Intro/ homeschooler here :) was OT- homeschooling support

[Guest guest]

Hi there, I'll delurk now to introduce myself: I'm Andrea in Miami, FL, mom to

an 11yo special needs little boy, whom I have homeschooled since halfway through

kindergarten. I am a vegetarian, still eat dairy products but am slowly weaning

them out of the diet, too, and my son is mostly vegetarian, consuming meat

(usually fish or shellfish) maybe 2 or 3 times a month now. We used to eat meat

every day, sometimes several times a day, and he's eating many more fruits and

veggies than before, so I consider this progress. He has high functioning autism

and major OCD which manifests through food and eating rituals, and he has

extreme oral defensiveness against any kind of grain or anything mashed or mushy

or grainy, i.e., he won't eat beans, rice, oatmeal, many many things considered

vegetarian staples. So becoming fully vegetarian/vegan would be really tough for

our family. I was going to delurk to ask if anyone dealt with kids with sensory

issues and ideas on how to introduce children with real physical aversions like

this to new things. I'd still like to know

 

Anyway, I am also a passionate homeschooling advocate. I am concerned about

" socialization, " i.e., the process by which humans learn social norms, which is

why I keep my kiddo out of public school. The elementary school across my

street, a " B " school in Dade County, has just arrested a 6yo for marijuana

possession and has so far had 2 pregnant 13yos and 4 gun/weapons arrests this

year. If I were to be concerned about my son's level of socializing, there is

no shortage of social activities for homeschoolers that do not focus on the

academic - support groups, park playdates, field trips, Scouts, Sunday school

(if you are so inclined) community service, etc. There aren't enough hours in

the day for us to do everything we'd like to do. He has many friends,

homeschooled and otherwise.

 

My son, who only went to public school for 2 months and is an only child and on

the autism spectrum, has no problem listening to adults outside of his immediate

family - he talks to adults every day, after all, as we are out and about on our

daily routine - and was deemed by a public school psychologist to be " the most

sociable autistic child " he'd ever seen. Despite having an

average-to-borderline-low IQ, he tests at or slightly above grade level in all

subjects, except math, where he is slightly behind (whatever that even means).

As long as he is making steady progress, I'm fine with him working at his own

pace at math. Not everyone is equally strong in all areas.

 

There may come a time in the future where I have no background or feel out of

depth teaching him something he wants to learn. In fact, it is happening right

now - he wants to learn computer animation. But for us, education is a

lifestyle, not a compartmentalized time in the day where learning takes place in

divisible " subjects " of 50 minutes in duration apiece. He wants to learn

computer animation, so we are reading beginner how-to books and watching youtube

tutorials of programs he has that will let him do so. We are learning together.

We have also learned aikido and a little Japanese together. If he should

struggle in one particular subject, like a hard science or higher level math,

that I didn't want to learn along with him, I would simply hire a tutor, or let

him go to school for that one class (that's an option here) or let him teach it

to himself. He's already taught himself all kinds of stuff, just because I give

him the tools and space to do so.

 

Homeschooling does not equal doing school at home. It matters less about what

the " right " curriculum is (there is no such panacea) and more about how your

child best learns and finding ways to encourage that. It is always going to be a

series of educated guesses and trials and errors, but trust me. You can do it.

If anyone is considering homeschooling, I encourage them to seek out local

support groups of parents, they'll be invaluable to you and your children.

 

Please feel free to email me off list if you have any questions. Thank you all

for this list. I've been lurking for a few weeks, but I've learned a lot.

Nutrition and veganism are my pet subjects at the moment about which I am

self-educating.

 

Sincerely,

Andrea in Miami

http://singleparenthomeschool.com

[Guest guest]

I have homeschooled my daughter for the last 2 years now.  She is 11 years old

and in the 6th grade.  I have started homeschooling my 3 year old on the

basics.  My children have been vegi kids since they were born.  I am loving

homeschooling and consider it one of the best mom decisions that I have made so

far.

