Taking on the immense challenge of homeschooling is not to be taken lightly, it will take a level of dedication and commitment rivaled only by the vows we took with our spouse.

However, if we’re certain we need to do this, then there are a couple of options out there that will help us achieve the level of excellence we’ll ask of our young one(s).

​The trick here is to make the most out of everything we can afford to alter in order to stimulate learning in all fields, free of distractions like the TV, pets, the PC etc. 

When we’re set on the notion of homeschooling, we need to take a step back and figure things out. If we intend to essentially take the place of every single teacher, we need to be prepared…or at least seem prepared in front of our child.

Take time to research all the courses you want to teach and buy the necessary materials. After you’ve done that, it’s time to hunker down and create a course plan.

​Every day of every week – you need to know what you’ll be doing and what they need to get out of it. Difficult? Maybe. Necessary? Absolutely. 

Simply put, the coming months will be nothing short of excruciating until both you and your child get the hang of this homeschooling thing and all the different ways your child can benefit from it.

The least you can do is alleviate the pressure a bit by buying school supplies in bulk and storing them away. This copious amount of, essentially, office supplies will need to be housed somewhere, so consider cleaning out a closet to make room for all the stuff you’ll need.

​This will eliminate the need to go to the store during lessons with an already tight schedule as you’re juggling your child’s education and the rest of your obligations during the day. 

With so much stuff to take care of and things to keep in check, it can be pretty easy to fall into the trap of throwing things around in hopes of cleaning it up later. Avoid this way of thinking at all costs. The whole idea of homeschooling is to give your child a quality education from home – how are you supposed to manage that if you can’t find your supplies, your pen, his books?

​Make sure everything is labelled and has a designated place, just like in public schools. Above else, make these rules crystal clear to the little one so you won’t have to go on scavenger hunts each time little Timmy needs to read from his English book. 

Ah, the wonders of the information age. If you own a tablet or anything that is remotely movable, you’re in luck. Using a laptop or a tablet for books and any other need you might have will minimize the space your teaching will take up and will also have the added benefit of your child working in a familiar digital environment.

​The only downside of this is that the very same laptop and tablet will still have all the games and “fun” things on it, so maintaining focus for the entirety of the class might prove a tad difficult. 

One crucial thing to remember is that kids still need PE. Take them out for a ride on their bike, go for walks in the woods, whatever floats their boat essentially. They need some physical activity in the day to spend their energy and get rid of the feeling of being bolted down in a chair for hours and hours (like in school).

​A good middle ground for this would be to organize classes outside, this doesn’t need to be anything fancy, it can be just a simple lesson in the backyard. Spending the day outside and learning will come as a welcome change of pace and will more than likely revitalize their willingness to learn.  

Ah, now comes the hard part – clearing out a room. Make no mistake, this is absolutely necessary to do and will greatly affect your child’s ability to absorb the knowledge he’s supposed to.

When you find a nice room you can make into a temporary classroom, throw everything out. Jokes aside, if you’re not able to move your furniture elsewhere within the house, there are plenty of super easy storage options out there.

​This will keep everything safe and sound and let you focus on your child’s future. 

Now that you’ve taken care of everything around the house and made a plan so you know what you’ll be doing and when, there’s only the small issue of getting our hands dirty and getting to teaching.

Teaching truly is one of the noblest professions and the joy experienced when passing on knowledge to young ones cannot be compared to anything else.

That said, dealing with children unwilling to learn is a whole other ballgame we’ll let you find out for yourselves, good luck! 

Please Note: This is entirely my opinion and may not reflect others who are Deafblind.

There was a recent court case where a Deafblind man, Paul McGann, demanded that Cinemark Theaters provide him with a Tactile Interpreter so he can attend "Gone Girl".

Now I'm wondering how this would work.....

There'll be two interpreters to take turns - not just the dialogue, but screen actions, descriptions of people, places and so on and so forth.

Some of you have seen Captioning - print descriptions of every sound happening:
[phone ringing]
[dog barks in distance]
[paper rustling on desk]

Then there's audio description for people with vision loss - describing nonverbal happenings on screen, scenery, etc:

Now a Tactile interpreter would have to do BOTH these jobs and the two switch turns (usually every 20 - 30 minutes).

