What a great read. Finland isn't in the top 10 of the happiest countries in the world for no reason! I would give both my legs to live there ;P

Thank you! This is wonderful! :)

I'm just starting but here's what I think I'm going with so far: Math: MEP Year 1 & 2 (to cement knowledge because he's beginning 3rd grade level), moving on to Year 3 after that, also doing Khan Academy K-2 (he's already 20% on his own), then moving to Grade 3 math, along with CK-12. He also has a few random apps (like DragonBox) that teach him basic algebra/geometry concepts while he thinks it's all a game. LA: For reading, I'm going with some from the Ambleside list, some from the WTM book, and library books we pick out together; otherwise, eclectic reader (he's 3rd grade level so will be doing 3rd once I make sure he can breeze through 1st (so far he does) and 2nd (up next).) HW: Using Writing With Ease from library, but he writes pretty well, so I may just end up having him copy things from books we're reading instead. Science: Study animals, human body, then plants - using books from library (ex: Smithsonian Animal Book) & DK dictionaries. Observations outside weather permitting. History/Geography: SOTW1, along with a World History atlas (Kingfisher) from 10,000 BCE to present, books from library coordinating those dates, along with pictures of maps to color/label along with using a globe to show general areas. Music/Art: composer/artist study from Ambleside weekly. PE: looking into stuff to do And finally, we were already doing about 10 minutes of French and 10 minutes of ASL each day. He already knew a little ASL from public K as well. :lol:

I'm pretty impossible to offend or anything (and I hope you're not by my blunt honesty!), but in all honesty, I don't understand 'social issues' in general (one of the facets of autism...lol), and certainly not those of the neurotypical variety. I've made my whole life without swimming beyond my childhood (when I hated it & didn't know why I hated it so much or what was wrong with me) and it hasn't caused me any long term problems or safety issues. My son does like the water a little, but he enjoys doing other things over the option to swim. I'm sure if I can manage to get him swim lessons at some point, I will, if he wants to. How old is your son if I may ask? And that's awesome for him, I'm sure he had a blast, Is he going this year too?

Only prolonged exposure is a problem. Right now I'm looking into alternate options, such as just signing him up for karate or something. I don't really care if he learns to swim or not, there are a lot more things offered, including adult stuff that don't require standing still/in one place for long periods either. Really will just be a matter of finding things that work for both of us. :)

Most times I can't handle the smell of chlorine in general. My hypersensitivity is to being touched by cold or even warm water; my showers are steaming hot to the point my skin turns red. If I touch cold or warm water, my skin itches and burns; it's terrible and funny all at the same time. But I have allergies & sensitivities out the wazoo. Luckily my son doesn't have the same problem. :) Thanks again everyone. I will try a few things and see what happens! :)

Ah, I see. I haven't heard of any such thing but they may very well have it. And pretty much anything is too much for me in general, I've never made a lot of money although I do try. I normally don't talk about such things, but I'm just very frustrated in general with this lol.

I am the autistic one, not my son. He's "normal"...well, what normal is considered to be. The Y has adult programs as well. I wanted to do something of my own, hence the family membership. I would like for him to do swim lessons, but I physically can't thanks to my water hypersensitivity. Thanks for the advice though, I am working through several options right now thanks to all of you.

I'm sorry, what's a campership program?

Ah, good to know :) Thank you. This is really my first time trying to ever get involved in anything, so it's all new to me!

Thank you, I will definitely talk to them about it, especially since my income isn't even as close to how much it was last year so far. And even though I get frustrated, I'm always kind so no issues there. I suppose I was in a bit of a shock when I saw it ;)

In the brochure/program info, they DO have homeschooling programs. However, I don't see them having any open/scheduled at this point, so I will call and talk to them. That would certainly cover him, and if it's a flat fee, I can work toward saving for it. The Camp here, is between $300 and $500 for half a week up to a whole week; I did check into that...and promptly laughed and closed the window! ;) I am hopeful things will get better for us financially in the near future, but for now, I will see if I can even find him one program I can afford for him to participate in. Good news is, he just got a bike so we can at least go riding together :) Thanks for your advice, btw :)

No, they do offer non-member pricing as well. If I can find out what they have scheduled in advance (so far I only see what they have immediately or in the near, near future), I will see about going that route, because I could save for it. Definitely better than paying $33 a month. :) I am in Akron. I know they have cub scouts, so I will check into that as well. :) Thank you for your thoughts!

