I will like to share how my “Summer school” has been so far.

My son has progressed in his reading skills and his “dyslexia” is every day more subtle; when he reads words with several monosyllables (el, la, en), he has the problem, when he reads words with several syllables, he doesn’t have a problem. During the last weeks, he is trying to read every sign he sees and tries very hard to do it right (whoo hoo!). I am motivating him with, well, with what he likes (Bionicle, Legos, Transformers, Power Rangers, etc.) He acknowledges that he needs to write and read to understand better (I don’t think he realized this last year) and he feel proud when he finishes a sentence or understands what he is trying to read. Sometimes he won’t understand, but we started working on the Four Square Writing Method (first pages) and he finds it amusing. I hope this helps.

     When he was diagnosed with the “dyslexia”, I shared it with people who knew more than I about homeschooling special needs children (It’s great to have those people around!) and they told me that it’s not a simple dyslexia, but part of his condition. It scared me to not understand clearly my son’s core issues and realizing that this part of his condition. Maybe it’s because he has improved so much at his social integration and sensory integration that I thought I could treat him like a normal child, even academically.

      Re-reading Sharon Hensley’s article about having realistic expectations (in her book “Homeschooling Children with Special Needs: Turning Challenges into Opportunities!"), it dawned me that sometime on the way I “forgot” my son’s condition and expected him to “catch up” two years of school in a few weeks (as if!). I shared it with a group of friends, as part of what I learned about it and being in peace with his condition. I realized that is not that I didn’t accept the autism; it’s that I thought we had won the war. I realized we have won battles, but the war hasn’t ended. The war may never end! Its part of what my son is, a boy with issues (like many others) and with a family who supports him and prays with him to help him with these issues.