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Home ed

Find advice from other parents on our Homeschool forum. You may also find our round up of the best online learning resources useful.

Is anyone else home edding/considering it for a dyslexic child!

20 replies

sunnydelight · 23/10/2006 12:24

DS2(nearly 8) has just been assessed as "quite severely dyslexic" - verbal reasoning scores 86th centile, reading/spelling 3-4th centile which seems pretty severe to me! I don't know if I have the energy to start the whole long-winded process of fighting with the school to get him support (my eldest is also dyslexic so I know how the system works), and the SENCO is already a bit snitty that I have gone private for the assessment. We're moving to Sydney next year where Home Ed seems to be very mainstream and I'm thinking that if I pulled him out now to home ed it would give us both an idea of whether or not it was for us. I've (re)joined Education Otherwise, but if anyone here has experience I would be really grateful to hear about it.

OP posts:
Aero · 23/10/2006 19:43

bump for SD. Can't help I'm afraid but interesting thread as am slightly concerned about dd atm. Reasonably intelligent child struggling terribly with reading, writing, spelling and concentration etc and is a terrible fidgeter! She's six.

HumphreyComfrey · 27/10/2006 00:00

Hi, SD.

We're home educating our two dyslexic children (aged 10 and 8).

Got tired of the battles with the LEA, and the tiny amount of extra support we finally got was pointless (eg: 20 minutes extra reading practise with the school secretary whilst everyone else did science !)

Also couldn't see the point of continuing the hours and hours of enforced extra homework that we were doing in order to try and help them fit into an education system that does nothing to help a dyslexic child learn effectively anyway!

Both children now happily read and write at their own pace.

They have got their self-esteem and love of learning back.

And it's actually been a really great experience for all of us so far. (2 years with DS2, 15 months with DS1)

HTH.

sunnydelight · 27/10/2006 14:59

Hi HC, I knew there was someone out there I just couldn't remember who! Do you do "formal learning" with yours or just take the experiential approach? I'm in a bit of a quandry at the moment, we are emigrating to Australia next Easter and home ed is really mainstream there, ironically it was DH who has been very positive about home ed when we get there but he feels that we have too much to do in planning the move to commit to home ed at the moment. My thoughts were to try it for a term here before we go to see if it suits us so I would have a better idea by Easter but I guess DH does have a point. Also, have you ever used a specialist dyslexia tutor for your kids or do you do everything yourself?

OP posts:
HumphreyComfrey · 27/10/2006 15:15

Hi SD, I'm quite formal with my two boys, but mainly because they need to over-learn things to do with literacy in order for it to 'stick'.

I do know some people with dyslexic children who are completely autonomous though.

My two have one hour each a week of specialist tuition at Dyslexia Action (formally the Dyslexia Institute).

It is about £30 per child, per hour , but they both love it, and they get a lot out of their lessons. Their teacher is wonderful - she really understands dyslexic children, and how to motivate and encourage them. (It is a real struggle to pay for this on one wage though - and of course the LEA pay nothing towards the education of HE children! )

We do our formal stuff in the morning. I work from home, so they do their maths and literacy whilst I work. Then they work on their projects. DS1 loves archaeology and history; DS2 loves science and nature. They work together sometimes, alone at other times.

Afternoons are spent either at their lessons with other people, at HE groups, going on outings or going for a walk, visiting family etc.

And occasionally we stay in our pyjamas all day, watch movies and eat popcorn!

They do their maths and literacy seven days a week, and in the holidays, but it is just part of the routine now, and they have both improved their concentration, their maths skills, and their literacy since leaving school.

They both still see school friends (Headteacher is very kind, and DS1 went on a four night school trip with them last year), have music lessons, go to a martial arts club, swimming etc.

But without the terror and stress of trying to get on in an education system that ground down their self-esteem and their confidence.

Why not give it a try?

Best wishes with whatever you decide, and good luck with the move.

sunnydelight · 27/10/2006 17:10

Thanks HC, that's really useful. It sounds great - just the kind of stuff I'd like to do with DS2. Might have another chat with DH!

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HumphreyComfrey · 27/10/2006 17:21

You're welcome, SD.

My boys have designed their own website for home educated children.

You can contact me directly through that if you'd like to, if you have any other questions - or your son can email my children.

It's all anonymous.

website link

3littlefrogs · 27/10/2006 17:47

I have no vested interest here, but have heard from friends with dyslexic children that kumon is really good - helps with organisational skills and memory training as well as maths and english.

HumphreyComfrey · 27/10/2006 17:52

We tried Kumon for a year.

DS1 loathed it (both maths and english) from the first session, and was bored, bored, bored.

DS2 liked the routine and the timing element. It was helpful for building up his mental maths too.

DS2 also tried the English, but I thought the worksheets were a little odd!

Worked out too expensive for the amount of benefit we got out of it, TBH, but I'm sure it's great for some children.

sunnydelight · 27/10/2006 18:38

Thanks 3littlefrogs. The Ed Psych we saw recommended Kumon but I want to catch my breath and work out what I'm doing before committing to "programmes". I've had a look at your boys' website HC, it's cool!

OP posts:
maverick · 28/10/2006 17:50

Hi sunnydelight,
you may be interested in the following website which was specifically designed with the parents (home educating) of dyslexic children in mind:

School-proof your dyslexic child

foulmoonfiend · 28/10/2006 18:35

Humphtry - just had a look at your website and am in total AWE! My ds (9) is not home-ed as I am not capable of doing it, but it is something I whole-heartedly endorse and wish I had been able to (he is dyslexic and utterly miserable at school)
Think I will be showing him your website and getting him to contribute something - he'd love to 'correspond' with similar children.

HumphreyComfreyCushion · 28/10/2006 19:20

FMF - thank you!

I will tell the boys you liked their site.

Not bad for two children who had been practically written off (perhaps bad choice of words for a dyslexic issue! ) by the school system eh?

Your son is very welcome to get in touch - the children love getting emails via the website.

foulmoonfiend · 28/10/2006 19:34

Truly, that is inspirational to us!

(At the last parent's evening, ds's latest teacher told us: ''I hope you can get him into a decent secondary school as we can do nothing more for him - we don't have the time, money or resources for this sort of problem; it all goes to the secondary school''
The other teacher added: ''I don't actually believe in all this duslexia diagnosis, I'm afraid, I'm 'old school' and I think a lot of it is behavioural problems....''

HumphreyComfreyCushion · 28/10/2006 19:43

Methinks 'old school' could henceforth be used as code for 'bit of an ignorant twat'!

foulmoonfiend · 28/10/2006 20:11

heh heh heh, that's not disimiliar to what I said to dh afterwards

HumphreyComfreyCushion · 28/10/2006 20:26
Grin
Milliways · 28/10/2006 20:43

My nephew thrived here when mainstream failed.

foulmoonfiend · 29/10/2006 10:45

that place looks amazing, I am tearful just reading about it, but we are in yorkshire and have no money for private ed...

Milliways · 31/10/2006 15:45

My nephew was a boarder, & you cam claim assitance through your council.

Bikermum · 07/11/2006 21:42

Hi Humphreycomfrey,
I hope you don't mind me posting to you on here but we have found your sons website, well done them. My son would like to join it but we have tried sending e.mails and for some reason they won't go through. Is there a problem with the site at the moment?
Thanks Bikermum.

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