 

--- On Sun, 3/15/09, nimsisland75 <nimsisland wrote:

 

nimsisland75 <nimsisland

Intro/ homeschooler here was Re: OT- homeschooling

support

 

Sunday, March 15, 2009, 2:16 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi there, I'll delurk now to introduce myself: I'm Andrea in Miami, FL, mom to

an 11yo special needs little boy, whom I have homeschooled since halfway through

kindergarten. I am a vegetarian, still eat dairy products but am slowly weaning

them out of the diet, too, and my son is mostly vegetarian, consuming meat

(usually fish or shellfish) maybe 2 or 3 times a month now. We used to eat meat

every day, sometimes several times a day, and he's eating many more fruits and

veggies than before, so I consider this progress. He has high functioning autism

and major OCD which manifests through food and eating rituals, and he has

extreme oral defensiveness against any kind of grain or anything mashed or mushy

or grainy, i.e., he won't eat beans, rice, oatmeal, many many things considered

vegetarian staples. So becoming fully vegetarian/vegan would be really tough for

our family. I was going to delurk to ask if anyone dealt with kids with sensory

issues and ideas

on how to introduce children with real physical aversions like this to new

things. I'd still like to know

 

Anyway, I am also a passionate homeschooling advocate. I am concerned about

" socialization, " i.e., the process by which humans learn social norms, which is

why I keep my kiddo out of public school. The elementary school across my

street, a " B " school in Dade County, has just arrested a 6yo for marijuana

possession and has so far had 2 pregnant 13yos and 4 gun/weapons arrests this

year. If I were to be concerned about my son's level of socializing, there is no

shortage of social activities for homeschoolers that do not focus on the

academic - support groups, park playdates, field trips, Scouts, Sunday school

(if you are so inclined) community service, etc. There aren't enough hours in

the day for us to do everything we'd like to do. He has many friends,

homeschooled and otherwise.

 

My son, who only went to public school for 2 months and is an only child and on

the autism spectrum, has no problem listening to adults outside of his immediate

family - he talks to adults every day, after all, as we are out and about on our

daily routine - and was deemed by a public school psychologist to be " the most

sociable autistic child " he'd ever seen. Despite having an average-to-borderli

ne-low IQ, he tests at or slightly above grade level in all subjects, except

math, where he is slightly behind (whatever that even means). As long as he is

making steady progress, I'm fine with him working at his own pace at math. Not

everyone is equally strong in all areas.

 

There may come a time in the future where I have no background or feel out of

depth teaching him something he wants to learn. In fact, it is happening right

now - he wants to learn computer animation. But for us, education is a

lifestyle, not a compartmentalized time in the day where learning takes place in

divisible " subjects " of 50 minutes in duration apiece. He wants to learn

computer animation, so we are reading beginner how-to books and watching youtube

tutorials of programs he has that will let him do so. We are learning together.

We have also learned aikido and a little Japanese together. If he should

struggle in one particular subject, like a hard science or higher level math,

that I didn't want to learn along with him, I would simply hire a tutor, or let

him go to school for that one class (that's an option here) or let him teach it

to himself. He's already taught himself all kinds of stuff, just because I give

him the tools and space to do so.

 

Homeschooling does not equal doing school at home. It matters less about what

the " right " curriculum is (there is no such panacea) and more about how your

child best learns and finding ways to encourage that. It is always going to be a

series of educated guesses and trials and errors, but trust me. You can do it.

If anyone is considering homeschooling, I encourage them to seek out local

support groups of parents, they'll be invaluable to you and your children.

 

Please feel free to email me off list if you have any questions. Thank you all

for this list. I've been lurking for a few weeks, but I've learned a lot.

Nutrition and veganism are my pet subjects at the moment about which I am

self-educating.

 

Sincerely,

Andrea in Miami

http://singleparent homeschool. com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Hi-

Sorry it's taken me so long to reply to this. As to your son's autism and food

issues, you might want to check out Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) on google

or the like. It's basically a 'meet your kid where they are and go from there'

approach, using very specific, very structured activities (usually with an ABA

therapist, although you can and should learn the activities, too) to help

autistic kids (and probably plenty of other kids with these sorts of issues)

gain new skills and habits. One of my best friends has a four year old autistic

son (don't think I would describe him as high functioning) who has been doing

ABA (paid for by a local agency, too!) since he was 2 or so. I also provided his

daycare while I was transitioning from working to stay at home mom, and had the

opportunity to observe and participate in this therapy pretty extensively. My

friend's son had a TON of food issues- textural and otherwise- and ABA really

helped with that, too- in

addition to teaching him tons of academic, speech, and life skills. It was

really interesting to see the therapists doing 'therapy' at mealtimes- and what

they could get him to eat was miraculous, to say the least. One of the aspects

that I really liked was that they scaffold- return to old, mastered skills-

fairly frequently as a sort of brush-up. It's really hard to explain this in an

email, but I really encourage you to at least check it out.

