Wednesday, May 15, 2013

New Adventures in Homeschooling

Time to brag a little bit on my youngest kid. For the newbies to my blog, he's 15, has Autism and has been homeschooled for 5 years. He is the self-proclaimed "Autism Boy", but we call him Mitch.


We started something new in homeschooling last month-Mitch is now working fully independently. I write out the assignments for the day in an assignment book and he logs into his online programs and completes his work on his own, checking each assignment off as he completes it. He's actually doing more work AND he's getting better grades!

This all came about because it seemed that every time I went to find him so we could start a lesson he was either busy doing something or he wasn't in the mood at the moment. Autism, as you may know, can be a moody beast on occasion. So I asked Mitch one day if I could just write down the assignments on a piece of paper and give them to him to do. It was a pure "fly by the seat of my pants" experiment based on frustration and exasperation and I really wasn't expecting it to work. I figured by dinner time I'd be having to prod him to get his assignments done or have to add them to the next days work because he didn't or wouldn't do them. But, to my surprise, he had them all completed by 2pm and he did very well on them!

So here is how my little experiment gone right goes: I hand him his assignment book at 9am (okay, 9ish, and some days it's 10ish, we're super relaxed about starting time) and the work is due by dinner (okay, dinnerish), that way he has all day to work on it. For assignments not done online (there are only a few), he just comes to get me when he's ready to start them. I've also added a daily neighborhood walk to his assignment sheet-also done on his timing...although the other day when it was 97° outside he picked 3pm for his walk and we were both sweating like dogs when we got home. (Oh-wait, idea: I should add a space on his assignment sheet for him to check the daily weather!-moment of brilliance right there folks!) So, now there is no more whining, fussing, fighting or waiting for Mommy to finish an online Scrabble match to get our schoolwork done. The new system coupled with focusing on only ONE subject per day has really helped Mitch retain more information and has improved his desire to be educated. Being able to super customize our teaching and learning styles to our individual needs is something that just can't be done in a public school setting. I'm so glad I stopped trying to put my "square pegs" into the school district's "round holes" when I started homeschooling my young'uns 8 years ago. Best "made in anger" decision I ever made!

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