Early this year my son who is now 11
was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. After many conversations with
my best friend Melissa, the diagnosis wasn't that much of a surprise.
She has a nephew who also has Aspergers and told me there was a lot of
similarity's between them. I had never heard of this before, so after
Melissa told me I started reading more and more about it. And everything
I read sounded like my son, Ryan.
His diagnosis was one reason me and my husband decided we was going to enroll our son in a online school called ECOT.
I had always loved the Charter school he had been in since kindergarten
but his last year they changed my attitude about that school. He was in
4th grade and I felt like they had just gave up on him, on his
education. He wasn't doing any school work, he was exempt on just about
everything. He never got in trouble for not doing the work he was
supposed to do. They just let him sit there. Then came the news they was
going to hold him back and have him repeat 4th grade. I agreed he
wasn't ready to move on to the 5th grade. His grades was horrible. Then
when we got his final report card and he was placed into 5th grade. Not
promoted but placed.
It was summer break and me and my husband was watching the news. They was doing a story on ECOT and their graduation. They talked about ECOT
some and me and my husband was interested. He told me to get online and
research that school, so I did and I loved what I read. So we talked
to Ryan and asked how he would feel about doing school at home online.
He said yes he would like that and I said well we will try it for one
year to see how you like it.
Well we are now 7 weeks into the second
quarter and he loves it! He is doing very, very good. He went from
being a D and F student to a A and B student. Last quarter he made honor
roll. His report card was all A's and one B. He was so proud of
himself. All his lessons are tailored to him. Math was such a tough
subject for him, even adding was a struggle with him. Now he just flies
through those math problems. His DEC teacher (Department of Exceptional Children)
has taught him a easier way to do his addition, and she will teach him a
easier way for subtraction too. She is such a wonderful teacher and we
both just adore her.
I love that he is learning at his own
pace. A traditional classroom setting was just not working for him.
Both me and my husband do not regret the decision to enroll him in
online school. We are very proud of him and he is very proud of himself.
He loves school now and he told me he want's to go there forever :)
Thank you for reading and you can find me
Thank you Melissa for asking me to have a guest post!
I love Heather...she was so missed while she was gone for awhile. So glad to see that her son is doing so well in school...What an amazing tranformation.
ReplyDeleteGreat guest post.
ReplyDeleteSome kids are doing so much better learning at home at their own pace. I know few friends who pulled their kids out of high school where they were failing and getting into trouble. Now they all are A and B students.
I have an 8 year old nephew with AS and we have him in a semi-private school. He would not survive in public school.
Thank you Melissa for asking me to guest post!
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Heather!! :)
ReplyDeleteAwesome guest post, Heather!!!
ReplyDeleteHave a nice day, Melissa!
I love reading these stories. Asa teacher I work with so many of these students, and love to hear positive stories of parents who work well with their children.
ReplyDeleteI love a happy, ongoing ending. Glad it is working out so well. When any kid is happy in school, they are happy in general and feel confident enough to continue to do well in other areas.
ReplyDelete