Our school blog can be found at Going On A Fields Trip
How we came to be a homeschooling family......
I always thought preschool was the best thing for a child, but then I had a child who completely knocked all logic off it's axis.
We enrolled Sarah Hazel in preschool as an infant. At first she loved it, but within a year she was becoming reluctant with going. Desperate to figure out why our child was so adamantly against preschool, we began to observe her behaviors and decided it may be best to have her seen for an evaluation for Sensory Processing Disorder based on the behaviors we were seeing as well as what her teachers were seeing. Indeed she was diagnosed with SPD but her OT felt that we had only touched the tip of the iceberg and that something even greater was lurking underneath. While Sarah Hazel was in preschool, I had one of her teachers pull me to the side and tell me that Sarah Hazel was doing things well ahead of the other children. I just thought she was being nice. Then the OT kept making remarks along the same line but once again, she was probably just being nice too. Finally the OT got very serious and said that I needed to understand that Sarah Hazel was not like other children when it came to her ability to use her brain. Sarah Hazel was referred by OT for a full behavioral evaluation. We had no idea what that meant but we assumed we were taking her in to be evaluated for ASD, OCD, ADHD or all of the above. Within 5 minutes of the evaluation, the psychologist said he had a hunch and just wanted to check something. He gave Sarah Hazel an IQ test and confirmed what the teachers and OT had been trying to get me to understand. Sarah Hazel is gifted. Very gifted. At the young age of 3, she qualified for membership into Mensa. Further testing around 4 revealed that her IQ is even higher than we originally thought. People with high IQ's often suffer with what is known as Overexcitabilities (OE). Sarah Hazel has an extreme case of OE's. Besides the SPD, and giftedness with OE's, she also has issues with Auditory Processing. Her disorders along with her IQ make her what is known as Twice Exceptional, or 2E.
With all of this information about Sarah Hazel, suddenly her issues with preschool begin to make sense. All of her 2E-ness was making preschool and all large group activities, a miserable experience. The noises, the desire for fairness, the lack of relating to kids her age, the perfectionism was eating away at her and causing her to shut down and retreat into her own world. After much research and discussion with therapists and with the support of my family, we decided to pull her out of preschool and begin full time homeschool preschool in the home.
She loves the idea of school at home but she is well past preschool level activities. I began to buy her curriculum at her level and suddenly, my happy little girl was back and feeling fulfilled. By public school standards, she is not eligible for Kindergarten until fall of 2013. Currently, at the age of 4, she is working at a first grade level, putting her at least 2 grade levels ahead of where she should be right now. The therapists who have worked with her have said that she will need extreme differentiation and acceleration once she does go to school and because of this, she should be eligible for at least a 504 if not a full IEP. It may sound cool to have a child that advanced, but I don't really want my daughter going to high school at the age of 11 or 12. Believe me, giftedness is not near as glamorous as people make it out to be. Not at this level at least.
Next year will be her pre-k year but I'm considering just going ahead and registering her for kindergarten since it will be in the home and she is already working so far ahead. We are just taking it little by little so after next year, who knows what we will do. Homeschooling with a Co-Op ranks #1 on my list of choices considering all of the hurdles she has in front of her.
Update:
We did end up starting Sarah Hazel in Kindergarten (homeschool) a year earlier than public school. She continues to excel and rapidly accelerate so we plan to continue homeschooling her for as long as it is a good fit.
What about Cameron? Cameron is our sweet and loving little boy with Autism. He too has been identified through testing as being "high ability" as well. Currently we are working with the county school system to get him an IEP for preschool and therapeutic services. At his first IEP meeting, he was denied based on him having the highest cognitive scores they had ever seen. I try to incorporate him into our school activities when I can but for the most part, he's happier just playing and being himself. I have absolutely no clue what we are going to do about schooling for him!
Update:
We did eventually get Cameron an IEP and he currently attends the local school system's special ed preschool program.
If you read all of this, thanks. If you have any questions about anything I have mentioned, please send me an email. allisonfields1@gmail.com
Now hop on over to our school blog, Going On A Fields Trip, to see what we've been up too recently!