Yes I have. I can go to any of them, they all offer different programs though and rarely overlap from what I can see in all the research I've done on it. Like I said though, I will call and talk to them about it. :)

I did see they look for volunteers and people to work; I would have to do something admin as I can't swim and am unable to stand for any length of time above 30 minutes. Pretty much "my hands work" and that's about it when it comes to working. I've been unemployed 7 years after a bad car accident, which ended my career in fast food. I will see if they are hiring or need office help though, couldn't hurt!

Haha, sorry, when I think winter I think all outdoor sports! I know what you meant though, I will definitely check into that as well.

With him being only 6, and me not really having a social life myself, I wanted it to be something both of us could do. There are quite a few in the YMCA system I applied for, the building I want to use has the most programs, especially the ones I know he's interested in doing...and I looked up the fees for them all, they don't vary that much (maybe $5?). I have the whole year to activate it, so I think I will call & talk to them, and if not, waiting until they waive the sign up fee sounds like a good idea, lol.

I did see I can call to discuss and even set up an appointment, so I will do that and see what they say :)

Hmm I dunno, I'll have to check, but I liked the YMCA because many things would be indoors, or supervised where I wouldn't need to stay around or be outside, which I can't handle when it's cold.

No, I don't have anyone to ask honestly, everyone in my family is pretty poor. The fees go even beyond just those ones. That's 50% everything including the programs. 50% of say, $100 for karate for two months upfront just isn't doable. I knew they wouldn't cover it all, I was prepared for even up to 20%, but I can't manage beyond that.

So, I signed up my son for the YMCA, and applied for financial assistance. I figure this would be a great way to keep him involved in activities, make friends, etc. and join some programs as well like gymnastics and karate. Well, it's $90 for the one-time fee and $61 a month for a family at full price. I'm pretty low-income & considered borderline disabled but not enough to get disability. My writing brings me a little bit of money, but not a lot. So I thought I would have to pay like, $10 a month or something, which I could manage. They only awarded me 50% off...which means they want $45 one time fee and $33 a month. If I were able to afford $33 a month for something extra, I wouldn't be on food stamps. Now I'm just sad and don't know what to do :( We live in Ohio and yeah, he can play outside for the summer, but come winter... my autism and overwhelming aversion to cold keeps me pretty isolated in general, and now I don't even have a way to get my son the extra stuff he needs. What can I do now that I can't use the YMCA to get him the extra stuff? He can't join a local school team...he's been bullied because he's so tiny among other things, and this isn't a good area that we live in, but I'm stuck here for now.

Thanks everyone! :) Sure! :) In short, it wasn't easy. I had a very bad childhood where I was abused, so a lot of my history was blocked out in my mind. All I recalled was how different I was in school, at home, everything. I never felt like I belonged in and couldn't understand anything social to save my life. I used to freak out, thinking they were panic attacks; I'd end up rocking, covering my ears, twirling, etc. I took everything so literally, (ex: I thought "Dead Man's Curve" in Cleveland truly had dead men lying on the curve!) and pretty much began to flee every time something upset me. When I was 26, I was chatting with someone for a while, and out of the blue one day, he asked me "Are you autistic?" because he had a sibling who was...and he said I was just like her. I had never even considered it, but psych's could never land on a diagnosis with me that would stick; nothing fit for long even when they did. I read this book, Aspergirls, and after that, I read more and more things about it...and that's when I brought it up to my clinical counselor. With info from my family about me as a child, among testing, I was formally diagnosed. At the time, Aspergers was still a diagnosis, so that's technically mine (as it's now just called 'mild autism'). I was so glad. It made my whole life make so much sense! Since finding out, I've come a long way, however. My counselor said when he first met me, he had me around age 4 to 5 emotionally (stunted due to abuse and trauma); at this point, I'm considered about age 15 or 16 emotionally. However, this seems to be something I've discovered is quite similar in many people with Aspergers. Apparently, we're always about half our age emotionally, which is probably why people think of us as childish in many ways! :)

