If I had taken the kindergarten teacher's advice to redshirt my child who had a mild muscle weakness and fatigue issues, he wouldn't have been able to move ahead and learn as fast as he needed to learn. We had no way of knowing that at age 11 he would need to start wearing a painful brace and he would need to wear it for years. Because he was ahead academically, it didn't worry me as much when we had to take breaks.
It has been very difficult this year and we had to take a lot of breaks. He did almost no math at all for three months while he was getting used to the new, more painful brace. We took time off when my mother died. We are taking time off to help my dad who lives next door and just had knee replacement surgery. My dad is in a lot of pain right now. We went through the stress of knowing that he could suffer severe complications like my mother did and be left severely cognitively impaired for the rest of his life. Sometimes we take time off for a mental health day and sometimes it is for me when I am overwhelmed by all the pain I see around me and know that there is nothing I can do to alleviate my child's and my dad's pain except to be there. My son and I also have a hard time getting enough sleep so we have to work around fatigue issues. Then there is the problem with our internet. We never know when it will work and we have no other choices here in our small town.
With all that we are dealing with now, I am just so glad that I never held my son back. Since we homeschooled after he finished kindergarten, he is not behind academically because I let him learn at the rate he was capable of and move ahead when he had the chance.
