May 11, 2022 – What Makes the Special Needs Homeschool “Special”?

What Makes the Special Needs Homeschool “Special”?

May 11, 2022

Hey, Mama!

Gena Suarez, Publisher of TOS

Your Sacrifice Is Not in Vain

Hey, Mama!

You thought you had an unproductive week. You tried teaching your children, including the one with special needs, and whispered under your breath that you are just not cut out for it. Let’s look at some truth, though, OK?

1. Your kids – when they wake up – look for you, don’t they? It’s Mama they run to when they want to show off their accomplishments. It’s you whom they look to for approval. Comfort? It’s Mama. Any need whatsoever? The Mama. You. Your kids’ parents are their home. You confirm that truth day after day just by being who you are.
   
2. They ate. Not only did they scarf down plenty, but they also had some good meals this week. You are always cognizant of their needs. Quite the cook, too. Always in the back of your mind is their well-being. In the front of your mind, too. You have not failed at all. They certainly aren’t thinking it.
   
3. They laughed. They giggle from deep within like there is no tomorrow. They feel the freedom to crack up, the lightheartedness to act wild and crazy, the carefree movement to be a child. You provided that environment regularly. It’s the norm at your house. You allow for that fun childishness.
   
4. They saw. They saw you being real. They watched as you took extra time for the one with special needs, even though you had to set down your own plate, change your own plans, put yourself last. Mama is the one who cares, and she’s modeling that care to her children so when they’re all grown up and acting as parents over your future grandchildren, that self-sacrificial caring will come naturally to them too. She isn’t perfect, but one thing they know good and well is that she is the one they will run to if there is pain or fear. She is their home. She is a home-maker.
   
5. They learned. Yes, even your special needs child, because you have gifted all your children with materials tailored to their individual learning styles. For this reason, they sought out information. They had meaningful conversations and pursued their interests—interests which will later turn into passions. They read—or tried to read. And they played – and it’s often in playing that learning sticks, especially for the one who learns a little differently than the others.

These articles from The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine reinforce that you are the best teacher for your special needs child:

Is Special Needs Homeschooling Possible? by Heather Laurie
Successfully Homeschooling a Child with Special Needs by Dianne Craft
Why Homeschool Children with Special Needs? By Rebekah Wilson

This week wasn’t as bad as you may have initially thought. It may have had a few bumps. OK. Fine. Pick yourself up and start again tomorrow. But know this – your Heavenly Father isn’t standing over you with a whip, so you put that thing down, too. Stop chastening yourself when His hand is on your head.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    His mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness. – Lamentations 3:22-23

You are the Mama. And there is such purpose there! The Lord has written your story, and it is a beautiful one. A tapestry, remember? Imperfect threads making seemingly random weaves and turns, but firmly held in the Hand of the Living God.

Walk confidently and humbly with your God.

-gena

---

Raising Real Men

Hal & Melanie Young, RaisingRealMen.com

Homeschool: The Best Place for Special Needs Students

We struggled a LOT with the term “special needs.” We thought we knew what that meant, and our bright little boy didn’t match that image in our minds. Turns out, though, the term “special needs” refers to any need for special consideration or accommodation. It could be a profound brain injury, but it could also be diabetes or giftedness or struggling in handwriting—really any number of things.

That’s what’s amazing about homeschooling, though—we can individualize to meet each child’s needs—physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. In a sense, we’re all doing those things already. Having a struggling learner or chronically ill child does change homeschooling, though. We’ve been there! Here’s what we wish we’d known from the beginning:

Don’t compare.

I think our tendency to see how we stack up to others is driven by the fear we won’t do right by our kids. It’s just unnecessary, though! One of ours didn’t learn to read until he was eleven, but now he’s a college graduate with an amazing career. You can’t predict how kids will do in life based on whether they are “ahead” or “behind.” Read about the childhood of Thomas Edison if you doubt that!

Accommodate!

Homeschoolers worry that accommodations like dictating written work, taking extra time on tests, or having the text read to you is cheating or won’t prepare them for life. Not so! What is the point of schooling? It’s learning! Just like you’d give glasses to a nearsighted child so they could learn, it’s okay give your struggling learners accommodations. Bonus: That’ll help them get accommodations on the SAT/ACT if they need them.

Remember that God’s curriculum for your child may look very different than yours.

I can think of years that we struggled to get schoolwork done because of illness or learning glitches, but our children learned so many important lessons like diligence, endurance, humility, mercy, and faith. Those virtues are more important to their future than any worksheet, too.

A gift of practical help! Download our short course, Bright Kids Who Struggle, a $19.77 value, free here. https://www.raisingrealmen.com/brightkidsstruggle/ Our treat!

Your friends,
Hal & Melanie

About the author

Hal & Melanie Young are the award-winning, best-selling authors of Raising Real Men, No Longer Little, and Love, Honor, and Virtue. They are publishers, writers, bloggers, and popular conference speakers internationally, known for their Christ-centered focus and practical, real-life stories. They are the parents of six real boys (five grown!) and two real girls and live in noisy, messy happiness in North Carolina.

