Homeschooling JITTERS! Homeschooling Success Stories
Are you Thinking about homeschooling?
Let our Homeschooling Success Stories encourage you!
In the Spring of my young son’s second grade year, he was BEGGING us to homeschool him. My older son had been in school for five years and had learning disabilities. His struggles made public school an awful experience for him.
Honestly, I was TERRRRRIIIFIIED by the thought of homeschooling a child with learning disabilities. I didn’t know any homeschoolers or any Homeschooling Success Stories.
My Homeschooling Fears:
What if I failed to meet my child’s learning needs?
What if I did worse than the school?
What if we fought all the time?
What if my sons end up hating me?
How will I deal with the tantrums?
I was scared of homeschooling a child with learning disabilities. However, I believed if I homeschooled one son, I NEEDED to homeschool my other son.
Neither of my sons were having their learning needs met. My older son’s self-esteem was crushed and he was making NO progress in school.
My children had been in public school for five years. We battled with school issues CONSTANTLY. If I wasn’t battling with the school to get special education services, we were fighting with our kids.
My older son’s self-esteem shifted downward every year he was in special education. I was fighting with his “can’t learn” attitude. He has a HIGH IQ, but the school had him convinced he couldn’t learn!
My husband and I were in distress because we knew our son’s potential was being ignored in school. It was SOOOOO much less stressful when we started homeschooling. I think the reduced stress on families adds to many Homeschooling Success Stories.
It seemed like homeschooling a child with learning disabilities would be hard. I soon learned it is MUCH LESS stressful for everyone in the family to school at home.
The Beginning of Our Homeschooling Success Stories
When we began homeschooling, my older son’s stopped having tantrums over school work. Homework had been awful because he was soooo tired from his awful days at school. He was bullied and belittled at school and that took it’s toll.
Things were so much more peaceful when we began homeschooling. To my surprise, homeschooling wasn’t as hard as it seemed like it’d be. We didn’t know it, but we had begun writing our own Homeschooling Success Stories!
After homeschooling for a few months, my bright, happy, eager-to-learn child was coming back. He started becoming the joyful child I had sent off to kindergarten years earlier.
My son’s depression lifted. He became mentally ‘available’ for learning. My son was even willing to work on tasks he had difficulty with, like reading. Our Homeschooling Success Stories were under way! YAY!
When my son was upset, I’d say, “I know this is hard, but let’s work on this together.” It was important to be encouraging and supportive for him.
We spent HOURS working on reading. In our first two years of homeschooling, my son’s reading level went from a 0.9 grade equivalent (GE) to a 10.0 GE! TEN grade levels in two years! Now THAT’s worthy of becoming one of the Homeschooling Success Stories.
It is amazing what understanding, patient, one-on-one, instruction can do for a child who struggles. I think patience and an understanding attitude were just as important as the instruction. Positive words kept my child willing to learn.
If you are considering homeschooling a child with learning disabilities, it is a difficult decision. However, you should remember your decision doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing, forever decision. If you decide to homeschool, then find out it is NOTHING like you expected, you can change your mind back again.
The idea that I could change my mind was the thread I hung onto when I began homeschooling. Things went so well, I soon got out my scissors and snipped that thread right in half! There was no going back once our Homeschooling Success Stories had taken hold.
Homeschooling a child with learning disabilities turned out to be the best educational decision we had ever made! Overcome your fear of homeschooling too!
Best Wishes for adding to Learning Abled Kids’ Homeschooling Success Stories,
Sandy
(You can do this! I know you can!)
