With about six weeks of school left, it has become apparent that my teenage daughter, Lyn, cannot possibly pass four of her fourth grade classes. She has special needs that include a learning disability, fetal alcohol, ADD, and verbal Apraxia. There cannot be any benefit to her education or her self-esteem to continue to fail for the rest of the school year. If she were in public school, instead of homeschooling, there wouldn’t be any choice. She would have to finish out the current school year before starting summer school. What a waste of time and energy. However, since our children are homeschooling Lyn focused on just the two classes that she was passing all of last week.

She ignored the classes she was failing giving her time to complete about six weeks worth of lessons in the two classes she was passing in one week. Today, I printed off her grades for the school year and then wiped the slate clean. She is beginning her summer school today. She has a fresh slate and a chance to start over. Perhaps she will be willing to put a little more effort into her lessons now that she has a chance to pass.

If you have special needs children then you already know how important some type of summer school can be. Lyn began attending a preprimary impaired class at the age of four when she came to live with us as a foster child. We have had to work with her every summer for over 10 years now to prevent summer loss. While “normal” children lose quite a bit of ground educationally over the summer, special needs children lose much more.

This school year we switched most of our learning over to computer. We are using the same curriculum we have always used but in computer format. It helps with some of my special needs children because the computer is assigning and grading the work, not me. Although, at the beginning of each school year, I set up the starting and ending date, holidays, and breaks. The children get immediate feedback; the computer gives them an instant grade after finishing each assignment, which helps with so many ADHD children.



Photo Credit: 2007 Julia Fuller.