills, which is our biggest area of concern for him.

That said, we moved to this state 6 years ago with a bunch of animals and no children and immediately started house hunting. We first read all that we could about the different school districts within a tolerable commute to my husband's job, going so far as to talk to librarians at different community libraries about their opinions on the school districts and the teachers and asking new friends their opinions and experiences, plus reading the local papers and requesting copies of school newsletters. We picked the five school districts that we liked the best and then only looked for houses in those school districts, finally buying one in our favorite school district. By the time we bought a house, our son was four-months-old. Our work is paying off now because this school district is fantastic for our situation. There are limitations - only Spanish is offered for language courses, there isn't a school theater program, the school is too small to offer its own sports team for some of the sports. There are also compensations - the class size is under 20, the community theater program is strong which means that students work with people of all ages in productions not just kids their own age, and sports like ice hockey are done by making a team with two neighboring school districts. We also live an hour from a U of W satellite campus and 30 minutes from a technical college, so the kids can take a special course or two not offered by their high school like advanced biology or computer courses if they wish.

Find out a bit more why your son doesn't like school, as homeschooling might be jumping from the frying pan into the fire if he hates school because he feels alienated and lonely. If the socialization is what he hates, then doing the program you are considering might be just the ticket. How will you continue to challenge him academically and socially? What is your back-up plan if the homeschooling isn't working out because he still hates school? As for the ex, see if he would like to do some sort of regular social activity with your son which would remove some of your burden and ease his worries about your son's socialization.

Anyone have any negative ideas about homeschooling? I am going to a homeschooling conference tomorrow and am highly considering it. I've heard nothing but good stuff about it from those of you who already homeschool. My ex is against it (he, who knows nothing about it, other than he thinks our son will lose out on the social aspect of public school and only has him on the weekends) but personally I have heard nothing negative about it. My son isn't haveing any behavior problems at school but he SO hates it and lets me know it. The homeschooling program I am looking into (Greater San Diego Academy) has electives he would do with other kids and field trips. I think the "social aspect" he gets at his school does more harm than good. Any thoughts?

February 10, 2008

As a mom of a preschooler, I appreciate the back and forth on this issue and learning how older kids deal with school while having Asperger's. Thanks to everyone for sharing!!Jen :)DD 3yrs old

February 10, 2008

: I would like to interject here ..... I actually home school my son this year, but I REALLY enjoyed reading your initial post re: the flip side of home-schooling. I left your message with a very "hmmmmmm, I haven't thought about it that way ...." So I would like to say "thank you" for offering a new perspective! Keep up the great input. My negative mind-set needs to be turned around from time to time! Take care, Jo T Adam & Meg Ritterpusch <ritterpusch@...> wrote: You are overreacting a good bit on this one, I believe, as I said up front that I was trying to give examples of the negative side of homeschooling since there were so many positive examples. I mentioned two families whose homeschooled kids have poor social skills even with doing some sports, but I also mentioned a family with homeschooled kids who had excellent social skills. Knowing all of the kids and knowing what I do about special needs in general from our own experiences, I would make the unofficial guess that the kids are nice, middle of the road, average kids - average weight, average height, average intelligence, average illnesses, average behaviors, average times for reaching milestones physically, emotionally, and linguistically. We're talking pretty average kids! When we investigated our school district, we specifically asked questions about special needs and learning disability education since my husband had been diagnosed with dyslexia as a child. I would be pretty disappointed in myself if we had horrible schooling for our son with AS after doing that research myself. I am also really confident that my son will be fine in school for the duration of his public education because there are only two schools in our district - the elementary for JK - 6 and the middle/high school for 7 - 12, and my son's grade will have only about 40 kids in it, so problems will be limited simply because there aren't that many kids. Not to say that there won't be problems, but there just won't be as many opportunities for trouble. Not to mention that all of the kids we've ever met (heck, any of the people we've met in our entire zip code of 3,000 people) don't give a

