Inclusive Homeschool

To make a long story short, I had Brhiannon in a cyber school for one week. I took it on good faith that the claims of “individualized” curriculum to meet the needs of the child were exactly that. They aren’t. This is our third try with a public cyber school since we first started homeschooling three years ago.

Once again it became evident that “individualized” actually meant only a very small sliding scale of grades - a difference of one grade - and only in specific circumstances. There’s actually very little leeway, unless your child is special ed.

I had been warned ahead of time. A special ed teacher who had worked for that school, told me the teachers referred to themselves as “naggers” and that their main job was to call and “keep the kids on track”. She, also, told me that unless Brhiannon was evaluated as having a learning disability, there would be no real modification of the curriculum.

Dyslexia is not legally recognized as a learning disability. She would be expected to do everything and in a timely manner, in addition to reading remediation.

I was told this by the head of special ed, as well, which struck me as rather odd, since the remedial reading program I would have used has its own methodology which differed from the regular curriculum.

I did not keep Brhiannon in long enough to be evaluated, but long enough to clearly see that the emphasis was on teaching to the test. The goal was to enable children to score well on those state mandated tests, the PSSA’s, and the importance of using programs designed specifically for that - Study Island and Skills Tutor.

It’s one thing to use them as supplements or enhancements. It’s another to make them a central part of your studies. But when getting a good report card - for the school - is of paramount importance, that’s what shapes your child’s curriculum.

I have different goals for my child.

Actually, I wanted to pull her out after the first day. Much to her credit, Brhiannon wanted to give it more time. It took her from morning to late at night to do each day’s work. But she did it diligently. At the end of the week, she was satisfied with her efforts, but she realized this would leave her no time for theater or dance or anything else.

She chose to go back to traditional homeschooling. I was thrilled.

And concerned, because I was afraid it would go back to the way it was, with her father refusing to let me teach her during the week day, when I worked in the evening.

I shared with him my findings, the conclusions I had drawn as a result of three years of documented observation and what I learned about dyslexia. That’s a whole other post. He doesn’t believe she is dyslexic, but he has been much better about driving her to town for me to teach her on a more regular basis. Not always - I won’t get her tomorrow during the day, because he said, “I’m not going to drive here and just hang around.” - but certainly more than the previous years.

This has benefited her immensely. I hope it doesn’t revert back to the way it was before.

Still, having her in a cyber school for the sole purpose of hoping her father would be more mindful of her education isn’t worth the type of education and pressure she’d be placed under.

So we’ll just do it this way, and see how it goes.

Tags: cyber school, dyslexia, special ed

It’s good to have choices. But it can be crazy-making as well.

We “ended” our homeschool year the end of June. Since then I’ve immersed myself into researching different cyber schools offered by Pennsylvania and learning disabilities.

I have always suspected dyslexia, at least some sort of mild version of it, but I was never really sure and very reluctant to just hand her over to “the system” to find out. But I’ve done more research on it, both the condition of dyslexia and the process through the public school system and private evaluators.

For starters, I wrote up a synopsis of three years of daily log observations. I didn’t just notate whether she completed a subject or not, but how she did it, the range of difficulty and whether or not she retained the information the next day or days afterwards.

I, also, notated the conditions under which she learned, how often she was with me as opposed to her father, whether she did her work while she was there, how helpful he was or wasn’t and the work she completed, and how it was completed while she was there.

This has been a major source of contention and frustration for me.

There has been no doubt, the difference in level of commitment to her education and providing space, time and opportunity for her to learn between the two households has negatively impacted her. But there was, also, something else going on with her, and it was difficult for me to ascertain how much of which variable was affecting her progress.

As I wrote this synopsis from my notes, some patterns began to emerge, but I didn’t know how they related to one another. I needed help in connecting all the dots. One site that came highly recommended and turned out to be the most informative was www.brightsolutions.us.

Suddenly, her behavior in other areas, how she could excel in doing one thing and yet be stumped or painfully awkward in another, that you would think would be easier, made sense to me. Virtually everything that had to do with directionality or sequence was a challenge to her. Didn’t really have to do with the category as much as the operations.

If you have concerns about dyslexia or are just stumped by some “quirks” in learning, I highly recommend this site as a good starter point. The seminar video is over 3 hours long, but it’s divided into segments. I watched it one evening with breaks and took notes. It was a real eye opener!

I learned that dyslexia is not a learning disability, that nine out of ten children who have dyslexia do not have it severe enough to be identified as learning disabled (which they aren’t, they just have a different way of learning - plenty are incredibly bright to the point of brilliant). But that means they don’t get the help that they do need and, often, fall through the cracks.

In comparing my detailed notes and synopsis with what I have learned from the website, I am now 99.9% certain she is dyslexic. In one sense it’s a wonderful validation. I have been correct in what I was feeling and observing.

I didn’t know if her situation was workable at home. I had hoped that with extra effort on my part, we could overcome the handicap of her living situation, that our efforts would be enough. But though she has made improvement, it’s not. It’s too much of a struggle to get her when I need…no, when she needs.

I know she needs more, and I know she needs consistency. I’ve been saying it for years. I need the leverage to insure her education is not sacrificed to grown ups’ personal needs or issues. And now that she’s older, perhaps we can work with a cyberschool.

So now I have decisions to make.

I know she needs something more than what she’s been getting, but it’s not as simple as simply choosing x, y or z.

I am exploring different avenues and will be sharing them over the next week.