Hi everyone,

I'm pretty new to the forum but have found it immensely helpful.

I have a concern I would love to have some input on. We began homeschooling DS10 about 1 month ago. DS had begged me to homeschool him for ages because he said he was bored and tired of learning the same things over and over (familiar complaint here, eh?). He acted out in school by being defiant, reading his own books during class instruction, etc. Pair that with the fact that he's been diagnosed as an Asperger's kid and you have a child who can be pretty rigid and frustrated perhaps more quickly than most.

We were having massive meltdowns 2 - 3 times a day over going to school, fatigue, etc. and decided to give homeschooling a try out of desperation. Low and behold, he is completely a different child. We have had virtually no meltdowns since we began homeschooling and he is much more cooperative and loving than I ever imagined. I now feel stupid for not recognizing that the majority of his behaviors were school related. (In my defense, being an Asperger's kid, we've had years of atypical behavior--I'm not sure I even know what "normal" is.)

Anyhow, to cut to the chase, he's a much happier child to be able to work at his own pace and on his own passions but misses his friends a lot more than I expected. He says he's sad that he has to choose between an education appropriate for him and his friends. This really plays into my emotions in that it was my primary concern about homeschooling. I so want him to have a "normal" childhood. How have others addressed this?

As a bit of background, he doesn't quite qualify for the DYS program with a full scale WISC-IV score of 138 and Explore scores that qualify him in math and science only (20 & 20). He's done well in other areas--gifted, just not off the scale. At home we're going through state math requirements systematically so I can prove he has not "missed anything" and we're nearly through next year's curriculum (6th grade) after a month. If we continue homeschooling I think given his current pace, it's likely he'll work through 7th and 8th grade next year.

Re-entry to public school becomes a challenge the longer we homeschool as he is very quick (as I'm sure most everyone here is) and even now does not fit into his age-grade. Should I even be concerned about that at this point?

Lots of questions, I know, but if you all could address even some, I'd so appreciate it. I really have no one to talk to about this.

Thanks in advance!