The trials of home educating

I knew when we started on our journey into home education there would be bad days, but the optimist in me thought they would be few and far between and I never imagined we would experience 5 in a row! Last week Chipman was on his 2nd week of a trial of no ADHD medication and I was in a really grumpy mood that I just couldn't shift. It was not a match made in heaven! Without his medication Chipman needed constant reminders to focus on his work and I have felt like a real nag, if I said once 'sit down' 'pick up your pen and write' or 'stop being an aeroplane' I said it a thousand times.

Being an aeroplane, train or gremlin have been ways for Chipman to express his frustrations but have unfortunately added to mine. On Tuesday we were working on simplifying ratios, not being in a particularly patient mood myself and numbers looking like a foreign language to me we stumbled on a problem solving the 6th question. I suggested to Chipman that we move onto the next question and talk to mathematically minded Dad when he got home about this particular question. He was having none of this as he said they had to be done in order. So whist I trawled the Internet, phoned various people and stressed out trying to find the answer Chipman spun around me being an aeroplane, noises and all. And just in case I was in any doubt as to what he was doing, the aeroplane engine noises and arms out to the side circling after all may not have been a big enough clue, he was periodically shouting he was in fact an aeroplane. Despite my pleas, which started out calm and turned into shouty quite quickly, Chipman's aeroplane was not going to land any time soon. In tears I decided that we had had enough maths for one day and called it quits, Chipman landed and got on with some geography.

The maths frustrations continued, the aeroplane made appearances, although Chipman's method of transport sometimes changed to a train as the week went on. And with the train as you may have guessed came noises, arms circling at his sides and the announcement that he was a train until Thursday. We had been stuck in the house for 4 solid days and think we were both starting to go a little stir crazy. So when the suggestion from a friend to go out for lunch came up we jumped at it. Having some time away from the house certainly helped, Friday was much calmer, although Chipman still needed to get around the house somehow so the aeroplane and train returned, I felt more able to deal with it just from a couple of hours away from the house.

I have learnt my lessons from last week, and there are quite a few. We need new strategies to help Chipman deal with his ADHD now that it is not being controlled by drugs and to get a fair assessment of how he is coping without them, we need time away from the house at least once a week and finally I am not blessed at being good with numbers so Dad is now the maths teacher. It was a trying week but reflecting back I can see my mistakes and I am hopefully going to learn from them.

Very wobbly baby steps into a HUGE change

As you may or may not know children with Autism/Aspergers struggle with changes to routine, and we are about embark on a MASSIVE change! The worry is beginning to show in 12 year old Chipman. The last 24 hours have been filled with constant questions, the why, how and when's of homeschooling. It has made me look at these questions in greater detail but also made me realise that we are going into certain situations blind and I can't answer all his questions solidly until we start.

WHY? Well that question was easily answered for Chipman by reading my first blog entry to him. I was hoping it would be useful to me and others to blog but didn't realise that it would help Chipman too! 

HOW? Well I have an idea of how it will work, I have a plan all typed out and ready to go. I have the worksheets, books, websites and documentaries ready. I don't know how long he will be doing each subject or how long we will spend on a topic. The beauty of home schooling is that it is child led, they set the pace and until we start we quite simply won't know. It might be one of the positives for me but for Chipman with his mindset of certainty equalling security this is a daunting time. A lot of reassurance is being required and my hope is that on Monday he will understand more just by doing.

WHEN? When we will start is now earlier than we first intended. When he finished school before the Easter holiday's our plan was de-school Chipman for about 8 weeks, (www.home-ed.info explains more on what de-schooling is). However with Chipman's anxieties we decided to just give him the 2 weeks holidays and see if he needs more time later and then we take another break if necessary. It is really hard for Chipman to understand that he doesn't have to spend an hour 4 times a week doing English, that with just the two of us working together it will be quicker. Another advantage for us with a child with ADHD but again a daunting change for Chipman.

So whilst some things are set in stone the other questions are not quite so clear cut. Flexibility is the key to making homeschooling work, or so I have been told. This is going to be hard for both of us but we will take our wobbly baby steps into this HUGE change together knowing that it's what right for us.