The choice to homeschool is complicated, multi-faceted and personal. My why is a long list! To start...Faith, individualized education, the lack of trust in the "system" to properly educate my children, my desire to just be with them, giving them a healthy learning environment conducive to their strengths and weaknesses and in short, freedom!
My experience in the education system began of course with my own education but I went on to earn an Associate of Arts, Bachelors in English and Masters in literacy. I served in many different capacities and in many different school districts. I became a fifth grade teacher in a Christian School. Then I left to have my first child. I had dreamed of this as long as I could remember.
My children are my life. Their laugh rejuvenates and their smiles encourage me to go on when I am running out of steam. But it isn’t all sunshine. As I raised them and started more formally educating them I noticed… things I didn’t want to see… My oldest was always energetic but it started to deter his reading ability. My younger son, 3rd born wasn’t speaking at 15 months, then he wasn’t speaking at 20 months, then still at 24 months and now people were really asking, “Aren’t you going to get him help?” And I tear as I write. Get. Him. Help. My boy, my baby...So here I am. My story to share. Over some hurtles and still climbing some mountains.
In no way did college prepare me for the challenges I would face in schooling my own children! Sure I had exposure to theories and learning methods and Functional Behavioral Analysis procedures. Blah. Blah. Blah. I did complete my Masters course work in Literacy so I have a basic understanding of all those special terms, phonograms and phonological awareness and the Qualitative Reading Inventory.
My Mother told me in one of my tumultuous moments, “someday God is going to use you through this in a great way.” I honestly thought she was nuts at the time but I want to share our journey I want to share our choices and experiences along the way. Not that our path is the only way or the right way but we as parents are all on this path and it is confusing no matter what uniqueness any of our children possess.
I suppose the first step and honestly the largest and most life changing, as well as rewarding, was deciding to homeschool. As I looked at this beautiful boy, my first born with energy and eagerness, creativity and spunk I couldn’t imagine him surviving in 4 walls and a desk all day. He wouldn't thrive. I just knew it. So we had another baby and got pregnant again and I started kindergarten with my first born. He wasn’t catching on amazingly to reading and I love reading so this was a little odd but we kept plugging away. Then we made it to 1st grade and reading was still a real challenge. In Kindergarten we used My Father’s World. It was so fun. When I look back on homeschooling I think this was my favorite year. So simple and fun. We spent two weeks on dinosaurs. We made models of them, read books about them, visited a mastodon skeleton at a local community college! We also spent two weeks on “us” we studied our 5 senses and did puzzles showing body systems. I even caught him teaching what he had learned to his little sister.
So...first grade...missing "the" in reading. I wondered to myself, how? Why? The ADHD diagnosis came first and much to my discomfort we medicated. We only medicated for 1 year and amazingly I discovered Dyslexia. This dynamic duo was wreaking havoc on his reading abilities!
I will say before going forward in our story he is headed into 8th grade and reading wonderfully, reading the Bible, it is music to my ears. Also, he was only told he had ADHD this year. It is to each families discretion whether or not to share this information with their child. We told him he was energetic and God made him this way and it was a gift. We told him, "God has great plans for this gift, it just makes sitting still and reading harder. " We were straight forward with the Dyslexia label but we always treated it as a gift, highlighting how it worked in his benefit rather than his deficit. It is a sad, sad thing when a child is labeled with whatever combination of alphabet soup deemed fitting and then their self esteem suffers. That was not going to be our case!
A few things have been game changers in our experience homeschooling with Dyslexia and ADHD. I attended a local free seminar, I was the only homeschool Mom in the room! Don't be afraid to stand up and stand out for your kids! I met a Special Education Teacher and a Special Education Lawyer. I had all my technical questions answered like, will the school pay for therapy? Do I need an official diagnosis? What I really learned was that there were 4 subtypes of dyslexia. I need to stop here and tell you, my very expensive education did not tell me that! I was licensed to teach Students with Disabilities grades 1-6! Licensed!
To the point, find out your learners sub type...it helps!
Click for article explaining subtypes of dyslexia
My next two recommendations that helped us tremendously. The Gift of Dyslexia by Ronald D. Davis and Sequential Spelling originally created and put out by Don McCabe.
Some studious individuals will argue that The Gift of Dyslexia is not researched based. Most experts will tell you to find an Orton Gillingham based curriculum. This is great advice but they are all very expensive and or the tutor who would teach them is very expensive. I bought the book used and completed the therapy outlined in the book with play-doh! I spent just under $5. My son could not remember sight words and was mixing up letters. The book explained how my son's mind was working, how he thought in pictures and as he read he built a spider web story map in his head and some words break that web up in his mind. I understood him and it was beautiful.
I also love that Davis explains his entire therapy in the book. He is giving it to you. You do not need a tutor you can remediate your child's trouble! Say it out loud. I can help my child! We completed the alphabet portion of the therapy then went on to visual conceptualization with sight words, fluency improved overall reading skill improved, word recognition improved. Everything improved quickly. We then moved on to Sequential Spelling.
Click here for a video of Creator Don McCabe explaining Sequential Spelling
Simple helps: get a trampoline for frequent breaks, find tinted reading strips for tracking during reading, allow the child to stand on a balance board rather than sit during school tasks or even a large exercise ball. I will link some children's books below that help explain some of these diagnosis' to children and help them work through them.
Terrific Teddy books are great! But are no longer available on amazon. If you can find them used, I highly recommend them.
This is another good one...sold on amazon.
I think I have the Wiggle Fidgets
Here's an article with Famous Dyslexics!
https://www.helenarkell.org.uk/about-dyslexia/famous-dyslexics.php
Last tid-bit, you do not need to school at home to homeschool, think outside the box! Especially when you have an outside of the box learner!
Check back in soon for part 2; mostly dealing with Autism Spectrum Disorder
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