My name is Andrea and I’m a 33-year-old single Christian homeschooling mother. I have one 10-year-old son, whom I have homeschooled since kindergarten, and we live in Miami, Florida. I’m a professional media writer and freelance web developer based out of my home office. My professional web site can be found at ALRPros.com.

The reasons why a single parent might choose to homeschool despite the extra challenges it entails are many. In my case, it was a matter of necessity. My son is both gifted (high IQ) and disabled (high-functioning autistic/ADHD) and upon his entrance into the public school system, the quality of his education became an immediate and serious concern, as the even the best options given to us by the public school system for him were totally inadequate and inappropriate. He was so bright that, for kindergarten, despite being aware of his disabilities, they stuck him in a mainstream classroom because that was the “least restrictive” option.

However, the constant noise and over-stimulation of spending 7-9 hours a day with 34 other children triggered his sensory issues, and within 2 weeks, he was having daily anxiety attacks both in and out of school. The teacher – a 25-year-old young woman with no special education background who on his second day, proudly informed me she had Googled Asperger’s just for Shorty, as though she had gone to great lengths… soon became actively hostile toward his behavior issues and the situation was getting worse each day.

By the sixth week, she had banned him from the kindergarten holiday pageant because he had memorized the song the first day and was acting out, out of boredom, while they practiced it over and over the next 2 weeks and he was labeled a “potential distraction” – for a kindergarten holiday pageant!! Understanding social expectations is a major struggle for Aspie kids, and he simply couldn’t understand why he couldn’t run around and talk to/ play with the other children. She threatened him with suspension and even with calling the police during his (non violent) tantrums.

The school dragged and dragged its feet with re-evaluating his IEP (individualized education plan for special needs learners). Additionally, my son was already reading and adding and subtracting, but they were sending home in kindergarten almost an hour of daily busy work “learning” letters and numbers. It was a waste of both our time. I felt the situation grew more absurd each day, so I pulled him out of school 2 months into kindergarten and we have never looked back.

Today, my son tests at a 10th grade reading level in the 4th grade, no longer tantrums, is fully verbal and has more friends than he knows what to do with.

But the truth is that there is very little in the way of resources and support specifically tailored to the single or working parent who homeschools. I started SingleParentHomeschool.com as a way to create an inclusive online “home base” for single and/or working parents who homeschool, as well as a medium through which I could share my own experiences.

I love meeting new people and making new friends through the blogosphere, so please feel free to contact me, join in the discussion in the comments of my posts, talk in the forums, and check out my many links that are hopefully of help! And please feel free to suggest any I might have missed, or contact me if you’re looking for sources of support or resources, and I’ll do my best to help!