126- Karen Kassow and Why Homeschooling Works for Autistic and ADHD Kids

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Welcome to Every Brain is Different, the podcast where we celebrate the unique world of neurodiversity. We are your hosts, Samantha Foote, a neurodivergent, Board Certified Music Therapist and mom to three kids of ADHD and autism. And Lauren Ross, an ally to the neurodivergent community with over 10 years of experience supporting children and adults with autism.

This podcast is for parents like you. Navigating the world of neurodiversity with love and compassion. Together we'll create a world where every brain is valued and celebrated. We're excited to embark on this enlightening journey with you.

Transcript:

Samantha Foote: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Every Brain is Different podcast. We are here with Karen Kassow and she is a writer, certified master life coach and founder of AI Powered Homeschool. As a neurodivergent parent raising two autistic children, she creates honest, actionable resources to support overwhelmed families. Through writing, coaching, and practical tools, Karen empowers parents to [00:01:00] prioritize self-care, adapt education, and build sustainable systems that fit their real lives.

Karen, we are so excited to have you on the show! Welcome.

Karen Kassow: Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.

Samantha Foote: Yeah, and we've had you on before, so I'm so excited to talk to you again. Tell us a little bit more about how you're involved in the Neurodivergent community.

Karen Kassow: Sure I, well, I've been neuro divergent my whole life, kind of just in the process of figuring it out. And my oldest son is 15 and we've known he was spicy since he was born. So as he racked up diagnoses, I got more involved in our local autism community, uh, supporting parents, helping kids, and that just sort of grew into starting some businesses and being an advocate with the local community, specifically around the family paid caregiving waiver and trying to keep that going, um, with helping parents navigate special education services and get the support that they need.

Samantha Foote: Yeah, and the family paid caregiver thing [00:02:00] that is, uh, I feel so bad for families who use that and it's going away and I don't know how to help them, but I want to help them.

Karen Kassow: Oh- the best- Um, I'm working with some of the other members of the work group that have been working for the past several years and aggressively over the past couple months to keep it going. We are working on creating a platform to let people know how they can help. And once that's up, I will message you and let you know. Um, right now, biggest thing we can always do is make educated voting choices for people that are going to support our families. And it, it's heartbreaking.

I, as part of the work group, compiled a 102 page document of all of the stories of the families that felt able to share what their challenges were and how this program supported them. And I spend so much time in the autism parenting community. In the neurodivergent community that I forget that there's other types of disabilities sometimes and [00:03:00] oh my gosh, absolutely heartbreaking stories of parents sharing how they didn't know how much longer their child would be alive and how this was the one thing keeping them from going bankrupt while they literally watched their child slowly pass away. And to know that we have a system in place right now that is okay with taking that support away from those families. Uh, and I know this isn't an Idaho specific podcast, but , Idaho we're, I think 48th or 49th in the nation for qualified paid caregivers. There simply aren't enough caregivers to go around, and as I know, you've navigated this from all sides, both being an agency owner, providing services, being a parent, getting services. There is no one to do the work, not for the rates that they're being paid. And it is just devastating to know what this program going away might mean.

Samantha Foote: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Because the state is saying, “well, [00:04:00] you can just hire someone to take care of your kid.” And first of all, if they're gonna pay someone to do the work anyway, why can't it be the parents who know their kid the best, who want to be with their kid, and there's, there is no one to pay to take care of your kid like they told me to be part of the YES Program to support kids with ADHD. I had to get respite. They were paying $8 an hour for respite providers. And I couldn't have one to watch all my kids and pay them like $24 an hour. I had to have an individual respite provider per kid. And I was like that is never gonna happen. No one is gonna work for $8 an hour. I'm not gonna be able to find three different people to work for $8 an hour to come watch all three of my kids so I can get some respite.

Karen Kassow: Yeah.

Samantha Foote: That's not gonna happen.

Karen Kassow: No. And my take on that, as someone who [00:05:00] tends to think worst case scenario all the time, I wouldn't trust anyone who would stay with my kids for $8 an hour.

Samantha Foote: Yeah.

