I have been taking Joel to our local elementary school 4 days a week. He has been going to get some extra help as a result of evaluations conducted at the end of kindergarten last spring.
When I met with the specialist at the beginning of this school year, I was very discouraged because I didn’t feel Joel needed as much help as was prescribed. I was encouraged to enroll Joel full-time, or at least for half-day because the learning plan developed for him prescribed over 2 hours of daily help.
We opted for a half-hour of reading, 4 days a week, with an additional half-hour of speech and 40 minutes of occupational therapy. It has been time consuming to keep to that time commitment. The 30 minutes actually take and hour of our school time. Though the time commitment has been challenging, I have been very appreciative that the specialists have been so willing to help this family who is daring to do their own thing…
Today was a marker day. He had been given 2 brief assesments earlier this month - both showed he was above the first-grade benchmarks for this time of year… Today his reading specialist said that she thought we could start meeting less - maybe not even at all by the end of the year. Apparently, he is almost reading at the second grade level :) I knew he was doing very well, but even better than I suspected.
He is so hungry and ready to learn. He is so inquisitive. And bless his heart - he loves homeschooling. He can’t wait for the experiments to start in science. He whizzed through his first language arts packet - passing the packet test after completing only half the packet!
The reading specialist said he is such a sponge. She is amazed at his ability to learn - once he gets it - he gets it. Period. Where homeschooling really benefits him, is we can get that extra focus time (one-on-one or just added review tailored for him) he’ll lock it in.
This is a really exciting time for us. I just see the light bulbs going on. Academically… spiritually. We have been having the most meaningful conversations about God, life… Oh, and that memory… it is impressive how quickly he memorizes his verses for AWANA. Some kids need to be prodded… almost daily he reminds me we need to work on his verses. He is just so hungry for information. I hope I can keep up with him :)
Congratulations, Jenny. I used to get reamed for supporting homeschooling in IEP meetings, but my underlying philosophy was the parent knows best. You just proved I’m right! I’m thrilled to hear Joel is doing so well. Hooray!!!
Congrats Jenny!! I just read your post on Joel’s progress and although it has been some time since the update, I am happy to hear that he is doing well. It is amazing the benefits that homeschooling can provide for both child and parent.