schooldzed

I have been struggling with the education system for years. My son is a high functioning autistic child with type 1 diabetes. He has always been misunderstood and suffered greatly at the hands of the administrations as well as the children who attended. We now live in Lexington SC.

I am very interested in unschooling him, but he's 12 and in 7th grade. Is it too late? How do I start?

Thank you so much!

plaidpanties666

Here's a page with a whole bunch of basic links to get you started:
http://sandradodd.com/help

It's also a good idea to know the legalities in your area, and for that you'll need a local group - if there isn't an unschooling group in our area, unschooling is, legally speaking, a variety of homeschooling, so don't hesitate to ask homeschoolers, too:
http://sandradodd.com/world

But in terms of day to day life, a good place to "start" is by "taking a break". Do fun things together, or just chill out at home for awhile - whatever works best for your son's personality. Spend some time reconnecting and re-learning how to live together as a family. That might sound strange, but school breaks down family bonds and you may find you need to learn some new family social skills when school is out of the picture.

It takes some time for kids to decompress from school - its called "deschooling" - and while the basic rule of thumb is a month for each year of school, your milage will vary ;) Also, you can't really count the months of summer vacation into your expected "deschooling" time - until fall comes and your son knows he's Really not going back to school, emmotionally its just the usual summer break. During that deschooling time, your son may spend a lot of time daydreaming, or watching tv, or playing video games... whatever he tends to do to chill out. That's fine. Hang out with him as much as he wants you to, offer other fun things to do, but don't push. The First stage of unschooling is recovering from school.

http://sandradodd.com/kellylovejoy/stages

And while all that's going on, you have time to do more research, think about what you want, what you value, and get closer to your son.

---Meredith

lylaw

in addition to a big resounding yes to all that meredith said, I have a close friend with two boys who were previously diagnosed on the autism spectrum and she’s been unschooling for 4 years and they are thriving. she’d be happy to correspond with you by email, if that’d be helpful. let me know if you are interested and I will send you her email address. it assuredly NOT too late. my daughter left school at age 13 – she’s 16 now, and thriving beyond belief.
warmly, lyla

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Debra Rossing

The first thing you do is find out the legal requirements to get.him.out. of the school system - it's never to late to change course and look for something better when what is happening is not working. I would suggest you contact a local/state group for the ins and outs of unschooling in SC - this list is a bit too broad (international) to give you the kinds of information you need in that regard.

Once you've disentangled him from the system, live life. What does life look like when you're on "vacation", when school isn't the overriding scheduler in your lives. Do you spend days and days hiking? Swimming? Gardening? Gaming? Drawing? Cooking? Do that. If you like getting out and about, act like a tourist and go to all those places the locals overlook because they're always there.

Deb R



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BRIAN POLIKOWSKY

Kelly Lovejoy is part of a group that helps homeschoolers in SC stay compliant with the homeschooling laws in the State.
Does anyone has the link to that group?
I know I saw it here or somewhere !

 
Alex Polikowsky
 
 
 


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Kelly Lovejoy

Yes, I run a support group for unschoolers [email protected] and an accountability group for unschoolers/relaxed homeschoolers. www.SchoolsOutSupport.com.


Contact me privately for more info.



~Kelly

Kelly Lovejoy
"There is no single effort more radical in its potential for saving the world than a transformation of the way we raise our children." Marianne Williamson



-----Original Message-----
From: BRIAN POLIKOWSKY <polykowholsteins@...>
To: unschoolingbasics <[email protected]>
Sent: Tue, Jun 7, 2011 5:06 am
Subject: Re: [unschoolingbasics] Re: Hello Everyone!


Kelly Lovejoy is part of a group that helps homeschoolers in SC stay compliant
with the homeschooling laws in the State.
Does anyone has the link to that group?
I know I saw it here or somewhere !


Alex Polikowsky





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