Karen Kassow: And it really becomes a matter of these children are so vulnerable. I, you know, in my capacity as a leader in a local parenting group came across some- several instances of really severe abuse that young children, especially those who are non-speaking, were potentially exposed to, and the parents don't know because the kids can't speak to tell them what happened and, it's just absolutely heartbreaking. It, it's so hard to find people who you can trust to leave with your kids, if, I would assume, if they're neurotypical. I don't have any of those kind of kids, but especially when you've got kids who have additional needs and challenges and communication issues, it's, it's crazy making to think that they won't pay parents to do the work because they just assume parents will keep doing it unpaid and they'll save money.

Samantha Foote: Yeah, and that, I think that's what it boils down to, is that, there have [00:06:00] been people at Health and Welfare that have told me that they make things difficult. So that parents will not access the services and then they don't have to pay it out. They don't have to pay any money. And so it's just, it's so infuriating.

Karen Kassow: That's the word for it. And I have always suspected doing the work with the work group to try to keep the family paid caregiver waiver going. I've heard some things that, that make me question how supportive Idaho Health and Welfare wants to be to families like ours, and even if it all comes down to money, which it does, right? The cost of institutionalizing a child is around $820 a day at least. That's just for having a butt in a bed, right? That's not talking about having therapies or providing enrichment programs or any type of oversight. It, it's just, that's the cost of the facility to [00:07:00] have a patient in a bed. And you look at the quality care that parents provide, and it is far superior, right? It reduces ER visits. It reduces inpatient admissions, better outcomes for kids, better outcomes for families. It saves money. And at this point, the fact that they still won't recognize all of this, it just seems like the cruelty is the point. And so they're not prepared to go back to spending what they spent institutionalized people, even under horrible conditions. Right? And something needs to change, and I don't know what it is, but I'm trying to kinda keep things the way that they've been. And again, there should be some oversight. There should be some safeguards there. We keep hearing that there's all this fraud, waste, and abuse and Idaho Health and Welfare is claiming like thousands of instances. Yet when the work group has done research, they won't give us any information. We've requested freedom of information, requests for files. Nothing came back. They aren't able to provide [00:08:00] any detailed instances that I'm aware of. And again, I'm, I'm not always up to date with what the work group is doing, but all this claims of fraud and abuse, it, it just isn't panning out. It’s parents doing the best they can. And with any system, you're going to have some bad apples. You're going to have some people that either make errors because they weren't informed or some folks will willfully make untrue statements to gain systems and services, and there's no way to prevent that in any type of program. You're, you're gonna have those, those issues and it's just a matter of mitigating it and supporting the families that need it.

Samantha Foote: Yes. Yes. So. When you get that information of how we can help-

Karen Kassow: Oh yes.

Samantha Foote: I would love to share that with our listeners. And then if you're not in Idaho, get involved in your local disability resources and the only thing we can do is make educated guess- not guesses, educated voting [00:09:00] and call your representatives and tell them what you want and what you need and what would be best for families. And so anyone in any state can do that. And then we have listeners overseas, we have listeners in other countries. You can get involved in your local government too. I don't know quite how that works, but see if you can get involved and we can try and make things better for families, make it more sustainable, and make it so people can live their best lives possible.

But I would love to talk to you today about homeschooling. So, so many neurodivergent kids, the best option for them is homeschooling because the schools are not set up to provide the individualized care and individualized teaching that a lot of neurodivergent students need. So what can you tell parents that are listening about that? Like what resources or what, like what [00:10:00] strategies do you have for them?

Karen Kassow: Oh my gosh. So many strategies. So I'll just start by saying my kids have never been inside a brick and mortar school. My oldest is 15 going into 10th grade, and we have at certain periods done, Idaho has a really great program called Idaho Home Learning Academy, and that also came under attack this last legislative session. And they're trying to make big changes there too. Ugh. It was exhausting. But what that is, it's a public school at home option and you, they can have a 504 or an IEP plan for special education services. They can get a speech and physical therapy and occupational therapy through the district if they qualify. It's all done over Zoom, but it gives you, as the home educating parent, a chance to adapt lessons. You still have to meet the Idaho State standards and the goals, kids still have to do testing. So that's one option that we've used.

