Friday, July 1, 2011

The Special Needs Schoolhouse Planner from TOS is a Must Have!


We received this amazing and very unique homeschool planner CD Rom from The Old Schoolhouse in June and I was SO thrilled I couldn't wait to get started with it!!!!  I am not am member of the TOS Crew, just a very excited, brand new homeschooling Mama of a son who has some special needs!!!

It is unlike any planner I have seen out there yet!  And I love searching for planners!!!  I am what I call an eclectic planner lady.  I print bits and pieces of a variety of planners to build one that fits me and our family's needs.  I have to say that the Special Needs Schoolhouse Planner is a large chunk of my 2011-2012 Planner!

It is filled with very practical and easy to use forms that you can type into easily to fill before printing out or you can just keep it online.  I love organizational tools and I must admit this is one of my favorites!

Some of the great forms include:

Several different formats of monthly calendars that you can enter your own information into!  I chose the one that is so large it spans across two facing pages in my Home/Homeschool Planning Binder.

There are forms to track everything that families with children with special needs deal with on a daily basis including:
  • Therapy trackers
  • Doctor's appointment trackers
  • Eating Trackers
  • Medication trackers
  • Medical history trackers

AND an amazing 12 page IEP that you can use to plan and organize all of their care, care givers, doctors and therapists and goals and objectives for the year!!  I was blown away when I saw this!

There are pages to help you with developing life skill routines for everything from brushing their teeth to checking out books at the library with pictures to help them too!  There are chore charts and behavior goal/reward charts.  There are pages of pictures to cut out and attach to your children's dresser drawers to help them put away and find their clothes and get dress by themselves.

There are lesson planning pages and daily and weekly planning pages for school and life in general for your child and for you!

There are 191 pages in this planner!!!  And here's one of the qualities that an eclectic planner like myself just LOVES!!!  You can print only the pages that you need for your family! And there are even calendars that are dateless that allow you to add the months and dates in so that you can use it year after year!  

And there is one more thing that is included that has a major affect on our family.  There is a special section that is filled with articles to educate and encourage parents of special needs children as parents and homeschool educators. 

The articles include:
"Why can't he just focus?" by Carol Barnier
"Focus on your Children's Strengths" by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias
"Celebrating Ben" by Richelle Spargur
"Homeschooling Special Needs Children in a Large Family" by Betty Eisenhour
"Sensory Processing" by Melinda Boring
"Finding your child's hidden brilliance" by Renée K. Walker
"Teaching children with sensory loss" by Renée K. Walker
"Special Needs Homeschool Curriculum" by Jennifer Bolton
"Teaching to their Needs" by Catherine Schembri
"Special Needs after High School" by Rebekah Wilson

Melinda Boring's article on "Sensory Processing" opened our eyes to some things that may explain some of the challenges that our son faces.  Thanks to her insightful words we have an appointment with an occupational therapist so that he can be evaluate and we can find better ways of helping him with some of his special needs that we have been struggling to understand for so long!  

This "Special Needs Homeschool Planner" has had a wonderful impact on my organization and peace of mind as we begin our homeschool year...but it is more than that...it is a resource that is helping us to discover ways we can better help our child to become more confident in his daily life as well.

In case your children are do not have special needs I highly recommend their other planners!  

The 2011-12 Primary Student SchoolHouse Planner on CD (which I am seriously considering getting to  use with our son as well!!!)

Like I said before...I am not a member of the TOS Review Crew...I am just a new homeschooling Mom that found something that is working for us and I had to share it with you!  I will be sharing more homeschooling planners and resources with you in the coming weeks...like I said I am an eclectic planner type person!  

Question:  So...I must know!  What Homeschooling or General family/home planners do you use in your home/family that you love?  I would REALLY love to hear about them in the comments!  Feel free to include links so we can all check them out!!!

Dancing with our children at the foot of the Cross,

Mrs Mary Joy Pershing





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