Hi everyone. :seeya: Not sure where to start, so I'll give the basics! I'm from Ohio, I'm an author and am autistic, and I have one son, he will be 6 on June 4th. He just finished his K year in public school; he's NT, is at a 3rd grade level in Math & Reading, but considered "too immature" by the school standards to advance any further than 1st grade. I came across tWTM while looking for homeschool curriculum, started reading the book and knew this is going to be how I teach my son. I always planned to HS, am in a position to do so, and the fact he will need individualized learning plans makes it imperative to do it now. Although I graduated HS and have 3 years of college, I never finished although I attempted to 6 times (I didn't know I was autistic until I was 27 and by then it was too late financially to change paths and finish). Even though I knew I wasn't well prepared in many ways (public school where I was too smart and bored, abused, etc.) I never knew how much I didn't know until I was looking through the things my son will learn about and realized how much I DON'T know even with all my "smarts"...so this will be a learning experience for him...and me in some ways. I'm still learning, but I'm going to start next week (he just finished K yesterday) with everything, and have started gathering stuff. I'm excited, and so is he! We've already begun learning French and ASL together (although I have a small knowledge of French already and he knows some ASL from K), as we started before I found WTM, and already he tries to 'show off' his skills with what he's learned. I think Latin will come a bit later at this point, although I'm thinking of switching after learning Level 1 French to Latin, and perhaps doing small amounts of Latin with him in addition to the French after that. Cassandra

My son is about to turn 6. He just finished Kindergarten through public school, and my main problem with it was the way I constantly felt questioned about my choices...even if they had nothing to do with his schooling. They would call me over every little thing, and try to undermine my authority when it came to absences and choosing to send him home even though he didn't have pink eye like the school nurse "thought" he did, even when I told her I spoke with his doctor. Being relatively poor, it angered me that I had to waste gas to take him to the doctor for something that didn't exist just so they could have a note that he was seen. Not to mention, due to life circumstances, my son went into K knowing many things, but not how to read beyond the alphabet. However, he could do many things and honestly impressed the teacher with his intelligence. He was "go to" tech guy for Nook and even computers at school when the other kids didn't know what to do, something the teachers joked about...even more so when I told them while he had much experience with a Nook, he had rarely been on a computer. He was counting to 100 early in the 2nd term of school, when they didn't even begin to work on that until near the end of the year. All that to say, he blew them away, and after a few assessments I did on my own, my son is at 3rd grade math and 3rd grade reading level, while still being socially immature (or you know, their "thought" on his maturity, at least), so I know public school education will start to fail him here (since they wouldn't promote him beyond 1st grade because he's "not ready" socially)...as it did me. I was bored because I was always ahead in school, and I don't want that to happen to my son. I was planning to homeschool him for months now, but I hadn't found a way to go yet. All the programs were so expensive, beyond my financial capabilities, and "financial assistance" is scarce or totally non-existent...and even when I was approved, 40% off of $1,400 is just too much. I found the WTM book when I was researching the Charlotte Mason approach. I found the book in the library, started reading...and honestly, knew THIS is the way I want to teach my child. I've already begun collecting materials, I've paid for some but have to limit my choices due to finances. However, we will utilize the library as much as possible, along with free books and such along the way. I'm varying a little though because my son is brilliant with technology and loves it (as do I!!) and he does have many learning apps (such as DragonBox, which is teaching him algebra basics and he doesn't even know it!), and we're learning ASL and French together already using various avenues. One of the major upsides of this for me is not having to drive him to school, not having to worry, and being able to do my work (I'm an author) easier, plus getting to learn beside him...just by sheer reading alone, I've discovered how much the public school system failed me...and I can't wait to make sure that never happens to my son!