You, also, in Idaho right now, we have really, really wonderfully flexible homeschooling regulations if [00:11:00] you're doing true traditional homeschool. My son's in high school now, he could not meet the requirements of that Idaho Home Learning Academy program. We are traditionally homeschooling him. It's going well. The reason it's going well is because I am endlessly adaptable and I have learned that the kids are always learning, even if they're playing Minecraft, even if they are in the room with themselves underneath the covers, hiding from you, even if they are screaming at you, “no, I'm not gonna do that.” They're learning. It may not be what you want them to learn, and it may not be easy on you as a parent, but I've always had the perspective that homeschooling saves my energy because I don't have to get them up and out of the house. Rarely do we have to do that for appointments and things, but we're preserving our energy as a neurodivergent family. We're focusing on the learning, and then we're focusing on relationships and friendships [00:12:00] separately.

So when kids go to public school, they are, or private school, I'd assume they're having that learning and friendship and social time all mismatched together. And I think it's really overwhelming for a lot of kids. And I think that's where a lot of children, especially in the younger grades, struggle because they're not able to participate well in a social environment, yet they haven't picked up those skills and they're being asked to learn developmentally inappropriate things at a very early age when they themselves are already, in most cases, developmentally delayed and not able to learn those things at that age.

So with homeschooling, it's just giving them space to do one thing at a time. Right? So we're gonna work on math and then we're gonna work on spelling. And your friend Bob down the street doesn't need to see you having a meltdown 'cause mom asked you to do handwriting. Right? So it [00:13:00] preserves their sense of dignity and autonomy in those social situations so that they're then able to go out and be, at least in my experience, more successful in those social interactions with friends because they don't have the additional pressure of trying to do schooling on top of it.

And in the early years, I was a bit of a stickler for them doing math only because it was easy. We found a math program that worked really well for both kids and we just focused on getting them to the 20 to 30 appointments we would have each week between the three of us and as a mom who was home with her kids, when I was fortunate enough, my husband was at work. I was still doing all that stuff. Right. So it was, it was a lot at the time and it worked really well at the time. Our schedule is, has chilled out a bit since, uh, it's, the flexibility for me is what always it all comes back to.

Samantha Foote: Yes. Flexibility is so important.

And I love what you said. I never thought about that before, that [00:14:00] when they're in school, they're having to do social skills, learning social skills, and learning academic skills at the same time. And if you can separate those, they're not gonna go into burnout as quickly, or at all, because they're able to just focus on one thing and they don't have to just combine them both, and they're confused about the social skills. They might be confused about school, and then that just is completely overwhelming for them. Yeah.

Karen Kassow: Not even thinking about the sensory nightmare overwhelm that is a modern classroom.

Samantha Foote: Yeah.

Karen Kassow: Right. So you're, you're just setting them into an environment where they're gonna fail and the teachers aren't trained, as far as I know, most teachers aren't trained to handle all children. Like it is just not possible. Right. Because you're never going to know the variety of kids you're gonna have in your classroom. And there's so a few paraeducators, and they are just asked to do so much more than they should have [00:15:00] to, and it isn't sustainable for them as human beings or as employees. And I have two autistic kids, like I love 'em more than anyone in the world, but my goodness gracious, they are frustrating individuals at times. And I couldn't imagine being a teacher and having a class of 30 kids and maybe three of them are autistic and you have one para. I can't handle my own two most days and like, I'm their mom and we still, I can't do school at the same time with both of them. We have one kid has mom time, the other kid has mom time, otherwise nothing gets done. So I couldn't imagine being a teacher trying to teach to a test that they've gotta take in this overwhelming environment. It's just, it's a system that's setting everyone up to fail. And I think, it's just really obvious that it's not working for our kids.

Samantha Foote: Yeah. Yeah. And I love how flexible homeschooling has become with support from the school district. So I know someone who is [00:16:00] homeschooled and he still goes to school for PE and for band. And for, I think computer time, I don't know, he, he can go for those elective classes and then come home and do the schooling that he needs to do at home. And then they have a field trip that they do once a month so he can go to the field trip and they're in a learning pod together. So they still have like classmates, but it's not, he doesn't have to go to school every day and be in an environment that's overwhelming for him, but it's still supported through the school. And I know that my company works with a student who, he has a Behavior Interventionist with him in the home because it's on his IEP, that he can have a Behavior Interventionist with him, and he goes to school for certain things and he has a BI go with him. And then they're at home part of the time and. It is just so awesome how it doesn't have to [00:17:00] be all or nothing.

