Explore Dream Discover. Adventures in Homeschooling

In the late summer of 2023 I was interviewed by The Richmond Times Dispatch to tell our story as part of a larger story they were doing on Exceptional Education in Chesterfield County and Virginia. I was a bit nervous discussing it in public as I had already felt the repercussions of our contentious IEP meeting in our small community while I was out and about interacting with people from the school. I decided to share our experience so that way I might be able to help others who are still within the system. They released the article today. I know we had our own difficult experience and I have talked with other families, but I had no idea how bad it was in Chesterfield and throughout Virginia.  You can find it here: https://richmond.com/.../article_1971991c-4cd3-11ee-8fc4...

Once I sorted out the academic aspects of Hendryx’s Educational Plan, I moved on to planning the therapy, life, and social skills pieces. Therapy is something we are more than familiar with already having been actively doing various types since he was born. But once we decided to homeschool I came to the realization I would no longer have to cram all of his therapies before or after school every day. This is especially exhilarating, and may not seem like a big deal to a typical family, but for me, it is incredibly liberating: I no longer have to fight to get the right therapist, at the right time and day; we no longer have to eat breakfasts and dinners in the car to and from appointments; we no longer have to forgo playdates and afterschool activities that other kids get to participate in. For nine years life has been dominated by Hendryx's therapies. (And that is why I honestly breathed a sigh of relief during COVID when we couldn't do any of them.) Now we can weave them in se...

As I dove into the world of homeschooling I was surprised. I held the stereotype (that I am sure many of you have) that homeschooling is for religious fanatics who don't like government control. This very much exists, but it is only a small slice of all of the ways to homeschool: there are Traditional, Classical, Eclectic, Unschoolers, Socratic, Homestead, Roadschoolers, Montessori, Worldschoolers -a personal fave- and I am sure a bunch I haven't heard of yet. One realization I made quickly was like our family, many families had a neurodivergent child who also floundered in the public school system. Here I thought we were forging a new path by pulling Hendryx from public school only to discover that many other families had already changed course to better serve their child(ren).  This was both uplifting and upsetting. I am happy that we aren't alone in this process and hopefully will have a ready-made community that shares our challenges, but at the same time, I can't h...

Once we made the decision to pull the kids from school I got busy looking for private schools. Pretty quickly we discovered that there wasn't an adequate solution for a kiddo like Hendryx who walks the line between typical and neurodivergent with his primary need being support in how he learns. In fact he is usually a therapist/teachers's dream because with individual attention, he learns quickly. Still the search was not for naught. While looking for a school for Hendryx, I did stumble on to a school that I thought might be a great fit for Lucille.  The Pace Academy was a brand new school based on the Acton program founded in Austin, Texas. Its mission is to inspire each learner to find his or her unique calling. Education is learner driven based on socratic discussion and self-paced challenges that equip learners to be lifelong independent pendant thinkers. We felt like this methodology would compliment Lucille's learning style and allow for her to make mistakes in a safe...

Hendryx and Lucille on a trip to Mackinac Island - 2023 A new adventure has begun for our family...we pulled both our kids from public school. Lucille will be in the inaugural class at a new private school and Hendryx will be homeschooled. I honestly can't believe it myself. If you told me last year at this time we would be doing this, I would have laughed...or cried??? Yet here we are living out the absurdity of life about to set off on maybe our most exciting adventure to date. But first, let me share how we find ourselves on this uncharted path. Our son Hendryx is neurodivergent and requires additional interventions and supports in school. By federal law, public schools are required to provide him those accommodations and services under IDEA, or the Individuals with Disability Education Act. This guarantees he will receive a free and appropriate (and later added, "ambitious") education (FAPE). In Colorado, we worked with the school team to build a very comprehensive in...