What a treat to introduce you to my friend, a person who has poured encouragement and support and wisdom into me, Carrie De Francisco.   Carrie is a mom to 2 homeschool graduates, she is a treasured voice in the home school community through her podcast, her books, her speaking engagements and her amazing videos on Instagram. She also provides encouragement for the moms of differently abled learners and especially for moms of dyslexic learners. The bottom line is Carrie will encourage you today, wherever you are on your home school journey. 

This episode is full of a lot of helpful and practical tips for families that are home schooling dyslexic learners.  

Here they are: 

*Have your child teach someone else something, or explain something they love 

*Spend way more time on your child’s gifts and talents than on the things they’re struggling with! 

*Use the dyslexic font for your computer 

*Use speech to text because it is not cheating! 

*Have your child read aloud the paragraph they wrote using speech to text and then help them edit as they read it aloud 

*Use Grammarly –its your writing tutor! 

*Use audio books (Audible, Hoopla, Libby are 3 great ones!) 

*This article breaks down a bunch of audio book options. Read it here. 

*Math U See is Carrie’s favorite math curriculum 

*Use colored markers, drawings or symbols to help them differentiate the words they’re learning and/or memorizing. 

Places to find Carrie: 

Her website here 

Her podcast here 

Her books here here and here 

Her Instagram account here 

Some favorite quotes from today’s episode: 

*“Homeschool kids don’t just turn out OK. They can really flourish, even if it’s hard in the middle.” GE 

*“Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean we’re doing something wrong, or that our home schooling wasn’t working, or that our kids are never going to learn. It just means it’s different. “ CF 

*“If your kid has dyslexia or dysgraphia or dyscalculia they are gifted. They are gifted in so many ways. They have so many gifts they are going to be better than OK!” CF 

*“The Lord created our kids to be learning machines and we just need to trust the process.” CF 

*“God is going to use this. We don’t know how and we don’t know when, but we can trust Him.” GE 

*“Listening to books is reading books.” GE 

*“According to a study from Harvard, the number one thing that helped kids with dyslexia and dysgraphia be successful was to have at least 1 person in their life who is their cheerleader. At least one person who was their encourager.” CF 

*“As their moms, we know they are super smart and super intelligent, they just don’t know it yet and it’s our job to show them.” CF 

*For all the things that technology brings that can be problematic, there are also wonderful parts of technology that helps people with things like dyslexia. It can give them an opportunity for success.” GE 

*“Spend way more time on your child’s gifts and talents than on the things they’re struggling with!” CF 

*“Our culture likes to celebrate success right now, not the long, slow, version of success that some kids achieve.” GE 

*“Tell your kids over and over, ‘I love that about you’” CF