Welcome to day 2 of my home-schooling adventure. We had a week off last week because I was away with my darling daughter watching her compete in a cheerleading competition.
Today we are coping a little better than our first attempts. J has been relatively compliant ( I say relatively!) and we have only had one set of tears (his not mine).
He is currently asleep however!
What I am learning from the time I spend with him is that his bio-rhythms are completely out of sync with he school day. He likes to eat, pretty much constantly, and letting him do so while we are working has proved a successful strategy for today. He can also only really focus for about 15 minutes at a time before things start going down hill. I pushed past the 15 minutes to about 20 with a maths game we were playing on the iPad but in the end had to give up as he was lying on his side and not even really looking at the screen. Having concentrated on two short sessions of maths he then complained of a serious headache, to the point where I bundled him into bed, where he promptly fell asleep.
I spoke too soon about today being more successful :-(
J seemed happier after his sleep, had something to eat and came through to do spelling, asked me what we were doing after spelling and promptly burst into floods of tears when I told him we were going to research some facts from his Horrible History book (his favourite books!). I thought doing it on the computer would motivate him - but apparently now he HATES working on a computer.
Seriously - it feels like I just can't win. No matter what I try to motivate him it backfires. He refuses to even try and it becomes a major battle.
I really wonder why I am bothering.
Is this really going to make any difference!?
He is currently having full on tears and tantrum.
*sigh* better luck next time??
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Thursday, August 28, 2014
Home-schooling Day 1
Well, here we are. My day off and I am sitting at my kitchen table about to embark on teaching my 9yr old basic maths and literacy.
You may want to know how I ended up here - I am wondering that myself.
My son (J) has recently been diagnosed with something called Non-verbal Learning Disorder (NVLD) - and no, I had no idea what that was until a few weeks ago either. If your interested here are some helpful links;
http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/nld.htm
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/invisible-disability
The long and the short of it is that he has trouble processing the visual world around him, it is often mis-diagnosed as ASD or ADHD as children with NVLD are unable to read body language, facial expression or other non-verbal communication and as a result have social skills reflecting that deficit ...... in other words most of the time they 'just don't get it'.
I'm still getting my head around the ins and outs but it seems that J is pretty much on constant sensory overload trying to figure out the world around him.
In our case we are yet to rule out that ASD or ADHD are not occurring along side the NVLD- yes you can have both! - we are waiting on our developmental paediatrician consult for that verdict.
The upshot of 9 years of not really understanding the world around you is that J HATES school (and has hated it since the day he started ...... although it did score slightly better than Kindergarten!) it is often WW3 in our house just to get him out the door in the morning - there is nothing more heart-breaking than sending your child somewhere every day that obviously causes them so much distress.
With our recent diagnosis and a slew of testing by an Ed Psych it became clear just how much he was struggling in the classroom and so began my quest to figure out the best solution to get him through his education. Luckily (or unluckily, depending on how easy you rate teaching your own child anything - regardless of what their learning issues are) I am overly qualified for the position of home-schooling J. I am a primary school teacher with a PG dip in Special Education (not a coincidence that I have that qualification and a child with learning difficulties ....... but that's a story for another post).
Anyway, the decision was made that J would benefit from being home-schooled 1 day a week (besides the fact that I work the other days, I'm not sure my sanity would have allowed for any more) to help fill in the gaps in his basic mathematics knowledge as well as help remediate his issues with phonics and writing.
So here I am, waiting for my child to recover from his 3rd meltdown of the morning because he's not coping with the change in routine or the frustration of not being able to do things he says should be easy, wondering what exactly I've got myself into and trying not to be completely devastated by just how difficult this actually is.
Wish me luck - I'm going to need it!
You may want to know how I ended up here - I am wondering that myself.
My son (J) has recently been diagnosed with something called Non-verbal Learning Disorder (NVLD) - and no, I had no idea what that was until a few weeks ago either. If your interested here are some helpful links;
http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/nld.htm
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/invisible-disability
The long and the short of it is that he has trouble processing the visual world around him, it is often mis-diagnosed as ASD or ADHD as children with NVLD are unable to read body language, facial expression or other non-verbal communication and as a result have social skills reflecting that deficit ...... in other words most of the time they 'just don't get it'.
I'm still getting my head around the ins and outs but it seems that J is pretty much on constant sensory overload trying to figure out the world around him.
In our case we are yet to rule out that ASD or ADHD are not occurring along side the NVLD- yes you can have both! - we are waiting on our developmental paediatrician consult for that verdict.
The upshot of 9 years of not really understanding the world around you is that J HATES school (and has hated it since the day he started ...... although it did score slightly better than Kindergarten!) it is often WW3 in our house just to get him out the door in the morning - there is nothing more heart-breaking than sending your child somewhere every day that obviously causes them so much distress.
With our recent diagnosis and a slew of testing by an Ed Psych it became clear just how much he was struggling in the classroom and so began my quest to figure out the best solution to get him through his education. Luckily (or unluckily, depending on how easy you rate teaching your own child anything - regardless of what their learning issues are) I am overly qualified for the position of home-schooling J. I am a primary school teacher with a PG dip in Special Education (not a coincidence that I have that qualification and a child with learning difficulties ....... but that's a story for another post).
Anyway, the decision was made that J would benefit from being home-schooled 1 day a week (besides the fact that I work the other days, I'm not sure my sanity would have allowed for any more) to help fill in the gaps in his basic mathematics knowledge as well as help remediate his issues with phonics and writing.
So here I am, waiting for my child to recover from his 3rd meltdown of the morning because he's not coping with the change in routine or the frustration of not being able to do things he says should be easy, wondering what exactly I've got myself into and trying not to be completely devastated by just how difficult this actually is.
Wish me luck - I'm going to need it!
Down the Rabbit Hole
Welcome to Wonderland you say?
Is this yet another saccharine view of parenting, reminding you of all you have not achieved, marvelling at the wonder of it all?
Or,
Is it just me,
falling down the rabbit hole of the world that is my son.
Trying to figure how it is that he sees the things around him.
Trying to navigate the politics and paper work of Special Education.
Trying not to neglect my daughter and partner in the process.
Trying to remember that I also have a job.
Oh, its a Wonderland alright, it's just sometimes you have to swim through a lake of tears to get to the other side.
So why a blog?
Why now?
A new diagnosis (possibly), the beginning of part-time home-schooling (trepidation mounting), the cumulative stress of a year asking to be purged onto screen?
Or just me, sitting in front of a computer, trying, the best way I can, to figure this all out.
Welcome to my Wonderland, I hope you enjoy the show.
Is this yet another saccharine view of parenting, reminding you of all you have not achieved, marvelling at the wonder of it all?
Or,
Is it just me,
falling down the rabbit hole of the world that is my son.
Trying to figure how it is that he sees the things around him.
Trying to navigate the politics and paper work of Special Education.
Trying not to neglect my daughter and partner in the process.
Trying to remember that I also have a job.
Oh, its a Wonderland alright, it's just sometimes you have to swim through a lake of tears to get to the other side.
So why a blog?
Why now?
A new diagnosis (possibly), the beginning of part-time home-schooling (trepidation mounting), the cumulative stress of a year asking to be purged onto screen?
Or just me, sitting in front of a computer, trying, the best way I can, to figure this all out.
Welcome to my Wonderland, I hope you enjoy the show.
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