Flamingo Feathers

My guest, Natalie Vecchione, shares her experience and wisdom on how to best homeschool in states that have a lot of laws and regulations surrounding homeschooling.

Natalie has lived experience with homeschooling in New York state, which is one of the most highly regulated states for homeschoolers. She shares her best tips and advice for record keeping and interacting with the local school district. If you live in a state with homeschool regulation, whether it is minimally regulated or highly regulated, you'll get some great ideas and encouragement!

*Please note that this episode is not a substitute for legal advice. It's just a mom like you sharing her experiences.

You can find out more about Natalie's podcast, FASD Hope at fasdhope.com.
Get the complete show notes for this episode on the Flamingo Feathers website.

How can a Charlotte Mason education benefit a child with special needs or learning disabilities?

This is the second installment in the Homeschooling Philosophy Series. My guests Emily Kiser, Liz Cottrill, and Nicole Williams, hosts of the A Delectable Education podcast share their wealth of knowledge and passion for Charlotte Mason's educational method and philosophy. All three are intimately acquainted with various special needs such as dyslexia, visual impairments, and reactive attachment disorder. This is definitely a must-listen episode if you have ever wondered if Charlotte Mason's methods would help your child.

Full show notes can be found on the Flamingo Feathers website.

Anyone can dance, no matter their physical abilities. That's what my guest Shannon Wrights passionately believes. In fact, Shannon has founded Aspiring Attitudes, a dance studio for people of all abilities.  As she teaches kids and adults alike, she combines her love of dance with her belief that the concept of dance should not be put in a box, and neither should dancers. Shannon has dancers with autism, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, and other disabilities--as well as neurotypical students. And they all dance side by side in true inclusion.

Listen in as Shannon shares about her vision for dance and its amazing benefits for everyone. And this episode is a little different, because we're also going to talk about how you can participate in this vision of making dance accessible to everyone!

You can learn more about Aspiring Attitudes at aspiringattitudes.com. The full show notes, as well as information about how to donate are on this week's show notes on the Flamingo Feathers website.

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First, it was fall break. Then my brother got married and we were out of town. Then we got hit by an epic ice storm and lost internet. It's been a hot minute since I've posted a new episode. So here it is!! Thank you for your encouragement and support in this journey.

Some homeschool moms may just be trekking along on autopilot. And those new to homeschooling this year may feel like they were just thrown into it without much planning.  No matter how long we've been homeschooling, as special needs homeschooling moms, we will get thrown into the proverbial furnace at some point. And when those hard days come where we feel like quitting, it's important to have a vision statement to remind us of why we homeschool and why we aren't going to quit.

Having a vision statement for our homeschool also provides a filter to help us determine what choices are going to be beneficial for our family. Examples would be Do we join a homeschool co-op? Should we go on this trip? Does this curriculum fit our family?

While there are no show notes on Flamingo Feathers website for this episode, I encourage you to head over to the website and browse through past episodes.

Flamingo Feathers can also be found on Instagram @flamingofeathers_beth.
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Natalie Vecchione, founder of FASD Hope is my guest for this episode. She shares her experience with raising and homeschooling her son who has an FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder) and also has Bipolar Disorder.

You're going to learn more about FASD's, plus the wisdom that she has gleaned throughout her years of homeschooling a child with special needs. If you homeschool a child who learns differently or has special needs, this episode will leave you highly encouraged.

You can find this week's show notes, including Natalie's extensive list of resources on the Flamingo Feathers website here.

Connect with Flamingo Feathers on Instagram @flamingofeathers_beth

In the first installment of the Homeschool Philosophy Series, we explore Christian Classical education and how it can benefit our learners with special needs and learning disabilities.

My guest for this episode is Cheryl Swope, M.Ed. She is the well known author of Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education For Any Child and is the creator of the Simply Classical curriculum available through Memoria Press.  She is also no stranger to homeschooling children with disabilities, as she is the parent to twins with learning delays and schizophrenia.

Join our conversation as we discuss the definition of Christian Classical education as well as how the approach has benefited numerous special needs learners. You will also find all the links and resources mentioned in this episode over on the Flamingo Feathers website.

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You can follow Simply Classical on Instagram here.

A Smorgasbord: A Buffet or Variety of Choices. Well, today's episode is definitely providing the variety! This episode is about all sorts of topics, and at the same nothing at all. Have fun listening! In this episode, I share about changing curriculum midyear, a new curriculum I love for kids with Down syndrome, and special needs homeschooling related topics for upcoming podcast episodes.

P.S. When I hear the word Smorgasbord, I always think of the song from the Charlotte's Web movie. Anybody else?

Find out more about everything offered by Flamingo Feathers here.

Learning social skills like eye contact, play, and making friends is something that every person needs to do. But for some kids, learning social skills comes easier than for others. And while neurotypical kids can struggle to pick up socially appropriate skills, kids with disabilities such as autism and Down syndrome can tend to struggle with learning some social skills.

In this episode, my guest Gayla Martin, a licensed BCBA, shares practical ideas for how homeschoolers can work on developing appropriate social skills so that your child can express himself or herself to the world. It all starts with understanding what motivates us. This will be a fascinating listen!

Show notes for this episode, including the recommended books, will be available on the Flamingo Feathers blog on 9/14. For now, enjoy the episode! 

Time blocking is a homeschooler's best friend! And if you also have special needs kids with multiple doctors' appointments or therapy appointments each week, you're going to like this style of time management even more!  I think it is the best type of scheduling system for special needs homeschoolers because it compensates well for all those disruptions and objections that I’m sure you’ve thought of when it comes to having a daily schedule.

Rigid scheduling like this is good in a lot of environments that have meetings and bells—like a workplace or school—but when you’re home during the day and you’re the only adult around, it just doesn’t always work so well. You’re always one poopy diaper blowout away from derailing your whole day.

Listen in and find out how to start time blocking and building your day around routines instead of schedules. The show notes can be found here.

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File folders... they are inexpensive and easy to find. And yet this simple piece of folded cardboard is easily one of my favorite tools for my homeschool. In this episode, you'll learn how to turn plain file folders into games that will grab your kids' attention and reinforce new skills. And learn how to turn file folders into lapbooks. Test your kids' comprehension on a subject and give them pride in their new knowledge by using lapbooks.

See details and find out my favorite places to get templates on the shownotes on the Flamingo Feathers website.
Connect with me on Facebook at the Flamingo Feathers Community group here.