Yes, I missed June

Seriously, the month of June somehow passed by without a post to this blog. *hangs head in shame*
Okay, let's move on and talk about July...

We are doing homeschool summer school this month-we're calling it Summer Fun School. We've added some new activities to provide specific life skills to Mitch's skills set:

Baking=Math, basic life skills
Field trips=Community Education
Video Gaming Sessions=Social Skills (I have him TEACH me how to play a game!)
Yoga=Physical activity
Gardening=Science, basic life skills

Who says learning has to be boring??? Oh wait, Public Schools do.

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!

Adapting and changing...

As a homeschooling mom there are many decisions I have to make each school year and which curriculum to use is always the most important. I also love that, as homeschoolers, if something isn't working for us we can change to something else at any point along the way. At the beginning of the school year my 14yo son wanted to move away from some of the online curriculum he had been using since 4th grade, mainly Time 4 Learning, and try something new. So we started the school year using unit studies, workbooks and a rather expensive Christian-based curriculum on cd's, none of which held his interest the way Time 4 Learning did. Being this is my 7th year of homeschooling I have learned that if something doesn't work then put it aside and find something that does, so today marks our first day back on the Time 4 Learning website. Now yes, I realize that their curriculum only goes up to 8th grade and my son is technically in the 9th grade, however, due to his Autism and learning disabilities he functions at different levels than the average 9th grader. I think this change will make our days less stressful and more productive. I'll keep you updated. In the mean time, here is a link to the Time4Learning website.

It truly is "to each, his own" My 18yo daughter loves doing unit studies in fact she loved the Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett so much that she actually asked me to purchase them for her. In her Senior year she used American Government, Scrapbooking, Digital Photography and Pioneers. For my daughter the unit studies provided her with a more research based type of learning experience which is more in line with how she learns the best and is more like what she used when she was at the charter high school she attended for 2 years, the same one her older brother graduated from. The curriculum there was independent study and research based. She would have graduated from the charter school but she wanted to graduate a semester early and not all of the classes she needed to do that were available when she needed them. Their program offers only certain classes in the fall and others in the spring. What I did in homeschooling her was to make her homeschool classes as close to the charter schools as I could. Now I have a brand new college student and she couldn't be happier!