Thank you! It's not so much that I feel he needs it, it's that he likes it. Honestly, it's about the only thing that is going really well right now. I question whether or not I should give him more work just for the "fun" of it. I'm just trying to find a class that works for him to get him out of the house. We're pretty isolated and he doesn't see many kids otherwise.

My 5 year old son with ASD was enrolled in special needs preschool for the last three years. I was planning on having him do one last summer session before homeschooling him this fall, but then I ended up deciding that things were going so poorly there that I would start homeschooling him in July instead. This gave me less time to prepare. Homeschooling itself is going well, now that I've tweaked (to put it mildly) our curriculum and worked out the technical issues as far as his actual work is concerned. We're running into other issues though. First of all, I've been trying to get him out of the house a little bit, and it isn't going well. We tried a science class at the library. This went okay at first, and he was only mildly disruptive, but by the middle/end he was not really able to participate in any kind of manageable way. We also tried an art class and it has pretty much been the same thing. I have an almost two year old to chase around, so I am pretty limited in how much I can help him at these things. I am looking into getting him some kind of aide support, so hopefully that will end up working out and he'll have someone to help him. Also, I'm pretty exhausted. I have had regular care taking relief through the preschool since he turned two, so I wasn't really sure how I would handle the work involved in having him home full time. Well, I'm tired and burning out quickly. We do get respite funding, but I would need to hire a babysitter in order to use it. I don't even know where to start with trying to find one. For awhile we were using a drop off program at the YMCA for respite care, but that became too overwhelming for him. Anyway, I was wondering what kind of help other people out there are getting. Maybe you all can give me an idea of something that I haven't thought of. Thanks :)

This sounds like my 5 year old with ASD (and probably ADHD.) We have had some success using workboxes for school. I put a "done" label on the outside of each drawer that we finish. I have been able to create somewhat of an independent morning routine for him that takes about an hour. He has a metal chore chart with little magnetic tins stuck to it. Each tin contains an incentive treat and has a chore with a picture on the outside. When he does the chore he moves the tin from the "to do" side, to the "finished" side and eats the treat. That way he can see what he still has to do and reward himself with the incentives (without me having to stop to help.) I wasn't sure how this would go, but he has surprised me with his willingness to use this system. I will probably add more "chores" just for the sake of keeping him busy and giving him a sense of accomplishment. After his chores he is allowed to bring one toy into his room for about a half hour of independent play. There is something about only allowing one toy and having him play with it in his room that helps him to actually engage with the toy in a way that he doesn't seem able to when he's in the living room. Maybe it is the lack of distractions, I'm not sure, but it seems to be helping. At one point during the day he is required to go into his room for a short rest (about a half hour) and then in the afternoon I have him go in there for about an hour and rest again. Things aren't going great for us, but these are the things that are saving my sanity at the moment. To be honest, I have considered using workboxes for the rest of his day as well. I could see having his clothes in one drawer, toothbrush in the next, snack in another, a puzzle, an ipad app, etc. etc. His hyperactivity seems to sky rocket the second he doesn't know what to do with himself, so something like that would ensure that he always has something specific to be working on. It would also be fairly independent. I might just do that. :)

Hi there, I'm not sure if this will help you at all, and I did not take the time to read through each response - but I wanted to just mention that I was diagnosed with aspergers syndrome a few years ago, in my late 20's. By the time I was diagnosed, I had already gotten my bachelors degree, worked for about a decade, gotten married, purchased my first home, and had my first child. I suppose a little bit of guidance with social things and stress management would have been nice along the way, but I just wanted to point out that I didn't necessarily need any help. My autism traits are all so mild that they do not interfere with my ability to function in any significant way. I fidget a lot, I have obsessions, I'm not great with people, noise bothers me, etc., but for me, these are almost more like personality traits than anything else. Don't get me wrong, this is not the case for everyone on the spectrum. I have an autistic child who is more on the disabled side, and he has required a lot of help. For some of us, though, it's not quite as disabling or even very obvious on the surface.

