6 Items You Should Use with Special Needs Homeschooling
I would like share with you that writing about our son’s special needs journey is hard.
Difficult.
Boarding on the impossible.
There is so much vulnerability associated with choosing to write about our son’s medical journey.
Interestingly enough though, the majority of encouraging comments I receive from my readers are about the posts I have written regarding special needs or special needs parenting. That helps me to know that I am helping someone and so that helps me to continue on.
In these times of being quarantined we all are going a bit stir crazy. It can be especially hard for special needs kids...feeling cooped up, not understanding what is going on, changes in schedules they rely on: it all can seem overwhelming for them.
Add to this the fact that you may be doing school with them , possibly for the first time, for who knows how long and you may be feeling like you want to pull your hair out or cry.
I get it, I get it. When you are their teacher, you are still their parent and then when school time is over, you are still their parent but your relationship can feel tense with your child if schoolwork doesn't go well.
I understand and have been there! I am the first one to tell you that I've lost my temper before and we've had bad days.
Fortunately though there are some things that we have found along the way that help us to make our school time go smoothly and to make our days together go better. I am confident that these will help you too.
Here are our favorite products to help with special needs teaching and living:
Sensory Pea Pod
This product takes up quite a bit of floor space in our living room on hard days but totally makes it worth it. This multi-use item is very functional when we are having hard times. Cal can go all the way in it and feel almost like he’s in cave. It’s made of soft, velvety vinyl that is super strong. The Pea Pod helps kids feel “squeezed” and even pressure. This is primarily what we use our Pea Pod for.
The other way the Pea Pod can be used is to use the handles and sit on top of it. This is good when Cal is sensory seeking. A lot of times in our homeschooling I will read aloud to the kids and while I am doing that I allow them to work on something else. I finds that instead of distracting them it actually helps them to focus so bouncing or rocking on the Pea Pod is a great option for while I am reading.
*Just to give you an idea, our son is in 5th grade, is about 5 feet tall and we have the xl Pea Pod which is 80” long. We had a shorter one before but when he sat in it his knees came up to his chin, ha. In the XL size he can lay all the way down. Heck, my 6’5” husband can lay comfortably in it. They have a variety of sizes so just pay attention to the length so you get the correct one for your kiddo.
Noise Cancelling Headphones
Our favorite brand of these so far have been our Muted Headphones. These are great at filtering out noises but keeping it at a level that Calvin can still hear me when I am teaching him or talking to him. They also fit very snuggly to his head but are not pinching (something very important to a sensory sensitive child). They came in a nice pouch that we can hang on the wall. I’ve linked to the ones that we have. They are very neutral and Emma will even wear them when she is, say, trying to do math and Calvin and I are talking. However they come in several colors and patterns.
Weighted Blanket
We recently got Calvin a weighted blanket and we have seen great results from using it.
Our Calvin has sensory issues. One of them is that his muscles crave weight to help him feel calm. He is more sensory seeking than sensory sensitive. We have a 7 lb. blanket for him and it is very heavy. We use the blanket on his lap when doing school work, on him on the couch during school reading time, and at night when we put him to bed. We have found with the weighted blanket he goes to bed almost right away, where before he was staying up until 2-3 in the morning, unable to sleep. It's been incredible!
Diffuser
I searched high and low and could not find a link for the exact diffuser that Calvin has. He has a bear diffuser which is super cute in his bedroom. I put an oil in his diffuser every night to help him sleep. He really likes the smell of orange but I will also often put Young Living’s R.C. (Respiratory Care) in his diffuser. I find it calms him and helps him to breathe easier. Lots of special needs kiddos are like our son and find going to sleep super hard. The diffuser is a ritual that calms him and it has a light that rotates through different colored lights. He enjoys watching it before he falls asleep.
I will also diffuse in the classroom throughout the day. Currently I am on a Christmas Spirit from Young Living kick (because I ordered a boat-ton of it at Christmas and it smells like winter to me) but I will also often diffuse Cedarwood, Vetiver, and Lavender together as the combo is supposed to help with focus.
If you are interested in becoming a Young Living member so you can purchase oils at wholesale price, you can sign up here and get started today. We have been loving their oils and all of their products!
Cube Timers
I happened upon these timers at Target and they have been a great resource for us! They are made by Sharper Image and they come in a 2 pack. We use these for a few different things such as tech time outside of schooling. For homeschooling we use them when I am working with Emma and Calvin is doing something on his own. I can give him the 10 minute one and tell him to study Classical Conversations or tell him he can go play legos for a certain amount of time on the timer.
Visual Light Timer
We have had this timer for about 5 years now and we have really enjoyed it. It is a visual timer and you can set the timer to go from green to red or green to yellow to red.
This is especially helpful if your kiddos don't know how to tell time yet. They can just know that when the yellow goes off, their time is almost up or they need to wind up what they are doing.
The timer also makes noise which is helpful if they aren't looking directly at the timer. We use this timer all of the time...for tasks when Cal is getting ready, when we are working on subjects, or when he is playing and needs to know when to finish up. This timer is really good for play time because I can give him, say 20 minutes of playing with cars, and when it switches to yellow he knows he has 5 minutes to clean up. Very nice option.
My hope and prayer is that some of these can help make this time at home easier for you and that you will find having your kiddos at home for this long, something that can be cherished. We have tried a lot of products. A ton of products. But these are our favorites and I hope that some of them can help you too. If you have any favorite products that could help with special needs, please list them in the comments as we are always looking for new things and I am sure others would love that too!
Read this if you Kiddo needs help with time management
