Special Needs and Gifted

There are challenges that come with homeschooling no matter what the circumstances but for some there seem to be extra bumps in the road. Being a homeschooling pagan can sometimes have you feeling like you are in a small minority.Add to it a child who has a special need or who may fall into the gifted category (or even one who may fall into a range of categories)it can make it feel like you are in an even smaller minority. Believe it or not you are not alone.My goal for this particular portion of this site is to provide resources for parents who are looking for ways to help them along their path and to hopefully smooth out some of the bumps along the way.I fell into the gifted range as a teen and so know what some of the challenges of that can be like first hand. We are just now discovering all of the challenges that our oldest is likely to face. He is still undergoing testing but we have already been told that he is mildly retarded and is hard of hearing in one ear. I know how very frustrating homeschooling can be in either circumstance and how exciting it can be when you see those challenges overcome and the spark that says " I got it!" I hope that the resources provided here will help others and if you know of any resources that you've found particularly helpful please email me at Muttnboofer@yahoo.com and tell me about them. We're just starting out on this journey ourselves so I would love anything that anyone else could add. We have one thing to our advantage in that my husbands original high priestess has also been teaching special education for over 20 years and we can ask her questions if needed.

Visually Impaired

 American Federation for the Blind kids and family page

http://www.afb.org/braillebug

Texas School for Blind and Visually Impaired

This is a wonderful site as they even have quite a few resources for a full curriculum and what the state laws are regarding special needs kids. 

http://www.tsbvi.edu/

Braille flashcards and books with raised, textured illustrations, Notecards, shapes and rhymes books for younger kids, etc. 

 http://www.cal-s.org

An awesome site that has books written in braille and standard print with raised illustrations so that visually impaired kids and their families can read along in the same books.

http://www.tactilevisioninc.com/books_children.html 

 Deaf and Hearing Impaired

Deaf Homeschool Network

Contact them at  agie@ncn.ceom to recieve the email newsletter.

 Deaf Homeschool site

http://www.deafhomeschool.com

Deaf Pagan Network

http://www. angelfire.com/yt3/dpn

Links site for homeschooling Deaf and Hard of Hearing

http://www. diaryofahomeschoolmom.com/deafhomeschool/onlineasllessonplans.htm

A wonderful resource site for deaf pagans and their families. Has lots of information as well as some ideas for using ASL in ritual.

http://deafpagancrossroads.com

Deaf Community Resources

http://.www.concentric.net/~Tlshell/deaf.html

I'll be updating this section as I get more time. It is very much still under construction.