Homeschooling?

image from: Beery's Horse Training Books, via http://www.ebookretreat.com/images/beery3.jpg

My Random Guy hasn't qualified for ESY since he was in preschool. He has been mainstreamed into regular education classes since he was in Kindergarten. He decided the first day of summer school this year to refuse to go to summer school. No amount of cajoling or consequences was going to get him out the door.
I talked with the Atomic Punk about what to do, and we decided if he stays home he is going to have to work. I hurriedly pulled together some materials for him to study and cobbled together a working curriculum. He fought me at first, but I think he enjoyed some of the work he was doing. He was mostly doing math worksheets, map directions and computer literacy worksheets, keyboarding lessons on the computer and then reading time. I gave him free choice of books for his reading comprehension, and he chose Harry Potter. No TV, no computer, (aside from keyboarding tutorials and typing games) and a break for snack and lunch. He was busy all day until SensiGirl came home from her ESY(Extended School Year,) schooling in the afternoon.
I really wasn't prepared to home school Random Guy, once I started working at it,  I enjoyed it. I know if I had to, I could home school him. It was really a test for both of us and I must say we both passed that day. I don't know how well we would do over the long haul, but I guess we are going to find out. I think we both learned a lot that day. It is good to know if things ever get to the place where I have to pull him out of  public school for any reason, I can handle schooling him. I have known of  a few parents who have done that as their kids reached the middle school years.

image via: http://www.amazon.com/Math-Youll-Ever-Need-Self-Teaching/dp/0471317519

It helps that summer school is elective and I don't have to follow state standards. Today I ordered our materials from Amazon. We have a review workbook for 4th grade coming as well as the book "All the Math You Will Ever Need" along with "Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills for 5th Grade."  The daily schedule starts with handwriting or typing drills and then typing games. After that is a block for math, one for reading comprehension, and a block every day of what I call general skills: these are grammar and dictionary use, geography, history, and learning how to create plans on Lego Designer or Google Sketch Up.  My Fancy Friend suggested as Random Guy gets more proficient with his typing/keyboarding skills we can chat online about the books he is reading for his reading comprehension. He really liked that idea.  He and I discussed what kind of plans to try on Lego designer this afternoon. I didn't think I could pull something like this together so quickly, but I guess you learn what you can do when faced with the challenge. I think a lot of parenting neurodiverse kids is like that. You don't know what you can do until you have to. We will see how it goes this summer.

image via: http://www.amazon.com/Comprehensive-Curriculum-Basic-Skills-Grade/dp/1561893722