Who are we?
Hello and welcome to our site! My name is Felicia and I am married to my high school sweetheart Jeremiah. We have been blessed with five children . . . so far. Our oldest is deaf and a dwarf. Poor thing was a guinea pig in more ways than one. Although I thought I would never homeschool, I ended up bringing her home at the age of 5 due to not finding an educational setting to meet her needs. Over the years we have come to love homeschooling and see it as our job as parents to provide our children their education. It has been a wild ride, but definitely a fun one! Our daughter, Short Stuff, has attended public school, private school, deaf teacher in the home, homeschool, and a deaf school. She has been taught in an oral only program and a signing environment. We have tried almost everything and she has found her place in a signing/oral place. We are now in her middle school years and are still having fun. Don't take me wrong, homeschooling is hard work, but it is well worth the effort! Short Stuff has done everything from horse shows, playing piano and violin, show pygmy goats, cook, sew and knit, give 4-H demonstrations, and drive a 4-wheeler. Nothing much slows her down and homeschooling has allowed her the many opportunities to learn so many fun things. 
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And why we do what we do . . .
Being the only deaf member of our family . . . being the only dwarf member of our family . . . and being the only musical member of our family Shelby gets quite frustrated at times. Which in turn makes me, Mommy, frustrated. I want to use this website to inspire other parents of deaf children to homeschool, but I don't want to paint a picture full of roses. Life is hard sometimes and we forget why we are doing this!
My husband and I often compare our lives to having a child in our house that speaks Spanish. We lived in Texas so we know some Spanish, but not at all fluent - not even close for that matter. Many families, unfortuantely, live the same situation but don't have the added challenge of trying to educate their child. Unfortunately they chose to let the state educate their child, yet never learn their child's natural language. This creates a false family with the child's peers instead of their family. We have chosen the bumpier path - the more rewarding path - the path laid out for us by our Lord and Savior. There are days that I look at my daughter and wish she was born with normal hearing, I wish she could speak to me and tell me all about her dreams, I wish she didn't need me to translate to her what her daddy is trying to tell her. But then I think about what blessing God gave me when he gave me a deaf daughter. Instead of hearing my daughter tell me her dreams I get to see her dreams in full animation! (deaf people have such a wonderful gift for animation) Instead of fussing about translating I'm getting the opportunity to teach my husband and others sign language and time to practice my signing skills! If God hadn't blessed me with Shelby I may never have discovered a wonderful culture and language, I may never have homeschooled, I may never have appreciated each child's gifts and uniqueness, I may never have developed a heart for the deaf community. Our family is not perfect and we are still learning. It's not alwasy easy, but it's always worth it! I hope that God will allow me to continue to encourage and empower other parents to take an active role in their deaf child's life. |
And the others . . .
Short Stuff may have been the reason we started on this journey, but we soon discovered that our two right behind her also had some learning difficulties. Homeschooling just made sense! We were able to cater to their specific needs.
This is an old picture of when they were little, but I just love it. Little Man is in the middle. Short Stuff is on the left and Tinker is on the right. Now they are 14, 12, and 10! They are growing up so fast.
Little Man was diagnosed with ADHD and a spelling disorder (whatever that means!) and we are currently just treating him with diet. He doesn't always like it, but he is very good about reading labels and saying "no thank you". Now that he is hitting puberty, we have noticed that the diet doesn't help as much as it used to. But it is how we manage.
Tinker was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and slow processing speeds and weak eye tracking muscles. She is my "spacey macy" This is the kid that literally will just walk into a wall. Thankfully she has an amazing attitude and just laughs at herself all the time. She is currently just attending occupational therapy to work on these things. We have seen improvement.
So these are my kids (I have three younger ones that appear to have no learning issues) and why we do, what we do.
This is an old picture of when they were little, but I just love it. Little Man is in the middle. Short Stuff is on the left and Tinker is on the right. Now they are 14, 12, and 10! They are growing up so fast.
Little Man was diagnosed with ADHD and a spelling disorder (whatever that means!) and we are currently just treating him with diet. He doesn't always like it, but he is very good about reading labels and saying "no thank you". Now that he is hitting puberty, we have noticed that the diet doesn't help as much as it used to. But it is how we manage.
Tinker was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder and slow processing speeds and weak eye tracking muscles. She is my "spacey macy" This is the kid that literally will just walk into a wall. Thankfully she has an amazing attitude and just laughs at herself all the time. She is currently just attending occupational therapy to work on these things. We have seen improvement.
So these are my kids (I have three younger ones that appear to have no learning issues) and why we do, what we do.
