Homeschooling Through the Holidays: Embracing Neurodivergence, Crafts, and Core Strength

Homeschooling during the holiday season can indeed be a joyful yet challenging endeavor, especially when catering to varying needs within a neurodivergent household. How can we balance the festive spirit, educational growth, and sensory processing challenges?

Incorporating holiday joy into homeschooling through activities that are not only fun but also skill-building. Cynthia Heren, a member of the Homeschool OT team, shares her strategies and experiences.

Creating a Sensory-Friendly Learning Environment

Cynthia, a mentor and advocate for neurodivergent homeschooling, emphasizes the importance of accommodating individual needs. Her journey started with her child’s diagnosis of autism and dysgraphia, and she transformed her homeschooling approach to nurture their unique learning style.

Cynthia involves her children in holiday baking to strengthen hand muscles through actions like stirring and measuring. She promotes patience for spills, viewing them as opportunities for memory-making rather than mishaps. Her family enjoys creating Christmas ornaments. Each year they attend a disability friendly party where they make new ornaments and socialize with similar families.

Integrating Interests and Strengths

Cynthia shares that leveraging her child’s interests, such as his love for Legos and Star Wars, has been instrumental in developing his fine motor and executive functioning skills.

Incorporate your child’s favorite themes like LEGOs or Star Wars into activities that target weak skills. LEGOS can help build fine motor skills and follow instructions, facilitating skills like visual scanning and motor planning.

Adapting the Environment for Success

Cynthia highlights using specific tools and environmental adaptations to support her child’s learning.

Writing on vertical surfaces such as easel chalkboards can help build core strength and improve hand-eye coordination. Activities like setting the table while bouncing on a yoga ball can enhance core strength in a fun way.

Collaborating as a Community

Building a knowledgeable support team is crucial for homeschooling. Parents need to see themselves as team leaders, focusing on integrating daily activities with skill development naturally.

As we navigate the busy holiday season, Cynthia and I want to emphasize the importance of accommodating different learning styles and abilities in children. From crafting and baking to strategic use of educational tools, there are numerous ways to make learning enjoyable and effective.

Embrace the flexibility and creativity homeschooling offers, and remember that engaging your child’s interests can transform challenges into opportunities for growth and enjoyment.

OT is IN #40 Crafting Holiday Memories while Building Handwriting Skills

I’m thrilled to introduce our guest, Cynthia Heren, a mentor and assistant behind the scenes here in the Homeschool OT community. Cynthia’s journey began when she discovered her family’s neurodivergence through her son’s occupational therapy sessions, leading to a broader understanding of autism, dysgraphia, and ADHD in her household.

In today’s episode, we’ll explore how Cynthia has used OT strategies to create a customized, supportive learning environment for her children. We’ll discuss practical tips for managing handwriting, sensory processing, and executive functioning challenges, especially during the bustling holiday season.

Join us as we uncover the importance of building a knowledgeable support team, integrating children’s interests into learning activities, and fostering their development through creative and adaptable methods. Get ready to be inspired by Cynthia’s story and learn how to make homeschooling both effective and enjoyable for neurodivergent children.

In this episode you’ll hear about:

Discovery of Neurodivergence
Noticing son’s fine motor delays at age three and Autism Diagnosis
Homeschooling Experience
Impact of Occupational Therapy (OT)
Homeschooling Strategies to accommodate for dysgraphia and ADHD
Tools and Techniques: “Handwriting Without Tears”, Kid-sized chalkboard
Building a Support Team
Collaboration within the homeschooling community
Developing Skills Through Activities
Handwriting and Sensory Processing adapting to holiday environments
Direction-following and Writing Skills
Vertical surface activities for core and eye-hand coordination
Integrating Interests in Learning
Using Interests like Legos for developing fine motor skills and improving visual scanning and perceptual abilities
Core Strength Development: writing on vertical surfaces, activities like setting the table while bouncing on a yoga ball
Use of Resources and Creative Learning Strategies
Utilization of Special Needs Scholarships supporting creative learning methods
Persistence and Executive Functioning
Sensory Processing Management
Keeping Activities Engaging
Managing Dysgraphia and Learning Preferences
Child’s Learning Preferences, Using of Primary Ruled Paper
Math Adaptations
Transitioning from Math-U-See to CTC Math
Holiday Activities for Skill Development
Holiday Baking: Strengthens hand muscles, memory-making and patience
Crafts and Community Events
Creating Christmas ornaments
Participating in local community events
Crafts and Educational Crafts
Educational Benefits: Motor, cognitive, and social skills development
Crafting Ideas: Popsicle stick ornaments, Window decorations with contact paper
Alternatives to Messy Educational Activities
Preference for Less Chaotic Activities: avoidance of traditional hands-on experiments, success of high school children in advanced courses
Handwriting Development and Custom Resources
Addressing Handwriting Challenges
Customized Handwriting Resources with Star Wars and Minecraft themes
Accommodating Different Learning Styles
Separating Writing Practice from Content Comprehension

Links and Resources From Today’s Show

Connect with our Guest, Cynthia Heren

Cynthia Heren is a homeschooling mom of 3 since 2014. With a variety of learning disabilities and other challenges across her 3 kids, her homeschool requires Outside the Box ideas. Normal at her house includes 2 trampolines, 5 sizes of pencils and indoor and outdoor swings, and a whole room full of LEGOs. She loves working one on one with other homeschool parents, encouraging them to create the perfect education plan for their Outside the Box kids. You can find her at Inside Our Normal

Homeschooling Through the Holidays: Embracing Neurodivergence, Crafts, and Core Strength