damn if you have disabilities - you're a neighbor and that's good enough for them, and they're always there to lend a helping hand. Even the horse 4-H contact person in our county is the Special Education teacher at a school 30 minutes away from us. Homeschooling is not for everyone, nor is public school for everyone. I was trying to give an alternate viewpoint. We are in a situation where we will have not only a good education but a great life experience with the school system, and I am glad. There are a lot of negative things spewed on this list about public schools, and I'm going to stand up and say that some public schools are fabulous!!!! Re: ( ) homeschool I have seen quite a few posts supporting the idea of homsechooling your son, and I'm going to offer some of the flip side. I have some friends (two separate families) who homeschool their kids, and the kids are all socially awkward, even though the one family of kids does soccer during the school year. There education is not meeting their talent levels - the one boy could be a computer whiz except that he

isn't getting the coursework and challenge necessary to tap into that potential. The speaking skills of all the kids are horrible, as in the kids in the one family speak with poor diction and very fast and the kids in the other family speak very softly or avoid speaking to adults altogether, including my husband and me whom they have known for 6 years. At the same time, my husband's one teacher in high school had seven kids, all homeschooled by his wife who had also been a high school teacher, and these kids were all polite, well spoken, highly educated, and skilled in other things such as sports and musical instruments. The parents challenged those kids academically and the kids socialized through their extra-curricular activities, always expecting a high level of social skills. None of these kids I have mentioned had any special needs, so those are just examples of the average homeschooled kid. Your question sparked some conversation between my husband and me the other night, and our immediate reactions were the same - our AS son will definitely be going to public school and will most definitely not be homeschooled. Even though I am college educated and both of us are much higher than average IQ, we don't feel that we can offer as much expertise and variety to our kids as our school can. Our son will also get great therapy in school and will be able to continue to work on his social skills, which is our biggest area of concern for him. That said, we moved to this state 6 years ago with a bunch of animals and no children and immediately started house hunting. We first read all that we could about the different school districts within a tolerable commute to my husband's job, going so far as to talk

to librarians at different community libraries about their opinions on the school districts and the teachers and asking new friends their opinions and experiences, plus reading the local papers and requesting copies of school newsletters. We picked the five school districts that we liked the best and then only looked for houses in those school districts, finally buying one in our favorite school district. By the time we bought a house, our son was four-months-old. Our work is paying off now because this school district is fantastic for our situation. There are limitations - only Spanish is offered for language courses, there isn't a school theater program, the school is too small to offer its own sports team for some of the sports. There are also compensations - the class size is under 20, the community theater program is strong which means that students work with people of all ages in productions not just kids their own age, and sports

like ice hockey are done by making a team with two neighboring school districts. We also live an hour from a U of W satellite campus and 30 minutes from a technical college, so the kids can take a special course or two not offered by their high school like advanced biology or computer courses if they wish. Find out a bit more why your son doesn't like school, as homeschooling might be jumping from the frying pan into the fire if he hates school because he feels alienated and lonely. If the socialization is what he hates, then doing the program you are considering might be just the ticket. How will you continue to challenge him academically and socially? What is your back-up plan if the homeschooling isn't working out because he still hates school? As for the ex, see if he would like to do some sort of regular social activity with your

son which would remove some of your burden and ease his worries about your son's socialization. Anyone have any negative ideas about homeschooling? I am going to a homeschooling conference tomorrow and am highly considering it. I've heard nothing but good stuff about it from those of you who already homeschool. My ex is against it (he, who knows nothing about it, other than he thinks our son will lose out on the social aspect of public school and only has him on the weekends) but personally I have heard nothing negative about it. My son isn't haveing any behavior problems at school but he SO hates it and lets me know it. The homeschooling program I am looking into (Greater San Diego Academy) has electives he would do with other

kids and field trips. I think the "social aspect" he gets at his school does more harm than good. Any thoughts?

