anita_loomis

I am wondering if there is a book in print (rather than e-book) about the experience of unschooling a child who schools would label "special needs?" It would be for a gift for a friend who is moving. I'll be getting a copy of Sandra's book for her family but just thought I'd see if there was another something out there too. Many thanks!

Sandra Dodd

There are some pages on my site, but I rarely mention it, because unschooling works the same way with all children.

I don't know of a book, and if I did, I probably would hesitate to recommend having anyone think that there's one way of unschooling some children, and another for others.

http://sandradodd.com/special/

anita_loomis

> I don't know of a book, and if I did, I probably would hesitate to recommend having anyone think that there's one way of unschooling some children, and another for others.

I agree. It's more about trying to meet my friend where she is (which is thinking that her child is so "different") and that maybe if she read about someone with a similar situation who was choosing to unschool it might create some space for her to consider it someday. As it is, she is choosing to move her son to a third school in three years, including changing houses/towns, while chasing what I think is a chimera of special resources to keep him "on track" with his peers. And he's only six. I casually mentioned the idea that children learn to read on their own, sometimes at six sometimes at twelve and it was pretty shocking to her to think about that. I have read so many of the heartfelt regrets posted on your website from parents who came to unschooling later rather than sooner, that I suppose I wish I could spare her and, more importantly, her lovely son, the upheaval, anxiety and sense of failure they are experiencing. But, of course, that is my agenda, not hers!

Meredith

>for a gift for a friend who is moving

What are you hoping to convey? That unschooling is for everyone? Or that there are other options for a high needs/ special needs child besides the usual?

If it's the latter, you might do just as well giving her something like "Parenting and Explosive Child" or "The Out of Sync Child" - neither are unschooling books, but they're books I've recommended to unschoolers as well as other parents struggling to find ways to help their kids.

---Meredith

Sandra Dodd

Maybe Pam Laricchia's first book would help her, then. It's short enough she might read it and if the ideas are percolating through her, it will change the way she sees his experiences in school. It won't be "special needs" but it could be the thing she needs to see things she can't see now.

http://livingjoyfully.ca/books/

Pam Sorooshian

On Wed, Jun 19, 2013 at 3:58 PM, anita_loomis <anita_loomis@...>wrote:

> It's more about trying to meet my friend where she is (which is thinking
> that her child is so "different") and that maybe if she read about someone
> with a similar situation who was choosing to unschool it might create some
> space for her to consider it someday.


Lenore Colacion Hayes has a book called: Homeschooling the Child with ADD
(or Other Special Needs): Your Complete Guide to Successfully Homeschooling
the Child with Learning Differences. It isn't really about ADD in
particular and is more about unschooling than homeschooling.

I think it would be good for the purpose of moving someone toward
unschooling a kid who is now in school and identified as having special
needs. Most of the book makes the case for exactly that.

-pam


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

anita_loomis

> What are you hoping to convey? That unschooling is for everyone? Or that there are other options for a high needs/ special needs child besides the usual?

Both ideas, actually! Thank you for helping me clarify that.

Meredith, Pam and Sandra, I am going to take your book suggestions, read them myself and then pass along some or all to my friend. Looks like a good summer reading list and one that will undoubtedly benefit my family's unschooling life.