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| Princess Fatty-Puss and Stinky Malinki |
We are ex-mainlanders living in Tasmania, Australia, and this is our homeschooling journal, kept mainly for record-keeping purposes. We are very lucky to live in a state in which the registering body is very supportive of homeschoolers and all methods of homeschooling, including natural learning.
When our eldest, Shmoo, was a baby, the Other Half would often half-joke about homeschooling him. I laughed it off, I mean, homeschooling was only for remote/isolated families or weird, ultra-conservative, fundamentalist rednecks... wasn't it?
^^ =))
I always knew that Shmoo was a bit different from the average toddler. He was super sensitive, cautious, clingy and, to others, he appeared very 'shy'. He didn't seem to know what to make of kids his own age and seemed alarmed when they approached him. At mothers groups and playgroups, while other toddlers were off playing together with noisy toys, Shmoo would cry at the loud noises or if anyone looked at him and would retreat under the table to investigate the screws. It went over and beyond the typical 'separation anxiety' stage. I dreaded the thought of having to send him to Kinder; I just knew that he wouldn't fit in well in a normal school environment.
We don't have any alternative schools in our area and the more I researched homeschooling, the more I realised how wrong I'd been. I was soon convinced that homeschooling could work really well for us and it didn't take long to convince the Other Half that it was a valid option. By that stage Loo had been diagnosed with severe egg and dairy allergies and numerous food sensitivities. The thought of eventually sending him off to school made us quite nervous.
By the time Shmoo was about 4 years old we'd decided to definitely give homeschooling a go. We gave it a bit of a trial run for a year to get the feel of things and we officially registered the year he turned 6.
We started off with a fairly eclectic approach: a little Steiner; Montessori; natural learning; some unit studies; and a small amount of book work thrown in for good measure. It didn't take us long to re-evaluate and adjust our approach to suit Shmoo's needs (that's the wonderful thing about homeschooling!).
Shmoo is currently in the process of being assessed for an Autism Spectrum Disorder as we strongly suspect he has Asperger's Syndrome (runs in the family - The OH is a diagnosed Aspie)**. We are wading our way through mountains of red tape, paperwork and waiting lists, made all the more complicated by his age (assistance and intervention is focused on under 6s) and the fact that we homeschool (over 6s are usually handed over to the school system). Shmoo's ASD traits, little quirks and major meltdowns add an extra, interesting dimension to our homeschooling approach.
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**UPDATE: 18 April 2012. Shmoo received the formal Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis of PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified).
