“I don’t know how you can do it.”
“Homeschooling and my kids don’t mix.”
“How can you teach your children when they have Autism?”
“I couldn’t organize everything and have patience for homeschooling.”
These are just a few of the comments and questions I get as a Homeschool Mama with 3 beautiful boys who happen to have Autism.
When my husband and I decided to Homeschool, it was with our eldest son Stevie after a disappointing year in Kindergarten in a public school.
We knew our son needed more one on one attention and he couldn’t get that where he was at sadly. So we chose to do what was best for our kid.
Oh.... and this was all before our boy’s Autism diagnosis’s.
So how did we go about it? How did we find our way? Where did we find the patience and knowledge to do what we do now?
Thankfully I had experience with Homeschooling as I was homeschooled growing up. So I already had the base knowledge of what to do.
For the areas that I wasn’t 100% confident on, I reached out to fellow homeschool moms whom I knew through church and my family members who has been homeschooling for years.
I spent several months researching curriculum, how to best schedule his day, and making sure I was fully aware of our states rules.
The first year was bumpy and full of “can I do this” moments. Believe me, I did not have it all figured out.
Our children’s Autism diagnosis’s happened between the first and second year of homeschooling. This helped me not just as a mother but as his teacher. It opened our eyes and made us even more understanding of our son.
The second year came and we hit some pretty hard road blocks. This was our hardest year at that point. We definitely questioned what we were doing and what was best for our son.
But we kept going. We knew the massive benefits homeschooling had for our son Stevie.
And here we are at our third year of homeschooling. We have seen some amazing moments that make every difficult day even more worth it.
But we’ve also had some hard choices to make as we’re about to move to a different state.
Every state has a different set of standards and rules as it comes to homeschooling. So we had to get ourselves fully educated on our new state we will soon be calling home.
We took time and researched all our options before making the decision to homeschool in the new state. We looked at every school, public, private, special needs school (Autism Schools), and we came to the same decision we made over 3 years ago.
Homeschooling is the best option for our family. It’s the best choice to give not only our eldest son Stevie that one on one attention, but this school year we added our middle son Maycen on to our schools roster.
We get to critique every single lesson plan, schedule our school days that best fit our family, take fun field trips together, and genuinely have fun watching our boys grow every year.
Knowing that we’re the ones helping with that little spark in their eyes when they get excited over learning; is beyond worth every stressful day.
Taking on the responsibility to be my children’s teacher is the second biggest responsibility I have besides being a mother and all that role entails.
I take every single day as another chance to help our boys grow stronger and wiser in their education.
I am beyond thankful I get to teach our boys.
I am a proud Homeschool Mama!
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