Sherri Seligson

www.sherriseligson.com

What Does a Special Needs Homeschool Look Like?

As homeschoolers, many of us could “technically” consider every child a special needs child. Each one is uniquely designed by God and has different strengths and challenges that we can meet by customizing their education. However, although most children will struggle with learning at one point or another, sometimes the learning struggles continue for months. Your bright and creative child seems to hit a wall. Well, there are some things you can do to help. Your special needs homeschool is one that is flexible, involving continual ways to find a more effective learning method for a struggling child or extra educational opportunities for an unchallenged child.

Homeschooling, by nature, means that education is not one-size-fits-all. In fact, you can choose curricula and lessons that meet the unique needs of your child. Struggling readers can listen to audiobooks as they follow along in a text. Challenged writers can tell you orally what they have learned in your study of the solar system. Network with other homeschoolers who have children with similar struggles to yours and discover what educational options work for them. Like all your children, you are your child’s advocate and can help them in this learning journey.

Another way to foster learning is to allow your child to take the lead in what to study. If they have a particular interest in a subject, foster their learning around it. For example, build a love of dogs into a unit study, learning about the biology of canines (science), studying where wild dogs live (geography), understanding how people have domesticated them (history), and developing a fictional story about one (literature/composition). Their interest will help them focus on the tasks at hand.

The flexibility of the homeschool “classroom” lets you use more non-traditional ways of learning, utilizing more modeling, hands-on activities, and illustrations or music. What format do they gravitate to? Use it as a teaching tool (even if it’s Legos!).

And understand that this homeschooling adventure is a marathon, not a sprint. It will be a process as you and your child understand how they learn and what works best for them.

About the author

Sherri Seligson and her husband David homeschooled their four children for twenty-one years. Before being promoted to mother, Sherri worked as a published marine biologist at Walt Disney World. With an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction, she has authored Apologia’s General Science, Marine Biology, and several upper-level instructional video courses. An international conference and retreat speaker, Sherri uses transparency, truth, and humor, as she encourages moms on their homeschool journey and teaches families the importance of studying God’s creation. www.facebook.com/SherriSeligsonAuthor www.sherriseligson.com

Adam and Dianne Riveiro

The Beauty of Special Needs Homeschooling

There are so many blessings that come with special needs homeschooling!

One of the most beautiful aspects of homeschooling is the ability to completely orchestrate your curriculum and learning environment to the specific needs of your child. Every child learns in a different way, at a different pace, and with strengths and weaknesses that make them individual. As a homeschooling family, you have the ability to learn anywhere and everywhere. This type of flexibility can make homeschooling an attractive option for a child with special needs to learn and grow.

You also have the opportunity to teach any other children you have how to live a life of compassion and patience, with firsthand life experience. Children who grow up in a home with a special needs sibling tend to grow up much more willing to accept differences in others. They aren’t put off by those who society might otherwise ostracize. These types of character traits can’t be taught through a curriculum, but they can be caught as you homeschool around the table together.

Whether or not you’re currently homeschooling your special needs child, understand that you’re still going to be called upon to walk a journey of lifelong learning with your little one. You have been given the responsibility to help your child adapt to the world in which they live—and a world that doesn’t always make it easy for them to live in it. You’ll learn a deeper level of patience and understanding as you learn to navigate everyday life situations. Walking through life as a parent of a special needs student also has a way of continuing to remind you just how much you need the Savior and His ever-present guiding hand.

While raising a child with special needs certainly comes with its own set of difficulties, the immense blessing your family can receive by learning to walk this path together with God is priceless. It is these bountiful blessings that make the special needs home (and homeschool) so special.

About the author

Pastor Adam and Dianne Riveiro live in Easton, Massachusetts, where Adam leads Liberty Baptist Church. They’re the authors of Ministering to Children With Special Needs, available from their family’s publishing label at www.readyscribepublications.com. They have four children: Bethany, Kaylee, AJ, and Peyton. They’re passionate about helping their fellow special needs families find joy and contentment in Christ.

Roger Smith

Pillar of Knowledge
Roger Smith – Have You Ever Wanted to “Wring His Neck”?

My son couldn’t read, and that made him “special!” And it just about drove us all to being “special,” too! So, if you have a special child, I feel your pain!

In the process of growing to understand our son’s challenges with reading, we found that sometimes, the problem was with us instead. We call someone special needs when he is not like everyone else. But don’t we want them to be unique, as they were designed?

In so many cases, I’ve seen what was described as a disability really turn out to be a special ABILTY. Our son’s inability to decode the combinations of shapes we call letters was rooted in his artistic view of the world and everything in it. That made him an amazing photographer. To this day, we try unsuccessfully to take the same photos ourselves with disappointing results. He’s just special.

My admonition, through all your frustration with the troublesome child, look for how the disability creates opportunity, or in some crazy way is a gifting that has great value in his world. Though we try to “help his weaknesses,” they are part of who he is designed to be.

