Yes I'm very proud of my severely dyslexic son!
In April 2011, my 4th grade son was in public school with an IEP, and reading at a 1st grade level. His special education teachers assured me year after year that he was making progress and "one day things will click and he'll take off". I decided I couldn't wait for that day to happen, something needed to be done now, so I started to afterschool him.
We worked on reading before and after school. I assumed he knew nothing, so we started from the very beginning with phonics and the sounds individual letters make. We worked all summer and when 5th grade rolled around, his school assessed him again. My son had advanced an entire reading level and was now reading at a 2.5 grade level! I know this happened because we worked all summer long. His public school teachers took six years (he repeated kindergarten) to get him to a 1st grade level, and I had brought him up a full grade level over summer! Woo hoo!
Based on the progress he had made over the summer, I knew I could homeschool him and do a better job than his public school. I certainly couldn't do any worse. My husband and I believe if our son's school knew how to teach him to read they would have done so because they enough time to make it happen. I ended up pulling him out of school after his Halloween party in 2011.
We have now been homeschooling for about 16 weeks. My DS has gone from knowing how to spell nine words, yes nine words at 11 years old, to spelling 100's of words! His reading has improved another grade level and he just finished his 5th grade math curriculum, so even though he's in 5th grade, he his moving onto 6th grade math.
Thanks to homeschooling, my son has gone from feeling dumb (at school) and having low self esteem to knowing he's smart and having very high self esteem!
Honestly, I had always thought that with my son's learning disability, he would be better off with professionals at school, who know what they are doing. I couldn't have been more wrong. No one wants my son to be a successful reader/student more than I do.
Thank God for homeschooling! If it wasn't for homeschooling my son would be illiterate. I am extremely proud of my dyslexic son!