Special Needs Education – Context — Home School Support Network

Podcast Episode 11 – Context – Educating at home when life gets tough due to illness of a child, spouse, grandparent. Maybe your context is caused by a job change, moving, or you have a new baby in the home. Context can strict any homeschooling family at any time.

In particular “context” is an area I struggle with. I attribute it to the task oriented part of both my primary and secondary temperaments (I’m sure being a firstborn also has a part). But alas God is still “working on me” and having four boys (one with special needs) has a way of speeding up the process I think.

Homeschooling can look completely different from one family to another and this is especially the case when there are special needs. This is also the beauty of homeschooling. Parents get to choose how to best teach their child by taking into account any needs.

Caden’s Page – Read more about our special needs son. We never know what medical issues we are going to face or when they will come.

GENERAL HELPS

Heavier work load when Caden’s well. Which means we are mostly at home rather than out and about.
When he’s well enough for therapy, which comes to the house, I make sure I count that as school time. Keep his goal sheets and evaluations.
I give myself 365 days to complete 180 days of school. So basically we do school year around with short breaks as we need them. This also takes care of the problem that comes with long breaks which is that NO one wants to start back! Of course retention is better without long breaks.
Record the work that WAS completed rather than the lessons you WANT to complete. This saves time & frustration from erasing lesson plans plus the pressure to get it all done.

DURING ILLNESSES (Context or other context situations)

Use less active school like videos, reading stories, and educational toy/game like TAG Reader or LEAP Pad. Videos may vary from “There Goes A Helicopter”, to “Character Builder” series, to “Ancient Egypt”. We do a lot of books on tape from the library because Caden is not reading yet or we listen to a Creation based science series called “Jonathan Park” which has our whole family on the edge of our seat!
I give my older child more of the independent work subjects like those which are on the computer/online. Ex Teaching Textbooks, Rosetta, SOS, typing
I write down everything we do and if it is really not much, then I may count two days worth work as one “school day”.
Somedays I just have to remember that he’s doing more learning at home than he would be getting in a Special Ed class. The amount of days he would miss in public or private would be MANY! Give yourself some grace and “tomorrow’s another day!”

Resources

Character Builders DVD Set – Capture your child’s imagination witfully-animated episodes on Obedience & Self Control, Sharing and Kindness, Patience and Peace, Confidence and Love, Thankfulness and Gentleness and more.

The Amazing Bible Series – The Amazing Book

Ancient Africa (Ancient Civilizations for Children) – We found a version on Greece in our local public library.

Incredible Creatures That Defy Evolution 1