Karen Kossow: It doesn't. Our local school district, we, we had a less than pleasant experience trying to get my oldest enrolled in com- some career technical education classes. That was not going to work with them. Uh, but places where you do have buy-in with your local district, where they respect you as the parent to make these choices. I know, knowing what paras cost, knowing what my kids' needs are. I've saved our local school district close to half a million dollars by choosing to keep my kids at home and, and take this burden upon myself and to finally look 10 years later and say, “Hey, can you guys help us with this?” And, and to not get any support was really, frustrating, but for parents who want to make that work and for kids who are willing to put their effort in to make that work, it's wonderful.

I think homeschooling gets a little bit of a bad rap from people who have an outdated notion of what it was. It is definitely really tied up with some [00:18:00] religious themes, and I think a lot of people assume when you say you homeschool that you are religious. I am the leader of the largest secular homeschool group in Idaho. And what I've seen is over the years, almost the entire membership is neurodivergent in some way. Whether it's autism or it's ADHD, or you've got anxiety. Almost everyone that's homeschooling from a secular perspective are doing it because the school system isn't designed to meet our kids or our family's needs.

So there's so many ways you can do it and it, here in Idaho at least, it is so flexible. There are other states that have a lot of regulations and rules, and I don't know a lot about them because we are committed to staying here in Idaho until my youngest graduates, at least, in part because of the homeschool freedom and flexibility. And it, it really can be what you make it. And I think that's what's so wonderful is that you can just customize it to be what you [00:19:00] need it to be for you as the parent, but also what your kids need it to be for their learning environment and adventure.

Samantha Foote: Yeah. That's awesome.

So I've always wondered this and I have a question about, what your kids are learning and the standards that the state presents or that they have. So I know in Oregon I heard of two students that were homeschooling. They took the standardized tests, they were nowhere near where they needed to be. And so because they weren't really homeschooling, they just said they were homeschooling. And I'm not saying that's what people do, but because of that, because they didn't meet the standards, they were forced to go back to school. Is that, does that happen like in Idaho or is that a common thing or- Okay.

Karen Kassow: Not in Idaho, that I'm aware of. Uh, there, like I said, there's that Idaho Home Learning Academy program, which is a public school, [00:20:00] and that's something a lot of people get really confused. When you enroll in a program like that, you are doing public school at home, you technically are not a homeschooler. Your children technically are not homeschooled. You are not a homeschooling parent. You are a home educator and you agree to do those state testings. You agree to keep up with those standards. If you're doing traditional homeschool, which again is no financial support from the government for homeschooling, no special ed support from the government, you are just saying, my kid, my home, I'm gonna do what I want. Idaho still says you can do that. You don't have to notify anyone, you don't have to register with anyone. You don't have to have them do any standardized tests. I can't conceive in Idaho right now, that that situation would ever happen. There have been some changes to the Idaho Learning Academy programs where if you are in the bottom 10% of test scores that they are requiring mandatory tutoring. And updated testing throughout the year. [00:21:00] Now that also kind of correlates with the kids that would be caught in the special education net if they were in a brick and mortar public school.

I, I do know that that, um, happens in other states where if they take a test and they don't pass it, that they are forced to go back to public school and again, we are committed to staying in Idaho until my youngest graduates. I feel like standardized tests are just a huge part of the problem and why so many people are turning to homeschool. They're, they're not developmentally appropriate. They are not responsive. They are awful. I feel like when I was little, and I, again, I grew up in New York, so I don't know how things were here in Idaho, but we did the Iowa test like once a year. It was two afternoons. You got your little Scantron sheet and your pencil in your bubbles. You write. I brought a book 'cause I was always done early and it was like no big deal. Now you have these kids that are terrified. You have these, these tests that are, again, not developmentally appropriate for any children, but especially [00:22:00] for a child that's autistic or has any type of sensory issues. And you've just created this pressure cooker environment where the teachers feel like they're going to be in trouble if they're not doing well on the test. And then the students are all upset-ti spaghetti because they can pick up on the teacher's energy of being so concerned that they're not gonna do well on the test. And it just sets everyone up to fail, and I, I always say follow the money, right? Who's making money off of those tests? Why are we selling our children's future and current happiness and educational growth out to these ed tech companies that are making goodness knows how much money off of these tests that don't tell us anything besides how good these kids can take tests, which is a completely separate skill and is not something that matters. It, it matters if kids know the information, it matters if they can find the information. We live in a technologically rich environment [00:23:00] where, you know, and maybe I'm dating myself here, my, my teachers always used to say, you're not gonna walk around with a calculator in your pocket. Well, yeah, I'm, and so is everybody else. And it's okay to say, especially for kids who have dyscalculia, who have dysgraphia, who have processing challenges. Use your tools, right?