• How does he combat fatigue? Not just from holding his hands up all that time (2 hours), but mental fatigue from concentrating throughout. That's a lot of information to process through TASL.
• What happens when he needs more details or he missed something? Pause the movie?

I don't care about other moviegoers being distracted by this - that's their problem.

It's just my opinion that this guy is asking for a lot and expecting a lot.

Maybe he can't get access to TASL for movies at home, so he goes after the "big guy" with the money? I don't know his reasoning and I don't care.

I'm sorry, but just be like many other Deaf and Deafblind person who don't want, or can't access, the standard captioning service at the theater and wait for it to come out on DVD and watch it at home.

Pretty soon there'll be technology for Captioning to Braille for television watching available, and then probably adapted for movie theaters as well.

Now I'm all for equal accessibility and everything, but right now, this Deafblind woman is baffled and bothered by this lawsuit. In the current state of things it is an "undue burden" on the owner of that particular theater - not the Parent Company. Sure, the lawsuit names Cinemark, but they'lll just pass it off onto the small business owner of the Pennsylvania theater. If they don't pass it off and absorb the costs themselves, and other DB folks request it - the costs are going to be passed off to the consumers. Moviegoers already pay a ridiculous amount to get into a movie, how would they feel with another price hike? 

So, have patience grasshopper.....technology will improve to where we all can enjoy movies without any waiting, without any requests, without any barriers.

Hi!

I'm still looking for writers, bloggers, and vloggers to join my site!

Want exposure for your writing, teach others, or share information, but don't have the knowledge, or don't want the hassle, of running your own website. Leave that to me!

You'll get your own "Page" here, without the hassle of upkeep. Take a look at my guest post guidelines for a rough idea of what I do here. Submit once a week, once every other week, or once a month and gain over 5,000 pageviews a week.

and let's open a discussion!

​Taking an infrared sauna is good for health and would be great for people who are deaf and blind. It is a well known fact that consistent infrared sauna use improves just about all aspects of the body's overall health.

​But what about those with the challenges of a disability; in particular the deaf and blind. A person who is deaf or blind needs to make sense of the world using somewhat limited information. If the person’s sensory disabilities are great this challenge can be overwhelming. Behavioral and emotional difficulties often associated with deaf-blindness and can be the natural outcome of the person's isolation.

People with limited sight and or hearing experience the world around them through their limited sight or hearing, but mainly through their sense of touch. A busy day of being indedependent gets very tiring. What a wonderful sensory experience an infrared sauna can be to a deaf-blind person. In the safety of a small space they too can benefit from the many advantages of the infrared along with experiencing, due to their heightened sense of touch, the sheer enjoyment of the soft, gentle heat from the infrared itself.

Many who are deaf or blind have some usable vision and hearing. Some even have enough vision to be able to move about in their environment. They can recognize familiar people, see sign language at close distances or by tactile, and possibly read large print. Others have enough hearing to recognize familiar sounds, understand speech, or even speak themselves.

Deaf-blindness includes a large range of sensory impairments. Touch therapy could be enhanced through the use of infrared as well. These saunas are entirely large enough to comfortably hold many people at a time. A therapist and patient could enjoy quality time spent together while enjoying an infrared sauna's many benefits.

Infrared saunas offer a modern twist to the ancient steam sauna experience. Traditional steam saunas elevate the temperature of the air in order to warm your body. Infrared saunas heat the air within the sauna cabin as infrared emits a wavelength that heats only your body.

Imagine yourself outside on a warm summer day with the sun overhead gently warming you. Your body becomes heated from the sun, however, if the sun is blocked you will feel cooler, though the outside temperature hasn’t really changed. This is your body being heated by the sun and it’s infrared rays. Infrared saunas heat your body in the same manner. Infrared heat is perfectly natural. Infrared sauna therapy heat provides all the healthy benefits of natural sunlight without any of the dangerous side effects of our sun’s radiation. Infrared sauna therapy is natural, comfortable, inexpensive and wonderful for your health.

Brent Bauer, the director of the Department of Internal Medicine's complementary and integrative medicine program at the Mayo Clinic, wrote in a Mayo Clinic Report, “The appeal of saunas in general is that they cause reactions, such as vigorous sweating and increased heart rate, similar to those elicited by moderate exercise. An infrared sauna produces these results at lower temperatures than does a regular sauna, which makes it accessible to people who can't tolerate the heat of a conventional sauna.”

