Getting started homeschooling a special needs child

Recently someone asked a question about what do I need to being homeschooling a special needs child. I pondered that for a bit between homeschooling, cleaning, cooking, and all those other things that happen in a day. I came up with a list of a few things that I think are needed.

Patience - Homeschooling a special needs child requires an extra dose of patience. Often the child is slower to understand the concept and so you need to go over it again and again. Extra practice is needed to master the skill. Today we were working on saying, "oil". We said it over and over. I am not sure we have it so we will review it again tomorrow and probably the day after that.

Determination - Homeschooling a special needs child requires determination on our part. Determination that the child can learn and the determination to stick with it. Miss K can be stubborn and guess what so am I. I am going to push and do everything to help her learn.

A sense of humor - You need to be able to laugh when you are told that the reason that math can't be done is because the pencil is pokey. She has told us the eraser is scared and a few other funny things. Sometimes it is just laughing to yourself.

Creativity - Having a dose of creativity will help. Not necessarily the creativity that does all kinds of cute crafts but the creativity that things of a new way to teach the concept. We have had frogs jumping to count by 5's. Some days you just need to try various ways to see if that is the one thing that will teach the concept.

Flexibility -  My children both work best when there is structure and routine. Yet in that structure and routine I need to allow for some flexibility. I need to be willing to drop a curriculum if it isn't working or add something new if I think it will meet a need we have. We often adjust as needed.

If you have these characteristics, the evaluating where the child is at academically and choosing the resources will be the easy part. Then again I love the researching and looking at what is available so if you want help finding something let me know.

I hope this helps you as you begin or continue homeschooling your special needs child or just homeschooling in general.


Beth