Empowering Choices: Homeschooling Success Stories and Practical Support for Autistic Children

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Is homeschooling the right choice for your autistic child? Discover the transformative benefits and potential challenges, as we tackle common concerns like overcrowded classrooms, underfunded schools, and the lack of specialized training for educators. We'll reassure you that choosing to homeschool is not a sign of failure but a practical and personalized approach to education. Hear inspiring success stories and get practical advice on setting achievable goals to effectively track your child's progress.

Plus, don't go it alone—uncover various support options available to make your homeschooling journey smoother. From hiring tutors to finding educational resources, we emphasize the importance of external help. Tune in to learn about our exciting plans for a resourceful podcast series dedicated to homeschoolers, and join our growing community by tuning in weekly, spreading the word, and sharing your thoughts and questions. Together, let's create a supportive environment for homeschooling families!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Good afternoon everyone.
I hope that today is going wellfor you.
School started back up, so myschedule is getting a little bit
better.
So I'm going to be planningdoing weekly if not a couple
times a week a podcast.
I know it's been kind oflacking.
Summer was extremely busy.

(00:21):
So I am back and today we'rejust going to do a short little
video about people that may lookdown on other people that are
doing homeschool with theirautistic children.
So I just wanted to talk alittle bit about schools and
your feelings abouthomeschooling and try to address

(00:44):
some of the issues with that.
So first of all, let's talkabout schools.
Why did we pull our child out?
A few reasons, and this is nomeans anything to do with the
teachers.
It just really is not.
It's not their fault, eventhough we sometimes put the
blame on the teachers, butthere's just other issues that
are going on that the teacherhas no control over.

(01:06):
So we kind of have to rememberremember that, and one of them
is our schools are don't receiveenough money and our teachers
don't receive enough money andand we don't have enough staff
to go along, we put too manykids in a room and it's just too
much, too many kids in a roomand it's just too much.
Lack of training is anotherthing.
Maybe that teacher doesn'tunderstand autistic or their

(01:30):
para if they have a para, ageneral one or even a one-to-one
that they haven't received thetraining that's necessary to
work with our kids that are onthe spectrum.
And overcrowding is anotherthing.
You know, when you have twopeople in a room and you got 17
kids or 15 kids, it's impossible.

(01:52):
Think of all the things that isrequired for your child.
Well, they've got 15 more thatneeds the same thing and there's
only two people in the room.
Sometimes you have three, youget lucky and you get three
people in the room.
But even that that's a lot youshould only have.
They should only have aboutfive, six, seven, maybe nine at

(02:13):
the tops.
But to me that would be at thevery, very top.
But we don't.
We have kids that are justpoured into the rooms and we're
always out in the back 40, andnobody seems to care most of the
time.
I'm not saying all schools,because that's not true.
I've had some very goodprincipals that do care and have

(02:34):
been very helpful, but theyonly have so much control too.
If you've got overcrowding, thenit leads into not being able to
service your child to all oftheir needs.
And it's just impossiblebecause our day at schools are
very busy You've got lunch,you've got recess, you've got
specials, you've got this,you've got that.

(02:55):
And then in between all thatyou're trying to address all of
the goals that are on the IEP orany behavior issues or anything
like that you're trying to toaddress, and it's just very
impossible to do so.
I know that you may have ateacher that maybe didn't handle
the situation right or you hada para, but just remember she's

(03:19):
probably overworked, underpaid,not enough supplies, buying out
of her own pocket, and it is avery hard job to do and trying
to meet everybody's needs thatare on the list.
And it just gets to you and youjust try to get do your best

(03:39):
every single day.
So now, when somebody says toyou, oh, you're homeschooling
and he's not in school and tryto make you feel like you're not
doing your best, that's nottrue.
You are doing your best.
If that school is not providingand, like I, I'm not blaming
this on the teacher If thatschool is not able to provide
for your child because ofovercrowding, not enough support

(04:03):
, not enough training.
Whatever the reason is, thenhomeschooling is a good thing.
I've seen great results fromhomeschooling.
I have a parent right now thatis homeschooling her child and I
work with him every morning andon his exceeded all his IEP
goals.

