Dana is hosting Home Education Week!  She has interesting writing prompts and activities to enjoy and participate in!

After teaching 3^rd and 5^th grades for 6 years in public schools and seeing many students get "lost in the cracks", I promised myself that if I had special needs children, I would homeschool them. My heart ached for various groups of children. I felt bad for the most gifted ones who couldn’t get enough of a decent challenge. I felt awful for the ones who needed more time with me, yet I had to spread myself among 30+ children. I was frustrated that some children were labeled and put in special services, told they would never be capable of "reaching the stars", even when I was actually able to get them to do things they weren’t supposed to be capable of learning. I fought for special needs children who really needed help that either didn’t get enough attention in special education classes or were denied entrance into a class with quality time with a specialized teacher. Over six years, I had less and less class time to try to make a difference in my students’ lives. I was ecstatic to leave the public school to stay home with my newborn baby.

Once I brought my newborn daughter home, I devoted my time into teaching her baby skills. Yet, we seemed to be falling short. By the age of 1, she was seeing a physical therapist to learn how to get into and out of a sitting position on her own, how to crawl, how to stand, and then how to walk. Wow, the things I learned! It is fascinating how complicated the steps are to move from one position to another. It is truly a science. This took a year. In the meantime, her wonderful speech shut down, as is typical while gross motor skills are developed. Sadly, she didn’t start talking again until she was 2…and struggled with speech ever since.

Later my son was born with some physical needs that required extra doctor care. A year later, we learned that he and my daughter had Sensory Integration Disorder. Our weeks were full with physical therapy and speech therapy through the state at the Easter Seals building. We had occupational therapy at the base hospital. We had far more success with the OT, who taught us SI skills. As a side note, my son was not able to sit up at 6 months. The PT said there was nothing I could do to teach him how to sit. The next day we went to the OT and she said, "Hogwash." She taught me some cool stuff and he was sitting independently in a week. That seemed to be all the stimulus he needed and he was soon crawling, then walking and then running…keeping me busy! Additionally, my children resisted any involvement with the therapists. The time was mainly training time for me, to employ training during teachable moments at home.

Although released from the different therapies for being high functioning, the therapists made sure that I would take on the challenge of continuing training them at home. The therapists really felt the best place for my children was special education services in the public school. I argued that I had seen every single one of those children doomed to a life of boredom and never learning to read well or do math well, much less write. I was certain, with God’s help, I could homeschool my children a little better.

Then we were at our weekly pediatrician appointment for my 3yo son. This doctor was terrific. He was always supportive and helpful. He endured my gazillions of questions about my son’s medical needs from birth. My son has never been in bad enough condition to require too much intervention, but has always required continuity check ups to keep an eye on various issues that could take a turn for the worse. After my son’s exam, the doctor asked if I was going to homeschool my daughter, who was 5. In surprise, I said that yes, that was my hope. He smiled and encouraged me by asking if I was aware of the winner of the recent National Spelling Bee, who was a homeschooler. I was absolutely shocked that he would bring any of this up. His oldest son was in private school, second grade, so it’s not as if they were homeschoolers themselves. Yet, he sealed the deal for me! I had my official support from a medical member whom I respected. His words of encouragement have rung like peals of joyous school bells in my memory ever since. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Dr. H!