Homeschooling Blaze...

Well, here we go again. After years of dealing with school issues we've decided to pull Blaze out of the public school system. Just Blaze. The others are still in our local schools. This post is about our experience and decision from public schooling to homeschooling my special needs son. 

I did not have any plans of homeschooling any of my younger kids even though my older kids were homeschooled. I know...that seems strange. Well, Homeschooling is a lot of work. Recently, my daughter who homeschools said, "Homeschooling is like having a second job". That's true. Now, I know some families are more relaxed than I was and that's fine too.  However, when I homeschooled my older kids I gave it my all. It consumed most of my day even though I firmly believe education happens every day and everywhere (at home, the park, at church, at the ball field, etc) I set aside hours every day just to focus on my kids and what I felt they needed to know/ learn. When it came time for my younger kids to start school we decided that we would start them in a traditional school, especially Blaze. I knew how to homeschool typical kids but kids with extra needs I wasn't so sure. Blaze started in a deaf school at 3 years old for prek but was moved after a couple of months to our public school. Some things happened in the deaf school that concerned us and his health was not stable so we chose to move him closer to home and chose our local public school's prek program. Blaze LOVED school. He really did! He started with a great teacher that truly cared. He done great! As he got a wee bit older, around 5 or 6 I started having concerns. Each time I would bring up something the school would give me push back. It started when I requested a 1:1. No child in our school had a 1:1. However, due to Blaze having so many different things going on I and his doctors felt he needed a 1:1. I fought a long hard battle and got one put in place. Then after a year or so I felt he needed an interpreter. I mean, don't all deaf kids deserve to have an interpreter? I couldn't understand why it was such a big deal and the school gave me push back once again. However, after another long battle I got an interpreter put in place but they took our 1:1 person away and said that they would train the interpreter to fill both needs. I was ok with that until I realized that the interpreter wasn't doing anything but interpreting. Once again I asked questioned about why things were not being done, etc and I got the same attitude again. Yes, I am a mom who asks questions and I am a mom who expects you to do what you say and agree that you will do. I nearly lost my child last school year when he fell out in the cafeteria and stopped breathing. Had the interpreter not being paying attention on that day my child could have died. That's the basics of why I decided to pull my son out. It was just non stop issues with the school ever since the first day that I asked for a 1:1. A lot of things happened like my child almost being ran over (more than once at school,  running away from the school, being profoundly deaf, having a feeding tube, no danger awareness, needing meds at school, frequent trips to the ER from school, not hearing, etc that lead to the need of a 1:1. It wasn't given to me. I had to go through a lot of sleepless nights and headaches to finally prove why we needed it. Then have it taken away without ever having a meeting to discuss it (which is illegal). Also, we have had non stop issues with his teacher. He was in the 3-5th classroom so basically the same classroom and teacher for 3 years. All the families are complaining about problems with the teacher. Two of my interpreters also left because of the teacher. I decided with this many people complaining and what I have already experienced myself that it was time to do something. Not only that, Blaze's personality had changed as has all the kids in this classroom. He went from loving school to not wanting to go. Then he would run and grab me and hide his face in my chest every day. I knew something was up but he couldn't tell me. I just knew. Moms know, so my little guy is home with me and I'm not sure that I will ever send him back. 

. 

Yes, my little buddy is home with me now...where he belongs. I've spent the last 2 weeks testing him in all areas and it's sad how his IEP does not match up at all with what I'm seeing for myself. They just push some kids through and put things in to make it appear they've made progress between IEPs. We have moved back down to a kindergarten level and he and I are going to work very hard on learning new things (the things he needs to know) every day at his own pace. We will also work on life skills as well. We can't really buy a traditional curriculum because it won't fit his needs...not even the adapted ones that we've checked out. We are working to create our own curriculum and hopefully we will be able to share what we've created and learned with other families and kids like Blaze. 

My sweet Blaze,

I'm happy to have you home with me. We will learn together!  I am so excited to see what all you learn and what you teach me along the way. God's got his hands on us and we are going to be just fine. You are super smart and super amazing! You are going to do amazing things son...you already have! You are my super hero!  I love you buddy bigger than the sky! ~Mom