The School Year is Coming

......September will be here before we know it and I know many homeschooling parents, including myself, are starting their lesson planning and choosing their curriculum now.  If you have been homeschooling for years you probably have a system or publisher that you trust and use year after year. For us newbies, our research goes on. It is not easy to find secular homeschooling curriculum just right for our children. Especially when those children all have individual needs, like ASD. I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous, because I am. This year will be a glorious year to test my abilities as both a special needs mother and homeschooler. This year we are expecting our new baby at the beginning of the school year and in general life has been crazy. I find myself spending several hours over coffee in the morning and in the evening after the kids go to sleep planning details and trying to find new resources that will help get me through these first few months. This year we will be schooling Kindergarten and 9th grade. So, high school begins and it is DAUNTING to say the least. I am trying to be meticulous about every single hour and every day making sure we get all of what we need to in, when in the end...I have no idea how things are going to go. The success of high school is going to heavily rely on our 9th grader...who has ODD and ADHD. So, naturally I am concerned. Then, add on the ASD toddler and the ASD Kindergartner and the ASD 12yr old, and the newborn.
     The main purpose of this blog is to show a little glimpse into my life. I like to write, I like to organize, I like to do all sorts of things I don't really have time for. But, to also show that homeschooling with multiple children with special needs IS possible. I found myself feeling like I was on a dark road looking for answers. I was looking to parents who had home-schooled 5-10 normal functioning children and I'd find myself saying 'but...but...' often. I expect great things out of all my children, I set the bar high and we help them achieve success - but it doesn't happen in the most typical of way. I love homeschooling because I am able to tailor it to our children's needs. Z will be in kindergarten but will be doing a lot of 1st grade work. Hes a bit lax in reading so, we start in K for that, but math - totally on 1st grade level.  We have been working with R on being able to do 8th-9th grade math, he struggles a lot with it but we are working hard on getting him there and making it easy to understand. Pulling him out of school was good for him because we were able to pull him away from the multiple ways to do math method and just stick to the traditional methods that have been working for years and years. Some days I wonder, though, was pulling him right for me, for our family? We are going to give it another year though - now that we know we are dealing with ODD, we can adjust our lifestyle accordingly because we know the school system wasn't the best for him and he wasn't thriving and in the end - he is our child and I refuse to give up easily on him.
    So what's next? I want you to know that I am a busy mother, I curse, I have a drink here and there. I am a secular based homeschooling parent who just wants to raise little humans with special needs into big humans who are successful and not jerks. I am a judgement free zone, you do you and I will do me. I may plan on posting on Friday and it may not get done until Sunday but know that I am trying. I have been working on creating my own worksheets for my children and plan on posting and sharing here, sharing curriculum choices, life with special needs, frustrations and successes, projects, portfolio ideas and more. I plan on posting throughout the year how we actually got things done between all the craziness. It'll be a wonderful thing to look back on later for me too. I have two kindergartners following Z, and we do not plan on stopping anytime soon - so buckle up and enjoy my bumpy ride with me (was that odd to say? probably yes).


5 kids, 6 pets, 1 lovely husband and a whole lot of life happening. I look forward to sharing with you.

And no, we don't have chickens....(yet).

~B

Random Homeschooling Thoughts

   I've have been searching for grade K curriculum and man, it is a overwhelming and drawn out task! There are companies from everywhere trying to sell you their curriculum. They seem to always say pretty much the same thing...state of the art, best curriculum available, get more for your buck. I have been scouring the internet for months now trying to find cheap/free sources. Reading reviews on workbooks and games and crafts that would be good to incorporate. I am being honest with myself when I say I don't really know what direction I am going yet. I have some things planned, but not many.
   I settled on Saxon for math. 1st grade for Z. I will do the work books and I plan on ordering the manipulative items that go along with it. My heavy suggestion for anyone homeschooling more than one child is make copies. I do not plan on buying books more than once, we simply cannot afford it. I chose Saxon because we did use it this year for 8th grade and it is VERY easy to understand. The books do a wonderful job laying out directions and examples. The worksheet workbook is also easy to understand, everything is numbered and laid out for you. I am expecting the same from the 1st grade series. I will post it when I have it in hands. I am also going to just do some play games with math. Hands on, learning, grocery store games. I have some neat ideas in mind that I think Z will enjoy.
   I've also settled on our portfolio style. I think I have mentioned before that having an elaborate portfolio in Kindergarten isn't exactly necessary but it is a good trial year if you want/plan on doing the same thing throughout the years. After Z, we have two other children who will be homeschooled and I would love for uniform portfolios, why?...because I can and I like things to be the same like that haha. I feel like having a process will make life easier actually. This year I plan on doing a scrapbook style portfolio. Each week will have its own cover page made from simple cheap cardstock - the week will have the date, amount of time spent on computer learning (we love ABC mouse and Moby Max), and a small snippet of what we did this week. In a future I will post what I have for the first month of kindergarten portfolio planning so far. This portfolio plan is very hands on. I want to capture the artwork and flare of Z's personality into each year of education. I want to incorporate cutting and gluing skills, writing, reading, pictures, stickers and more. At the end of our 36 weeks we will have a beautiful compilation of skills mastered, adventures we've went on, fun days in school and growth. In my mind he is going to love it! That is what this trial year is for!
   Those are the only two things I have settled on so far. I know I have two months to go but really, we will be having baby L at the beginning to middle of September and I feel the need to plan and be ahead of the game so I am working hard to get things done. I will be creating a ton of worksheets and gathering/creating info for how to successfully complete an entire days school ...autism included. Anyone who has a child with autism knows our days are not typical. A lot of traveling and appointments, a lot of homeschooling on the go, or days pushed out because bad days happen. Some weeks are worse than others. My lesson plan is based on weeks/days rather than dates. I know that my M-F plan sometimes needs to be thrown out the window and it will need to be M, T, TH, S, S...which, we are homeschoolers! It is OKAY! Whatever they need, right? Child driven learning is what is best at this age. Power struggles do not work for autism.

Homeschooling & Life

We've decided to homeschool! We are allowing Z to finish out Pre-K and then from then on out we will be schooling at home. Many people think this is what is best for him, including us. There's been a lot of talks but it was not easy to actually make the choice because I want to see my kids excel, and never want to hold them back. After considering this became more serious, I decided to dig alittle deeper into it and so many of my fears were aliviated. Now, I'm just excited. Today I started some schooling 'tests' with Z. Not usual tests but I wanted to see how he would respond to me as a teacher. He doesn't like to sit down much. We did 6 worksheets about the letter A, the color red and the number 4. He did so much more amazing than I could have hoped for. Which, in turn, makes me even more excited!

My life has been a whirlwind of busy lately. I am hoping that this is just a huge shift and after everything gets figured out, things will settle down and actually be better. 

M has been doing well. I cannot believe he is going to be one in a couple weeks. Where did time go? He can say several words now. Yes, dada, mama, no, ut oh, and baby off the top of my head. He's so adorable. Definitely a huge light in our home. 

Health has been staggering along. Levels are still low, working on getting the supplements my body needs to survive. I have a good outlook though, and think things will get better. 

Business is good, or as good as it can be. Super slow right now but that's ok. It gives me time to catch up and regroup. There is so much changing right now and I think it's actually good that it's moving but not as fast lol. Of course, whenever things pick up again, I'll be happy with that too. 

Well, off here for now.

Bea