Building A Homeschool Curriculum for the Future - Therapy, Life Skills and Social Skills

Once I sorted out the academic aspects of Hendryx’s Educational Plan, I moved on to planning the therapy, life, and social skills pieces. Therapy is something we are more than familiar with already having been actively doing various types since he was born. But once we decided to homeschool I came to the realization I would no longer have to cram all of his therapies before or after school every day. This is especially exhilarating, and may not seem like a big deal to a typical family, but for me, it is incredibly liberating: I no longer have to fight to get the right therapist, at the right time and day; we no longer have to eat breakfasts and dinners in the car to and from appointments; we no longer have to forgo playdates and afterschool activities that other kids get to participate in. For nine years life has been dominated by Hendryx's therapies. (And that is why I honestly breathed a sigh of relief during COVID when we couldn't do any of them.) Now we can weave them in seamlessly.

The main areas we already focus on in therapy are Speech, Occupational (shout out to my sister Holly!), and Physical therapies. We already have certain therapists that we love and will keep working with, but we now have the opportunity to add more. As a creative form of physical therapy we are trying a new organization called KidStrong, a kids-specific boot camp-style program that incorporates physical fitness, social-emotional skills, and confidence building.

Through a super-star mama friend, we identified a great Therapist program through Chesterfield County. She will work with Hendryx (and me) on some skills that he had been working on with his previous school therapist in Colorado. To start, identifying and managing his emotions. I will also incorporate emotional management lessons into our curriculum via products from therapists on sites like Teacher Pay Teachers. 

For Executive functioning skills (Impulse control, flexible thinking, etc) we are trying out a new-to-us Home-Based Applied Behavioral Analysis. ABA group called TaskKids. They focus on increasing functional skills such as communication, social, and daily living skills so really is a cross-over of all three non-academic areas: therapy, life and social skills.

I am excited to actively incorporate life and social skills into Hendryx’s Education Plan. We have learned that with some focused support, Hendryx does really well learning new skills through guided repetition. So Pearce and I worked through what the areas are that we would love Hendryx to build skills and we plan on working our way through the list. Some of them you will see won’t happen for a while, like driving, but with a kiddo like Hendryx we need to start building support skills now so when we get there it will go more smoothly for him. So as silly as it sounds, driving a kid’s car would be a good first step to driving in a real car.

What’s really amazing about Hendryx’s Education Plan is how our family and friends have gotten involved. Not only have they provided ideas for us to incorporate in the planning stages, but they have also shown an active interest in participating. Thanks to our friends Melissa and Matt West, Hendryx will be able to do an adaptive ski program in Winter Park, Colorado. My mom is working with my Aunt Jamie to set up a Vision Therapy program for Hendryx in Michigan. My dad will be building and my Stepmom will be gardening with Hendryx when they come to visit as part of their curriculum. My Father-in-law will be Hendryx’s pen pal and many friends and family have agreed to participate in a You-Tube idea I had to help Hendryx with his speech. Their love for our son and concern for what we are going through gives me great joy and helps me feel like we can make this homeschooling journey a success!

So that is the Korb 2023 Education Plan in a nutshell. I realize that this plan is really just a guide. I will need to adapt and change as things do not work as planned, or new opportunities arise, but for now I am very excited about what's next.