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February 10, 2008

Just two thoughts: the kids could have been socially awkward to begin with and that had nothing to do with the homeschooling.

As for the example of not meeting the kids advanced computer skills, good luck if you think the school would do that for you. In school, they teach to one level (generally the lower) and the only way you can get any advanced work is if you live in a school that has gifted programming and you happen to qualify for it. Or if your parents locate a private program done outside of school. Regular schools generally don't specialize. They teach in big groups.

The e-school program is actually geared to advance the child as they go. So a kid who is advanced, can advance at their own pace rather than wait around while others in the class get it. We haven't really benefitted from this yet but I see the "framework" and I think it's going to be a good thing eventually. I guess it is really more about who is running the actual program. You can have a crappy home program as well as have a crappy school district - or even a good school district with a crappy teacher or program. It's all relative.

RoxannaAutism Happens

Re: ( ) homeschool

I have seen quite a few posts supporting the idea of homsechooling your son, and I'm going to offer some of the flip side.

I have some friends (two separate families) who homeschool their kids, and the kids are all socially awkward, even though the one family of kids does soccer during the school year. There education is not meeting their talent levels - the one boy could be a computer whiz except that he isn't getting the coursework and challenge necessary to tap into that potential. The speaking skills of all the kids are horrible, as in the kids in the one family speak with poor diction and very fast and the kids in the other family speak very softly or avoid speaking to adults altogether, including my husband and me whom they have known for 6 years. At the same time, my husband's one teacher in high school had seven kids, all homeschooled by his wife who had also been a high school teacher, and these kids were all polite, well spoken, highly educated, and skilled in other things such as sports and musical instruments. The parents challenged those kids academically and the kids socialized through their extra-curricular activities, always expecting a high level of social skills. None of these kids I have mentioned had any special needs, so those are just examples of the average homeschooled kid.

Your question sparked some conversation between my husband and me the other night, and our immediate reactions were the same - our AS son will definitely be going to public school and will most definitely not be homeschooled. Even though I am college educated and both of us are much higher than average IQ, we don't feel that we can offer as much expertise and variety to our kids as our school can. Our son will also get great therapy in school and will be able to continue to work on his social skills, which is our biggest area of concern for him.

That said, we moved to this state 6 years ago with a bunch of animals and no children and immediately started house hunting. We first read all that we could about the different school districts within a tolerable commute to my husband's job, going so far as to talk to librarians at different community libraries about their opinions on the school districts and the teachers and asking new friends their opinions and experiences, plus reading the local papers and requesting copies of school newsletters. We picked the five school districts that we liked the best and then only looked for houses in those school districts, finally buying one in our favorite school district. By the time we bought a house, our son was four-months-old. Our work is paying off now because this school district is fantastic for our situation. There are limitations - only Spanish is offered for language courses, there isn't a school theater program, the school is too small to offer its own sports team for some of the sports. There are also compensations - the class size is under 20, the community theater program is strong which means that students work with people of all ages in productions not just kids their own age, and sports like ice hockey are done by making a team with two neighboring school districts. We also live an hour from a U of W satellite campus and 30 minutes from a technical college, so the kids can take a special course or two not offered by their high school like advanced biology or computer courses if they wish.

Find out a bit more why your son doesn't like school, as homeschooling might be jumping from the frying pan into the fire if he hates school because he feels alienated and lonely. If the socialization is what he hates, then doing the program you are considering might be just the ticket. How will you continue to challenge him academically and socially? What is your back-up plan if the homeschooling isn't working out because he still hates school? As for the ex, see if he would like to do some sort of regular social activity with your son which would remove some of your burden and ease his worries about your son's socialization.

Anyone have any negative ideas about homeschooling? I am going to a homeschooling conference tomorrow and am highly considering it. I've heard nothing but good stuff about it from those of you who already homeschool. My ex is against it (he, who knows nothing about it, other than he thinks our son will lose out on the social aspect of public school and only has him on the weekends) but personally I have heard nothing negative about it. My son isn't haveing any behavior problems at school but he SO hates it and lets me know it. The homeschooling program I am looking into (Greater San Diego Academy) has electives he would do with other kids and field trips. I think the "social aspect" he gets at his school does more harm than good. Any thoughts?

