Hello Dear Readers,
We want to take a moment to introduce you to a new series we are working on for Catholic Sistas and to ask for your feedback. As you know, over the years this blog has featured writers from a wide variety of age groups and backgrounds all from an authentically Catholic perspective. In our new series, we want to allow Catholic moms of special needs kids a chance to share their experiences in raising their kids Catholic and all the things that revolve around that.
We all have challenges in our lives; we all face difficulties of one kind or another. The story is in how we face those challenges and overcome them. This is one of those things that Catholic Sistas has been great at over the years.
We have a couple writers lined up and a few others thinking about it (we had hoped to use this post to introduce you to our writers, but we’ll get to that in a future post). We’re still working out a few things, but hope to have a post up in February. Just like you can always expect a homeschool post on the second Friday of the month, this new series should show up every fourth Monday of the month.
One thing we would like, which we think will benefit our writers, is your ideas. What kinds of topics would you like our writers to tackle? Are there questions you have for them that they might be able to answer in a blog post? Anything else you want to add?
Here are some ideas we’ve already floated to our potential writers: facing doctors and others who want you to abort your baby because of a serious diagnosis, facing an unexpected diagnosis, how other children help out in the household, challenges siblings face, preparing your special needs child for sacraments, discerning adding more children to your family, and more.
Please share any feedback you have in the comments and thank you in advance! Some of our writers are a bit new to this and they’d love to have some topics to lend some inspiration. We are looking forward to this new series. We hope you are too!!
I’m looking forward to reading this and would love to share as well! With one child on the high functioning end of the autism spectrum, one with sensory processing needs and ADHD, one with a speech and language delay, and two who seem fairly neurotypical, I’m always looking for ideas and advice as well as hoping that some of my/our experiences can be helpful to others!
Sounds like a wonderful series. I would to hear more about the special needs that are not seen too. My child has ADHD and DMDD.
We have a son with Down syndrome and autism and he is home schooled. Would love to hear about how other families home school their kiddos with special needs, Also, life in a large family with special needs and how sometimes that child is treated differently and no, it’s not fair! How to get respite? Catholic church initiatives, anything like that..
So excited for this series.
How exciting!!! My ASD son is now 12, and after homeschooling his CCD through First Communion, this is going to be a welcome presence for me. Yay!!
I, too, have a child with Down Syndrome. I would be interested in resources to explain major life events in a simple, yet graspable way. Events such as the arrival of a baby, all the sacraments and the death of a loved one. My child has a hard time grasping time and it’s boundaries. Thanks!
We are a special needs family. Our almost seven year old has a very rare syndrome–a form of gigantism–he is one in 20-30,000. He is also a medically complex patient. I am a writer and wrote for a Catholic blog until our son had his open-heart surgery, which is when we decided to start homeschooling. If you are looking for another writer for this, and would like to see samples of my writings, please email me and I will send some to you. I look forward to following along either way!
I would love to see something regarding the challenges for siblings and preparing for Sacraments. We have 2 adopted children with a borderline low IQ. Since they can seem to be “normally functioning” (I dislike that term but don’t know a better one), it’s difficult for the siblings when off hand comments are made as they tend to be socially awkward sometimes.
For me, I would love to see ways to teach them better…but I have no suggestions on what that blog post would look like. Also, how to instill a drive to try – when they were in public school it seems they were basically spoon fed into to get them to pass….my homeschool doesn’t work that way! I know they are able to do the work I assign, they simply don’t care to try unless I have some type of an incentive attached.
Looking forward to the series!
I have 4 children and my 2nd has Down Syndrome. We home schooled, had him Catholic School with the other siblings, and now is in public school. I currently attend his RE classes with him, but my issue as of now deals with knowing when he is ready for the sacraments.