Featured Homeschooler: Angela DeRossett

Posted by Nikowa Lee | 0 comments

Please welcome this week’s Featured Homeschooler Angela from Homeschooling the Chaotic Family and Memoirs of a Chaotic Mommy.

Share with us your homeschooling journey.
My son, Xander, was diagnosed at age 4 with Asperger’s Syndrome and later his diagnose was changed to mild Autism. We had two older sons in school and a baby girl at home. We were offered one solution—medicate and begin special education in the local public school immediately! God had started planting the seeds of homeschooling in our hearts several months prior to this news. He had surrounded us with a community of wonderful homeschoolers who were there to help us have the courage to step out of our comfort zones and pull our kids out of school.

That is the ‘short’ of our miracle. The blessings have been a hundred fold. We are eclectic homeschoolers and have been able to hand select our curriculum over the past few years to specifically meet the needs of each of our children. It has been a blast! I never thought I would love homeschooling as much as I truly do. It is amazing what God can do if you only trust what He has planned.

How did you start off advocating autism research?
Ah, this is an easy one for me. Advocacy came as a natural result of my son’s diagnosis. I was faced with defending him to others and not knowing enough about Autism. I started digging for classes, workshops, and specialists. I was a mom on the loose not willing to accept the answers I was receiving from his doctors. It was amazing to me when I started looking for resources how pitifully few are out there. Autism resources are mostly uncovered by insurance policies. It was then I realized I was looking for the wrong things and needed to direction.

For me the advocacy part is making people aware that the old methods of dealing with children who have disabilities are not good enough anymore. All children deserve the opportunities to have the very best in life, the very best chances to learn. Advocacy to me means researching many different methods of teaching and then teaching our community children’s leaders whether it be in the school system, sports programs, or even churches. It also means making the powers that be aware that we cannot continue to ignore these children and they must make the basic therapy options available and affordable to the average family.

What are your favorite autism awareness links?
It is hard for me to choose Autism Awareness sites because many of them are geared towards theorizing the causes of Autism rather than teaching parents how to deal with the common symptoms. I find sites that offer help for parents for day to day life outside of the doctor/psychologist realm are far more advantageous and empowering for parents. They offer hope through teaching people that there is hope and life post-diagnosis. Here are a few of my favorites:

Child1st Publications
Positively Autism
Autism FreeZone
CHildDim
Health A to Z
Do 2 Learn
Family Education
LD Online
Zac Browser

Some wonderful support blogs on the topic can be found here:

Whitterer on Autism
Mother of Shrek
Autism Vox
Coffee Autism Faith Explored
World of One Thousand Different Things

You love cooking organic. Will you share with us your favorite organic recipe?
For those who are vegetarian, the pasta recipe could easily be made without meat and still tastes wonderful. (We have that version quite often actually.)

Spinach Fettuccine Alfredo

1/2 c butter (I use real, NOT margarine)

2 pints heavy cream

2 1/2 c Parmesan

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 cups frozen chopped spinach

5 pieces bacon, cooked and cut into pieces

1 small package of roasted chicken (Tyson has these for salad toppers, wraps, etc.)

2 pkgs. spinach fettuccine, cooked as directed

-Melt butter in saucepan with garlic over medium. (If your stove runs hot turn it down a bit so that the butter does not turn brown)
-Add heavy cream and whisk together.
-When cream is hot add the Parmesan a little at a time, whisking to make sure it is all melted in.
-Continue whisking until mixture thickens and begins to bubble. (Not boil)
-Add in spinach, cooked bacon and chicken pieces.
-Continue stirring until all is hot.
-Add mixture to pasta and mix well.
-Serve with Parmesan sprinkled on top.

If I were to do anything different in the future I would add some sweet red onion at the beginning when the garlic is cooking.

If you could have any Homeschool curriculum, what would it be and why?
Wow! This is a hard one! I do not think I would ever opt for a full curriculum for my children. I love the idea that there are no ‘walls’ on our homeschooling. We can go at any direction at any time. Should my children want to study Ancient Rome we can drop everything and build the coliseum out of cookies and discover what games were originally played there. (True story!)

If I could pick one or two specific core subject curriculums I would want Math-U-See or any of the Rosetta Stone language curriculums.

Along with being a homeschooling mother and autism advocate, you’re also in college! Tell us about that.
It has been BUSY! There are times that are much busier than others because my husband deploys frequently, but thankfully I’ve somehow been able to manage my time. This often means sacrificing the perfect house or having to buy a pre-made meal, but somehow it works out in the end. I am currently taking online courses full-time and it is much easier to study and write papers at night while the kids are sleeping or during naptime during the day. I am working towards my BAS in Christian Ministries.

How has homeschooling changed your life?
I don’t remember fully enjoying my children when my days were filled with picking up and dropping off, running to work, etc. I was one of those moms who proudly stated, “I could never homeschool” or “I can’t wait for school to start again!”

It changed everything for me. Now I just smile when I hear those same things. I know what it is like to be tired at the end of a day and just not feel up to one more thing, even if that one thing is your child. It took a long time to realize that I never allowed myself to enjoy them during the time I had with them because there never was enough time.

What do you do for yourself when you’re feeling stressed out?
I spent the last few months while my husband was overseas indulging in every kind of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and reading, reading, reading. It was a simple remedy, along with prayers, to help me through the stress of being a single-married mother while he was gone. Chocolate for the attitude, reading for the nights I couldn’t sleep, and prayers that we would be protected from any small critters, burglars, power outages or strange illnesses. We did pretty well considering, and I still had 8 cartons of ice cream left when he returned!

Interview by:

Nikowa is a 2nd year homeschooling mom to two boys. (Ages 8 and 5) With her “learning never ends” philosophy, they have an eclectic year-round approach to learning. When she’s not teaching, she enjoys photography, organizing, cooking, reading, and knitting. She is a #1 LOST fan and watches UGA football too! (Go Dawgs!) You can visit Nikowa at Knowledge House Academy.