February 10, 2008

I *am* new to the group, but I also did read many, many, many of the threads before posting and am well aware of some of the problems experienced by members of this group. I also think that there is a lot of negativity on this group about public schools, and I would like to be one of the few who say that public school can be fantastic - my husband and I went to fantastic public schools in south-central Pennsylvania, our kids will be in a fantastic public school in Wisconsin, my friend's daughter who was born deaf and now has cochlear implants will be in a fantastic public school in northwestern Pennsylvania (is in Early Childhood classes at the public school already), and my husband's brother-in-law teaches at a fantastic public school in northwestern Pennsylvania. They *are* out there.

Have any of you whose children weren't thriving in public school tried alternative public schools? In Pennsylvania they have vocational-technical high schools that are public schools that can be chosen over the traditional public school; unfortunately, these don't seem to be offered in Wisconsin at the high school level. My AS husband chose to attend vo-tech for high school, as it better fit his style of learning in a hands on environment. He is very quick to say that vo-tech school was a fantastic place for him, and he wishes that all states offered such schools. For all members on this list, what alternative schools do you have? Charter schools? Vo-tech schools? If we consider that most people with AS are three dimensional learners, thus often struggling in an education system that is traditionally linear, these alternative public schools could be fabulous options!

Re: ( ) homeschool

I have seen quite a few posts supporting the idea of homsechooling your son, and I'm going to offer some of the flip side.

I have some friends (two separate families) who homeschool their kids, and the kids are all socially awkward, even though the one family of kids does soccer during the school year. There education is not meeting their talent levels - the one boy could be a computer whiz except that he isn't getting the coursework and challenge necessary to tap into that potential. The speaking skills of all the kids are horrible, as in the kids in the one family speak with poor diction and very fast and the kids in the other family speak very softly or avoid speaking to adults altogether, including my husband and me whom they have known for 6 years. At the same time, my husband's one teacher in high school had seven kids, all homeschooled by his wife who had also been a high school teacher, and these kids were all polite, well spoken, highly educated, and skilled in other things such as sports and musical instruments. The parents challenged those kids academically and the kids socialized through their extra-curricular activities, always expecting a high level of social skills. None of these kids I have mentioned had any special needs, so those are just examples of the average homeschooled kid.

Your question sparked some conversation between my husband and me the other night, and our immediate reactions were the same - our AS son will definitely be going to public school and will most definitely not be homeschooled. Even though I am college educated and both of us are much higher than average IQ, we don't feel that we can offer as much expertise and variety to our kids as our school can. Our son will also get great therapy in school and will be able to continue to work on his social skills, which is our biggest area of concern for him.

That said, we moved to this state 6 years ago with a bunch of animals and no children and immediately started house hunting. We first read all that we could about the different school districts within a tolerable commute to my husband's job, going so far as to talk to librarians at different community libraries about their opinions on the school districts and the teachers and asking new friends their opinions and experiences, plus reading the local papers and requesting copies of school newsletters. We picked the five school districts that we liked the best and then only looked for houses in those school districts, finally buying one in our favorite school district. By the time we bought a house, our son was four-months-old. Our work is paying off now because this school district is fantastic for our situation. There are limitations - only Spanish is offered for language courses, there isn't a school theater program, the school is too small to offer its own sports team for some of the sports. There are also compensations - the class size is under 20, the community theater program is strong which means that students work with people of all ages in productions not just kids their own age, and sports like ice hockey are done by making a team with two neighboring school districts. We also live an hour from a U of W satellite campus and 30 minutes from a technical college, so the kids can take a special course or two not offered by their high school like advanced biology or computer courses if they wish.

