hello from NYC

[Guest eslmama]

Hi all!

 

I have been a member of this board for a while and even posted once or twice, but I have never introduced myself lol. I understand most of the acronyms used here but please forgive me if I am not exactly fluent. I guess once I post more and more, I will grow more accustomed to using the acronyms in my own posts.

 

I am a proud mama and here's a little about our family:

 

My daughter is 8 and loves technology, music, dolls, and stories. She is a severe dyslexic and has been held back a year in school prior to being diagnosed. She had an outside OG tutor who taught her to read and write. Her school uses Wilson fundations but the staff knows NOTHING about dyslexia. This is her second school and I am looking to homeschool her because her little spirit has been crushed by the whole schooling experience. She gets speech in school for articulation.

 

My son is 6 and loves art, photography, baseball, and cracking jokes. He appears to have dyslexia and ADHD but is only in kindergarten, so I can't say for sure. He was having an even tougher time in school and was going to have to repeat kindergarten because of his behavior and reading trouble, but I objected. We are working on getting him diagnosed but I am also looking for another school for him. Or I may homeschool him as well if I can find the right fit for him. He also has some articulation issues and will start speech therapy outside the school this summer.

 

I teach adult ESL and have a lot of Orton-Gillingham training. We live in a billingual - English & Spanish - household but the kids only read & write in English.

[MtnTeaching]

I wish you the best of luck.  Homeschooling has really been a great decision for our family.  We withdrew my dd from ps at the end of 2nd grade.  She had been struggling the entire year with her undiagnosed dyslexia.  I knew what there was definitely wrong, but the school basically ignores dyslexia and CO pretty much will not even acknowledge it.  They will give no IEP help (other than pulling from class for reading) unless the child is two years behind.  After the year of having to pick her up almost every Monday at about 10:00am with explosive diarrhea from nerves, I decided to homeschool her for 3rd.  She never went back.  (She also had speech articulation problems)

 

Today, she is a rising 9th grader.  She still struggles with spelling, vocabulary, etc., but her reading and comprehension are much better. She attends ps enrichment classes for homeschoolers on Fridays and loves the interaction. She is confident and happy.  Something the regular ps was destroying in her.

 

My ds is a rising junior.  He struggled with ADHD and was pretty much labled a problem child.  We had to medicate him so much in 4th grade that he was a zombie.  I also brought him home and he has excelled.  He is extremely sharp and loves the challenge of AP courses.  He was inducted into the National Honor Society last year through the ps program, only two out of over 100 kids.  Due to the one-on-one here and the large amount of exercise and breaks I gave him throughout the day when he was younger (other than one small increase of 5mg) he is still on the same dose of meds that I put him on when he came home (a very low dose that only releases two times a day.  He is now 6'4".

 

I would not say it has been easy, but for the most part, it has been a blast and the best decision we could have made.

[AngelaNYC]

Hi!  I'm from NYC, too.  My dd was 8 when she started homeschooling - school killed her love of learning.  She's now almost 17 and will be a senior at LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts.  She homeschooled all the way to the end of 8th grade and got right into that specialized high school.  

 

Ds is 12 and has been homeschooled since Kindergarten.  He was diagnosed with visual dyslexia and processing speed issues last July. He's on or above grade level now in all subjects since I figured out what type of books, classes, and teaching style work for him.  He has already decided he wants to homeschool for high school.  

 

I'm in Queens, where are you?