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Homeschooling Autistic Children: Pinterest
A large Pinterest board full of resources for those homeschooling autistic children.

Homeschooling Your Child with Autism
More parents of children with autism are opting to homeschool for a variety of reasons. In this article, you will information about homeschooling your child with autism, including: pros and cons to homeschooling, curriculum options, how to ensure your child has access to social opportunities, and sample schedules.

Advice

High Interest Approachable Vocabulary – Book Review
AN A TO Z ARTICLE
A series of six short novels by Patricia Birtwistle that consists of exciting stories of intrigue and suspense for children ages 10 and older with reading difficulties. By Ruth Pell.

Homeschooling and Autism: Teaching to Strengths
By Lisa Jo Rudy. When you have a child with autism, the public systems seem to reach out and pull you in. Early intervention professionals recommend appropriate preschools where therapists are available. Before you have a chance to turn around, you’re meeting with school officials to put together IEPs, NOREPs, accommodations and behavioral interventions… and you begin to feel that educating your child is so complex that it requires a team of highly paid experts just to explain what will happen, where it will happen, why it will happen, and who will be making it happen.

Home-Schooling the Aspergers Child: Pros and Cons
Question: The public school hasn’t worked for my Aspergers daughter because she wasn’t diagnosed until recently, and they didn’t know how to work with her. Answer: I’m going to shift the conversation over to talking about the pros and cons of home-schooling so that, in case you decide to go this route, you can at least make an informed decision.

Homeschooling Autism
When my 14 yr old autistic son’s transition to middle school did not go well, my husband and I saw the perfect opportunity for me to begin educating him at home. By Allison Trotter.

Homeschooling Your Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder: The Basics
This article is not a step-by-step guide to homeschooling your child, but rather an overview of what homeschooling a child with ASD would entail to help you make an informed decision. As a long time homeschooler of 2 kids with ASD – one with Asperger’s and one with moderate autism, I wholly recommend homeschooling, when possible and appropriate, but it’s not for everyone. By Holly Bortfeld.

How to Select an Autism Homeschool Curriculum
Trust yourself and your child. If something is just not working, no matter how many mommy bloggers swear by it, then pitch it and don’t think twice. Your kid needs exactly what your kid needs. Don’t waste precious time and energy forcing a program that is not the right fit. By Allison Trotter.

Is Home School Right for Your Child with Asperger’s?
Frustrated, upset and wanting better for their child, many parents of kids with Asperger’s do their own research about their child’s unique needs and decide to home school. But is home school the best answer? By Meghan Vivo, Your Little Professor.

7 Tips for Beginning to Homeschool a Child With an Autism Spectrum Disorder
Homeschooling for autistic children makes a lot of sense for a variety of reasons. By Valorie Delp.

Weird Kids
Shannon Anderson, a homeschool parent of an autistic child and a member of the Aut-2B-Home email list, has put together this a huge new site with information she’s gleened from the list.

Online

Asperger’s Family Forum
Welcome! This Facebook forum was created for individuals and families that are in search of information, support, and/or would like to touch base with others regarding Asperger’s Syndrome and High Functioning Autism. Sign in on Delphi.

Aut-2B-Home
This email list is a collection of families who are homeschooling their autistic spectrum children full-time or part-time. [The address for the maelstrom at St. Johns address no longer works!]

Autism Families Bay Area Activities
The purpose of this site is to keep families in the San Francisco Bay Area informed about fun, engaging artistic or recreational events that cater to individuals with special needs, especially those whose disability or behaviors may otherwise make “typical” events difficult or impossible to attend.

Autism Homeschooling Support Group New Zealand
This group has been set up for families in New Zealand who are Home Educating or considering Home Educating children on the Autism Spectrum (diagnosed or undiagnosed). We seek to provide a safe, informative, encouraging and supportive environment where you can ask questions and connect with each other.

Homeschooling Autism
An honest look inside the world of homeschooling a special needs adolescent intended to bring transparency into autism education instead of shutting it away in a dark “quiet” room.

Homeschooling on the spectrum: Autism, aspergers, PDD
Closed group. Contact admin about joining this Facebook group.

Homeschooling our Aspergers, ADHD, ODD, etc.
This is, above all, a safe place where people who are homeschooling (or making the decision to homeschool) their kiddos with a variety of different development challenges can come for encouragement, to share experiences, seek advice, and a number of other things. Contact admins to join.

Homeschooling Our Aspergers, ADHD, PDD (High Functioning) Kids 2
The common bond we all share is that we’re caregivers and parents to kiddos with special needs and a commitment to ensuring the best opportunities for success and education possible by homeschooling. Contact admin about joining this Facebook group.