Find out a bit more why your son doesn't like school, as homeschooling might be jumping from the frying pan into the fire if he hates school because he feels alienated and lonely. If the socialization is what he hates, then doing the program you are considering might be just the ticket. How will you continue to challenge him academically and socially? What is your back-up plan if the homeschooling isn't working out because he still hates school? As for the ex, see if he would like to do some sort of regular social activity with your son which would remove some of your burden and ease his worries about your son's socialization.

Anyone have any negative ideas about homeschooling? I am going to a homeschooling conference tomorrow and am highly considering it. I've heard nothing but good stuff about it from those of you who already homeschool. My ex is against it (he, who knows nothing about it, other than he thinks our son will lose out on the social aspect of public school and only has him on the weekends) but personally I have heard nothing negative about it. My son isn't haveing any behavior problems at school but he SO hates it and lets me know it. The homeschooling program I am looking into (Greater San Diego Academy) has electives he would do with other kids and field trips. I think the "social aspect" he gets at his school does more harm than good. Any thoughts?

February 10, 2008

I would like to agree with you Ruthie. The therapies at the schools we have attended have been dismal at best. In elementary school, we did have a good speech therapist but the OT was incredibly awful. She was so bad, we didn't argue with her lame evaluation because to argue to get services meant services from her and that wasn't worth arguing for! lol. The services got worse as the kids got older - the speech therapist in middle school stunk and high school - they were a joke, if they had one show up at all. OT was not available in middle school (well, only if you complained and then you got someone pulled from elementary school who knew nothing about dealing with a middle school kid!) and in high school - oh geez, the OT was the worst one yet. This was our experience with several kids over the years and listening to friends describe their experiences as well.

Everyone here would praise our school system to the sky. They've won awards for their AS program in fact. But that didn't mean that they did anything for my two kids (both hfa) and both kids have been removed from the school due to major problems. I think the final straw has always been the socialization. It's all been so negative and I got so tired of hearing their excuses. The last time we chatted, they were all happy because they managed to get him to stop screaming on the playground. Mind you, nobody knew why he was screaming on the playground and that did not seem to be their focus at all. They were just pleased to have taught him not to scream on the playground. I just want to explode when I talk to people like that. And it's been so nice not to have to haul in to school and listen to nonsense like this anymore.

I would also warn people not to say they will "never" homeschool. I did not think I would be doing it because we had a good program and I liked our elementary school. But I learned "never say never" as things happen, situations change, needs change...it happens. And here I am trying to figure it all out now.

RoxannaAutism Happens

Re: ( ) homeschool

I have seen quite a few posts supporting the idea of homsechooling your son, and I'm going to offer some of the flip side.

I have some friends (two separate families) who homeschool their kids, and the kids are all socially awkward, even though the one family of kids does soccer during the school year. There education is not meeting their talent levels - the one boy could be a computer whiz except that he isn't getting the coursework and challenge necessary to tap into that potential. The speaking skills of all the kids are horrible, as in the kids in the one family speak with poor diction and very fast and the kids in the other family speak very softly or avoid speaking to adults altogether, including my husband and me whom they have known for 6 years. At the same time, my husband's one teacher in high school had seven kids, all homeschooled by his wife who had also been a high school teacher, and these kids were all polite, well spoken, highly educated, and skilled in other things such as sports and musical instruments. The parents challenged those kids academically and the kids socialized through their extra-curricular activities, always expecting a high level of social skills. None of these kids I have mentioned had any special needs, so those are just examples of the average homeschooled kid.

Your question sparked some conversation between my husband and me the other night, and our immediate reactions were the same - our AS son will definitely be going to public school and will most definitely not be homeschooled. Even though I am college educated and both of us are much higher than average IQ, we don't feel that we can offer as much expertise and variety to our kids as our school can. Our son will also get great therapy in school and will be able to continue to work on his social skills, which is our biggest area of concern for him.

