by Amy Vickrey, Dawn Spence, & Peggy Ployhar 

 

It’s the end of the year 2021 and the holidays bring down time. This lack of structure brings freedom and sometimes that can mean added stress. You might use this time of the year to reflect and work on activities that will help you to grow closer as a family in the new year. The following is a list that provides activities to do New Year’s Eve to ring in the New Year. Have a blast and start off the year with fun activities that will engage the whole family.

  

New Year’s Eve Countdown Fun

 

New Year’s Day Activities

 

Activities that Usher in the New Year with Purpose

 

If you did not find something that matched your needs, look at  this blog on adaptive ways to capture the New Year with your child. May you find joy in your homeschooling journey this year. Have a happy New Year 2022!

 

 


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by Michelle Noonan, from BloomingSounds

 

What is your earliest holiday memory? My guess? It involves music!

Music is a universal means of communication, memory enhancer, a tool for self-regulation, and a great parenting toolFor these reasons and more music can come in handy during this exciting, albeit sometimes stressful, holiday season. Here are a few of my favorite holiday music hacks:

  • When energy levels get too high, slow down your favorite holiday song.
  •  Choose a song with your young one as a signal for when they need a time out from the hustle and bustle.
  • Children of different ages and stages will enjoy making a family holiday music show together: assign tasks based on age, interest, and abilities.
  • Change the lyrics of a family favorite! Give everyone a verse or a part of the chorus to make their own for a special tradition they’ll want to revisit year after year. 

 

We’d love to hear your ideas for musical hacks this holiday! 

 

–Michelle Noonan is the Owner and director of Blooming Sounds LLC, an Online Music Together® and Canta y Baila Conmigo® Center serving 0-8 year-olds (and the grown-ups who love them®).

 

 

 

 


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By Allison Gentala, SPED Homeschool Community Member

 

“Choice in education is no mere abstraction. Like its economic cousin, free enterprise, and its political cousin, democracy, it affords hope and opportunity.” President Ronald Reagan 

 

For Special Education (SPED) students’ hope and opportunity are of immense value. Typical and gifted learners will thrive in most any environment, but SPED students have to work ten times as hard and can lose hope, especially when opportunities are limited. Often the educational choice that best fits the learning styles of SPED students is homeschool, where students can learn at their own pace and pursue their strengths while also focusing on their areas of weakness. 

However, homeschooling a student with special education needs can be cost prohibitive for families, especially if there are multiple SPED students in the same family. If a student has intense learning challenges, the cost can be well over $600 a month for each type of therapy/tutoring a student receives. With several SPED students needing multiple therapies, the cost soars and can be unattainable for many families. While many families provide excellent services to their SPED students at home, the family with several SPED students will struggle to research, learn, and provide these therapies to several students with varying needs and may experience burnout. 

So, what is the answer to providing that hope and opportunity to families with SPED students who want to educate at home? How might a family go about finding resources for their special learners that will allow them to homeschool and yet still meet the unique needs of their student’s learning challenges? 

Some states have generous programs that fund therapies, tutoring, and curriculum, providing more opportunities for families of SPED students to enjoy teaching their children from home. One such state is Arizona. In Arizona, students can apply for the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) which provides 90% of the student’s state funding to educate SPED students at home. The funding can pay for therapies, tutoring, curriculum, books, and therapy or sensory items. While there have been concerns about regulation and oversight, those fears have not been realized in the decade that the program has been serving Arizona SPED students. 

Besides Arizona, there are four other states offering an ESA program, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Qualifying for this funding varies from state to state. If you live in one of these states and are interested in this opportunity, check your state’s Department of Education website. 

As a mom of many SPED students, we utilized this funding in order to provide occupational therapy, speech therapy, and dyslexia tutoring for our children. Our journey to this funding was a multi-step process over the course of 18 months. First, we took several of our children to the local district school for an evaluation. They received an SLD (Specific Learning Disability) in several areas. We disagreed with the results and requested an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE). Our district denied this request, and we responded with federal IDEA law showing that the district must cover the cost of an IEE or move for a hearing. The district then agreed, and we moved forward with a private evaluation at the district’s expense. Once we received the diagnoses from the provider of our choice, we had to qualify for ESA. In Arizona, homeschool students aren’t eligible for the ESA. So, in order to qualify, we did an online charter for the required hours. The charter worked with us and allowed us to use several of our current curriculum choices. They also let us count the hours spent at our weekly homeschool cooperative toward the hours needed. Once we qualified, there was simply some paperwork to complete and our students qualified. We signed a contract and could then take advantage of all the therapies our students needed, but could not afford or provide at home. 

Hope and opportunity will provide a path forward for all our SPED students as they work through the challenges ahead. What a tremendous blessing these states provide for families to teach their kids at home and also access the therapies and services needed. I only wish that every state had a vision for supporting SPED students in this way. 

In the end, parents have to make the decision that is best for their family and it is my hope and prayer that communities will come alongside families with SPED students and support their decisions even when we may never fully understand all the details behind those decisions.

 

 

 


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By Sarah Collins, OTR from Homeschool OT

 

In early 2017, my eight-year-old was hit directly in the eye with a Frisbee. He could see the Frisbee leave his friend’s hand, yet did not know that it was about to give him a swollen black-and-blue eye. This occurred around the same time that he asked me, “Mom, how do you read when the words are moving on the page?” As an occupational therapist, a specialist working with people to succeed in what they specifically want and need to do, I recognized that he clearly wasn’t able to be successful in his educational or social goals. It was time to seek help. 

