Extra Tutoring for Hunter Galaxy (Home schooled spectrum child)

Hunter has been living with me, his Grandmother since he was 3 months old.

Hunter has a raft of diagnosis due to damage in the womb and he is home schooled under Te Kura, The Correspondence school.

He appears younger than his years but he is a bright, loving little boy who loves to learn. He has needed extra tuition because he requires lots of repetition in each subject to cement the learning. This has been effective and he is making good progress. He is working at year 3 level now having completed years one and two and now half of year 3 work over the past 7 years.

I have not let the school bump him up every years they would normally do, as I feel that would fail him. I had to fight them for this but they are on board now. So with the support of Hunters Te Kura teacher, we have made sure that he has completed everything required and understands every step of each level before moving him up to the next level. Its taken him about 2 and a half years at each level to pass everything he needs to so it has been worth putting in the extra time to help him succeed.

I pay a local girl to come teach Hunter 3 times a week for a minimum of 3 hours each time and sometimes more if he is cooperating and enjoying it. I fundraise for every cent I pay her and apply for everything we might be entitled to under his needs.

Te Kura don't have any funding to support any Teacher Aid or extra tuition hours for Hunter (I dont know why) and WINZ told me I have to fund-raise in the wider community as they have nothing we can tap into for this.

I apply for everything that is available to us, but it falls short by the 4th term each year, running out by the end of term 3.

On July 1st this year (2022) Tragedy struck us outside our home. Hunter's Daddy was hit and killed by a truck outside our gate on SH1 north of Hunterville. Tom was my youngest son, he had just turned 36 years old and was one of only 3 helpers I had for Hunter. Our loss is heartbreaking.

Tom had been staying at our place for half of every week, and forming a great relationship with Hunter over the past 18.5 months. He was a good Daddy, teaching Hunter how to grow into a good man by helping out around the place together, sanding the house for painting, learning how to use power tools and doing the outdoor chores together etc.

I'm getting old. Tom was stepping up to be able to be there for Hunter and look after him when I die. He had just decided that week to move home full time so he could be more help.

Tom helped me with the yard work, pruning trees, making and wheel-barrowing in the firewood and taking fences down and moving them to change the lay out here, and was halfway through painting the house when the tragedy struck. He was going to finish painting the house this coming summer and we were going to tidy the place up and list it for sale so we could move to a smaller place closer to town with less work to do around the place.

A truck clipped Tom outside our place, we don't know what actually happened. He may have tripped over crossing the road, but he died instantly and our hearts are broken :(

Recently Hunter had the start of some extensive dental work done in Stratford by a lady that works with spectrum children. He had two pre-molars removed so those big eye teeth you can see in the photo, can move down, and up (there's another one at the bottom) into the gaps the pre-molars left. He will require braces to pull the eye teeth into line.

I have been right onto Hunters teeth since he was a baby and has beautiful healthy teeth as a result. He will have enough social struggles to face without being teased for his teeth so its important I follow through on this dental work but know its going to cost a small fortune so have to ask for help for him for this.