SPED Homeschool: Empowering Families of Diverse Learners To Reach Their Full Potential At Home (The Salt & Light SERVE Spotlight Presents Peggy Ployhar)
Homeschooling my child is both an honor and a privilege. Second, only to parenting, it is the hardest job I have ever loved.
It’s a calling.
A willingness to surrender and walk in obedience on a journey where I rely wholeheartedly upon the Lord’s guidance of my steps and provision for my needs.
I am thankful the Lord, too, provides traveling companions, support systems, and mentors to guide me and walk with me along the way.
Among these blessings, I count Peggy Ployhar and her team at SPED Homeschool.
June 19-25 is Learning Disability Week. As a homeschool parent of a child who lives with learning differences (DCD/Dyspraxia and Dysgraphia), I am proud to feature as our Salt and Light SERVE Spotlight for June 2023 an outstanding organization helping to empower homeschool families of diverse learners, SPED Homeschool.
“Families who choose to homeschool do not do so lightly…these families sacrifice careers, time, and money because they believe their children have a better future than most educational institutions are willing to help them achieve. We must empower these families to reach that goal and press forward in our efforts to make homeschooling a more accessible school choice.”
Peggy Ployhar, Founder and CEO, SPED Homeschool
You Raise Me Up
SPED Homeschool is a resource website dedicated to empowering families to help diverse learners reach their full potential at home.
And it’s on a mission.
We believe every child can succeed when provided individualized instruction at home. We provide families quality resources, understanding, encouragement, and hope for their homeschooling joruney. We partner in these efforts with strategic partners, donors, sponsors, and advertisers who share our vision and believe in our mission.
The SPED Homeschool Model
What SPED Homeschool Offers
If you can think of it in the realm of homeschooling children with special needs, learning differences, and disabilities, SPED Homeschool has a resource for it.
And at no charge to families.
The brainchild of Peggy Ployar, a former physicist turned homeschool mom and advocate, is now a gift of encouragement and respite for homeschool families both stateside and across the globe.
Peggy and her team understand all too well the financial constraints faced by these families. For starters, a majority of home school families are single-income. Add in the additional financial burden brought on by caring for a child with special needs, disabilities, or illness and the impact on a family’s budget can be quite significant.
Working with this knowledge, Peggy and her team compiled a carefully researched list of resources such as a two-page PDF downloadable document containing 25+ links to websites with free parent tools for at-home therapy instruction in Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, Vision Therapy, Autism Therapy, Sensory Therapy, and more.
As a mom of a now ten-year-old child who has benefited from ongoing weekly OT and PT services since he was age two (and considering those services have only been intermittently covered by our insurance at any given time), I swallow hard against the lump building in the back of my throat when I register the full weight and power of such a resource. The sheer time alone it would take to research support for one disability is a luxury to any parent of a child with special needs. But an ENTIRE list? For multiple diagnoses?
And it’s FREE?
Unfathomable! Knowing it exists and can impact even one family’s life alone is a life raft of comfort in a sea of uncertainty.
SPED Homeschool also offers:
- Teaching Tools (Homeschool IEP Guide and Template, Free Downloads)
- Empowering Media (Articles, Podcast, Videos)
- Community Connections (Live Interviews, Family Camps, Facebook Group)
- Planning Guides (Getting Started Guide, High School Checklist, Homeschool Laws)
Live interview schedules. Listen in to LIVE Interviews every Tuesday at 12:30 pm CST on their YouTube channel, where Peggy chats with parents and professionals alike on a plethora of topics for the special needs and learning differences community. Can’t make it to a live show? Not a problem. Empowering Homeschool Conversations has replays on its YouTube channel.
Join the Mission
If you would like to join SPED Homeschool’s Mission to help empower families, here are some ways:
Advertise with SPED Homeschool. The nonprofit offers a variety of video advertising packages for YouTube, newsletter advertising packages, drip campaign advertising packages, website advertising packages, social media advertising packages, and podcast advertising packages. For packages and pricing, click here.
Financial Support. If you want to make a financial contribution, visit their website and click the blue “Join the Mission” button on the homepage. Monetary donations in varying amounts of either one-time or monthly increments are available.
Prefer to send a check? Not a problem. Please make your check payable to SPED Homeschool and mail it to P.O. Box 996, Kemah, TX 77565.
Purchase Cool Merch. Shop for swanky swag at the SPED Homeschool Shop. Coffee mugs, tote bags, hoodies, t-shirts, aprons, tank tops, and more are available. Rock your style and support a great cause at the same time.
Sponsor. Or maybe you would like to help sponsor a camper? Suppose you are interested in partnering with SPED Homeschool to sponsor SPED Homeschool Family Camp. In that case, the nonprofit will build a customized sponsorship package to maximize benefits for your business and camp families alike.
Tithe Your Time. SPED Homeschool also has non-monetary opportunities to help them continue their work. Answer the call to service and start making a difference as a SPED Homeschool Volunteer. At any given time there are a variety of positions where you can volunteer and serve from the comfort of your home. At the time of the writing of this article, positions included Facebook Group Moderator, Web Manager, and Marketing Manager. To learn more, click here.
Live in the Minnesota area? Or perhaps you’re interested in a volunteer vacation? Possibly you, your family, your teen, your church group, or your club are looking for a missionary/service experience during the summer. Click here to learn more about the application process.
Volunteer. SPED Homeschool Family Camp is an annual event for homeschooling families affected by disabilities. This annual retreat affords children with disabilities and their families the opportunity for respite, spiritual renewal, encouragement, and face-to-face connections with other families facing similar challenges. **UPDATE** During the editing of the final draft of this article, IOH was saddened to learn that Family Camp for 2023 was canceled due to a lack of funding. 😔
Have more questions? Contact SPED Homeschool’s Outreach Manager at outreach@spedhomeschool.com or (830) 272-8229.
Want to Know More About SPED Homeschool?
Be sure to join our next podcast episodes to learn more about SPED Homeschool. In these Salt & Light SERVE Spotlight episodes, we will speak to Peggy Ployhar about her mission to empower families who are home-educating diverse learners. Listen in as we learn how SPED Homeschool came to be and where it’s going next.
You can listen here on our website, our YouTube channel, at Podbean, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or Samsung.
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Blessings,
Kimberly
IOH Mom
This website is not a professional counseling website and nothing here should be construed as professional counseling advice. Although Kimberly Bennett, LPC is a Licensed Professional Counselor, she is not your counselor, and no counselor-client relationship is established unless she has signed an agreement with you. All information provided through this website is for informational and educational purposes only.This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure statement. Thanks for visiting!