It, it's one of the reasons why I started AI Powered Homeschooling is because you can use these AI tools for so much to help these kids with these challenges overcome them. Then be able to focus on learning new things. Uh, and it's just as simple as my fifth grader still needs a multiplication chart to do those state tests, right? It's just a tool that she uses because she can't remember the math facts because she's got so much else going on in her brain. She understands how multiplication works, and we're working on learning the math facts, but we're giving her the tools and the support she needs to [00:24:00] stay engaged and to stay learning and to enjoy learning, and this process of becoming an educated citizen. And I just think that for a lot of kids, especially autistic kids, homeschool is the best way to do that.

Samantha Foote: Yeah, for sure. I know I looked into homeschooling because my son had a really hard year last year, really hard, and it was just him and the teacher did not vibe and he thought that she was mean and he was not getting that out of his head. And so we were going to homeschool and then they convinced me to just try this last school year, my husband was against homeschooling. He was like, “I think we should try it with a new teacher and see what happens.” Luckily this teacher, I think she was sent straight from heaven and she just connected with my son and was amazing. But I was like, “I'm gonna give it a month. If [00:25:00] he is not thriving in a month, if he's doing the same things like,” 'cause we were getting calls every day to come get him because he was, he was doing things just enough to get in trouble. 'cause he knew he'd be sent home, so he wasn't learning anything. And I'm like, “he's not learning anything and so what's the point of trying to go to school? Like he just falling more and more behind.” But this year he caught up, he was doing- like he's thriving. And so it was all because of that teacher though. And I don't really blame the teacher from last year. I don't think she did anything wrong. It was just her personality and his personality did not mesh. And he was like, she's mean and I don't like her. And she, and he wasn't gonna do anything for her.

And so, but I love the flexibility that homeschool offers, especially now where if you wanna be in school, you can, but then you can pull him out for certain things and it's just so flexible. And I think that's what the kids need, especially if you're neurodivergent, like we did a [00:26:00] podcast episode about having ADHD and autism at the same time. And how the key to, yeah, the key to navigating that is flexibility. And so if you have that, you have to have flexibility in your schedule. And school does not provide flexibility in your schedule.

Karen Kassow: No. And yeah, both of my kids are AuDHD. I definitely have ADHD and probably something that would, would give me a plus one in the, in the autism checklist. I totally recognize other people self-diagnosing themselves, but don't feel like it's valid for me because I have to follow the rules and it only counts if I get diagnosed by a professional. Um, so definitely having a lot of those, those challenges and those traits sort of emerging in my late forties, it, yeah, it's, and you have very little control over who they get for a teacher and it does have such an impact. And if your son, sounds like he kind of gets the sticky thoughts and then can't move beyond them and can't change his mind, which again, autism and, you know, and [00:27:00] that teacher, maybe she did things that weren't okay, maybe she didn't. Maybe it was just the general vibe of like, “oh, this kid's a real challenge for me,” and they pick up on that. Oh, my kids look at me like, “what's wrong with you today?” It's like, “well. One of you got up at 6 30, the other one went to bed at 2 30 and I got three hours sleep. So take your pick of, you know, why mom's tired” and, yeah. The, the flexibility is really the only thing that keeps me going. 'cause I have people say, well how can you manage homeschooling with running a business and doing all the other things that you do? And it's because flexibility, right? So I have them. They have needs at different times of the day. So I'm no longer needing to meet one kid's needs while the other kid has to wait. 'cause that doesn't go well.

Samantha Foote: Yeah

Karen Kassow: It's helping one while the other is sleeping or helping one while the other one's engaged in another activity. And we are just able to sort of follow our own rhythms and do our own thing. And yes, I'm running around like a headless chicken sometimes, but [00:28:00] I couldn't even imagine what it would be like getting them up and out the door for school every day. Managing homework, managing the, it it- tell me Samantha, like, how much does the public school ask of you as a parent to help the kids thrive and succeed in, in their school year?

