#081 Natalie and Cindy: How to Homeschool

 Natalie Vecchione and Cindy LaJoy are both homeschool moms, who realized their teens, with FASD, needed alternative homeschool paths for meaningful futures. Through entrepreneurship and apprenticeship, these moms prepared their teens with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) to move forward with confidence, hope, and a set of practical life and job skills.

Natalie Vecchione is an FASD parent advocate and homeschooling mom to two. Natalie turned her family’s unique challenges and journey with FASD from career reinventing into a calling when she and her husband co-founded FASD Hope in 2020. FASD Hope is a podcast, website, and a place for awareness, information, and inspiration for those people whose lives have been touched by an FASD

 Cindy LaJoy has five internationally adopted children. Teaching them inspired her to develop a “different kind of homeschooling excellence” that she began at her kitchen table and turned into a 12,000+ member Facebook Group known as Blue Collar Homeschool.  This group and its companion website provide families with the support she wishes they had along her journey.  Cindy offers special needs academic consulting and brainstorming for hands-on project-based learning experiences. 

We became desperation homeschoolers because we tried everything – public private and hybrid. We tried so many versions of school, but he was falling through the cracks. Kids with special needs often have their gifts and strengths overlooked because we think we have to pound the fundamentals. We want to change it from the stuff they have to do (and can’t do) to what they can do and what we can focus on to help them. 

• Turning points for making the decision to homeschool, how they dealt with imposter syndrome and what motivated them to keep going.
• Importance of building respite and self-care for caregivers into a homeschool plan.
• The difference between traditional school, homeschooling, deschooling, and unschooling.
• How to address your child’s refusal to learn and how to know if they can’t or won’t do something.
• Mindset shift required for caregivers and five key ingredients and power-ups for homeschool learning success.
• How their adults are doing now and what they are up to (and it’s inspiring and awesome!)

Just like making the shift from a kid won’t do something to understanding a kid can’t do something, it is the same with homeschooling. There is some beauty underneath that needs uncovering. Once the competition is removed from education, your kid can soar. But if you aren’t past the point of thinking your child is doing everything intentionally and on purpose, don’t homeschool.

Natalie and Cindy believe so strongly in the opportunities that homeschooling offers for children with FASD that they wrote the guidebook they wished they had when they started out. We touch briefly on the book, which they describe as a resource tool for parents – an opportunity to think outside of the box in terms of what happens outside of school.

For many caregivers, homeschooling is an option and one that brings success. But even if you don’t homeschool there are still practical tips and advice in this episode about how our kids learn and how to find the strengths that will help them throughout their life. This episode is not about our kids graduating, it’s about developing a good human being and getting them ready for life.

Have a listen and let me know what you think. Do you homeschool? Do you want to? Will you after listening to this episode? Or do your kids do well in traditional school?

Show Notes:

Website: Blazing New Homeschool Trails: Educating and Launching Teens with Developmental Disabilities

Natalie Vecchione

Email: [email protected]

Website: FASD Hope

Facebook- @fasdhope1

Cindy LaJoy

Email:  [email protected]

Website:  Blue Collar Home School

Facebook: Blue Collar Home School Group

Check out our Facebook Page: FASD Caregiver Success

Join our Facebook Group: FASD Caregiver Success Group

Follow me on Twitter: @JeffjNoble

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