Thank you so very much for all of these responses, everyone! I am feeling SO much better about this now. I wish that I had the time to respond to each of you individually. There are a lot of suggestions in here that I have never even heard of, so I am definitely going to take the time to research each of them. I have heard of Miquon math before, and I know that their books are very affordable, so I don't think it would do any harm to just try it out and see what happens. I wish that Math U See was more affordable, because I feel like that is either going to be a huge hit, or a complete waste of money. I just can't put my finger on which direction it will go yet. My son does read fairly fluently, and I know that he's sounding out words pretty well considering his limited exposure to any kind of formal phonics. I think he just pieced a lot of it together in his mind using the Endless Alphabet app. I am feeling really comfortable with the idea of just going through and officially teaching him phonics on my own, identifying any trouble areas and just working through them without any kind of formal program. I hadn't considered All About Spelling, but now that I think about it, that makes perfect sense. This is right where he's at right now. He's been starting to spell words just for the fun of it, and asking me how to spell certain words. If I don't teach it to him, he'll just teach himself, and then I'll be in the same boat with filling in the spelling gaps later on as I am now with the phonics. I think that what I'm going to do for now is just use the MFW for science and bible, completely switch over to a reason for handwriting, do our own phonics/reading, add a spelling curriculum (possibly AAS, I have to look at it), and experiment with free/cheap math resources until I can figure out which curriculum is most likely to work. He's getting a bunch of science toys for his birthday in two weeks (microscope/slides, snap circuits, gears kit with interlocking chain), so that should help beef up the science for a little while too. I see pretty clearly now that a box curriculum is just not going to work, so we'll transition out of that by first grade. Also, one more question - does anyone happen to have a link to a list of good Kindergarten literature? Something that includes all of those books that you just wouldn't want your kid to grow up missing out on. Thank you so much for all of your help! This looks like a great forum, by the way. I will check out the accelerated learning section when I get a chance. :)

Hello! I just finished up my 3rd week of homeschooling my Kindergartner and I am already feeling like I may have chosen the wrong curriculum. We went with My Fathers World, and right off the bat I am finding that we have to skip all of the phonics work. My son has high functioning autism and started reading when he was two years old. I do want to formally teach him phonics, because I know there are gaps, but I am certain that he has mastered all of the materials in this package already. I'm not loving the handwriting pages either, and even though we're using them, I'm also supplementing with a reason for handwriting, which we really like so far. The math is OK, but so far it is just too easy for him, and I'm strongly considering supplementing that as well. I probably would have purchased a math curriculum by now, but I'm kind of having a difficult time figuring out which one might be a good fit for him. He keeps saying that he enjoys cuisinaire rods, but then when I actually take them out to use them, he seems distracted and like it's a chore. He doesn't respond that way to math worksheets though (dollar store). He is very visual and tactile in many ways, so I feel attracted to Math U See for him, but I'm kind of getting the sense that he might do better with just regular old numbers on paper. I do love the bible in My Fathers World, and even though I'm not sure that my son is really grasping the metaphors, he does seem to be understanding the basic principals being taught. I can't help but wonder if he might benefit more from a different kind of bible curriculum though. Maybe something a little bit more straight forward. I guess I like the science the best, and I think that's what really attracted me to My Fathers World because my son is very interested in science and engineering, and this entire program is built around science concepts. But again, I can't help but wonder if there might be something better. Most of what we're learning is coming straight from library books that they suggest as well as just books that I add in myself. I was looking at the "a reason for science" first grade curriculum, and that looked like it just offered SO much more than what we're doing now. I guess I feel like we're just not getting very much out of My Fathers World. My son is asking for MORE work. He's even asking to do school on the weekends! He wants to learn, but I just don't have enough materials at the moment. I could speed up the curriculum, but that will not make up for all that it's lacking for us. It will also bring us through Kindergarten much faster than I had anticipated, and I'm not sure if that's really the answer here or not. I could keep just the bible and science and supplement the rest with individual subject curriculum. I kind of liked the idea of everything being tied together into a neat little package, but maybe that's just not a good fit. Maybe I should consider choosing a different curriculum for each subject? Also, on that note, if I do decide to go that route, does anyone have any suggestions for a phonics curriculum? We tried supplementing with "explode the code", which I loved, but for some reason my son absolutely hated it. I also tried "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" a while ago (since he was reading early) and to be honest, I was the one who hated that one. He didn't seem to love it either though. "All about reading" looks kind of expensive to me, for what it is. We have a set of phonics flashcards, would it be a terrible idea to just use that as a guide and simply TEACH him the phonics and then practice with a bunch of readers from the library? I've never done this before, but I just feel like for this particular child, maybe this doesn't have to be so complicated. Anyway, if anyone could give me some advice, I would greatly appreciate it! Thank you!

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