Though I’ve taken a few continuing education courses on combining vision and occupational therapy throughout my career, I had no idea the impact this knowledge would have on our personal family and homeschooling journey. In January 2019, my then 7 year old was extremely frustrated with reading. He would listen to an audio book all…
Occupational Therapy and homeschool go hand in hand. Occupational therapists look at anything and everything that a person wants to do and help make incremental improvements to be successful in those desires . Homeschooling looks at anything and everything that a person wants to do as an educational opportunity. See the similarities there? As a result,…
There are so many benefits to being outdoors. Nature automatically encourages occupations, also known as engaging in activities a person wants or needs to do. Research shows participating in meaningful outdoor activities can benefit mental health by improved wellbeing and resilience as well as positive effects on mood, concentration, self-discipline and physiological stress. Nature/ outdoor…
Late winter is typically a stressful time for homeschool families. We hopefully have found our rhythm for this year yet are now thinking of plans for next year. We are seeing the fruits of labor in the academic subjects yet the “is it enough” or “are we ever going to finish” often creeps in our…
Guess what, I am an OT and homeschool mom that does not hate video games. What?? My boys both spend time most days playing video games. They have used PGA and NHL to learn rules of sports. They have built fine motor skills and visuomotor skills with Forza and Joy ride turbo. They have learned…
Dealing with trauma is as individual as the number of people in this world. Couple that with every single homeschool being slightly or even drastically different, and its easy to see how dealing with trauma within the homeschool is deeply personal. However, after a dive into OT literature, a 6 hour CEU course, and even…
A little over a week ago, we lost my husband’s grandfather. He passed away after a long life and a very short battle with pancreatic cancer. We were fortunate to live his last 7 weeks with him in our home thanks to the pandemic forcing us to quickly move him and his wife of 72…
It is a fresh start and can be a time to reset and reimagine the remainder of the school year. All of this can be overwhelming. So, I’m hoping to provide you guidance and a starting point with these 3 questions. 1. What specific skills do you or your students need to gain to do what…
As an Occupational Therapist consulting with homeschool families, one of the top questions asked is, “Do I force my child to write?” The answer depends on the child and is not as simple as a yes or no. Here are the top three considerations when helping families to make the decision to use assistive technology….
On many Facebook groups I hear opinions of “why write when typing is faster?” or “Speaking to type makes writing and even typing obsolete”. Though typing and even dictation are accommodations sometimes necessary for children that have extreme difficulty with writing, in general, Handwriting is a very important skill it… Before a child begins to…