Homeschooling Parents of Children with Asperger’s Syndrome
Closed group. Contact admin about joining this Facebook group.

North Texas Autism, Asperger’s and ADHD Homeschooling Friends
Beth created this group so we could have one place to post for support, questions, ideas, deals and play time ideas. Feel free to add anyone who fits the category, please!

Research

Special Education Teachers’ Perceptions ad Beliefs Regarding Homeschooling Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders
By Karen Hurlbutt. Study about the perceptions of fifty-two special education teachers and what they felt about homeschooling. Content protected against copying text.

Stanford Bio-X
Results of research on autism. The Mission of Bio-X is to catalyze discovery by crossing the boundaries between disciplines, to bring interdisciplinary solutions and to create new knowledge of biological systems, in benefit of human health.

Resources

Spectrum Keys
Research around video modeling goes back more than two decades. However the ability for to view a video on demand has become possible with newer technology only very recently. Spectrum Keys has created dozens of videos based on the research. These are also supported by stories and pictures that can be customized and modified to meet the individual needs of each child. Very low membership fee.

University of North Carolina TEACCH Autism Program
A University-based system of community regional centers that offers a set of core services along with unique demonstration programs meeting the clinical, training, and research needs of individuals with ASD, their families, and professionals across the state of North Carolina.

Stories

Aut-2B-Home in Carolina
Tammy Glasser’s goal is to share ideas about homeschooling her eighteen-year-old daughter with autism and syntactic aphasia, who has learned at home for the past eleven years. Tammy welcomes comments and questions especially from parents walking a similar path.

Brilliant minds linked to autism
Historical figures including Socrates, Charles Darwin, and Andy Warhol probably had a form of autism, says a leading specialist.The Homeschooling Adventures of Asperger Boy and Bipolar Girl
This is the journey of a soon-to-be single mother trying to raise and homeschool two medically and psychologically (i.e. mental illness) children by the seat of her pants. This is told from the viewpoint of a parent living this life day to day.

We Aut To Be At Home
A blog following the homeschool journey of two work-at-home parents and our ASD son. With candor and humor, I hope to inspire other parents of autistic children who are exploring homeschooling as an option.

The post Homeschooling Autistic Children appeared first on A2Z Homeschool – THE A-to-Z of Homeschooling.

Before starting, it is important to understand how to meet the needs of the autistic child. Autism spokesperson, Temple Grandin, has great teaching tips for children and adults with autism.

No matter what route you take, it is always great to have a collection of free resources available. We have compiled a list of some of our favorites for you!

Free Resources for Autistic Learners

34 Special needs Books for Encouragement and Instruction 
Find books to help you and your children during your homeschooling journey. This list contains books for on parenting special needs, books for children about special needs, and books to help with homeschooling special needs.

Educational Resources for Special Needs
Free printable picture cards to help with schedules, practice communication, or tell stories.

English Resources for Autism Teachers
Free printables for teaching English. Includes phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing.

Fun Activity Ideas for Children with Autism
Ten fun activity ideas that encourage exploration and provide sensory experiences.

Free Calm Down Kit Printables
Calm down kits can be helpful in teaching your child to cope and self-regulate. These printable can help get you started with making ready to use calm down kits.

Five Free Songs for Pre- and Emerging Verbal Learners
Five free songs to help encourage your child to practice their speech.

Free Printable Math Centers for K-5 & Autism Units
Free printables for geometry, algebra, money, number recognition, and more.

Learning Games for Kids 
Free educational videos, songs, and online games.

Minecraft & Autism
Use Minecraft as a learning tool for teaching concepts such as self-awareness, self-control, and planning with this free series.

****Online Support Groups
Find a place to ask questions, get recommendations, and support with this list of online support groups.

Playdough Stamping Activities
A collection of activities to help your children practice fine motor skills with easy to find items and playdough!

Practical Autism Free Printables
A large collection of free printables! This site provides resources for word/picture associations, scheduling helpers, math activity printables, vocabulary, and much more.

Printable Pointing Books
Free printable to help build communication skills and practice pointing communication.

Sensory Ideas for Kids with Autism
It is common for children on the autism spectrum to have difficulty with sensory stimulation. Sensory activities can help these children train their brain on how to react with different sensations. Here are 101 sensory ideas to help!

Sesame Street and Autism
Find information on autism, videos for children, tips for parents, and free online story-book We’re Amazing.

Today I feel… Daily Emotion Activity
Help your child talk about emotions and learn facial cues with this free printable. (This site also offers other great printables for various hands-on activities that you might want to check out)

The post Free Resources for Autistic Learners appeared first on A2Z Homeschool – THE A-to-Z of Homeschooling.

