Homeschooling Autistic Children: Structured But Flexible

When I first started homeschooling my kids, I was trying to do everything by the book. It was an imaginary book that I thought up and created myself. It was full of dreams of possibly creating an Einstein, being able to beat the school system at their own game, and provide a better education for my kids. I also thought that a complete curriculum and a complete syllabus to go along with it was the way to go. Guess what? It didn’t work for us. No, it wasn’t a Special Ed program but it was supposed to work. Right? We ended up terribly behind and very frustrated.

The next year, I ended up just getting various workbooks and no syllabus. This was going to work! Previously, we had gotten behind on someone else’s idea of what we were supposed to be doing. This felt right! Freedom and success at last! By the end of the year, it was another fail for us. We had gotten about the same results — where I thought we should be was not where we ended up.

So in my experience, I have learned that what works for someone else may not work for us. This year, I’ve ended up piecing together a patchwork of different books, depending on each child’s level and interest. I’ve kept my sanity by setting time limits for some subjects and letting others run on as long as they need to. Structure what needs structuring, while allowing the freedom to be able to say, “This is not going to happen today.” The important part is to be okay with that. Sometimes you need a day of art to get the hour worth of math completed.

_{November 2012 Newsletter}