Homeschool Tedium

Dsds14's developmental delays can make homeschooling a bit tedious for me. Unlike my older children, he progresses at a rate that can be very slow at times. In fact, "progresses" might be the wrong word to use, since he is often on a plateau and occasionally backslides. He is trying as hard as he can, but he's got a lot of baggage that makes learning difficult for him.

Having homeschooled three "typical" kids first, I'm used to throwing challenges at my kids. But with this one, I've had to learn to be really patient and wait for him to catch on to things. Even now, though, I get kind of antsy at times as he slowly prints a paragraph or computes a math exercise. But the thing is, if I let him go at his own pace, he will eventually pick up what he needs to. It's just that I'm wanting to move things along.

One solution that has worked for me, in terms of making me more patient and less antsy, is bringing an acrostic puzzle to the table where we work. There's a great one in the Chicago Tribune Sunday magazine that is challenging, yet not so demanding that I can't stop whenever I need to in order to help my son. This may not be something that most teachers would approve of, much less be allowed to do, but for us it seems to be working. That's one of the best things about homeschooling....you can do what works best for your child and you.