That said, we moved to this state 6 years ago with a bunch of animals and no children and immediately started house hunting. We first read all that we could about the different school districts within a tolerable commute to my husband's job, going so far as to talk to librarians at different community libraries about their opinions on the school districts and the teachers and asking new friends their opinions and experiences, plus reading the local papers and requesting copies of school newsletters. We picked the five school districts that we liked the best and then only looked for houses in those school districts, finally buying one in our favorite school district. By the time we bought a house, our son was four-months-old. Our work is paying off now because this school district is fantastic for our situation. There are limitations - only Spanish is offered for language courses, there isn't a school theater program, the school is too small to offer its own sports team for some of the sports. There are also compensations - the class size is under 20, the community theater program is strong which means that students work with people of all ages in productions not just kids their own age, and sports like ice hockey are done by making a team with two neighboring school districts. We also live an hour from a U of W satellite campus and 30 minutes from a technical college, so the kids can take a special course or two not offered by their high school like advanced biology or computer courses if they wish.

Find out a bit more why your son doesn't like school, as homeschooling might be jumping from the frying pan into the fire if he hates school because he feels alienated and lonely. If the socialization is what he hates, then doing the program you are considering might be just the ticket. How will you continue to challenge him academically and socially? What is your back-up plan if the homeschooling isn't working out because he still hates school? As for the ex, see if he would like to do some sort of regular social activity with your son which would remove some of your burden and ease his worries about your son's socialization.

Anyone have any negative ideas about homeschooling? I am going to a homeschooling conference tomorrow and am highly considering it. I've heard nothing but good stuff about it from those of you who already homeschool. My ex is against it (he, who knows nothing about it, other than he thinks our son will lose out on the social aspect of public school and only has him on the weekends) but personally I have heard nothing negative about it. My son isn't haveing any behavior problems at school but he SO hates it and lets me know it. The homeschooling program I am looking into (Greater San Diego Academy) has electives he would do with other kids and field trips. I think the "social aspect" he gets at his school does more harm than good. Any thoughts?

February 10, 2008

Most people will tell you the schools are great. Nobody is going to say the school system is not great. We chose our city/school because of the special needs services as well and some years, we were rewarded and other years, we were not. No school is great in all places at all times. You will have some years better than others. Things can change and situations can arise out of your control.

This reminds me of that McCarthy who is on every magazine cover again lately spouting off that she found a diet to cure autism in her kid. Her kid looks like he's 4 yo. I just want to say, "Lady, you have no clue what the next dozen years will hold for this kid so quit bragging so early in the game." Having a 19 yo with hfa, I just smile when people with little kids have all the answers or think the road is cleared from here on out. It's just not true. The autism gods will hear you and make you sorry you thought you had all the answers. lol. Oh yeah, learned that one. <g>

RoxannaAutism Happens

Re: ( ) homeschool

I have seen quite a few posts supporting the idea of homsechooling your son, and I'm going to offer some of the flip side.

I have some friends (two separate families) who homeschool their kids, and the kids are all socially awkward, even though the one family of kids does soccer during the school year. There education is not meeting their talent levels - the one boy could be a computer whiz except that he isn't getting the coursework and challenge necessary to tap into that potential. The speaking skills of all the kids are horrible, as in the kids in the one family speak with poor diction and very fast and the kids in the other family speak very softly or avoid speaking to adults altogether, including my husband and me whom they have known for 6 years. At the same time, my husband's one teacher in high school had seven kids, all homeschooled by his wife who had also been a high school teacher, and these kids were all polite, well spoken, highly educated, and skilled in other things such as sports and musical instruments. The parents challenged those kids academically and the kids socialized through their extra-curricular activities, always expecting a high level of social skills. None of these kids I have mentioned had any special needs, so those are just examples of the average homeschooled kid.

