The Homeschooling Handbook_ From Preschool to High School - Mary Griffith [100]
The results of homeschooling speak louder than words. After not seeing our daughter for two years after we started homeschooling, our relatives—some with expertise in autism as education professionals—were impressed with how social and relaxed our daughter was. She used to avoid everyone and stress out easily at family gatherings, but now she reached out to people to get them to draw for her and play with toys. Since homeschooling, her imagination, pretend play, and spontaneous language have all increased noticeably. Because she joins me on all my errands, she has learned important community skills without having to create artificial versions in the classroom. Our daughter learned to interact with a variety of people of all ages in a variety of settings through errands, library visits, field trips and homeschooling special events, and support group activities. Because she was exposed to overstimulating large-group activities in short, infrequent bursts, she learned to enjoy socializing with others in small groups and to cope in large groups.
When our daughter was in school, she was not considered an ideal prospect for mainstreaming into academic subjects: She had poor verbal skills and was extremely delayed in her preschool knowledge. Now she carries a full academic load and has advanced knowledge in music and geography. Her writing is now readable (her teachers—despite my repeated cautions—expected her to write with her right hand when she’s obviously left-handed). She loves art and spends a great deal of her free time drawing, painting, and coloring—tasks she avoided at all costs before. She has extensive knowledge (for her grade level) of animals and animal classifications and enjoys science. She reads on grade level and enjoys reading in her free time.
I am at a loss to describe how much our daughter has blossomed since we started homeschooling. She has developed far beyond all predictions of school and medical personnel. Most important, she is happy with herself and is not ashamed or fearful because she perceives the world in a unique way.—Tammy, Pennsylvania
I have a child who would have carried a ton of labels had he gone to public school. Fortunately, we removed him from the early childhood program when he was five and avoided all those labels. I know it was the best thing we could have done for him. We were fortunate—I think—that our health insurance at the time provided some of the specialists he would have gotten from the school—occupational, physical, and speech and language therapy—for the next two years until we moved. I say “think” because it was a blessing with a cost, and I don’t mean the financial cost. The more important cost to me was in the lost years when I still thought he needed professionals to ensure his development, when I did not yet trust myself and him to know and be able to do what he needed to optimize his growth and development.
What home education does is to provide a truly personalized course of study. It allows you to go with the flow, to have good days and bad days, and not fight the bad days but accept them and then do whatever you can on those days. We spent a lot of days in the park or on nature walks when he was younger, whether for his bad days or mine! I spent literally hours a day—for years—reading to him when he hadn’t mastered that skill yet, reading for pleasure and for new ideas, so that his mind was fed even when reading was yet denied him. I can’t tell you when he finally became a reader—he’s fifteen now and it happened sometime after he was eleven, but I really can’t pinpoint it more