Well we are back about 2 years later...

[SherryTX]

We home-schooled our Aspie Daughter for a bit, but put her in private school through 5th grade. I was on the boards here before, but it has been a while.

 

6th grade in public middle school was not as much as a success as we hoped. Our daughter tried hard, most of the teachers and staff bent over backwards to help meet her needs, but in the end, it was too overwhelming for her. Based on talking with one of her doctors, we decided the best thing to do would home school her again, most likely for the remainder of her middle school years. We will take another look at things when it is time for her to go to high school.

 

Anyway - though I know more than I did when we first homeschooled it is like almost starting from scratch lol.

 

We are thinking of easing her into just a few subjects next week: Math, reading and some grammar/writing. The goal is to get her caught up on math (that was the one subject she butted heads with her teacher and was a little behind), and get her used to some sort of schedule at home.

 

I work from home, and my husband is going to start working from home in the next few weeks so he can be here to help with home schooling our daughter. We have 3 other children (16, 14, and 10) that live at home, plus a 20 year old that is on his own. The other 3 girls go to public school and do fairly well.

 

We have a few challenges - she does sometimes have a hard time staying on task if she isn't interested in a subject, and some days has trouble dealing with stimulous. Plus, since we both need to work during the day, have to figure out a good schedule that will work for her schooling. I think sitting with her in the morning will be best to get her on track for her most of her work (she prefers to just be told what she needs to get done and then be left alone so she can do it - that is how it worked at her private school and she did well there), and go over things with her in the afternoon to see where she is at, and then on subjects that need more hand holding, get a good bit of that done on the weekend.

 

Thoughts, suggestions?

[Mesa]

I've switched a few things up with my Aspie this year. (He's 11) We are just starting our new school year.

Things he likes, or likes so far.

There is a new writing program on dvd called Essentials in Writing. It's only $40. per grade and this program includes grammar instruction.

So far so good.. but we are just beginning it. The lessons are short and sweet.

BJU Science online.. we've used BJU for 4th grade science and my science oriented boy LOVED it. We just started back.. and I've yet to hear a complaint.

Teaching Textbooks. I wasnt sold on it, and I'm still not sure if it's rigorous enough... but ALL of my kids love it! My non-mathy kids says his favorite subject is now math. Thats saying something!

Sonlight.. My Aspie ADORES reading. This works wonderfully for him.

 

Gotta run, but those are a few of our winners.

[PeterPan]

Well one of the best things for this age (if you haven't done it already) is to focus on basic skills like TYPING, cooking, etc. So to the extent you find something that engages her or that she likes and let her RUN with it and call it school (and sneakily get out the skills work you need) you're golden. For instance, if you get her the 4H book on photography from the library (yes, I just found out they have 4H books at the library!) or goats or rabbits or whatever she likes, then she could work through that, blog that, take pictures of that, and cover a lot of skills all in one. Math is about the only thing that just has to be done. Ditto the recommend of CLE or TT for your situation. I'm just saying beyond that I'd run with her interests a bit. It sounds like she does better when she's engaged. WTM is so in the box and makes it sound like you need to tell them when to write, tell them when to learn. Find when she's learning, what she wants to learn, and then sneakily work in those WTM writing and reading and narration skills. Don't think too in the box about it. WTM wants them to write, but that DOESN'T mean it has to be segmented the way WTM says. Take the amounts you need done and transfer it all to something she's into. If she's into paper snowflakes right now, then everything can be paper snowflakes. Get books from the library on paper snowflakes, read about snow, blog about them, make art with them (did you see the 3D ones you can make and add glitter and adornments to?). My dd isn't even an aspie, but she has always been that way, into what she's into and NOT what she's not. So I've finally given up and learned it's ok to work with her. It's not like they're going to REMEMBER the things you force at their brains. They remember when they're engaged, enjoying themselves, doing something using lots of sensory. My dd was insanely hands-on until this year (7th). If your dd is that way at all, just open up to it and go with it.

 

For a different thing she might enjoy, have you thought of spa kits, homemade bath bombs, hand soap, etc? I just got my dd a book on that. They can make tags for the stuff and label and send them as gifts to people. Then you're working on handwriting, social skills, art, cooking, applied math, etc., all in one ENGAGING project! And something like that will busy my dd for a long time. I really thought these things were distractions from real learning for my dd, but it was the neuropsych who said to chill, that that's EXACTLY what she needs to be doing and that she NEEDS time for those applied, hands-on, artistic things!

 

Mercy, I'm on a rabbit trail. You didn't get many responses, so I thought I'd lob something out there and see if it stuck. Don't be afraid to have fun. You're not trying to turn her into someone else's normal. You're trying to develop her into HERSELF. And the best way to do that is just to work with who she is, what she's interested in, and see where it leads. Don't be afraid of it.

[Misty]

Welcome back to homeschooling! We're neighbors (in OK) and I have 3 Aspie daughters..

 

I like the idea of easing in slowly.. start with the basics for the first month or so and then slowly add in more things.. My girls do well with unit studies..

 

We have math issues here too.. Especially with my 1st and 3rd daughters. It's never-ending! My oldest works about 1 1/2 years behind her peers in math and she still has trouble.. She's a whiz with words though, of course. :)

[SherryTX]

Thank you for the replies - good stuff here!

I don't think I have heard of Essentials in Writing, I will have to check it out.

 

I do have a soap making kit, but we haven't opened it yet. She does a lot of art - drawining, watercolors, art on the computer/animation, as was as making clay sculptures. A few years ago when the Egyptian exhibit was in Dallas, we took the kids and bought her a book on Hieroglyphics and for weeks afterwards she was writing up all sorts of stuff in hieroglyphics - she made me a shopping list that way once hahah and would write me notes and her sisters and translate for us. So yes - you are correct - when she is engaged she does very well. I think math won't be too bad - since she does already like Saxon - and we have decided to breeze through history. We will use what we have on hand but she already is fairly knowledgeable for her age in history I think, so we are not going to spend a lot of time there. She also mentioned she REALLY wants to study about genetics, so we will do biology - which is what she was working on (human systems) when the semester ended at school. I think she will do very well with that because she has a site she is involved with where she "breeds" dinosaurs and pets lol.

 

Life skills - being more motivated with hygiene, and personal chores has always been a bit of an issue and we plan on incorporated more formal instruction during the day as well.