Influence That Lasts a Lifetime

My 20 year old daughter is a graduate student at a University that is 600 miles away from home. Someone who knows my family and realizes that she is a physically disabled young woman who was Homeschooled for her entire K – 12 grade experience, asked me how I handled her living so far away from home. I answered, “I raised her to be independent and it worked!” Who doesn’t love to see the fruit of their labor?

One of the many things that I loved about teaching Meaghan at home (pictured here at her college graduation) was the realization that we could limit the outside negative influences in her life. When society tried to label her as physically disabled, hearing impaired or a ‘less then perfect’ person, we were able to block those words and surround her with people that spoke excellence into her life.

She could never ride a bike, but she could ride a horse at the age of 2. By the age of 16, she was taking courses through a local Christian College. When she moved away for her undergraduate work, she said to me, “All of my life I knew that I was loved by everyone.” Now, as she pursues her graduate degree in psychology, she hopes to be the person to help people realize that they, too, are loved and have great worth.

When all is said and done, I feel the greatest advantage of Homeschooling is not the education (although that can be excellent), but the realization that God gave our children to US for a reason. What a great privilege to build their character and influence them in a way that will last a lifetime. - Dawn

Dawn, a Homeschooling veteran is a member of our Help Desk Team working to assist other families in achieving success in their Homeschooling endeavers. We are blessed as a company to have her experience and success to draw on and share with others.

Please feel free to post any questions or comments by clicking on the “comments” link below.

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.