You will be extremely happy to know that you have nothing in common with me. You glide along through life like a leaf down a crystal stream. You tend to steer in the direction everyone else is steering, and the road ahead of you is well lit and mapped out. Your children have been welcomed with open arms by everyone they’ve met, and your home is a bastion of peace, harmony, and good will. Best of all, your homeschooling experience has been the most rewarding and inspiring era of your life, and you’ve never doubted your calling for even a moment. See? I told you that you have nothing in common with me.

Me . . . well, my life has been slightly different. My leaf tends to get stuck against every wet rock of the stream, my steering has been out of alignment for as long as I can remember, and the road I am on has been steep, winding, and many times even closed for construction. My children, both with special needs, have been stared at, frowned upon, and pitied in their turn, and my home can feel much more like an open battlefield than a fortress at times. And frankly, I’ve been tempted to quit homeschooling more times than I’ve been tempted to cheat on my diet, and that is saying a lot. However, while my life in no way resembles yours, you needn’t feel sorry for me one bit. I like my life . . . actually, I love it – – every little bit of it – – because God made me especially for it.

So many things in life seem designed with the “average” person in mind, don’t they? Airplane passenger seats are designed for an average size person, standardized tests are designed for the average student, and medicine doses are prescribed with the average person in mind. I’ll never forget the feeling of empathy I felt when I saw someone being asked to move along because they wouldn’t fit into a ride at a theme park. Or the first time I saw children on a park playground laughing at my son because he couldn’t control the jerking tics caused by his Tourette Syndrome. Our society caters to the average person . . . the average family . . . the average way of life. Unfortunately, I just can’t squeeze myself into that mold.

Homeschoolers used to be marginalized too, but over the years, they have become more accepted and respected. Within the homeschooling community, there are now groupings that help people fit in. There are Christian homeschoolers, unschoolers, Classical schoolers, Waldorf schoolers, Montessori schoolers, and traditional schoolers. Would you believe that I don’t fit into any of those either? We are Christians, but aren’t really homeschooling for religious reasons, we read the classics, but our exposure to Latin consists of what is written on the backs of our coins, and my worn-out lesson plan bookwould attest that I am a far cry from adopting unschooling in the near future. I suppose I simply don’t assimilate well.

Strangely enough, though, my life is far from impossible. Someone had the good sense to design a few things with the irregular person in mind. TiVo invented a way to automatically record any show that happens to concern Jane Austen – – my current obsession. Tombstone miraculously created a frozen pizza that is half cheese and half supreme – – the only way my family will eat it. I recently saw a magazine in the library for people who garden on their deck. I truly thought I was the only one guiding squash vines around the railing posts. And thank heavens for Time4Learning.com, a multimedia homeschool curriculum that is so well suited for the out-of-the-box learner.

I have learned over time that the kingdom of God is certainly an upside-down kingdom, and that swimming against the current is actually inevitable. Praying for my enemies, returning kindness for evil, and forgiving those who are beyond forgiveness are part of the inverted life I’ve been asked to lead. So, I shouldn’t be all that surprised that my leaf takes a few hits as it heads downstream. The image I see in my mirror each day looks different from any other image I see in the world around me because God has asked me to model a life that is far from average. In fact, I think God delights in the fact that I am abnormal . . . unusual . . . exceptional.

Because of this, I know that when I hit the roadblocks of life, I can find a way around them. When my children face the challenges of being different, I can remind them that means they are on the right track! When the normal battles of life take over my home, I understand that I will win the war in the end. And when I have laid my head down on my pillow at the end of a difficult day, and wondered why God has called me to this thing called “homeschooling” – – I will remember that it is because I have been called according to His purpose. Called to be different.

Kerry Jones is a freelance writer and web maintenance engineer in North Carolina. She has two sons, and has been homeschooling since 1999.

The post A Different Drum appeared first on A2Z Homeschool – THE A-to-Z of Homeschooling.

Some children are fairly bright, and able to learn all sorts of stuff quickly.

Other children have a learning disability ad need to take it slower and with fewer topics.

Sometimes an “easy” book is just right for the bright kid trying to learn a new subject.

Sometimes a “slow” child in many topics is an absolute genius in a specific topic and can read at a high level in that one topic.

Any thing that someone else says your child “must comprehend” in a given year is not concerned about YOUR child!

The standards are written for curriculum publishers so that they’ll be sure to cover all they need to over several years of text books. This way a child won’t have to have a lesson about, say, Roman Numerals, even year ad nausium.

Homeschooling you can present new concepts as your children express curiosity about something. They will then probably learn the concept in about an hour because of high motivation.

Force feeding them concepts because they “should” learn something at their age will take hours to teach and then minutes to forget.

The post Do you have a Standard Child? appeared first on A2Z Homeschool – THE A-to-Z of Homeschooling.