 

As homeschoolers, our children’s education is individual. We can change the pace of study to fit the needs of our family; we have curriculum options that can be purchased or altered to fit needs; and we can adjust the environment for the best time and place to reach our children. However, building a team of people to work with us and our children can be beneficial. Sometimes we can build a team, which includes doctors and therapists, with a prescription from our pediatrician, yet when our child’s struggles are specifically affecting educational performance, an IEP can be warranted. In our case, I needed more specific information to further adjust our day and be his best teacher. We contacted our public school system and formally requested educational testing.  

 

After three full days of testing with an educational psychologist and school based occupational therapist, the diagnosis written on our son’s IEP was “reading delay, unspecified”. On a basic level, this meant that he was having difficulties and was behind the norms of his peers, although they identified no specific reason. The school outlined the need for testing accommodations, offered the option to dual enroll (homeschool while using public school services) for the Wilson Reading System instruction, and recommended OT one time per month. For us, the testing accommodations—a person reading standardized test questions to him—was the most important part. In order to receive accommodations for college entry exams, like the SAT or ACT, required proof of the accommodation need. Going through this process allowed us to document his need as early as second grade.  

 

In our son’s case, we declined the other opportunities because: The Wilson reading program is an Orton-Gillingham approach to reading that we felt we could provide with All About Spelling and All About Reading. I based this decision on my expertise in my child; many other families have chosen the Wilson reading program within the school system and thrived. In addition, now that we had the standardized test results and my being an occupational therapist and his mother, I could use the results to develop a program for his motor skills within my home and to build his own personal outside team—a vision therapist and hockey coach. Again, this was based on my expertise in my child and on his desired occupations. 

 

My son took part in primitive reflex integration at home and vision therapy through a private practice. While we were completing these therapies, we used only narration and my reading aloud at home, as well as focused on spelling rather than reading. He needed time to focus specifically on the underlying skills of visual scanning and convergence without the added pressure of recognizing and interpreting the written word. We carried over his vision therapy specific exercises and also set up our day to build on visual-motor skills. For example, we 1) spent a lot of time on nature hikes where I would identify something to find and he would scan the location to find the specific tree, leaf, or animal 2) set up his closet so his shirts were all hung up and he would scan left to right to locate his favorite shirt 3) make grocery store visits our weekly date where he would scan the shelves for the specific item I requested 4) track hockey pucks from a distance to close up.  

 

Now, four years later, my son will return to the public school to retest for an IEP. He is reading large print books with glasses, yet no longer requires glasses for his everyday activities. He recently made an advanced hockey team and has no difficulty following that tiny black puck at high speeds across the ice. Most importantly, his love of nature increased and his engagement in learning never suffered.

 

Using the school system for specific information to inform our homeschool program helped us to build the right team to support my son in what he needed and wanted to do. If you need insight from an occupational therapist on your next steps or on how to incorporate strategies throughout your day, please contact Homeschool OT for a consultation.

 

 

 

 

 


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by Terrie McKee from Homeschooling1Child

 

The holidays can be a stressful time for us all but can be debilitating for those with special needs. The sounds, lights, smells, and strange schedules can cause meltdowns, anxiety, and a whole host of behavioral issues. 

As a mom with four special needs children, ranging from autism to ADHD, dyslexia and diabetes, I fully understand the trials and tribulations of dodging holiday stressors. There are some things that parents of children with special needs  can do to minimize the stress for their kiddos (and themselves) that I’ve incorporated into my own family.

 

Keep the schedule

It seems like every weekend in December is booked solid with  special holiday activities. You want your child to participate or even just enjoy the festivities but getting off schedule makes for anything but merry-making. Keeping the normal, daily schedule intact helps your child anticipate what’s next. You can insert the holidays into homeschooling while keeping the schedule by having holiday-themed spelling words or worksheets, related crafts, and holiday music. Writing social stories about upcoming festive activities can help the child anticipate what will happen and even get excited about it. In addition, writing out a daily schedule for each child with any holiday events or activities will help give them a heads-up and a semblance of control. 

 

Dietary needs

The holidays can be full of dietary landmines, particularly for those with food allergies, sensitivities, or chronic health issues such as diabetes. When visiting extended family or friends for get-togethers, remind them about your child’s dietary needs or bring along food you know is safe for them to eat. Many families enjoy baking during this time of year, and it’s a great homeschooling activity to boot. Just make sure all  ingredients can safely be consumed by all. It’s important to make family traditions in spite of and because of special needs–just incorporate the special needs into it. If you have a family member who just cannot eat things like sugar cookies, you can make ornaments using salt dough, using cookie cutters to cut them out and paint to decorate them. You get the same effect but without the food landmine. 

 

Sensory Overload

When my oldest, who has autism, was a little boy, going to the mall and sitting on Santa’s lap was asking for trouble. Not only did he not know this person, but Santa would inevitably pat him on his back and snuggle him—all things that were a definite spectrum no-no. After receiving the diagnosis of autism and researching all the things about it, the Santa-triggered meltdowns made a lot more sense, and we no longer pushed the issue. Some things aren’t worth experiencing, especially if they create anxiety for years to come . With all the sights and sounds come a lot of triggers: blinking Christmas lights, loud holiday music stuck on repeat in shops, other children’s screaming meltdowns in stores—it all added up to be torture for my son. Noise-canceling headphones, minimizing the times we’d take him in stores, and avoiding the triggers all made for much better experiences for all. 

 

It’s hard on parents when special needs kids are in the mix with the holidays: you want your child to experience the magic, wonder, and fellowship of holiday gatherings, but the reality becomes too much. Creating your own traditions around your child’s specific needs means all can enjoy the time together and minimize the stress that can come with the holidays

 

Terrie McKee blogs at Homeschooling1Child.com. Married with four children, three of whom are adults and on their own, she homeschools her youngest, who has dyslexia, ADHD, and chronic migraines.  You can follow her on Facebook at @Homeschooling1Child.

 

 

 

 


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