Why I Could Never Home School...

Samuel is in Kindergarten this year, and we were so excited that we finally had a school aged child.  Oh, what to do with that whole 3 hours per day of free time??!  You guessed it, I eat bon bons and read Us Weekly. :)

I think that Kindergarten has changed in the decades since I was enrolled. I remember Kindergarten being this really cool place with books and a tent! and a cooking station! and we got to learn about a new letter that was turned into a character once per week.  Fast forward to 2012, and Kindergarten has CORE STANDARDS to meet.  By the end of Kindergarten, the children are expected to not only know all the colors and letters and numbers, but to be able to write them and spell them, too. No super fun "Mr. T" week. No tents.  This is some serious business, y'all.

My son is autistic, and though he has an obsession with numbers, letters, reading and counting, he hates to write.  Despises it. Would rather go to the doctor than write his name. You can see where this presents a problem for us, as I am "the responsible parent" who has to help with his homework every night.  I've taken many a class on ABA therapy, which is a standard for teaching autistic children new skills. We work for treats and movies and celebration.  He writes a few letters, and we have a celebration.   Sounds fun, eh?

I'd rather go to the doctor than to sit for hours every night and cajole him into sitting and holding a pencil.  We do two work sheets and I feel like I need to go run or hit something. It pains me as much as it pains him when the 7 o'clock homework hour comes around. Homework packets? In kindergarten?  WTF!

So what should I do?  I guess I pop my xanax and tell him to pick up his pencil, and be ready to dole out the M&M's like he just revised a Steinbeck novel.  If this is how the homework hour is going to go for the next 12 years of my life, I better get a better prescription and lots of candy. :)