I have been homeschooling for a while. My two oldest daughters were great guinea pigs. They retained their interest, their sense of humor and their resiliency while Mom found her homeschooling self. They cheerfully endured abrupt starts and stalls, u-turns, and wild goose chases. Despite my ups and downs, they have maintained their love of learning and their intellectual curiosity. Being normal kids, I sometimes have to nag them to get their work done, but overall our homeschooling path is on-course. I know they will do well in life-spiritually and academically.

My third child presented us with a different experience. She was an easy enough baby, but hit toddler hood like a hurricane. Tantrums, sauciness, anger, and meanness were in her repertoire from an early age. Because of the emphasis we place on character development, we thought we merely needed to train her character. We used the discipline techniques which worked so splendidly with the older children, but to no avail. She got more unhappy and we became more frustrated.

Which brought us to the first round of family therapy. The therapist quickly concluded that she had Attention Deficit Disorder and something called Oppositional Personality Disorder. (Don't we all have a bit of that?) He made us see that she needed to be handled differently. A change in approach would bring improved behavior. He also recommended medication. Our wariness of labels led us to use a new behavioral management approach.

A few years later, her behavior was improved, but she wasn't learning. And we had added another child to the family. Our fourth is a boy and he is all-boy. He is very busy and energetic. While trying to keep up with him, we figured that Grace would eventually catch her stride and her learning would improve.

One afternoon, we were writing thank you notes together. She couldn't remember how to spell THE. I reflected on three years of intensive phonics instruction and was finally able to admit that we had a bigger problem than we imagined.

Our local public school was very gracious. They did comprehensive testing for us, even though we were homeschoolers. I will never forget the day we had our follow-up conference to receive the test results.

It hit us like a blow to the stomach to read and hear that our precious daughter had a learning disability. The first few weeks were the worst. Grief seemed to engulf and immobilize us. Then we got energized, seeking other opinions and beginning the research process. It was like learning to homeschool all over again, except this time we were learning to homeschool a special needs child.

This was not a path I had anticipated. After writing a few books about homeschooling, I had actually deluded myself into believing that I knew what I was doing. My daughter's diagnosis was a wake-up call for us to remain teachable and flexible.

And so we are learning.

We are not alone. Almost every week I run across another homeschooler who is struggling. Maybe it's a learning disability. Maybe it's a discipline issue. Maybe it's a clash of learning styles. Whatever the cause, perhaps you are at wit's end, your child is frustrated and you don't know what to do next. Don't despair. There are solutions.

The Old Schoolhouseâ„¢ Magazine is committed to addressing the needs of homeschoolers. In the garden of home education, there are many varieties of flower. They each need to be tended, nourished, and cared for. This little column endeavors to encourage and inform you. God gave you your children because He believed you were the right parent. Take confidence in that and trust Him to equip you to meet the challenges.

Sharon Hensley has walked this path before. She is a homeschooling mom and educator, and is the author of Homeschooling Children with Special Needs (Noble Publishing, 1995). She is also the mother of an autistic child. She too has seen this population grow. "In the 11 years that I have been homeschooling and working with families of special needs children," she notes, "I have seen a dramatic increase in the number of people homeschooling special needs children."

Some families may not be aware that a special needs child CAN be homeschooled. Mrs. Hensley notes, "I think increased awareness of homeschooling as an option is part of the reason we are seeing more families try it." The good results of homeschooling have a positive impact as well in the media coverage of homeschooling.

In addition, many of us recognize that schools cannot possibly individualize a program as well as a parent can. Mrs. Hensley says, "Many parents of special needs children recognize that homeschooling offers the only true chance of creating an individualized program that can address their children's learning problems." All of our children are unique. Ideally, they each deserve an individually tailored program. This individualization is crucial for our special needs children.

Homeschooling the special needs child WORKS! However, we may have to redefine what we mean by "success." When I asked Mrs. Hensley what kind of progress reports she gets from the families she works with, she said:

"Probably the most dramatic type of progress we see is kids who have been stuck in materials or teaching methods which were a poor fit, suddenly make strides when placed in more appropriate materials where more appropriate teaching methods are used. That can be exciting for both the teacher and the student. However, for the majority of families, progress is NOT the big "send off the fireworks" kind of stuff, but the small, daily-grind type of progress that is often harder to see. I encourage my families to think of progress as small steps forward from wherever their child is now-not as-how close to normalthey are."

I believe we need to have high standards for all of our children. Yet the goals we seek to achieve will be determined by the level of their God given abilities. We must not lose sight of the fact that over-arching all of this is the Christian's goal to raise a child who will bring glory to God-whatever their level of intellectual ability or achievement.

Mrs. Hensley is the administrator of Almaden Valley Christian School and provides services to homeschoolers around the world. Her contact information is below.

I asked Mrs. Hensley what her one word of advice would be for the parent considering homeschooling their special needs child. She said, "RELAX. You cannot-fix your child's learning disability by homeschooling him or her, but you can give him or her a more appropriate learning experience. The more you accept the special needs of your child and enjoy who he/she is as a wonderful creation of God, the more progress you will be able to make."

Part of the "specialness" of a special needs child is what the Lord can teach us through them. As we seek to teach and mentor them into adulthood, we will also be learning lessons along the way. Frustration, individualization, discipline, medication, achievement, standards, progress, personality issues-this Resource Room column will seek to address these and many other subjects. Are there certain challenges you would especially like to see covered? Drop us a note and stay tuned for many more months of information, support and encouragement as we travel this journey together.

Email: HOS@TOSMag.com.

Contact information for Sharon Hensley: Almaden Valley Christian School, 6291 Vegas Dr. San Jose, CA 95120 408-997-0290 www.almadenvalleychristianschool.com.

Christine M. Field practiced law for eight years before becoming a full-time Mommy. She and her husband live and home educate their four children in Wheaton, Illinois, where her husband serves as Chief of Police. Three of their children are adopted (two from Korea). Christine is author of numerous books including: Coming Home to Raise Your Children (Fleming Revell, 1995), Should You Adopt? (Fleming Revell, 1997), A Field Guide to Home Schooling (Fleming Revell, 1998) and Life Skills For Kids (Harold Shaw/Waterbrook, 2000). Her fifth book, Help for the Harried Home Schooler (Shaw/Waterbrook, 2002) was released in February, 2002. She has written for a number of publications and serves as TOS Magazine's Senior Correspondent and Resource Room columnist. Christine also sits in on other TOS columns, conducting interviews with widely known homeschool experts. Her website, www.HomeFieldAdvantage.com is an added help for homeschool families.