Kieran started kindergarten way back at the beginning of August, but I'm just now getting around to posting about it.
When Kieran was first diagnosed with Williams syndrome and we realized that intellectual and learning disabilities would become part of our lives, our thoughts turned toward the future: Would he be bullied in school? Would he struggle to learn? But choosing an educational partnership for him seemed so far in the distant future.
As the past few years have flown by, however, we've been thinking about what setting would be best for him to learn in and have been weighing the pros and cons of our choices and praying for wisdom. We've watched as he received services (OT and ST) through our local special education program and as he participated in a small community preschool.
When the time came this past year to transition him to kindergarten, I listened to what everyone who has worked with him over the past few years had to say about him. They all loved him and enjoyed working with him, but, and here was the common phrase I heard from everyone: he has a lot of difficulty paying attention to the task at hand and is very easily distracted. And when I mentioned the possibility of homeschooling him, everyone on his IEP team agreed that would be a good fit for him. And when I found out there would be 27 children in one kindergarten class and I knew that he would be too busy socializing and paying attention to everyone else in the classroom and wouldn't have a one-on-one to sit with him and continually redirect him, that sealed the deal for me: we would partner with homeschooling textbooks for his kindergarten education.
Sure, I could fight with our school system to get him a one-on-one or some type of aid, but our school district is very rural and small and the funds simply aren't there. Sure, I could press them with FAPE, IDEA, and hire an advocate to help get him what he needed to succeed in a public school classroom, but since I have the luxury of staying at home with my children, I could also put the money and effort that would be spent on those types of things into educating him at home, in an environment where I didn't need to fight to get him what he needs. And so that is what we have decided to do--at least for kindergarten.
I've had somewhat of a love/hate relationship with homeschooling over the years. I am attracted to the idea of giving our kids an education in our home and I've even written several curricula that are used by homeschoolers. But I dislike some of the attitudes and actions I've seen from some in the homeschooling community. It can be ugly (and, sadly, we've been on the receiving end of some of that ugliness). Much of that turns me off toward homeschooling. While I could go on about specifics, I won't (at least not in this post). I'll just leave it with this: we have decided to give homeschooling a try for this year.
Once we chose this particular educational partnership, I started looking into the curriculum that would best help him learn. And I finally settled on All About Reading -- a phonics-based program that incorporates Orton-Gillingham methods in teaching reading. I'd read that the OG method was recommended for those with Williams syndrome and Dr. Mervis, the WS specialist we see in Louisville every year, has been adamant that those with WS learn to read by phonics. For math, I chose Math-U-See -- it was developed by a man whose son has Down syndrome and offers manipulatives and a slow pace.
So, I ordered those programs along with some other things and once everything finally arrived, we started our school
Cael was excited about
all the boxes that were arriving
and a bit sad when he realized
they weren't all for him.
We've settled into a routine and, since Cael attends his own preschool now, I have several hours three days a week where I can work with just Kieran. The other days, we just work around having a chatterbox in the room with us.
I'm able to do a lot of fine motor activities with him throughout the day (like play with kinetic sand, which he isn't really thrilled about but which Cael loves).
And when Cael is home and feeling in the mood to cooperate, I can involve him in some of the things Kieran and I are working on (like spatial relations and following patterns).
Visual-spatial areas tend to be a deficit for those with WS, so I've tried to incorporate puzzles and tangrams and the like into his day so that we can work on that area.
And I'm also able to involve things like this spinning board for his sensory diet, followed by some weight-bearing and other exercises that, ideally, will help develop his attention span.
I am not in any way shape or form the perfect parent or homeschooling teacher but, by God's grace, we'll follow this path until we decide that there's a better option for him.
