Raising and
homeschooling
children with Down
syndrome is chaotic,
fun, crazy, stressful,
blissful, heartbreaking,
and so very, very
inspiring!
layer of learning as he struggled with
many more medical challenges than
Benjamin had endured. About half of
the children who have Down syndrome
have a heart condition, and many require
heart surgery. Gabriel had a complicated
hole in his heart and one common valve
instead of two. He spent the first month
of his life in the hospital NICU and had
open-heart surgery when he was seven
months old. That was one of the worst,
and one of the best, days of my life. It was
horrifying to hand this tiny, weak baby
over to the doctors, knowing what a terrible ordeal this surgery would be for
him. However, several long hours later,
looking horrible and bloated, with tubes
sticking out everywhere, he was pink for
the first time in his life! The surgery had
been successful and he would be just fine!
Gabriel has had additional medical
challenges, including dislocating hips
that required two very painful surgeries
and a rare eye condition. We have been
amazed to observe God’s grace through
Gabriel’s medical challenges, as our
sweet little guy never gives up and only
rarely gets discouraged. He teaches us
about patience and perseverance every
day, and wraps us in his wonderful, un-
forgettable hugs!
have few, and some have many. We found
that learning for our middle children is
much slower and takes much more effort. They are all visual learners, and
need repetition, repetition, repetition!
Our special needs kids learn a tremendous amount from each other and from
our other two sons. Having a rich and
varied learning environment has been
enormously helpful. We try to provide
many opportunities for them to learn
many different things, as well as many
opportunities to generalize learning
from one situation to another. Manipulatives are extremely helpful as a tool to
make learning more concrete, as kids
with Down syndrome tend to have challenges with abstract concepts.
Raising and homeschooling children
with Down syndrome is chaotic, fun,
crazy, stressful, blissful, heartbreaking,
and so very, very inspiring! We have had
many difficult days, but we have had so
many more good days. God reaches
through the learning challenges, the
speech problems, the medical woes, and
the frowns of society, and He teaches
all who know our sweet children about
His grace, His mercy, and His abounding love. No wonder my husband says he
feels like he stole all the best kids from
the adoption agency!
Dr. Anne Margaret Wright is a licensed
psychologist who was happily promoted to
homeschool mom! She and her charming
husband of twenty-three years have five
precious blessings from God. They have
homeschooled from the beginning, through
hospital stays, surgeries, a flooded house,
and even through the good times. You can
read her new blog at cedarsoflebanon7
. blogspot.com.