(04:23):
On his IEP goals, when theymade them the teacher said this
will never happen.
And all of them have happenedso and it probably wouldn't have
happened.
In her room she had 17 kids andone para that fell asleep a lot
, so it made it kind ofdifficult.

(04:45):
So what are some of the benefitsof homeschooling?
Well, one of the benefits ismore time, more one-on-one.
It's less distractions in theclassroom.
If you've got 17 other kidsthat all are on the spectrum or
have behavior problems and stuff, there's a lot of distractions
through the day and it's hardfor your child maybe to
concentrate.
So that's another good thingabout homeschooling you can go

(05:07):
at your child's pace and you canalso give materials that will
help your child that are gearedfor your child and not just what
the school gives you or say yougot to do this and do that and
do do this.
You can monitor or make it sothat you accommodate those kids

(05:30):
that are on the spectrum alittle bit better than maybe you
can even at school.
What I've seen is the progressis usually much faster and so
that makes it a lot easier forthem to move up and gain the
academics that they need daily.

(05:52):
So don't let others make youfeel bad about homeschooling or
don't second guess yourselfeither.
If you are also on the otherside saying I don't know if I
could do this, you know you cando it and you just have to pace
yourself and set daily goals andset weekly goals.
So like if you tomorrow, youget up and you say, okay, I want

(06:14):
us to learn these threeproblems and we're going to
learn how to do, uh, read this,set a little paragraph and we're
going to write out a simplesentence.
You know sets a few, a fewgoals for that day and then by
the end of the week you may sayokay, we're going to end up
doing 15 problems through theweek and we're going to write

(06:39):
three sentences all on the sametopic.
It just depends on what levelyour child is at.
Maybe it's just learning theirletters and learning the sounds
of their letters and repeatingthe letters and know their
numbers one through 10 or onethrough 30.
So just set those simple goalsand as you go along, you're

(07:01):
going to keep increasing andincreasing and one day you'll
just sit there and hear him read, like two weeks ago, the child
that I was working at thatdidn't read and the teacher said
it will never happen.
He took his first reading testand passed out of 25 words, he

(07:21):
got 24.
So I was really happy, and hetook a spelling test Now,
granted, it was all the AT, youknow, like fat cat, those kind
of things, but still he was ableto do it.
He sounded it out himself andhe wrote himself, and I was
really, really, really proud ofhim.
So he did well.
So, anyway, that's all I wantedto do today.

(07:42):
I know it's a real short one,but I'm going to be doing some
more.
So I just wrote up this one.
And the reason I did this oneis because I saw on my Facebook
of a parent that her child isdoing really, really well, but
somebody made her feel bad abouthomeschooling, and to me, the

(08:04):
person that made her feel bad isjust ignorant to understanding
what homeschooling is and thatit's not an easy thing for a
parent to homeschool their kidsand get the resources that they
need.
And that's one of the things Iwanted to also add on to this is
also, if you are homeschoolingyou know, don't feel like you

(08:25):
got to do all that stuff byyourself.
You know seek out other peopleto help you, to find out if you
are eligible for some homepeople to come in to help tutor
or read to him, or somethinglike that.
There's a lot, of, a lot ofways you can set up stuff so
that you don't have to do it all, and maybe I'll do some
research on that and do apodcast this coming week on that

(08:48):
.
So, anyway, I hope you guyshave a blessed, blessed day.
I am back.
I am going to be doing thisevery week again and I hope that
you will stay tuned and listento my podcast and spread the
word, and I guess we also on mypodcast.
You can do like fan mail andstuff like that.
If you want to drop me a line,you are more than welcome.

(09:08):
So, anyway, have a blessed dayand I hope things are going well
for you.