Note: This article is an excerpt from the upcoming Schoolhouse Rocked Homeschool Quick-Start Guide. Sign up here to get your copy as soon as it is released!
Homeschooling a child with special educational needs may seem like a daunting task, but in many ways, the flexibility of the homeschooling model makes it a perfect alternative for teaching children who otherwise may fall between the cracks or can’t excel within the confines of an institutionalized educational setting.
The homeschooling movement didn’t begin with the purpose of catering to the instruction of unique children, but as traditional schools have increasingly favored normalizing instruction, special education homeschooling has become an increasingly favored option among parents, either by choice or necessity, for educating children who learn best using non-traditional methods. In fact, at the Global Home Education Conference in 2018, almost every nation represented stated that special needs ranked as one of the top reasons parents chose to home educate in their country.
Aiding this rise is the exponential growth of veteran special education homeschooling families who are daily providing unique testimonies across homeschooling networks. These parents, who include the entire team and board at SPED Homeschool, encourage new families to take the leap into special education homeschooling every day by sharing how homeschooling has allowed their children to flourish and surpass previous expectations set by professional educators, therapists, and doctors.
Slowly, but steadily, these personal success stories are debunking the lie that parents can’t teach their own children, especially when their children struggle to learn. In fact, these families have shown they have something even greater than training; love and devotion to see their children succeed no matter what it takes.
It is our goal at SPED Homeschool to equip parents for this call to homeschool their children with special educational needs. We provide parents resources, training and support through various means and our goal is to continue to improve upon these offerings as we grow and discern how to best fill the gaps that currently exist in each of these areas.
Resources parents can find on our website are checklists, articles, and organizations we have vetted to ensure they offer products or services useful to parents who homeschool children with various learning needs.
Parent training materials range from instructional blogs, podcasts, videos, and live Facebook interviews with various homeschooling and special education experts.
As for support, we offer a variety of ways parents can get connect through online groups currently, but it is our hope that in the near future we will have the resources to start planting local groups in communities all of the United States, and someday hopefully worldwide.
Our services are completely free and donor-funded, so no matter what your financial situation, we invite you to check out what we have to offer. You can visit our website at www.spedhomeschool.com to connect with us and learn more about how we can help you homeschool your unique learner.
Want more on this subject? Peggy Ployhar was a recent guest on the Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast, where she and host, Yvette Hampton had a great talk on teaching your child with special educational needs.
Peggy Ployhar is the founder and CEO of SPED Homeschool. She is a leader in the special education homeschooling community and a frequent writer and speaker on special education homeschooling issues. Peggy’s home school journey started when her oldest child was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome. Now with 16 years of homeschooling under her belt, she thanks God for all the experiences He has given her so she can use them to encourage other special needs homeschooling parents.
You can find Peggy online at http://www.spedhomeschool.com
Listen to the SPED Homeschool Conversations podcast at https://spedhomeschool.podomatic.com
Connect with SPED Homeschool on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SPEDHomeschoolPage/
Check out the SPED Homeschool YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9ZXj7jqL2ooiwe46bm-G4A
Photos by Aaron Burden, JESHOOTS.COM, and Markus Spiske on Unsplash
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