Your question sparked some conversation between my husband and me the other night, and our immediate reactions were the same - our AS son will definitely be going to public school and will most definitely not be homeschooled. Even though I am college educated and both of us are much higher than average IQ, we don't feel that we can offer as much expertise and variety to our kids as our school can. Our son will also get great therapy in school and will be able to continue to work on his social skills, which is our biggest area of concern for him.

That said, we moved to this state 6 years ago with a bunch of animals and no children and immediately started house hunting. We first read all that we could about the different school districts within a tolerable commute to my husband's job, going so far as to talk to librarians at different community libraries about their opinions on the school districts and the teachers and asking new friends their opinions and experiences, plus reading the local papers and requesting copies of school newsletters. We picked the five school districts that we liked the best and then only looked for houses in those school districts, finally buying one in our favorite school district. By the time we bought a house, our son was four-months-old. Our work is paying off now because this school district is fantastic for our situation. There are limitations - only Spanish is offered for language courses, there isn't a school theater program, the school is too small to offer its own sports team for some of the sports. There are also compensations - the class size is under 20, the community theater program is strong which means that students work with people of all ages in productions not just kids their own age, and sports like ice hockey are done by making a team with two neighboring school districts. We also live an hour from a U of W satellite campus and 30 minutes from a technical college, so the kids can take a special course or two not offered by their high school like advanced biology or computer courses if they wish.

Find out a bit more why your son doesn't like school, as homeschooling might be jumping from the frying pan into the fire if he hates school because he feels alienated and lonely. If the socialization is what he hates, then doing the program you are considering might be just the ticket. How will you continue to challenge him academically and socially? What is your back-up plan if the homeschooling isn't working out because he still hates school? As for the ex, see if he would like to do some sort of regular social activity with your son which would remove some of your burden and ease his worries about your son's socialization.

Anyone have any negative ideas about homeschooling? I am going to a homeschooling conference tomorrow and am highly considering it. I've heard nothing but good stuff about it from those of you who already homeschool. My ex is against it (he, who knows nothing about it, other than he thinks our son will lose out on the social aspect of public school and only has him on the weekends) but personally I have heard nothing negative about it. My son isn't haveing any behavior problems at school but he SO hates it and lets me know it. The homeschooling program I am looking into (Greater San Diego Academy) has electives he would do with other kids and field trips. I think the "social aspect" he gets at his school does more harm than good. Any thoughts?

February 10, 2008

Oh yeah, that reminds me that because we "e-school" and eschool is public school (of a different sort), we will be getting his therapies as well provided just as they would have in school only via private therapists. We are reworking his IEP to suit the new placement and I found out I can pick the ST we use (yeah!) so I am really happy about this aspect of it. So if anyone is thinking about e-schooling, if your eschool is a public school, you can still get therapies provided.

RoxannaAutism Happens

RE: ( ) homeschool

Anyone have any negative ideas about homeschooling? I am going to a homeschooling conference tomorrow and am highly considering it. I've heard nothing but good stuff about it from those of you who already homeschool. My ex is against it (he, who knows nothing about it, other than he thinks our son will lose out on the social aspect of public school and only has him on the weekends) but personally I have heard nothing negative about it. My son isn't haveing any behavior problems at school but he SO hates it and lets me know it. The homeschooling program I am looking into (Greater San Diego Academy) has electives he would do with other kids and field trips. I think the "social aspect" he gets at his school does more harm than good. Any thoughts?

One great advantage you have living in CA is the option of chosing a charter school that allows homeschooling. That is what we did when we lived in CA. It was great, the best of both worlds. They took the electives the school offered-jewelry making, Akido, art, and several others. They also had access to all the services they would if they were in public school (without having to go through what you have to to get services if you are homeschooling). The school we were involved with was wonderful. They had an OT that specialized in ASD that they sent him to, as well as speech. They paid for SOMONAS, Interactive Metronome, his Body Sock, and many other things that are considered “experimental”. You are also given a “support teacher” that makes sure your kids are on track.

Jolinna

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Re: homeschool

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