About the author

Dr. Roger Smith is a family doctor in rural Louisiana, where he and his wife, Jan, raised four adventurous children who are all grown, making their own mark in the world. He speaks and writes on parenting issues and produces brief videos that can be found on Facebook @ParentingMattersNow.

Look What’s Happening in Virginia:

May 24, 2022
Home Educators of Rainbow Forest (HERF) Used Curriculum Sale & Elective EXPO
Troutville, Virginia

Join Heather Vogler of The Old Schoolhouse® and network about educational, recreational, artistic, and vocational service providers in the Greater Roanoke Valley. Shop the used curriculum sale for teaching, learning, and reading materials from other homeschooling families. 

2022 HERF Used Curriculum Sale & Elective EXPO | Facebook

Now accepting submissions for the 2022 Creative Writing Roundup at The Canadian Schoolhouse. Submit your entry on the theme of Animal Adventures between May 1 and May 31 and get published! Find all the details on The Canadian Schoolhouse homepage. https://www.theoldschoolhouse.com/thecanadianschoolhouse/

Spring has sprung! New members may use code: SPRING22 for the Ultimate Annual Membership at SchoolhouseTeachers.com for only $189 (reg. $269.97). Code: MONTHLY22 locks them into a monthly rate of only $18.97 (reg. $29.97). Sorry, no refunds. “My children are absolutely loving the curriculum, and it’s taken homeschooling and made it fun again.” –Stephanie, British Columbia

A division of The Old Schoolhouse®

SchoolhouseTeachers.com Corner
Did you know?
Every class is INCLUDED for ultimate members! 
No limits.

Read this article
in the spring issue of
The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine.

Access EVERY article of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine at ANY time, FREE. Read on the go. Share with friends. The TOS App is a homeschool-help arsenal wherever you go. Download today at TOSApps.com.

Congratulations to Taylor Courmier and Stevie Arledge, both from Texas, who won our March giveaway!

Contest Corner

for the month of May

See It and Say It Flip Flop Spanish (Level 1)

Flip n Flop Learning, LLC
http://www.FlipFlopSpanish.com

When we received our box in the mail, it was great to see that all components we needed for the program were already included in the small box. First, there was a complete printout of the 45-lesson curriculum on double-sided, hole-punched, sturdy paper. Also included is a USB flash drive with four CDs worth of MP3 audio lessons narrated by Sra. Gose. The flash drive goes through all four semesters of learning. The box set includes 135 flashcards to complement the paper curriculum and audio learning. The flashcards give hands-on learners something tactile to use to form sentences and learn vocabulary. There were even a few card-holder pages to hold flashcards in place when building sentences. Lastly, there was a dry erase paddle and marker to use for practicing writing in Spanish.

We used this program one to two times per week. One lesson includes three sessions that are about fifteen minutes each. As the homeschool teacher, I prepared the lesson by selecting the flashcards and setting up the CD tracks. We would play through each MP3 audio lesson two times as we followed along with narration by Sra. Gose. The third time, I would read the lessons aloud from the printed curriculum with my daughters to ensure they followed along. My daughters are in middle school so we used the text side of the flashcards primarily, but there is a picture side, as well, for younger learners.

Sra. Gose gives students her email and encourages them to interact and send her sentences and work if they have questions. At the end of the two-year curriculum, you and your students will be exposed to about 350-500 Spanish words and be familiar with present tense and many grammar topics.

This is part of a review for See It and Say It Flip Flop Spanish (Level 1).

Read the whole review on our site with much more information.

Go to the contest page of our site where you can ENTER TO WIN the whole 2-year program of See It and Say It Flip Flop Spanish (Level 1).

Freebies

EdAlive Online Learning

Massive collection of FREE resources including over 17,000 Interactive Playable Activities covering math, reading and word skills, Printable Math Worksheets for Pre-K to Grade 10, Typing Tip Posters to help your children master the skill of touch typing, and Handwriting Wall Charts. EdAlive is honored to be able to support the education of children from all over the world. These high-quality resources are suitable for school classrooms, homeschoolers, and families. These FREE resources have been drawn from EdAlive’s suite of Online Learning Websites. No signup needed, just click and play!

This free product and more are found in our 2022 Freebie Directory: TOS Freebie Directory – The Old Schoolhouse®

FREE E-Book!

Home Improvement

Does your homeschool or your spiritual home need a little “home improvement”? Isn’t it always worth the effort in the end? Read about the application of home improvement in your physical home, homeschool, and spiritual home.

Find more freebies at The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Store: Freebies Archives – The Old Schoolhouse®

With the TOS Mobile App, search topics of interest spanning more than a decade, share articles, browse interactive content, and follow the links to hundreds of related resources. Each issue can also be downloaded and read offline.

Share this newsletter with a friend, and be sure to let those CONSIDERING homeschooling know about the enormous FREE info-pack which awaits them here: www.TryHomeschooling.com.