Education is role play in our lives, helping individuals to be better financially for the future. But what if someone with limited intelligence or someone with social dysfunction, for example, a kid with Autism, like my son.
So let me introduce him to you guys, Adam is 8 years old. He is a joker, he is a little loud in a fun way and he has a strong personality. I can say that his autism is very severe, he doesn't talk but very active and energetic. Though he doesn't speak, he can express what he wants through his app (Proloquo To Go).
This is my son, Adam, he is always shy in front of camera.
He was in public school for a few years but I wanted to try something different, so I pulled him out and put him in a private school for almost 8 months.
Then, I pulled him out for certain reasons. If they don't teach him anything, he's wasting his time and missing a lot of things in learning. I do believe in my son, he is teachable, he listens and he is willing to learn in his ways.
It was my solution to teach him at home and save $5k every month.
At first, it was hectic and depressing with an uncertain feeling for me, especially back then. I asked myself, can I do it? How am I going to do it? What if I fail?
Look at us now, we are finally doing it! My son does so well in every tasks I give him.
Here are some steps when I started my homeschool program.
- First step, we sent a letter to a local school district and checking a box acknowledging that we decided to homeschool our kid. You can download and print the forms from their website.
In the form, you can still ask for some therapy programs since our son has autism if you wish.
Second step, get ready to gather all the things you need for your homeschool program.
- Write down your homeschool's philosophy or mission.
- Create a simple IEP that fit for your kid's learning needs so you have structure and won't get lost in curriculum (or if you have one from school before, use that one, adjust and individualize which one you should keep.
- Set your goal for every quarter so you know how far your kid had improved and which area your kid needs more attention, be specific.
Third step, gather some worksheets you need for your daily work.
- Kid's attendance form (my husband created one)
- Daily report, you can just simply write down.
- Binder, is the most important thing so you can keep all your kid's work/daily report in one place and you won't lose them.
- Create your class schedule and which are the best day to teach what subject.
In the end, I'm so proud with the outcome of my son. He learned so much in few a months homeschooling. For many years, in public and private schools he only was able to write the letter "A" and that was because I taught him during a summer break back then.
Please don't get me wrong, it is physically and mentally draining because of many melt downs, bad moods and the most common and challenging thing is that he doesn't want to do it. Once he got used to it, it's just smoothly listening and engaging.
It's astonishingly incredible being close to my son, seeing my son writing his own name, witnessing my son reading/spelling even only using a reading app, truly real improvements.