The very safe and healing benefits for the deaf-blind are akin to all who use this infrared therapy. The benefits are myriad. You can experience muscle and organ relaxation, detoxification, pain relief, improved cell health, better circulation, anti-aging, skin purification, immunity boosting, relaxation, lowered BP and even weight loss. It also greatly reduces the effects of depression.

However, due to the heightened senses of the deaf-blind how does infrared feel? It feels like sunshine on a warm day. The gentle light from the infrared envelops the body in rejuvenating warmth as it literally melts away stresses and worries along with ridding the body of all the many toxins with which we are daily bombarded. The temperature of an infrared sauna is comfortable at about 110 to 125 degrees. When infrared comes into contact with the body it penetrates well below the skin, raising core body temperature and enabling your body to sweat while sitting in a comfortable temperature. Because you’re still sweating as deeply as you can, an infrared sauna is going to feel much hotter than it actually is. This allows for you to sit inside the sauna for a much longer period of time. Because of this, you are likely to come back to the sauna night after night, reaping it's many rewards. So, not only does it feel great it's benefits are immense.

The daily lives of the deaf-blind parallel those surrounding them who are not deaf-blind. They never ask to be pitied or patronized as they too can be and are successful, independent and happy individuals who work, raise families and manage a home. They experience all the similar ups and downs of all those around them and they, too, can benefit greatly from the consistent use of infrared sauna therapy.

Have you or someone you know lost some vision?

Had some loss for some time and want to gain more independence?

Whatever your circumstances, you can shop for groceries on your own independently with very little help. Wouldn't that be awesome?

There are many ways to shop for groceries when you have vision loss, all with varying degrees of monetary costs and help involved:

Many cities and even small towns have a delivery service / taxi service that can make small deliveries. I would only recommend this for the occasional item that you need "now" - such as a missing recipe item. 

Another similar service that you may want to know about is UberEats for food delivery from restaurants that don't offer delivery.

If you live close to a grocery store, consider walking there, you'll get good exercise, orientation and mobility (O&M) practice, and get familiar with your neighborhood.

The same goes for public transit, take a bus tour of your area and find a grocery store that's convenient on your route. Some advice, the best grocery store on your route may not even be the closest one to your home - pick a store that's easy to stop at and has a return route without many "exchanges" or long wait times.

Some grocery stores have shopping fulfillment services - you call or fill out an online form with your shopping list and can just pick it up at the customer service department. Wal-Mart offers this service in some places and will even put the groceries in your car for you. So use a ride-share service like Uber or Lyft, or your taxi and just have them wait while you go in and claim your order. No long hassle of searching for items on rows and rows of shelves.

If your local grocery store doesn't offer a fulfillment service, you can call ahead and request a personal assistant - an employee that will walk with you and either read you prices and items, or fetch them for you. This also saves time hunting around for items when you can't see things well.

Shop in bulk when you have a ride with a friend or relative. Grab all the big bulk items like toilet paper, paper towels, canned food, pantry items like flour, sugar, coffee, etc. This way you won't have to struggle with getting these heavy or awkward-sized groceries home on your own - whether you're walking, taking the bus, or ride-share. 

​This way you have -

• Reliable transportation
• A large supply of goods stocked up
• Savings
• Less expended energy
• A friendly helping hand
• 
  

Another new service you may want to check out is Amazon Fresh.  A produce and grocery service offered by Amazon.com. They offer an unlimited service for only $14.99 a month and the food is delivered right to your door!

For some extra savings, use these promotional codes when you shop on Amazon:

15% off Peet's Coffee k-cup packs - 15BRAZIL32CT
20% off Gillette Venus Women Razors with Olay - 20VENUS
20% off Gillette Fusion Gel - 20GILLETTE
$30 off Tiger JAX rice cooker - 30TIGEROCT
20% off Global Pet Nutrition soft chews - 20GPN

So, there's many ways to shop when you have vision loss and without losing your sense of independence as well. 

​What other ways do you do for shopping? Share your experiences!

Halloween is almost here!

Need some last minute supplies? Kid change their mind on what costume they wanted?

No Problem!! Check out the Amazon Halloween Shop for all kinds of cool costumes for all sizes!

Ate all your candy before it was time for Trick or Treating? Have some more delivered FAST with Amazon Prime!

Maybe you just wanna curl under the blankets and watch some horror movies? We've got that covered too!