How do you approach the topic of Homeschooling?

Our son is ten years old, and was officially identified as twice exceptional in between first and second grade. Since 2nd grade he has participated in our public school's gifted program which encompasses math and reading instruction. (His greatest passion is science) Our older son (not 2e) traveled the same gifted class route so we are familiar with both the teachers and the expectations. Our 2e is dyslexic and dysgraphic (which we now understand since our visit with Bobbi Gilman and Linda Silverman at the Gifted Development Center.) He is at grade level in reading, struggles a great deal with writing and is most troubled with spelling. We will be traveling to 3D Learner in Boca Raton in a few weeks to learn some strategies that will hopefully help him with some of his difficulties. It will not be a good fit for him in our public school next year. We are committing to homeschooling for a variety of reasons: It will give us a chance to reclaim his joy in learning without so much stress. It will afford us the opportunity to practice the interventions we will learn in addition to doing vision therapy by making them a natural part of the day instead of cramming them into after school hours. It will be fun to explore his areas of giftedness and interests that are never addressed in the ps curriculum. Our big hang up at the moment is in how to approach this radical change with him. He was very downtrodden during the 2nd semester of school this year, but since the close of school his eternal optomism has sprung back to life. He has glossed over his unhappiness. Does anyone have thoughts on how to approach this topic or could you share your own experience?

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Permalink Reply by ramsey clifton on September 2, 2009 at 10:42am

This is the first year in the past 15 that I am not homeschooling and my two youngest are now in charter schools. My daughter who is 15 has dyslexia, dysgraphia and add. This is her first year to be in public(charter) school. I am a homeschooler at heart and believe that homeschooling possibly saved my daughter from much grief. We always belonged to a homeschool coop which put us in touch with many other families and children with similar situations. I would suggest that you connect with other homeschoolers through support groups or coops. As young as your son is it would be good for him to meet other kids who are homeschooled, that could help with the transistion. Just be careful because there are some flaky people homeschooling, but for the most part they are some of the best who want the best for their children. If you believe in prayer, that is what has helped me the most in figuring out what is best for each one of my children. I love the Apologia science curriculum (it is Biblically based). It is very widely used by homeschoolers and you can download the first few modules free before you purchase it. Good luck and I am sure you will do great.