Over the last couple of years we have had several requests for assistance in Homeschooling special needs children. While we consider ourselves to be Homeschool Experts by most regards, special needs Homeschooling is a specialty field in and of itself.

A couple of years ago, we adopted a handsome little 6 month old from Dominica in the Caribbean. Since that time he has been diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Thus we are beginning on a new journey in Homeschooling in our family in working with this little guy.

To field some questions, we are blessed to have Dawn work with us in Customer Service who has experience in special needs Homeschooling. She introduced us to NATTHAN.com, the National Challenged Homeschoolers Associated Network which we have referred a number of people to.

Another great site I came across recently is ADDitudemag.com, which addresses ADHD and learning needs children. The symptoms of many diagnosis are similar and you may find some helpful information.

I was at the Airport in Nashville, TN a couple of weeks ago and felt a nudge from the Lord to speak with a women sitting there waiting for her flight to leave. Turns out she is raising an FAS son and she had so much good advice that I needed to hear in raising our son. She was a God send and her experience and encouragement was much needed.

If you have experience with Homeschooling special needs and learning disabled children and have experience to share or a word of encouragement to give, we really want to hear from you.

May the Lord grant us all special wisdom to assist us in producing glorious fruit for His glory.

Thanks to all who took the time to respond to our email request to post product reviews on the site. Purchasing curriculum can be a overwhelming experience.  Your ratings and comments will be most helpful to others who are considering using the items you reviewed.

We have just finished installing a new product review module at PennywiseLearning.com.

How many times have you tried a new Homeschool curriculum after talking to another Homeschooling parent?  We do it all the time.  We also love sharing our experiences with other parents.  Getting and giving feedback on curriculum successes and failures helps parents be better Home Educators.

If you have used a product offered at PennywiseLearning.com, please take the time to review the product so that others may gain from your experience and likewise, we hope you can gain from others Homeschool curriculum as well.

To review at product:

1.  Go to the product page.

2. Select the link to Review This Product!

3. Rate Product/Write Review

Thank you in advance for taking the time to share your thoughts.  We really appreciate it.

Say it isn’t so. Using calculators with our Saxon Math? Like most Home Educators, we try to be organic with the math curriculum’s we use with our kids.  No additives used.  We want our kids to know how to do the math manually.  Step by step.  Using a calculator to solve an equation has most always been out of the question.

My oldest daughter, entering her senior year is getting ready for college.  As we were preparing  for her to take the SAT test, we came across the SAT Calculator Policy, which allows a student to bring a graphing or scientific calculator to be used on the Mathematics level 1 and 2 of the test.  We didn’t have time for her to purchase and learn how to use an advanced calculator so she took her SAT with a basic four function calculator.  She did fine on her test without an advanced calculator, but it did make us reassess our personal policy on allowing calculator use.  Would she have done even better on the SAT’s if she had a good calculator and the know-how to use it?

Because of this we have added a complete line of affordable calculators as options to our Saxon Math Homeschool curriculums.  These calculators were designed for academic use.  We still believe in having our kids learn how to do the work manually, but we are also implementing calculator “know-how” into our teaching.

Our family favorite calculator is the Intermediate Calc-U-Vue.  We love this calculator because it allows you to see the problem and the answer. It also allows scrolling. See below:

For primary grades, we have a simple combo package of 4 function calculator and activity book.  The Primary Calculator Activity Book has 63 pages of problem solving using the primary calculator in patterns, measurements, number sense, and data and chance. 

I’d love to hear your comments and experiences regarding calculator use in your Homeschool.

As a company and as home educators ourselves, we have benefited greatly from being able to speak with other Homeschool families (our customers) from across the United States regarding valuable tips on curriculums and teaching techniques.

To expand upon this resource (your knowledge) so that others may benefit likewise, we are changing the focus of our blog to be more product/customer driven. If there is a topic here that we touch on that you know something about or would like more information on, then we encourage you to share your thoughts.