1. Little M. made massive progress with his reading and writing. At the beginning of the year his reading age was five and now, after 6 months, it is seven. That is a huge improvement for a boy who felt stupid at school because he was falling behind and was let down by the people who were supposed to look after him at school.
2. In Little M.’s case, shorter lessons are the key to successful learning. He cannot focus for longer than 20 and 25 minutes without having a little break.
3. If you give him the right tools to work with, he can learn fast.
4. Individual attention is a Godsend for dyslexic kids like him.
5. Using online recourses for teaching is fantastic, especially for children with weak or non-existing phonic awareness.
6. Objectives and plans must be modified, especially when something you do with your child is not working. We started our homeschooling journey using one program for homeschoolers but after realising it had very little what we needed at the time we decided to drop it and focus even more on growing his reading and writing skills.
7. When it comes to buying programs for dyslexic kids, make sure you do your research. There is no one magic program and no magic cure for dyslexia. There are many programs out there that promise a lot and don’t deliver. Not every program is suited for every child, and some of the programs are plain shit. Check what other parents are saying, check the track record of the program you decide on before you pay for anything.
8. Little M. responds to visual learning, and this is how he thrives. Schools don’t accommodate visual learners so no idea yet what will come after we finish our home education stage.
9. Not every child likes museums. Little M. loves the Transport Museum and I think he may apply for a job there if there are any openings for kids but he finds British Museum incredibly boring and dragging him to exhibitions is too stressful for me.
10. Changing and mixing up subjects along the way is a good move. Too much rigidity is not doing good for anyone. Since now I’m more relaxed with Little M’s reading and writing skills, we are going to explore other subjects starting with sustainability from September.
11. I’m coming to realise that homeschooling is not only an educational change but also a lifestyle change for the whole family and for that education to be successful the entire family needs to adopt this new lifestyle, even if it’s only temporarily.
Good luck with your homeschooling.
The school system is pretty canine and they expect everybody to achieve the same results and like the same things . Looks like you are doing a good job with your l.o ??
Agree with you the schools expects everybody to be exactly the same and learn in exactly the same way, which is impossible and unrealistic. Some kids are visual and always will be visual and no amount of talking by a teacher will help them learn. Following Finland’s example would benefit the schools, the teachers and the parents. The speed at, which teachers are leaving the profession in the UK is staggering but says a lot about the state of the system.