Forget about grade levels : Homeschooling with Autism

As we walked into church this morning, inspiration struck me for today's post,  You see, church is the only place where we assign an actual grade  level for the children. For Madison , our typical child, we looked at her actual age then placed her in to the corresponding grade level.  For Logan, our child with autism we looked at his developmental age then placed him in the corresponding group regardless of his physical age.

The same applies to picking out a curriculum for your homeschool.  You have to look at each subject individually then place the child at the level they are at regardless of where they are " supposed" to be. The key here is to find their comfort zone then push them a bit past it.  If you don't know what I am talking about then check out my post on the zone of proximal development,  The hard part will be finding it for every subject. 

Don't be discouraged if your child is all over the place.  Due to limitations in areas, there will be discrepancies.  That's fancy words for no subject will be alike.  Logan is extremely advanced in reading, math, science and history.  He is doing college work in these areas.  He's also severely behind in writing and language.  Anything that involves fine motor skills and motor planning are difficult for him.  Behind as in doing the same work as his sister who is in 4th grade.  Anything that involves writing for long periods makes him feel inadequate.  It is clearly difficult for him so we make modifications.  You;ll find out more about that later though.

I can't focus on his inability to write a complete report even though he is about to start high school.  I will lose valuable time doing anything other than pushing him slightly out of his zone then allowing him to step back in it.  I can't look at what other children are doing.  I must maintain my focus on him and him alone. 

Take time this week to check out the subjects you are teaching.  Check to see if you have your child at his actual level or his grade level.  Don't worry if he's behind.  By working at his level , you will help him to learn it and catch up with his peers faster with less grief for everyone.  More smiles and less tears.  Who doesn't want that in their homeschool?

How do you handle choosing the work for homeschooling your child?