Samantha Foote: Well, we just had the month of May and that was ridiculous. I actually went on a rant that they asked us to come to the school so much in the middle of the day and I was like, “how are people supposed to work or just keep up with their lives?” Like it was like, I went to the school like five times in two weeks and I'm like, that is so much and I am happy to support my kids, but that's a lot. And so the month of May was crazy, but yeah, they do, they do ask a lot of parents and when you have, [00:29:00] I'm glad that they're, at least in elementary school, they are cutting back on the amount of homework where homework is optional. They give homework, but they say this is optional. This is just to help them understand more of what we're doing. But it's not, you don't have to turn it in, but, if you do turn it in, you get Fun Friday and people know if you don't get Fun Friday and Fun Friday is like a really popular thing that you want. And so it is kind of not optional because-

Karen Kassow: So they're just adding public shaming to the homework routine and trying to pass it off is like we're doing something great for everybody.

Samantha Foote: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And so I just thought of that right now, that my kids would come home on Fridays and they would be so sad and I'm like, “what is going on?” And they're like, “we didn't get Fun Friday.” Because Fun Friday is hard to get, like you have to do the whole homework packet. You have to, I don't know. There's a bunch of other things that you have to do. I can't remember [00:30:00] what they are, but yeah, and I was just thinking about that right in this second and I was like, “oh my gosh. No wonder why they were so angry when they came home from school on Fridays when they didn't get Fun Friday. But then when they did get it, they were so excited.” But it was a lot of work.

And so, yeah, the school does ask a lot and especially I remember someone that I know had vision processing disorder, a vision processing disorder. And it was not caught. 'cause this was like in the early two thousands and we just didn't know things as much as we do now. And she would do homework every night after school in elementary school. She would come home from school and do homework for three hours. Trying to get her stuff done, and her mom would go to the school and say she is struggling, but she got good grades. She got like really good grades because her mom worked with her every [00:31:00] night after school to get everything done.

And then when she got into high school, they finally found that she had a vision processing disorder. And so she got vision therapy and it completely changed her life where she didn't have to do hours and hours of homework after school anymore. But I was like, how did you survive that? That was like 10 years of doing two to three hours of homework every night after school. That is wild to me. So, yeah.

But we are past our time that I said. So where can people find you online if they wanna connect with you and what resources do you offer parents?

Karen Kassow: Oh, sure. Right now the AI Powered Homeschool website is up and running finally. Yay. I have tons of resources, Chat GPT prompts, that help parents adapt and create custom homeschool routines and lesson plans and unit studies, everything you could need for your kids. It's just aipoweredhomeschool.com is where all that information lives. I've got a free resource that walks parents through the first couple steps they need to know about how to use Chat GPT to create those custom lesson plans and unit studies. And I now have a full Idaho homeschool K through 12, uh, standards based curriculum set. So it's a one-time fee, if people still have empowering parents grant money, they can pay for it with that, it is completely secular, so any of the Idaho Home Learning Academy programs will reimburse you for it, and it is everything you need to plan homeschool for grades kindergarten through 12, [00:32:00] based on the Idaho standards, uh, that you can just use repeatedly, right? It's, it's not a one-time thing because unfortunately homeschooling you can do it for very, very low cost, but it also can cost you thousands of dollars a year. So I wanted to create something that would help parents. So that's probably the best place to check me out with the homeschool [00:33:00] stuff. And if anyone wants to connect with my writing, uh, karenkassow.com is the best place to do that.

Samantha Foote: Okay, awesome. That, those resources are amazing. I am so excited. Parents, if you are homeschooling, check Karen out 'cause, Holy smokes. I love that.

Okay, our last question is, what do you do for fun?

Karen Kossow: Oh my gosh. Um, right now gardening, although it's not a whole lot of fun, um, but the seeds are popping up and that brings me joy. I also knit a lot and I've been on a big audio book kick lately.

Samantha Foote: I love it. I have yarn that I said I was going to learn to crochet. I have been going to learn to crochet for 30 years. I'm not exaggerating. My grandma was a master crocheter and I was like, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna learn from her. And she taught me a little bit and then I stopped doing it and then I was like, I'm gonna do it. I'm- so, I applaud you for knitting because yarn and putting it [00:34:00] together just, it's hard, the tension, it's getting the tension right for me. I just, I can't, I can't do it. I do it too hard.

