Dear SN Friends,
So I am logging on to just ask, "Does it ever make sense to just throw in the towel and give up on homeschooling a SN child?" I have been at this for years and years. My son, age 11 (turning 12 in a few months) has been therapy-ed, educated, special diet-ed starting at age 2. And, to my knowledge and amongst those I know parenting special needs, he is the ONLY child who has failed to make much progress or move forward. The gap between him and his peer group widens each year, which is the opposite of most of the other special needs kids I know....all their therapy, special diet, naturopathic healing and focused education has helped to improve their lives. Not so with my son. I am at my wit's end and yesterday, I finally buried my face in my hands and wept for the first time in a long time. It's almost as though I have forgotten how to cry. The tears flowed regularly from when my older son was around 4 and this child was 1 .....until the past couple years when I've become more closed and hardened on the outside. I have no support system here. No in-person fellowship with other SN families on a regular basis and we are 3,000 miles from our family all out west.
If I throw in the towel, I know my son would probably be in a baby-sitting SN class. We've tried and stuck with almost every therapy out there AND all the special diets AND all the supposedly helpful supplements. I will share that he has "on" days where our MP curriculum goes okay. Then he has "off" days. The difference between the "on" and the "off" days is quite significant in terms of what and how much he can accomplish. I have found myself more willing, when I don't have it in me, to just allow him to move forward in his R&S Math because he loves it so much and any/all memory work. But if it's (for example) understanding a comprehension question in his Storytime Treasures book, and it's an "off" day, then I allow it to just sit on the shelf because sometimes I don't have it in my to face reality. Ya know? This morning he seemed quasi "on" so we pulled out Storytime Treasures right away and here's an example of the types of questions that stump him:
The peddler didn't have any money for lunch. Why not? (This is from Caps for Sale which we still haven't finished in spite of moving forward in other parts of our curriculum).
For some reason it's hard for him to connect that he wasn't selling caps, and therefore had no money in his pocket, and therefore couldn't buy lunch. For those of you with language processing kiddos, how do you tackle these things? Up to this point, I just keep going back to the story, I prompt, I explain, etc.
On Fridays we leave at 10:15 to drive about 15 minutes away to a co-op for him to participate in an elementary music class my priest's wife teaches. I really wanted him to do this as music is so important to me and she teaches beginning note reading, rhythm, (copying her rhythm with rhythm sticks, etc.) AND it's just so painful to watch him be so challenged compared to other kids much younger than him. And to watch them laugh at him. I have just spent 9 months pouring into Interactive Metronome (several times per week, once with a therapist and the rest of the time at home) to help improve his neural timing. He has improved greatly but it hasn't transferred much over into the other areas of his life. And this a heavily researched-backed and recognized therapy for ADHD/Cognition/Processing, etc.
Well, anyway, I just needed to vent. Mostly, I ask for your prayers because, in spite of how hard I'm battling NOT entering the pit of despair, I find myself going down and down.
SusanP
So I am logging on to just ask, "Does it ever make sense to just throw in the towel and give up on homeschooling a SN child?" I have been at this for years and years. My son, age 11 (turning 12 in a few months) has been therapy-ed, educated, special diet-ed starting at age 2. And, to my knowledge and amongst those I know parenting special needs, he is the ONLY child who has failed to make much progress or move forward. The gap between him and his peer group widens each year, which is the opposite of most of the other special needs kids I know....all their therapy, special diet, naturopathic healing and focused education has helped to improve their lives. Not so with my son. I am at my wit's end and yesterday, I finally buried my face in my hands and wept for the first time in a long time. It's almost as though I have forgotten how to cry. The tears flowed regularly from when my older son was around 4 and this child was 1 .....until the past couple years when I've become more closed and hardened on the outside. I have no support system here. No in-person fellowship with other SN families on a regular basis and we are 3,000 miles from our family all out west.
If I throw in the towel, I know my son would probably be in a baby-sitting SN class. We've tried and stuck with almost every therapy out there AND all the special diets AND all the supposedly helpful supplements. I will share that he has "on" days where our MP curriculum goes okay. Then he has "off" days. The difference between the "on" and the "off" days is quite significant in terms of what and how much he can accomplish. I have found myself more willing, when I don't have it in me, to just allow him to move forward in his R&S Math because he loves it so much and any/all memory work. But if it's (for example) understanding a comprehension question in his Storytime Treasures book, and it's an "off" day, then I allow it to just sit on the shelf because sometimes I don't have it in my to face reality. Ya know? This morning he seemed quasi "on" so we pulled out Storytime Treasures right away and here's an example of the types of questions that stump him:
The peddler didn't have any money for lunch. Why not? (This is from Caps for Sale which we still haven't finished in spite of moving forward in other parts of our curriculum).
For some reason it's hard for him to connect that he wasn't selling caps, and therefore had no money in his pocket, and therefore couldn't buy lunch. For those of you with language processing kiddos, how do you tackle these things? Up to this point, I just keep going back to the story, I prompt, I explain, etc.
On Fridays we leave at 10:15 to drive about 15 minutes away to a co-op for him to participate in an elementary music class my priest's wife teaches. I really wanted him to do this as music is so important to me and she teaches beginning note reading, rhythm, (copying her rhythm with rhythm sticks, etc.) AND it's just so painful to watch him be so challenged compared to other kids much younger than him. And to watch them laugh at him. I have just spent 9 months pouring into Interactive Metronome (several times per week, once with a therapist and the rest of the time at home) to help improve his neural timing. He has improved greatly but it hasn't transferred much over into the other areas of his life. And this a heavily researched-backed and recognized therapy for ADHD/Cognition/Processing, etc.
Well, anyway, I just needed to vent. Mostly, I ask for your prayers because, in spite of how hard I'm battling NOT entering the pit of despair, I find myself going down and down.
SusanP
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