My other recommendation, based on my friend's situation and my own research, is

to perhaps have him biomedically evaluated, or at least to see a DAN doctor. As

it turns out, many of his food issues were also related to a whole host of gut

issues- leaky gut, parasites, high mercury and lead levels, yeast,  etc. Once

his gut has been cleaned out (a process still going on using a no dairy, no

gluten diet, and supplements), his palate should acclimate better to other

foods. I say 'should' because my friend's son is vastly improved, but as I said,

it's still going on. He also has to undergo chelation to get rid of the heavy

metals, so that's another thing entirely. One of my other friend's sons has

sensory/food issues so severe that he spontaneously vomits when (inadvisably)

forced to eat his issue foods by his dad (Dad learned an important lesson here,

didn't he!!??!!). The nutritional therapy/evaluation has really been a godsend

for him, too, and he's

really made a ton of progress in the mushy food department (he was diagnosed

with leaky gut, too).

Anyway, I hope some of this helps. Sorry it's so long, but it was difficult to

try to adequately explain, with brevity, the various successes I've personally

witnessed with the above therapies. Good Luck!

jenni

 

 

 

________________________________

nimsisland75 <nimsisland

 

Sunday, March 15, 2009 4:16:38 AM

Intro/ homeschooler here was Re: OT- homeschooling

support

 

 

Hi there, I'll delurk now to introduce myself: I'm Andrea in Miami, FL, mom to

an 11yo special needs little boy, whom I have homeschooled since halfway through

kindergarten. I am a vegetarian, still eat dairy products but am slowly weaning

them out of the diet, too, and my son is mostly vegetarian, consuming meat

(usually fish or shellfish) maybe 2 or 3 times a month now. We used to eat meat

every day, sometimes several times a day, and he's eating many more fruits and

veggies than before, so I consider this progress. He has high functioning autism

and major OCD which manifests through food and eating rituals, and he has

extreme oral defensiveness against any kind of grain or anything mashed or mushy

or grainy, i.e., he won't eat beans, rice, oatmeal, many many things considered

vegetarian staples. So becoming fully vegetarian/vegan would be really tough for

our family. I was going to delurk to ask if anyone dealt with kids with sensory

issues and ideas

on how to introduce children with real physical aversions like this to new

things. I'd still like to know

 

Anyway, I am also a passionate homeschooling advocate. I am concerned about

" socialization, " i.e., the process by which humans learn social norms, which is

why I keep my kiddo out of public school. The elementary school across my

street, a " B " school in Dade County, has just arrested a 6yo for marijuana

possession and has so far had 2 pregnant 13yos and 4 gun/weapons arrests this

year. If I were to be concerned about my son's level of socializing, there is no

shortage of social activities for homeschoolers that do not focus on the

academic - support groups, park playdates, field trips, Scouts, Sunday school

(if you are so inclined) community service, etc. There aren't enough hours in

the day for us to do everything we'd like to do. He has many friends,

homeschooled and otherwise.

 

My son, who only went to public school for 2 months and is an only child and on

the autism spectrum, has no problem listening to adults outside of his immediate

family - he talks to adults every day, after all, as we are out and about on our

daily routine - and was deemed by a public school psychologist to be " the most

sociable autistic child " he'd ever seen. Despite having an average-to-borderli

ne-low IQ, he tests at or slightly above grade level in all subjects, except

math, where he is slightly behind (whatever that even means). As long as he is

making steady progress, I'm fine with him working at his own pace at math. Not

everyone is equally strong in all areas.

 

There may come a time in the future where I have no background or feel out of

depth teaching him something he wants to learn. In fact, it is happening right

now - he wants to learn computer animation. But for us, education is a

lifestyle, not a compartmentalized time in the day where learning takes place in

divisible " subjects " of 50 minutes in duration apiece. He wants to learn

computer animation, so we are reading beginner how-to books and watching youtube

tutorials of programs he has that will let him do so. We are learning together.

We have also learned aikido and a little Japanese together. If he should

struggle in one particular subject, like a hard science or higher level math,

that I didn't want to learn along with him, I would simply hire a tutor, or let

him go to school for that one class (that's an option here) or let him teach it

to himself. He's already taught himself all kinds of stuff, just because I give

him the tools and space to do so.

 

Homeschooling does not equal doing school at home. It matters less about what

the " right " curriculum is (there is no such panacea) and more about how your

child best learns and finding ways to encourage that. It is always going to be a

series of educated guesses and trials and errors, but trust me. You can do it.

If anyone is considering homeschooling, I encourage them to seek out local

support groups of parents, they'll be invaluable to you and your children.

 

Please feel free to email me off list if you have any questions. Thank you all

for this list. I've been lurking for a few weeks, but I've learned a lot.

Nutrition and veganism are my pet subjects at the moment about which I am

self-educating.

 

Sincerely,

Andrea in Miami

http://singleparent homeschool. com