I never planned on homeschooling my children. However, when my first child began reading at an early age and was not permitted to register for kindergarten due to the cut-off date, the logical thing to do was to continue home educating her, as she was clearly ready and motivated to learn. I homeschooled all my children until my fourth child, Joy.
The original plan was to homeschool Joy as well, but as she grew, I noticed something different about her expressive and receptive language, as well as her behavior. By the age of two, I had taken her to several doctors and neurologists. None could pinpoint a specific cause or solution, but they were confident she would benefit from the services provided by public preschool.
Out of desperation, I enrolled her, even though I truly believed that homeschooling would have been the best option. Due to Joy’s communication struggles, she was only able to communicate verbally at home. However, she was in great need of support services that I could not access without enrolling her in the public school system. At age three, she began preschool and continued in the public school system through first grade. Throughout this time, I was repeatedly told that they knew what was best for her and that I shouldn’t be one of those “controlling homeschool moms.”
By age six, Joy was finally diagnosed with a communication disorder known as selective mutism, as well as a seizure disorder. The longer she remained in that school, the worse her behavior at home became. She was completely silent during the school day, unable to express her thoughts or needs. She was neither learning nor communicating, and the school staff treated her as though she were incapable of either. She simply did not fit into the “boxes” the school knew how to serve.
I had had enough. I enrolled her in the Mansfield Christian School Independent Studies Program, which allowed me to homeschool my children while providing curriculum, support, encouragement, a social outlet, and accountability. This was a turning point for our family, and Joy began to thrive.
Still, there were a few missing pieces. She needed academic accommodations during her junior high and high school years, as well as speech and language therapy to help her communicate in public settings. Unfortunately, because she was part of the Independent Studies Program and not an on-campus, full-time student, we did not have access to those services. Despite this, my daughter was expected to complete the same classwork in the same amount of time as her typically developing peers. Teaching her was quite a challenge. Even though I was tailoring her education to her learning style, she had no IEP and therefore no access to speech services or academic interventions. This meant she had no accommodations to prevent her from spending hours on assignments that exceeded her capabilities.
Thanks to the John Peterson Scholarship, which became available when she entered ninth grade, Joy was finally able to receive intervention services, speech and language therapy, and even take some on-campus classes like art and choir. The scholarship made it possible for her to access the services we otherwise could not afford. It was a true blessing. We were able to continue providing her with a homeschool education, now supported by the services offered by MCS, thanks to the funding from the JP Scholarship.
