Aspies For Freedom

Sheesh, what's up with third grade teachers?

When I got the highest score in 3rd grade on the yearly test (can't remember the name of it...it was that test that took about a week) my teacher was really angry and I remember her arguing with the lady in charge of testing. I was supposed to get an award, but she gave it to the next highest scoring child, she said it was just 'luck' that I scored so high. SHe even made me get up in class and answer questions from the test in front of the lady and the class hoping I'd show I didn't really know the answers. I answered right and I still didn't get the award.

She used to stand over me and hit my hand if I didn't hold my pencil right, and was would embarress me in front of the class ALL the blinking time.

I homeschooled my son last year...and we're trying public school out this year. They're trying hard, but I don't think its going well at all. My son is so busy just trying to maintain himself in the classroom that he's NOT LEARNING anything. We're going to try sticking it out for the year, but if things don't get better, at least he'll have an idea of what 'real' school is like,  and we'll homeschool next year.

Dreamer, do you think it would have helped to have homeschooling friends come over to visit, join a homeschooling group that did activities or something like that? I've heard of homeschoolers supplementing with classes at universites (even for grade school kids there are science clubs run through different uni's and gov't agencies).

?

How long did you homeschool, what grades?

I worried a lot about not enough time with other kids when my son was homeschooling. That's part of the reason we're trying public school this year. Unfortunately, that side of things hasn't been entirely sucessful either, he got beat up by a large group of kids a while back. Now we're wondering if we should take him to self defense classes, too.

Any thoughts??? I'm lost.

We're thinking of karate too, Bonnie. My son can punch REALLY hard; his dad, my step son and son like to play fight alot so he's had loads of practice; but I don't think my son would punch another person in anger (yet).

I don't think playfighting is the same as getting the discipline from karate, though, where there are self defense lessons included...and hopefully something taught about how to avoid fights too. Funny how your son didn't think of using a defense move during the fight, mine is like that too. I think my little fella goes tharn, and doesn't know what to do.

I'm glad your son's doing so well, Bonnie He sounds like a great kid.

My mother homeschooled me with my little brother when I was in third grade. It was awful. My brother teased and teased and teased me, and my mother's teaching was geared more towards him and I felt STUPID. I went back to school for a while, and now I'm homeschooling again. This time, I'm teaching myself, from books. It's really working. I'm going to college next year though, and I'm a little worried- if I couldn't handle high schoool, how will I handle college?

I am homeschooled in a way. But, I am homeschooled by a tutor. I take two collegde classes at night (one is a pre-med biology class, the other is a chemistry course). In normal school I did poorly. The LD classes were the worst. I learned more at home those years than I did at school.

Jockey, your experience with college may be very different from mine, but I found it MUCH easier to deal with than high school. It seemed that it was easier to stay away from the cheesy type of social stuff I hated. Luckily I met people who had similar interests to mine, they had an informal D&D club, we would meet daily and either play or just sit and talk. After awhile we actually started going places together outside of school. It was really an affirming experience for me, as I'd never known a group of people I felt comfortable with like that. They actually read BOOKS...and not just for assignments! Woohoo!

I hope it's like that for you as well...finding a club that matches your special interest is probably a good idea when you're first starting out in college.

My daughter hates high school; unfortunately because I'm working full-time I can't home school her.  She's now fourteen and a year ahead of all her classmates (Asperger's doesn't mean stupid, even though a lot of my teachers at school thought that being quiet was an indication of stupidity on my part).  I have an IQ of 140; my daughter hasn't been measured, but she's certainly brighter than I was at her age.  My NT husband is average, at 110.  I found, like Amy, that girls are harder to deal with when you're Aspie than boys are.  Girls are so much more socially manipulative at teenage years that I found it easier to hang with boys, which of course meant that I got NT's claiming that I must be gay(??)
My daughter uses the same strategy, but now finds that boys are getting to be a pain as well, since hormones have kicked in, they stop treating her as "one of the guys" and are alternatively embarrassed at being with her or wanting to treat her as a girlfriend.  
Alison

Gee I haven't been here for awhile Life has been TOO busy!

I saw this thread and thought I'd add a follow up...we're back to homeschooling! YEA!!! I'm so excited, isn't that weird? We both missed it while my son was at school.

Things went downhill at school after I last wrote (that was a big reason for my not being here! Gee, the stress was killing me...my son was so miserable )

Anyway...YEA HOMESCHOOLING!!

Hey, Amy (or anyone else), do you know any good groups for AS/autism homeschooling? Like, not curbie boohoo type lists, I mean. I really don't want to waste my time at a place like that

I've tried some of the 'general' HS forums in the past, but they're not very useful IMO.

Hi Amy,

Yeah, we started again just recently. He's pretty thrilled, it's cute. It's schohol holidays here in AU, so he gets a little break this week. Then we're studying geology at his request.

Well, if I find a group, I'll post a link here. I used to belong to a really good Yahoo HS group, I think it was called ASYouLikeIt, but I haven't been able to locate it again. I must be searching wrong on the groups search. Maybe they're gone

Bah. It seems that not only do most teachers not do anything about bullying, they also participate in it. That's been my experience. And that's why the bullying gets so bad because the bullies get the message that it's okay and that they won't have to suffer any consequences.

Anyway, college is usually much easier than high school because you can choose your company. There'll be plenty of other geeks to befriend as well.

Sjöjungfru wrote:

I work in the school system, and I know several teachers who also homeschool or send to private school.

So many bullying things go by so quickly, that even a well-intentioned teacher can't catch it. It may just be a snide remark from the popular group to the kid sitting alone. It goes on in the hallways, it includes the humiliation of always being the last chosen for a team in p.e.. I see these things where I work, and I experienced them myself. That's one reason I have been homeschooling for 19 years. Bullying is more than beating up people. Sometimes the worst damage is done over and over again in 2-second sound bites. There's no way that is ever going to change. I'm hoping my children having been spared that will be able to interact with their peers in college without all that baggage.

And you don't have to be financially well-off. Before I was compelled to go to work, I used the library, thrift stores, and my creativity to put together a curriculum. My family is still below the "poverty level", but if money meant everything, the US would have the best educated children in the world.

Here is an AS/Homeschool list to which I belong:


YahooGroups: ASLearningAtHome

Description
If you are a family dealing with autistic spectrum disorders and you are homeschooling or considering the option, then this is the list for you! This is a great group of families from around the world and we all have different educational, child rearing and religious philosophies. If you can respect others differences then you are welcome to join. This is a high volume list.

This list is moderated, which means that your membership will have to be approved by a moderator. When you sign up and the description box for 200 words comes up, just put "Interested in homeschooling my AS child(ren)" or "I'm homeschooling my AS child(ren)". Then please send an intro to the list owner with the information below. If you don't send an intro within 2 weeks of subscribing, you will automatically be denied membership.

So, when you subscribe please send an introduction to the list owner and then we will approve you or write and ask you for more information. We have implemented these standards for security and privacy.

Subscribe: ASLearningAtHome-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Thanks for that link Cindy, I think I'll give them a try

I finally found the link to that group I wrote about earlier, it's:

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/asyoulikeit/

I like them because they always seemed very positive and supportive in their out look. Oh, yeah, and they're secular...to me that's important.