A Scheduling Solution for Homeschooling a Child with Autism

I haven’t written about this very often here at The Homeschool Classroom, but our 10 year old son has Asperger’s Syndrome (a type of high functioning Autism).  This has made scheduling imperative in our homeschool.

However, there is a problem with that — I’m not always very good at scheduling.

So, often, last year (our first year of homeschooling) I found myself scheduling things at the last minute, while my oldest would say, “What are we doing next?  How many more things do we have to do?”  This would stress me out, and it probably stressed him out too.  By the time we were done with school last year, I felt like I had failed with always scheduling at the last minute.

This year, however, started off well.  I made a point of working on planning ahead of time.  But, then something came into our homeschool that made it even better — Sue Patrick’s Workbox System.  Of course, this shouldn’t have come as such a shock, since Sue Patrick developed the system for her own son with Autism.

I wasn’t sure what the kids would think about the system, and then I even did something silly.  I scheduled our first day with Workboxes while my Mom was “substitute” teaching.  Upon arriving home, I asked the kids, “What did you think about using Workboxes with Grandma?”

They were thrilled with them!  They couldn’t say enough good things about it.  But, then Noah looked worried and said, “Do you mean we’re not going to use these again?”  He was afraid that they had been set up to use with Grandma only.  When I assured him that we would use them every day, he was so happy!

We have only been using Workboxes for about a month now, but they have been a huge hit at our house.  Now, our oldest knows exactly what to expect each day, and I’m less stressed knowing that I’m giving him what he needs.  What a blessing for both of us!

 Angie can be found writing about faith, family, and household management at Many Little Blessings.

book image from Amazon.com

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