With very few breaks, I homeschooled my daughter almost straight through K-12th grades. She, like I, is an Aspie.
To homeschool, you don't need to follow what the public schools are doing. They're failing anyway. Private schools don't follow public schools, so you don't have to either! Go at your child's pace, and let them choose the subjects they're interested in. I guarantee if you use this method, your child will excel in school.
I would really recommend against K12 or Connections academy type online schools for autistic children. Their programs are even more inflexible and soul crushing than a regular public school classroom.
For the early grades, honestly, Dollar Tree or your local grocery store sells workbooks that have everything they need to learn. It's pretty darn sweet.
For older grades, here are some curriculum companies I bought from. They are Christian based. But we use a ton of Secular education books too.:
Abeka | Excellence in Education from a Christian Perspective
http://Milestonebooks.com (This website is really fun. It's all books published by and for Amish and Mennonite schools and homeschoolers. Kids learn about animal husbandry, skid loaders, and silo gases in science class).
Home - Apologia
Saxon Math | Rainbow Resource
I'd look at the books on those websites, and then try to get them used on ebay or amazon.
Another great resource is Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool . It is a full K-12, absolutely free homeschool curriculum, all online, so you don't have to buy any books. You go at your own pace, and can take any class at any grade level. It's so much fun.
Learn a language for free is a free foreign language site.
I just cannot stress enough that the secret to homeschool success is following your child's individual interests and grade level for each subject.
There were a few very unpleasant years where I tried to be a very rigid teacher and go by what I was told children are supposed to be learning at those levels. She rebelled, I yelled, and many of the assignments were unfinished. Also, she was very depressed about being a "bad student".
Once I opened myself up to the idea that as children grow, it is in their nature to want to learn, everything changed. Where she was below average for some classes, she is now excelling above and beyond.
Read to your children, both fiction and fact books! Make sure there are many books in your house on all kinds of subjects, from faeries to war machines to bird identification to physics.
Keep the devices out of the bedrooms! They're only for school and for maybe an hour or two a day of communicating with friends during covid.
Take field trips. This can be to a library, a park, a museum, or even the grocery store.
Get creative! Remember what you loved about school when you were a kid. Tear away all the crap that made you dread school, and remember what things in school that excited you.
For a whole year, study everything about your state, visit courthouses, city hall, the police department, and even the capitol. Kids love that stuff.
Buy a cheap keyboard and a "teach yourself piano" book.
ART! Instead of having kids write reports or answer questions all the time, have them illustrate what they learned, and maybe write a small caption or paragraph on the back side. Work with clay!
If you're learning about Ancient Egypt, carve a sphinx out of a bar of soap, while "King Tut" and "Walk Like an Egyptian" are playing in the background.
Get them kids outside! They need dirt under their fingernails and slivers in their feet. Trust me on this. Buy them skateboards and shovels and pails. Let them get messy, even in the rain.
Teach them to cook, work with tools, and to sew. Those are skills that will be passed down for generations.
Make each day a joy. Who says you have to do a formal school week? We have always taken Mondays off of school. Who wants to do anything on Monday?
And if the kids are done with their assignments by Noon, that's awesome! Let them be kids for the rest of the day!
Homeschooling has been the most rewarding work of my life, and I'm so thankful for every moment of it.
To homeschool, you don't need to follow what the public schools are doing. They're failing anyway. Private schools don't follow public schools, so you don't have to either! Go at your child's pace, and let them choose the subjects they're interested in. I guarantee if you use this method, your child will excel in school.
I would really recommend against K12 or Connections academy type online schools for autistic children. Their programs are even more inflexible and soul crushing than a regular public school classroom.
For the early grades, honestly, Dollar Tree or your local grocery store sells workbooks that have everything they need to learn. It's pretty darn sweet.
For older grades, here are some curriculum companies I bought from. They are Christian based. But we use a ton of Secular education books too.:
Abeka | Excellence in Education from a Christian Perspective
http://Milestonebooks.com (This website is really fun. It's all books published by and for Amish and Mennonite schools and homeschoolers. Kids learn about animal husbandry, skid loaders, and silo gases in science class).
Home - Apologia
Saxon Math | Rainbow Resource
I'd look at the books on those websites, and then try to get them used on ebay or amazon.
Another great resource is Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool . It is a full K-12, absolutely free homeschool curriculum, all online, so you don't have to buy any books. You go at your own pace, and can take any class at any grade level. It's so much fun.
Learn a language for free is a free foreign language site.
I just cannot stress enough that the secret to homeschool success is following your child's individual interests and grade level for each subject.
There were a few very unpleasant years where I tried to be a very rigid teacher and go by what I was told children are supposed to be learning at those levels. She rebelled, I yelled, and many of the assignments were unfinished. Also, she was very depressed about being a "bad student".
Once I opened myself up to the idea that as children grow, it is in their nature to want to learn, everything changed. Where she was below average for some classes, she is now excelling above and beyond.
Read to your children, both fiction and fact books! Make sure there are many books in your house on all kinds of subjects, from faeries to war machines to bird identification to physics.
Keep the devices out of the bedrooms! They're only for school and for maybe an hour or two a day of communicating with friends during covid.
Take field trips. This can be to a library, a park, a museum, or even the grocery store.
Get creative! Remember what you loved about school when you were a kid. Tear away all the crap that made you dread school, and remember what things in school that excited you.
For a whole year, study everything about your state, visit courthouses, city hall, the police department, and even the capitol. Kids love that stuff.
Buy a cheap keyboard and a "teach yourself piano" book.
ART! Instead of having kids write reports or answer questions all the time, have them illustrate what they learned, and maybe write a small caption or paragraph on the back side. Work with clay!
If you're learning about Ancient Egypt, carve a sphinx out of a bar of soap, while "King Tut" and "Walk Like an Egyptian" are playing in the background.
Get them kids outside! They need dirt under their fingernails and slivers in their feet. Trust me on this. Buy them skateboards and shovels and pails. Let them get messy, even in the rain.
Teach them to cook, work with tools, and to sew. Those are skills that will be passed down for generations.
Make each day a joy. Who says you have to do a formal school week? We have always taken Mondays off of school. Who wants to do anything on Monday?
And if the kids are done with their assignments by Noon, that's awesome! Let them be kids for the rest of the day!
Homeschooling has been the most rewarding work of my life, and I'm so thankful for every moment of it.
Last edited:
