Application Example for Home Education Registration in Queensland

Our application for home education has been deemed appropriate as is and has been sent to the minister with a recommendation for full registration. When I started the application process I had no idea how to write it up. I found some helpful assistance through Beverly Paine's Getting Started with Home Schooling and I consumed home school blogs to get an idea of what others were doing.

What I really wanted was a real life example of a home education application to Queensland Education. Unable to source anything, I provided what I thought I would need when assessing the quality of an home educational program. Feedback from the Home Education unit was that while my application package was thorough, it was more than they required.

Our home school application package follows. I hope that it is of some use to other beginning home schoolers.

(A cover letter and the completed Queensland Home Education proforma preceded the following information)

Items 1 – 5. Completed on green application form that is attached to this document.

Item 6. Details of the Child’s Program

Educational Philosophy.

• Education is a life long process.


• Education is holistic with areas of environmental and self-care being as important as classical learning.


• Teachable moments present themselves throughout the day and when capitalized upon offer enjoyable and non focused educational learning.


• Home education is learning a variety of skills in many settings and in many ways.


• Education is multi faceted and accessible from a variety of support people with an array of different educational backgrounds, areas of expertise and different views on life.


• Natural learning occurs when a student is relaxed, happy and in an environment of safety.


• We are co-learners rather than teachers. We facilitate a learning process and encourage empowerment by enabling the student to accept that we do not know everything, that our way is not the only way and that there is learning available to all of us by accessing community, individuals and institutions.


• We recognize that by making the student the instructor at times, a wealth of knowledge will be gained for the student and a measurable increase in the students self esteem will become visible.


• Any situation is a possible teachable moment. To seize the teachable moment and deliver it in a way that will capture the interest of the student, is a role that we take on as co-learners.


• Just as there are different types of intelligence, there are different types of education. Our goal as home educators is to offer balance across areas of intelligence and educational frameworks.


• A progression from knowledge reception to higher learning evaluation occurs when:educational material is presented in a palatable way designed to a student’s specific learning needs; when the learning environment is charged with a air of enquiry across all learning partners; and when the traditional focus moves from fact retainment to fact appreciation.
  
  Short-term goals:
  
• To set age and developmentally appropriate, monthly, rich task focused variables across each of the learning areas of English, Mathematics, SOSE, Science, HPE, Technology, Arts, and LOTE. For example: In four weeks time you will be able to talk, for five minutes, to a group of other people, on why rainforest trees have wide and thick leaves. Or, in four weeks time you will be able to write, spell check and publish your own 300 word blog about what you learnt by visiting the Aboriginal community of Yarrabah.


• To develop an emotional toolbox for Boy to use at times when he is unsure of what is expected of him or his behaviour.


• To reduce Boy’s anxiety and to increase his self esteem.


• To reignite an interest in education as a worthwhile activity.


• To increase Boy’s levels of educational attainment in reading, spelling and comprehension.


• To put the fun and learning back into an educational process.


• To develop a holistic educational program that covers personal and learning needs.
  
  Long term goals:
  
• For Boy to be able to learn in a classroom environment.


• For Boy to be able to cope with and survive change.


• For Boy to match his peers at traditionally accepted educational levels.


• For Boy to be able to go back to a traditional school without experiencing constant Aspergers melt downs.


• For Boy to have an appreciation of strategy, empathy and other people’s needs.


• For Boy to have developed as a person, to have developed in his educational achievements and to have developed an understanding of how he learns best.

What is the broad education program and or learning philosophy you think you might be following?

Given that Boy responds well to a natural environment where there is no stress or over stimulus, we intend to combine elements of Natural learning (Holt) and Steiner with Maths curricula input from the Qld Syllabus and thematic projects based on Social Stories (Carol Gray).

Individualize the plan:

Our educational plan for Boy is based upon recommendations contained in the report from Minds and Hearts (specialist Aspergers clinic in Brisbane). This report is attached as Appendix 1.

It has been apparent for years that Boy struggles in a classroom environment and that relationships and friendships are difficult for him. A critique of our choice to not home educate has been a lack of social interaction. While we appreciate the concern of others, Boy’s disorder means that he views social interactions differently. He is unable to form friendships the way we do. Therefore, we intend to capitalize upon social activities that he already enjoys (Robotics club, Kendo and Laser Tag) and build some new ones into the home education program. Boy is keen to learn about gems so we will join the local Lapidary club as an alternative form of education and social interaction.

Boy struggles (hates) with reading, spelling and comprehension. Attending a busy, noisy library is difficult for Boy. As an author, I have professional access to the children’s librarian. I aim to request a private tour of the closed library and a one on one hands-on tutorial of searching, finding and checking out books. In return, I will offer a chapter read that Boy can also attend and give him a helping task on the day. Similarly, my access to other famous Australian authors (Margaret Clarke and Louisa Dent) can provide Boy with author information and contact that other children would never have access to. Margaret Clarke has sent me one of her latest books to reviews. Although it is focused at girl readers and contains scenes about incest, I will request Boy to provide email feedback to Margaret from a boy’s perspective.

While Boy enjoys and is average in Math, the textbooks create an over stimulus and melt down process in him. Even though we will base Math learning on the year level appropriate Math book, my partner (an accountant) will redesign the activities to make them appear effortless and non school focused. My partner will be responsible for imparting Math learning and will capitalize upon Boy’s natural penchant for computer learning. Textbook activities will be redesigned to encompass spreadsheets and analysis.

Boy does not like to write but loves to play on the computer. Therefore, we have purchased him a laptop for Christmas and he can word process all of his assignments, place photographs, and manipulate the presentation of said assignments.

Do you need to modify your child’s program?

Boy’s educational program is designed to fit his unique needs due to having Aspergers. Reading, spelling and comprehension will be based upon his current level of achievement rather than his educational year level. We have sought out spelling lists and work sheets for the Year 3 level and will master these words (100% accuracy) prior to moving onto more age appropriate word lists.

Teaching and Learning

We have all agreed upon home education occurring every morning from 9 to 12. I will be the principal educator and will draw in the expertise of others as required. My partner will educate in Math one day per week. The time frame has been achieved to create a boundary for Boy. He detests school to the point that he will be clock watching. Therefore, by attacking any formalized work sheet or projects during this time structure, we are then left with the evening to incorporate natural learning tenets into our family life. For example, cooking with Boy or watching a documentary on the plight of the Panda, will be reported upon but he will have no idea that it is part of his school day.

We have turned our dining room into a home education area. In the afternoons, I will work from home and Boy will have free time to pursue his computer games.

Boy has been granted two hours per week Youth Worker hours through the Early Intervention Service. The Youth Worker will be addressing anger management, social skills and recreational activities. These two hours will become a home education session and will occur on a set morning, once a week.

The many excursions that we have planned will occur at the time-frames of our accommodating friends (e.g. the environmental scientist field trip mentioned earlier). These will not be framed as educational activities to Boy, but rather, as privileges that we are all lucky to have. These privileges will be solid learning but will be in addition to our nominated educational hours.

Excursions connected to the rich task learning will occur during our nominated school times. For example, if we are studying reef fish, a trip to the reef and a glass bottom boat trip would be considered as a home school activity. Therefore, the allocated learning time for that day would be taken up by the excursion.

Once a month, if the rich tasks have been met, Boy will be rewarded with a local trip of his choice. This may be a session at Go Carts or Cable Skiing (both of which offer valuable learning) and will be outside of nominated home education hours.

We are fortunate to have a number of friends who are educators and curriculum development specialists. Although we have not yet needed assistance from these people, they have offered objective advise or guidance should we require it.

Learning areas covered:

See The Home School Year Planner

Assessment and Reporting

Boy’s progression will be measured initially against his willingness to school. Once we have a variety of worksheets to use as a platform, progression will be measured against his own work achievements.

Checklists on a number of web sites have been used as a guide to establish where Boy’s peers would be learning at. While these checklists remain as a check only, they also provide us with a goal to work toward progression and higher learning.

We will be having monthly tests: a mixed bag of Boy reporting on what he has done and learned. Rewards for reaching 50, 60, 70 80, 90 and 100% will be metered out at the end of the test. One hundred percent correct answers will result in an overnight visit to a place of Boy’s choice (the first one of choice is a trip to Charters Towers to do some gold panning).

We started a home schooling blog (http://homeschoolingaspergers.blogspot.com/) when we first decided to home school Boy (Nov, 2006). The blog acts as both our home school diary and our reporting mechanism. The public nature of the blog ensures transparency and a call for help/participation with other home schoolers. Sample blog entries and articles done by Boy are attached as Appendix 2

During November and December of 2007, we home schooled Boy two days per week. During the school holidays, we encouraged a culture of enquiry by treating every outing as a teachable moment. These were all recorded on the blog. Since we formally began our process of home education on January 29, 2007, every school day and home education related activities have been recorded on the blog.

Copies of all worksheets completed are kept in our filing cabinet. Similarly, writing, book lists, spelling, and art work is photographed and, where possible, kept on file.

Social Skills and Extra Curricula activities

Boy already attends Robotics Club, Kendo and Laser Tag. These activities will continue throughout 2007. He also has an adult mentor through Cairns Youth Mentoring Service. He meets with this person fortnightly and they work on computer game strategies and other activities of interest (bowling, fishing).

Boy is currently attending a youth group through the Early Intervention Service. This group runs for seven weeks and concentrates on challenging behaviours, self esteem and anger management. Their flier is attached as appendix 3. Further, the youth worker plan from Early Intervention Service is also attached as Appendix 4.

Teaching Resources:

Internet and free worksheets are used to maximum degree. I have paid to join Teaching Treasures and buy worksheets that are suited to our thematic study units.

Human resources are heavily utilized to make learning fun and for specialist knowledge and material not readily available in stores.

Math follows “Go Math” level 6.

Our home schooling blog lists the resource sites that we use most regularly:
Sites we like and use frequently
A to Z Home's Cool Homeschooling Web Site
Assessment Learning
Beverley Paine's Homeschool Australia.
Home Schooling Information
Homeschool Australia Blog
Ragamuffin Studies
Sculpey (clay)
Wrong Planet (The online resource and Community for those with Asperger's Syndrome)

Learning Environment:

Boy lives in a home where education is valued. Both my partner and I have tertiary degrees and I teach part time at University. Our social networks are highly motivated and intelligent people with a range of specialist expertise. My mother, a frequent home school support, is a retired social worker and my brother has several degrees (Education, Anthropology, Archeology and has just exited the S.A.S).

Boy has his own office space, laptop with broadband and network to a colour laser printer.

One wall of our lounge room is dedicated as a “grouse” wall: anything of value to any family member can be placed on this wall. This is the nominated place of display for Boy’s home education projects and learning hints.

Given the natural beauty of the area we reside in, we are concentrating heavily on natural learning tenets and visit places of educational worth regularly (Great Barrier Reef, rainforest, wind farms, etc).

Context and process:

Boy has Aspergers (Pediatric assessment attached as Appendix 5). Although he is very bright, he appears to be unable to learn the way other children do. Our intention is to deliver education in a way that best suits him. He shows a preference for retaining information delivered in a natural and non-educative way. Samples of his very recent work at home are attached as Appendix6.

Boy values one on one, adult relationships and will naturally gravitate toward a person who offers him respect and information. For example, at a recent dinner party, Boy gravitated toward a male guest who holds a PhD in geology. Boy is a keen rock collector and he shared his collection with our guest. Boy and the guest spent the evening discussing how the different types of rock, minerals and gems were formed, where they are found, and what conditions are present for them to develop. Boy has retained all of this information and is able to repeat it to us.

We are fortunate to have a host of intelligent and generous friends who are considered expert in their field. It is our intention to use our friendships to assist in educating Boy. This has been discussed with many of those friends and plans have begun to include Boy and his particular needs into field trips, farm visits and visiting workshops. For example, we have already arranged with a senior environmental scientist for Boy to attend their next field trip to assist them in counting and identifying bugs. Boy is excited by this and has not yet made the connection between it being a home education exercise.

Obsessions are typical for people with Aspergers. Boy becomes obsessional over things that he enjoys. We aim to create a flexible home education program that will allow us to naturally work through his obsessions. The monthly rich task focused criteria will guide the learning to ensure that Boy’s obsession stays focused and functional.

Boy has poor personal hygiene and a good deal of the first terms focus will be on ensuring the visual cues for teeth cleaning, hair washing, changing clothes, etc. The Aspergers clinic in Brisbane has supplied several ideas on how to achieve improved personal hygiene and we will build these into our school day.

Should you require any further evidence or material from us, please don not hesitate to contact.

We look forward to entering into a learning partnership with you.

Megan Bayliss (BSW, Dip SOC, MAASW)

Media Statement: New Standards for Queensland Teachers

The following media statement has given me some points to reflect on as a home school teacher. In particular, the required standard of professional development. I often wonder if I am doing the best that I can. Should I be pushing my child more? Should I be giving stamps and stickers as they do in class rooms? Should I be taking classes in core subjects so that I'm on top of current learning and teaching trends? I'm keen to hear from other home schoolers to find out how you contribute to your own professional development as a home school teacher.

Minister for Education and Training and Minister for the Arts

The Honourable Rod Welford

01/03/2007

NEW STANDARDS FOR QUEENSLAND TEACHERS

New professional standards for Queensland teachers have been released as part of the State Government's comprehensive reforms of teacher registration.

Minister for Education and Training, Rod Welford, said the standards outlined the abilities, knowledge and professional values expected of teachers in Queensland schools.

"These reforms are part of our major overhaul of teacher registration and respond to the needs of a modern education system," Mr Welford said

"They have been developed by the new Queensland College of Teachers, which our Government established in 2006 to oversee changes to teacher registration.

"Teachers now have to renew their registration every five years. To gain renewal, they will have to show they've maintained their professional skills through ongoing professional education and recent teaching experience.

"These new professional standards will provide the benchmark for the profession in Queensland and give teachers a common framework to examine and renew their practice.

"They will be used to test first-time teachers in their application for provisional registration and full registration, as well as supporting preservice teacher education programs.

"They capture the essence of teachers' work - its complexity and diversity - as teachers manage the learning and teaching process for individuals and groups of students.

"Importantly, they provide a means to demonstrate to parents, school communities, and the public the knowledge, skills and abilities required by teachers in our schools today."

The standards are based around the three areas of teaching and learning, relationships with students, families and colleagues, and professional development.

The standards were developed in consultation with Queensland teachers and key stakeholders. Teachers can view the Professional Standards for Queensland Teachers from the Queensland College of Teachers website.

Copies of the standards will be sent to Queensland schools and registered teachers at the beginning of next term.

Media contact: Greg Milne or Marnie Stitz on 32371000

End of Media Statement.

How do home school parents ensure their professional development? What home school conferences are available? I would love to attend some.

Reading, World Affairs and Planning

Reading: Capturing Boys waning interest in reviews, today we read a lengthy review of World of Warcraft's Burning Crusades expansion pack. By choosing something he is highly interested and motivated in I hoped to lessen his anxiety around school work and capture a generosity toward learning.

Boy is not a reader and has difficulty writing. Happy to read comics (Asterix is his comic of choice), the battle to get Boy into reading text and comprehending it, does my head in.

The use of graphics and social stories is well documented for children with Aspergers. In an effort to get boy to read a large amount of text that I knew would interest him, I copied it from the web site, enlarged it to 14 point font and added as many World of Warcraft pictures as I could. IT WORKED! Boy read on to understand what the next picture was about.

Boy and I took turns in reading paragraphs aloud to each other and then having a general chatty yarn around what the paragraph meant. He loved it. He became animated and eager to complete the rest of the mornings work so that he could take me to some discussed places in Burning Crusades. Oh the things I do for my child!!!!

World Affairs: Boy has a healthy general knowledge about worldly events, especially events from social history (my interest). What he doesn’t know a lot about though is American history and its significant social markers. I came across a neat, free calendar, from an American site (Parent Education) and printed it out to go through with Boy.

The date fields on the calendar contain interesting tidbits of history, nation days and gloriously useless bits of general knowledge: Things we love. We did an art and craft activity together to make the calendar look like the ones you buy in shops and have hung the calendar on the wall. Our school day will start with some brief research into the events mentioned on that day.

Today, thanks to Wikipedia, we learnt about Jackie Robinson and his involvement in Baseball and the civil rights movement. Boy had never heard of Wikipedia so that alone was a sparkling moment of learning.

Boy loved this activity and we have agreed that we will have a trivia quiz at the end of every month. The trivia will be gleaned from the daily calendar research and I will present Boy with 20 questions. Boy can re research the answers and 100% correct answers will win Boy the rest of the day off school. He thought this was a TERRIFIC idea.

Planning: To meet our home school registration requirements, our State Education Department demands a rough plan for the entire year. Together we broke our learning requirements into seven areas and decided upon some rough goals for each of our four school terms. While not set in concrete, they will provide a structure for us to work toward, even when we are gripped by obsessions and meltdowns.

Boy has set himself some hard tasks – he wants to learn French and Japanese. Does any body have any ideas of how I can do this for minimum cost?

Home School Begins

Today is the first day of the new school year for Australian students. After seven weeks summer holiday, homes will be filled with moaning, sad children or kids bouncing with glee, happy to be going to school to learn and see their friends again.

In our house: Boy is enjoying his last morning of playing his computer games. I have built his youth hours support into our home school curricula. Whereas mornings are our nominated home school time, on Monday afternoons the youth work concentration on social skills and anger management is Boy’s learning for the day. The youth worker will be here at 3 PM.

Tuesdays (cheap movie day) Boy and I will go to watch a movie and he will do some sort of review on it. I had suggested that tomorrow we watch Miss Potter. Oh dear, did he complain bitterly. I have no idea how I will elicit a review from him but it will need to be as masculine and teenage as I can make it. He views Miss Potter as a movie for little kids and old parents – hardly a movie for him!

Today is the first day of our home school adventure and from here on in blogs will become more diary like with heavy contributions from Boy. While I remain mostly positive, I cannot deny the squelchy feeling of anticipation and fear creeping up my stomach. Am I doing the right thing, have I prepared enough, is this the best option for Boy?

Scared but determined I am…and I know I have a whole host of successful home schoolers behind me. Thank you to each of you.

Hand Writing Family Education Journals

Always on the look out for free learning activities, I have subscribed to Family Education.com. The site offers a range of projects and printables for age groups: 0-6, 7-11, 12-18.

An American site, I guess that many home school families will already be aware of it. However, on the off chance that you have not yet discovered it, I share it now as a learning source that we use.

Boy HATES writing. The Asperger’s specialist suggested that we do not wear ourselves, and him, out by insisting that he develop the skill of writing because he is already a dab hand on the laptop and his future will involve word processing documents, not hand writing them. I understand her reasoning and I do not want to create Aspergic meltdown opportunities for Boy.

However, I want Boy to experience the joy of handwriting. I want him to know the etiquette of hand written thank you notes, I want him to value a loved one’s handwriting, particularly once they are deceased as hand written notes can be such a treasure and comfort to look at, feel, and hold close to your heart after a loved one has died. So, rather than creating a scene and making an academic argument of handwriting importance, I have done what I have been doing as a child therapist for years. I provided Boy a special journal.

Family Education includes journal writing in their Social and Personal Skill building section for the 7-11 age group. I was pleased to note that instructions included making the journal sacred: no parental reading. It is so important for children to have some private space. It helps them to develop separately from their family and allows them to move along the accepted tasks of their developmental age. Despite the psychology behind keeping journals, I am just so happy that Boy chooses to lie in bed and hand write things of importance to him.

Do you have a home schooled child that hates writing? How do you get them to do it?

Home Schooling Curriculum

Home Schooling Curriculum is again confusing me. Writing up our registration application for home school is doing my head in!

The Home Schooling Curriculum we have chosen to follow is Natural Learning (unschooling) with a small mix of other curricula.

Can any other home educators help me please? I am eager to share ideas on how to write up home schooling curricula for home school unschooling.

Here’s a previous post on our teaching philosophy to give insight into our personal values.

Boy…I almost need a Law degree to sort this out with our Education Department! Just on that point, are there any law firms that specialize in home school?

I look forward to hearing from somebody.

2007 Year of the Home School Adventure

Our New Year, 2007, begins our serious adventure into Home School.

We have had a great holiday. While in Townsville, Boy’s highlights were visiting the Reef HQ Aquarium (first picture), going to an omnimax theatre (I got seriously motion sick!!) and a day trip to Charters Towers (last picture).

We stayed with friends (Boy camped in their back yard, his tent is pictured.) and playing with the family’s kids was such a bonus for Boy. Boy was well behaved, no aspergers melt downs and removed himself from situations when he was feeling overloaded.

While at the aquarium Boy requested that, we build excursions into home schooling. Although we had already intended to do this, Boy took some ownership of his educational needs and began a planning process of learning. He is keen to visit the Aquarium again and asked to visit the Great Barrier Reef to see the fish and sea creatures in their natural habitat fulfilling their environmental roles. Our first two excursions will be just that: we will visit Green Island in the next couple of weeks and will head back to Townsville before the end of January.

I sense a unit of marine study coming on. Boy’s interest will make my job as facilitating educator easy to capture his curiosity and fully capitalize upon it. I am grateful that we live in a part of the world where we can easily experience everything that the Great Barrier Reef has to offer. A unit of Marine learning will not be book based but practical, interactive and based in natural learning tenets within its own environment.

Boy’s learning happened vicariously at the Aquarium. We spent the entire day there and took every tour and lecture on offer. Boy asked the presenters many questions and was always first up with his hand to show off the knowledge he had. Other visitors commented on his knowledge and boosted Boy’s self-esteem like a shot of vitamins.

The next few home schooling aspergers blogs will be Boy based. I will ask him to word process some of his learning to help others learn. His blogs will become part of his home school diary, evaluation and will aid the English program I am designing.

Please, if you have time, would you ask boy a question about his trip to the Aquarium so that it assists in consolidating his comprehension and learning, aides his memory and recall and further builds his belief in himself and home schooling.

Happy New Year to you. I have an inkling that 2007 and our start of full time home schooling is going to make for a very good year for us.

Related article on Supporting 2007 Children to Have a Happy New Year.

Pinochet, Britney and Muhammad Ali: Pom Poms on Tender Hooks

Pom Poms are so therapeutic and educational. Boy wanted to make some little Pom Pom’s as Christmas decorations but he couldn’t remember how to make them. It ended up being a cool learning exercise in art and craft and general knowledge for the two of us to do.

Boy chose his size of circle to make the cardboard Pom Pom frame. Although we were not doing a home schooling exercise, watching him measure plates, cups and bottles (anything with a circle he could draw around) against each other as he found his perfect size was just amazing.

The second step was to find a somewhat smaller circle to make the inside circle for the cardboard frame. The circle hunt repeated itself and my kitchen benches again supported an assortment of anything with a circle base on it. This second circle-finding mission reinforced his first rules of highly scientific circle measurement of holding one kitchen piece up against another. Scientific or not, it worked well.

After carefully tracing his circles onto an empty cereal box, he then cut them out and sought out the wool. He knew exactly what colours he wanted (how Aspergers is that!) and he told me a long story about why a recent home school worksheet we did on the colour blue was dumb, stupid, and damaging to kids. There would be no blue in his Pom Pom, his Pom Poms would be like Muhammad Ali, a yellow and black bee (can you guess who the latest obsession is?). Oh dear: no yellow wool so he went for his favorite colour, green, and told me how to blend blue and yellow to get green.

So, we sat, threaded, talked, laughed and had a wonderful time exchanging tidbits of general information. Boy now knows a little of the history of Chile under the Pinochet regime, about Britney Spears break up and where the saying on "Tender Hooks" (tenter hooks) comes from.

I LOVE the ease of using Natural Learning elements for home schooling. Oh yes, the Pom Poms are pretty cool too.

The Shelf Life of a Home Schooler.

The school year has ended and so have our constant arguments about boy child attending! Hooray.

Highly anxious in his last two weeks, we managed to encourage only one-day’s attendance at school. Hence, many unschooled home school activities focused our days and slotted their way around my heavy pre holiday work life.

One highlight for both Boy and myself was the building (well…putting together) of a set of shelves.

Purchased some four months previously, the shelves have lain boxed, stoic and lonely upon my office floor. Partner is not good at any manual tasks, I have been too busy, and boy oblivious to the pending task of construction.

In desperation to find a non-Christmas, non work sheet, unschooling activity capable of holding boys attention for more than five minutes, the shelves finally saw life from outside of their box.

Boy was terrific in his task of construction. Measuring, matching, balancing and erecting, boy put together the shelves WITHOUT the help of the instructions. Written in poor English, the instructions were destructional to our instructional plan of having boy complete a natural learning activity.

Once again, the greatest learning happened to me. I was amazed at how practical and handy Boy was. He measured with Aspergers dogmatic precision. He worked out how the plastic joins fitted together and calmly corrected my construction mistakes.

When I asked Boy if he had learned anything from the activity, he retorted, “Yeah, I’m better at building than you are.” Never a truer word spoken and how healthy for Boy’s increasing self-esteem. I smiled to myself and roused internally that I had expected an articulate answer that involved tenets of math, comprehension and construction.

Who needs to be unschooled here? ME!

Aspergers Tick by Pediatrician

We attended our long awaited Pediatrician appointment today. After talking to me and reading all the other reports, the Doctor agreed that boy child is indeed Aspergers. The Doctor did qualify though that on initial meeting he would not have classified child as belonging on the Autism Spectrum of Disorders.

I guess that is part of the confusion with Aspergers: the children present so wonderfully in some situations. Boy is fantastic in very small groups and gets on extremely well with adults. On some days, he is the perfect child, on others he is like Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights.

Even though today is a home school day (we were going to finish off Eragon) I have opted to not push boy to do any school work related tasks. The Doctor made Boy do some spelling, sums and drawing of shapes. Boy is cluey – he knew that the Doctor was assessing his capability. This usually triggers a melt down when Boy thinks that others think he is dumb. There was no melt down this morning and nor do I want one this afternoon.

Boy is now happily playing World of War Craft and exceeding in upward level movement. If only boy could refocus his Asperger’s obsessive co-morbid game state to vacuuming the floor for me!

I am so tired after the two hour Doctor’s assessment this morning that I could go to bed now (3pm) and sleep until tomorrow morning. But…because I am home schooling two days per week, I have fully booked myself for the next three days. That means having clients in my home, and a need for a clean environment.

Bugger! There is just no rest for the wicked; or for the mother of a child with Aspergers.

You know somedays I feel so alone and tired, just like it is only me and the never ending ocean of Aspergers. Other days I am so positive and on top of everything. Am I alone in feeling this fatigue or do other parents of children with Aspergers also feel it?

The Christmas Turkey is moving.

We have a resident Scrub Turkey that is causing us some distress. It is very cheeky. It is raiding our rubbish bin, jumping onto our outside table, and yesterday it even tried to eat our drying dragon. Add to that, the cheeky scrub turkey knocks on our sliding glass door. What! It wants to come into the air conditioning!

Nicknamed “Boy”, home school research now tells us that “Boy” is actually “Girl.” Male Scrub Turkeys have a vibrant yellow wattle around their throat. The “wattle” swings as they walk and puffs up during their mating ritual. Most pretty and entertaining. Boy’s yellow band around his neck is tight. Perhaps he is an immature male but his size does suggest he is full-grown; therefore, we are sure he is a she.

“Boy Girl” is marked for relocation. We love him, we would keep him safe from domestic predators (dogs and cats) but we also want to live around the edge of our home school without fear that “Boy Girl” is going to get cranky and fly at one of us.

We will be calling the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service during the week, to arrange Boy Girl’s relocation to a turkey spot of rain forest pleasure. If he is being this cheeky with us, we worry that perhaps one of our neighbors will be less tolerant and have Scrub Turkey on their Christmas table.

Despite our real concern for "Boy Girl's" safety, and our intention to move him on, he has already given us a huge Christmas bonus. Without him troubling us, we would never have done some turkey research and never have known that it is us who are turkeys for not knowing the difference between a male and female Scrub Turkey.

A Home School Dragon

Boy child produced the most fantastic clay dragon. That’s it pictured. At the same time as doing a dragon project at school, we are reading Eragon, as a Monday and Friday home school activity around Dragons. He loves the book and talks, talks, talks about it. Somebody gave him a Dragon book for his birthday recently and Dragons are the order of the day.

We bought some air-dry clay and he molded a dragon in a sleeping position. I had some koala paws left over from a stuffed animal project I was involved in last year (the Teddy Bear Project) and we used them as dragon claws. I also had one set of bear eyes that we used for dragon eyes. Boy is not happy with them, thinks they are too big, but he agreed to use them nonetheless.

It was a great learning and home school activity. As he molded and designed, he talked to me about all manner of things. We discussed home schooling, bullying, his Dad, and how boy is going to miss out on a trip to Japan because he’ll be home schooled next year.

I so wished that I had known that the author of Eragon (Christopher Paolini) was home schooled (see Christopher Paolini and Eragon: A Homeschool Success Story). While searching for links for this blog, I fell across the information. Excitedly, I told husband and boy. Boy displayed his usual Aspergers flat affect and husband teased me for being so excited over a dragon. Philistines the pair of them!!

I asked boy if he would take a photo of his dragon to illustrate this blog – yet again, another teachable moment presented itself. He used the camera with ease and told me he now wants to learn how to make a movie (yipes! I’ll have to research that one first).

So, from one dragon book reading, we have covered English, Languages Other than English, Studies of Science and Environment, Arts and Technology. Best of all: we have had no Aspergers meltdowns or refusals to partake in learning.

I love Dragons and I love home school.

Home School Decision Delivered.

Boy child gladly accepted full time home schooling. We were disappointed at his lack of animation (how Aspergers is that!) but he assured us he was excited. He asked the right questions: how many hours, what do I do, can I see my friends still, and can I do stuff that I like? He understood the rules (well, for today) and says that he understands that it is okay to tell people about home schooling. Until now, he has been paranoid about people not knowing that he home schools two days per week.

We are going to set up our detached Granny Flat as the home school. It is fully contained and is currently used as his break away spot. He plays his PS2 in there in the afternoons and apart from that, the Granny Flat hardly gets used. It will make a perfect learning space.

Excursions and natural learning were of great interest to him, as were making volcanoes on the beach and attending Art and Lapidary classes. And me….I have a great weight lifted off my shoulders. The decision made, discussed and delivered. Our Aspergers special son can only now thrive in an environment that caters to his needs.

My career, well, I do not have Aspergers and I can and will cope with change.

The Tawny Frog Mouth Owl

As a learning experience, boy child and I attended the fantastic Rainforest Habitat in Port Douglas.

Boy declared that he loves the Tawny Frog Mouth: his favorite of all birds. I had no idea he even knew what they were. He rattled off a number of interesting facts about the all Australian bird and I walked away having learnt something. Perhaps boy should be home schooling me!

Did you know that the Tawny Frogmouth is not an owl? I didn’t until boy corrected my “clumsy description of the magnificent animal.” He was right! I looked it up on the net when I got home. They are not an owl, rather a member of the nightjar family. They hunt at night and rest during the day.

Well there you go. Home schooling is working for me already.
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Home School Decision Delivered this Friday.

Friday morning is our agreed day to tell boy child that we have decided on full time home school him next year. Last night partner and I sat in candle light around the edge of our home school classroom and reached consensus that boy will hear our decision but also invited to have input. I know that he will jump at the chance to be full time home schooled.

Extra curricula activities will be built into the home schooling day. He currently goes to a marshal art class (Kendo), robotics and laser tag. He learns so much from his active participation that we plan to increase this preferred way of learning. His love of collecting stones will become home school focused by him joining the Lapidary club and learning from non-authoritarian adults who share the love of stones, gems and jewelry making. We are also considering an art class for him and possibly a speech and drama class.

Library skills are an area he requires much assistance with. Our local library is BIG, full and too much for him to handle. As an author, I have contact with the senior children’s librarian and I am going to ask her if it is possible to give boy a tour after the library is closed. Partner works with some environmental engineers and scientists who do groovy field trips to count bugs, wildlife, measure distances and natural structures, etc. They have invited partner and boy along to assist with the counting. We are going to accept their invitation.

Over our fears, we are looking forward to starting home schooling for our child with Aspergers. We both now have our heads around how to set lesson plans to capitalize on natural learning and teachable moments. We are excited, positive and relieved.

When should we tell of our home schooling decision?

Boy child does not yet know that we intend to do full time home schooling next year. We currently have an arrangement with his school where he is home schooled on Mondays and Fridays and attends at his enrolled school on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. He often flatly refuses to attend school during his three-day week and nothing, NOTHING, will change his mind. So, he gets to stay home. I cancel my clients for the day and sit with him while he completes two work sheets or works on a project.

Although the school has been supportive, encouraging and accommodating, the physical attendance in a classroom is not working for our child. School produces a high anxiety level in him and he melts down way too quick. In the class and play ground, he often refuses to participate. He yells at people, becomes obsessive with his mindset of the day and is grossly unhappy with doing his schoolwork. The stress for him, for his teacher, peers, and for us, is just not worth it.

Although I have discussed our plan with the school, boy child knows nothing of it yet. My husband and I cannot agree on the best time to tell him. My husband wants to wait until after the New Year. I want to tell him now. Husband’s reasons are fear based: if we tell him now, he may refuse to go back to the school at all and there’s only three weeks left until end of term. My reasons are Aspergers focused: he does not cope with change so needs preparation and he needs to be able to say goodbye to his mates but still know they will remain his mates.

It is such a difficult decision about the best time to tell him. We find ourselves catching moments of whispered conversation lest boy child cottons onto something afoot. I am stifled in my telephone conversations when attempting to seek information and arrange resources for next year. It seems that every time I sneak the phone outside to make a call, boy child arrives beside me.

My policy has always been, “no secrets,” and I’m feeling uncomfortable holding knowledge that he has no idea of, yet directly affects him. When do you think we should tell him?

Educating our Child with Aspergers.

Are we doing the right thing in considering home schooling? Our son has Aspergers, struggles in the classroom and has more days at home than at traditional school. We greatly value education AND our son. How do we combine our two core values, stay sane, earn an income and produce a child who can function in a world that views him as different?We have previously considered home schooling but have quickly dismissed it as unworkable for us. As our son's anxieties and difficulties with traditional classroom learning have increased, our views on home schooling being unworkable have decreased.


Armed with a plethora of knowledge about Aspergers and Home Schooling, our decision is that he will be home schooled from next year. I will school him in the mornings and work from home in the afternoons. We will use a combination of core subjects and natural learning principles with a rich task focus on emotional resilience and social coping.


I intend to use this blog as a home school diary of what we are learning and doing, as a way to share what is working for us and as a forum for talking with other parents who are home schooling children with Aspergers. My reasons may be cathartic and selfish but I am concerned that so many parents of children with Aspergers complain of isolation and a lack of support. I want to indent upon that isolation; to make the world an easier and more supportive place for all of us.


I am happy to provide lesson plan information about Australia (this linked one, I guest blogged to an American home schooling channel) if your home schooled children are interested. If you are of a like mind, I would love to hear from you.

Life with a child who has Aspergers is only hard if we make it hard. We are learning to under whelm ourselves and not to sweat the small stuff. This change in attitude has made life easier for our son and certainly, better for us too.

I look forward to sharing with you.