or

Homeschooling Special Needs

There I sat once again searching for the right curriculum for our children. We had decided to home school our kids the year before and we still hadn't gotten ourselves situated in a routine. What was wrong with me? How can all these moms be so organized and home school multiple kids but I couldn't? I began to dread to go to home school meetings because the mom's always seemed to have it all under control. How come only my kids didn't want to get up and school? Was I the only one that didn't have a clue as what her kids were going to do from day to day? The questions kept going through my mind and I continued to search for something that would be "right" for us. I would buy workbooks, text books, flashcards and software all relating to education. We even went to the library about two days a week but nothing seemed to be what I was looking for in an education for my kids. Our hunt for curriculum was a little different than what some kids need because of our kids' situation.

Diagnosed at Age Six with Epilepsy

My daughter was diagnosed with epilepsy when she was 6 and in Kindergarten. She was in the process of learning to read when she would stop reading and blink her eyes and lick her lips. We had no clue what was wrong with her so we took her to the pediatrician and he thought it was odd behavior so he sent her to have an EEG. Little did I know the day we had the EEG her life and ours would change forever! The lady administering the EEG looked at me immediately and said she is having seizures and has had 30 in the last 10 minutes.

Disbelief and Confusion

I was shocked. I wanted to cry, hug her, search for help and just hope I was dreaming all at once. She was having hundreds of seizures a day. We were referred to a neurologist and things only got worse for our little girl. They decided to put her on medicine to take away the seizures but the medicine made her very sick. She was losing weight from throwing up and the doctor said to keep her on the medicine. I couldn't understand why he would want to do this to our child.

Couldn't Attend School

She couldn't go to school because she was so tired from throwing up so much and being so sick. She began to fall behind in school and wasn't learning much of anything so we made the decision to bring her home to learn. We bought book after book through the first 2 yrs and she just could not memorize or retain anything like her multiplication facts. One of the side effects of her seizures is when she is learning or reading something and she has a seizure her mind kind of clears so we have to start over what we were doing at the time of the seizure because she has no memory of what we were doing. It makes it very difficult and definitely takes a lot of patience on both of our parts.

Noticed How Our Daughter Learns

We started to notice that when something was put to music and made into a song she would learn the song and was starting to memorize things easier! Well most curriculums don't come with music to all their books. It's mainly just books and workbooks which was clearly not what she was going to be able to do at this time so the search continued on and I told my husband we are going to have to just put the kids back in public school. I kept thinking I just can't do this! My husband told me we agreed to try homeschooling and that he really wanted to help me get through our daughter's illness. I was doing a search online and came across time4learning.com.

In Love With a Curriculum

I fell in love with it the first day. Where was this program when I was at all these home school fairs trying to put different pieces together for each child and spending hundreds of dollars only to feel like I still was missing something? I enrolled my daughter and she is doing great. It gave her EXACTLY what she needed! The sound and animation was enough to get her mind going. She could do just a little at a time if that was what she needed to get through the day. If she is sick one day then she can skip that day without falling way behind. She was probably behind a whole grade level in math and was able to learn and move at a slower pace in math but move faster in Language Arts. She has loved to log on and do her work and see her accomplishments by getting a star or a check mark as she moves along. I think it has really helped her realize that although her life is different than most kids her age she can still make it in life it just takes a little extra work.