Karen Kassow: You might have an easier time with knitting. Crochet is really, really hard for me too. Um, and I've been knitting for almost 40 years, so. It gets easier if you do it more.

Samantha Foote: Okay, cool. Cool. I'll try that.

But thank you so much for coming on the show. We really appreciate your time and all the resources. People need to check you out because holy smokes, I love it.

Karen Kassow: There's over a hundred free articles on the blog. Right now that just talk about how to use AI for homeschooling and lots of free resources and just trying to help parents make life easier. 'cause life's hard enough and we just, sometimes we need that easy button and there isn't one if you're raising autistic kids or you're neurodivergent yourself. So trying to help.

Samantha Foote: Yeah. For sure. Well awesome, thank you!

Karen Kassow: Thank you.

Samantha Foote: Hey everyone. Samantha here, and I'm thrilled to invite you to join me for something special, the Parenting Power Hour. This is your chance, parents and neurodivergent kids, [00:35:00] to bring your questions directly to me and fellow parents in the room. We're here to help you develop actionable plans that really work so you can finally stop the meltdowns and find peace in your home as a mom to three kids with ADHD and autism. I've seen and been through the challenges too, so trust me, we'll find solutions together that fit your family. Don't miss out on the Parenting Power Hour. It's a free online monthly gathering every second Thursday of the month, from 12:45 to 1:45 Mountain Standard Time. Visit everybrainisdifferent.com to reserve your spot today.

Okay, Lauren, what, what were the highlights? What'd you think?

Lauren Ross: Uh, first of all, I think she's amazing. So, she's a fabulous advocate and sounds like a fabulous mother. So well done for her. I'm, I've, I've since grown, but back in the day I also was like homeschooling is like religious and their kids don't know how to [00:36:00] socialize, things like that. But I've expanded that thought and so I love that her reminder of, you know, a lot of people are homeschooling because of the neurodivergence and things like that. And there's just so many options. Well, at least in Idaho anyways.

Samantha Foote: Yeah.

Lauren Ross: The, the flexibility and the options of, of how you can do things. Um, so I think that's super, super great and hopefully that, that part of things don't change.

But I wanna bring up, and you touched on it after she said it too, being in school and then that social aspect of it and the pressure from both sides. I never thought about it like that either un- until just now. Um, and then the sensory, like overload in the environment. And I thought that was really funny because I was talking to my boyfriend about one of the comments that we had gotten on one of our, our podcasts about like punishing kids in school and stuff like that. And he's like, he's like pencil sharpening, he's like, every time someone's sharpening a [00:37:00] pencil and it's like someone new. And then he is like, and then you have your pen or your pencil and it doesn't feel right. And then you're like, obsessing about that all day. And then like he was bringing up different things and I was like, are, are these like personal stories? And he's like, the classroom is just so overwhelming. So overwhelming. And so just adding that on top of everything else, so. If your kid is struggling, I would definitely, definitely look into homeschooling because it sounds like there's lots of, lots of options and flexibility there, so I love it.

Samantha Foote: Yeah, yeah. I remember when I was in school, I did not know how people could just sit and read a book, like I thought- I would, I would have a book out, but then I would see the person getting up and moving or a person talking or sharpening their pencil or, and I was constantly like, just distracted from my book.

Lauren Ross: Yeah.

Samantha Foote: Like, I couldn’t know how, people could focus in the classroom. It blew my mind, like I did not believe that people were actually doing [00:38:00] their work or reading. I, I could do my work. If I was actively doing something, I would do that. But reading a book, they're like, read silently. And unless everyone in the room was reading silently, I, forget it. Forget it. I was just like looking around and the teacher's like, “what are you doing?” And I'm like, “I'm distracted. What is happening right now?”

Lauren Ross: And it’s even- no matter how small it is. It can have a big impact.

Samantha Foote: Yeah, for sure.

So everyone go check her out. If you would like to talk more about homeschooling or just need advocating in the school, we do all of that in the Neurodivergent Parenting community. So go to everybrainisdifferent.com to check that out. And yeah, we hope you all have a great week.

Thank you for listening to today's episode. We hope this discussion on neurodiversity has provided you with support, understanding and inspiration. If you're looking for more support, Or you can go to everybrainisdifferent.com and download the ultimate guide to parenting your neurodivergent child.