Okay, as I promised, here's a basic idea of where to start from. The first place to start from is your child's IEP. Actually you want their last few IEPs. And you can get copies of them from your school board. Just send a polite written request. Some school boards will provide them upon verbal request as well. Just check with your school board and see what they need.
If your child is still in school, arrange to observe the classroom. If you're lucky you can get a few days in. Just remember, don't disrupt the class and don't interfere. You are an observer only. And what you want to observe is how, specifically, they are working with your child. Are they using worksheets, file folders, task boxes, etc? How often are they using hand over hand to assist your child? How independent is your child when doing work? All of those sorts of things. This will help you.
Now, my son isn't an Aspie so most of what I'm going to tell you from here on out may or may not apply if your child is.
First, take those IEPs and see what goals have carried over from year to year. Those are going to be your child's difficult subjects. And bottom line, whatever they were doing at school wasn't working so you're going to want to find new ways to introduce and work on those subjects.
But before you work on anything, you are going to have to test your child on his actual skill level. So create fun "tests" that are similar to the methods the school uses and see how your child does. See how your child does independently. Yup, the skill isn't learned if your child can't do it on their own.
When I did this it ended up taking a few weeks. I kept having to back up the skill levels until we either reached a point where he could do something without prompting (beyond prompting to focus his attention) or we reached pre-K levels with no true success. In addition I discovered that my son was extremely addicted to hand over hand guidance.
To be honest, I was more than a little furious over those discoveries. But since that wasn't going to help either of us, I channeled it and got to work.
I wrote my first completely independent IEP. I'd had lots of practice through the years. I was happy that, for once, I wasn't going to have to argue over what was in it. It was everything the experts tell you to do. Detailed precise goals with firm guidelines and assessments. It was a thing of beauty. And within a month I threw it out. Yup. It didn't really fit well with homeschooling. It might for you. I found it too restrictive and difficult.
So instead I found a bunch of Pre-K curriculum materials, added a bunch of manipulatives and videos. And went to town. I experimented with all sorts of teaching methods. I got my son a tablet for school work and communication. For 6 months, we worked freestyle. And I worked on observing which methods seemed to get through the most and on breaking his hand over hand dependence.
It last 6 months because that was about the amount of time we had left in that first school year since I pulled him at mid year. At the same time I worked on several health issues he was suffering from that had environmental triggers.
At the end of that 6 months, I had a good idea of where he actually was in all subjects. Any transference issues had been worked through and if he had the knowledge, he showed it. In addition, I had a wonderfully complete idea of what methods actually broke through and helped him to learn. For my son, it's a combination of videos and kinesthetic learning. Photos, books, worksheets, etc are all fails for helping him get the knowledge although they can be used to help verify the knowledge.
But even better than all of that wonderful knowledge was the surprises. My son's stress level decreased drastically. Acting out behaviors faded. He saw what "real" life was like and started doing "real" life things. I was able to pay attention to his verbalizations and respond as if he was fully talking so he started verbalizing more. He got more solid words and he experimented with more sounds. All in all, there were some really pleasant surprises.
So, if you are going to take the leap, don't expect instant success. You need to learn what works for your child and how to apply it. And your child will learn even more just by being around you all day. Take your time. Let both of you breathe deep and explore. The journey is so worth it.
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