First Blog

Hi all

This is just an introduction really. My name is Sheila and I'm a home educator. I have a 10yr old son called Callum who has Asperger syndrome and a 21yr old daughter called Terri.

Callum is home educated because he had an appalling time in Junior School. The transition didn't work as they took all his help away from him that had been set up in the Infants under School Action Plus. He tried his best to fit it, but on his first day he stood back when they were told to enter the classroom and find a seat and ended up on a table with a bunch of kids who really didn't want to be there and were the misfits of the class. He wasn't happy, but on my asking for him to be moved, they said he couldn't be!! Within a week he'd been in trouble for disruption and by the end of the second week I'd been called in because he attacked another boy. Turned out that the boy had stabbed him in the knee with a pencil (he is left with a permanent 'tattoo'). I pointed this out to the teacher and managed to get him moved to another table (under his School Action Plus status he was entitled to a table of his own).

He was made to attend assemblies and sit with the others at lunch. Assemblies were too noisy and he refused to eat with the other children, so from the very start of the day he was stressed! I ended up having to bring him home every lunchtime as 1) he would then eat and 2) he couldn't cope with the playground.

I ended up having endless meetings and making endless phone calls to the LEA but got nowhere. Callum ended up sobbing every morning and begging me not to send him and kicking/punching me every evening as it was the only way he could express his frustration and anger. The final straw was when, at parent's evening, his teacher said that she thought he was mucking me around!!!!! I said that I didn't realise that teachers had to have a medical degree and stormed off!

Callum never went back!! That was nearly 3 years ago now and we have never looked back. The change in him has been amazing. He now smiles, laughs, cuddles, socialises and is happy! I have my little boy back. We obviously still have problems and he still has meltdowns, but on the whole these are controlled easily or disipated quickly and it normally is because I've 'forgotten' and said something stupid! Oh well!

Anyway, this blog is to talk a bit about how home education works for us and how having a son with Aspergers affects his and our lives. I hope you enjoy reading it!

Sheila