New here

Hi everyone!  My name is Kate and I am the very blessed single mother to an 8 year old daughter.  This will be our first year homeschooling, after 1 wonderful and 2 rough years in public school, which was very much influenced by her illnesses.  

She has a genetic lung disease called Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia, in which the tiny “hairs” inside the lungs, ears, and sinuses don’t move properly, therefore leaving mucus and irritants trapped inside her respiratory system.  She has had  dozens of ear infections, sinus infections, bronchitis and pnuemonias and 6 sets of tubes in her ears. Her symptoms started early as 6 weeks, but she wasn’t diagnosed until she was almost 5. 

She has a chronic cough that sounds like a smoker’s cough, so the kids spent 1st and 2nd grades avoiding her because they thought she was contagious. I blame her 1st grade teacher for that completely because she told all the kids Kelsey had a “disease” and they needed to be nice to her. Ugh!! 🙁 

She also has epilepsy (mostly absence sezuires/”Staring spells”), mild-moderate hearing loss in both ears from the constant fluid build-up, and GERD.  

Her frequent absences, undiagnosed sezuires and hearing problems and the horrid social aspect all effected her education and put her behind while she was in public school. Her grades were always As and Bs, but not without a lot of work and tears.  She’s very bright, but sensitive and shy. She even began to try to skip her breathing treatments while at school and press herself too hard to try to fit in. Poor girl! 

Anyways, sorry to have rambled! Just wanted to introduce myself! I’m thinking homeschooling will be a good thing for us, where she can move at her own pace, be herself and be encouraged by all these good books! 

~Kate