Why is Home schooling always to blame? (VENT)

Rocket Boy has some ASD (autism spectrum disorder) tendencies, it’s what makes him who he is, yes it’s his personality but all children with ASD are the way they are and any ASD tendencies they have are part of them therefore part of their personalities.

On Wednesday Rocket Boy had a doctor’s appointment and since I was already there I approached the subject with his GP who after a long long long talk (our 15 minute appointment became an hour long – sorry to those booked in after us) agreed that all of the many things we discussed could mean that he has ASD and would be happy to refer him on for testing. She also brought up that some of his tendencies could be a sign of ADD (Attention deficit disorder) and would recommend testing for that as well.

We then talked about home schooling, how Rocket Boy gets one on one time with his teacher (myself) in almost all his learning, he also has a curriculum 100% designed for him and his learning style.  He would not get all of this in a public school.  Because of all this we decided to hold off testing until he’s a little older as there is very little help he needs or that would be available to us without being in the public school system.  

But this is where I need to vent… Rocket Boy goes with a friend to a playgroup one morning each week.  As Rocket Boy is not enrolled in school we can still access the 20 ECE hours the government fund, so my friend gets paid to take him, it doesn’t cost me a cent, and I get a morning to myself once a week (Ladybug is at Montessori during this time)

The doctors visit was mentioned to the home base coordinator which I wasn’t too worried about until I talked to her on the phone.  Now with home base, the coordinator must see each child who is in care once a month.  It is the coordinator who has the early childhood teaching qualification, when the educator who actually cares for your child in their own home only has limited training.  So this coordinator only sees Rocket Boy once a month.  This coordinator is also my coordinator for my after school care kids, but she only needs to see school kids once a term, so visits us 4 times a year.

During this phone call the coordinator dismissed the one and only tendency I had a chance to tell her that I thought Rocket Boy had - obviously he has many, as I wouldn’t even consider going to the doctor and doing testing if it was just one thing.  She pretty much said all home schoolers have this one tendency, every point she tried to make she kept referring to ‘home schoolers my son knew’  She focused on Rocket Boys inability to ride a bike.  Rocket Boy has always been behind in his large motor gross skills (oh what isn’t that a ASD tendency?? She didn’t like that)   In one breath she was saying he needed to be around older kids more so he can pick up these skills (He is around older kids 3-4 times a week with my after school care I do, as well as the home school groups we go to) and in the next she was saying being in school would help that… how would being in a room with 30 kids his same age allow him to be around older kids????

I ended up shutting down during the phone call and just making the appropriate sounds when she was talking but I felt the whole call was her attacking my choice to home school.

Hubbys reaction to all this?  I need to quit home base as this coordinator is the cause of too much stress… and I have to say I’m very very tempted