About Us
The Handpicked Education
The Handpicked Education is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that services families of medically fragile children to provide educational and enrichment opportunities for children and families of all ages and abilities. We do our best to provide free or close to free activities, clubs, parent workshops and educational trainings, and support to our families.
About Us
Allison and Ashlee are two mothers who started The Handpicked Education after their children suffered severe medical traumas and left them unable to attend public school. Learning to navigate the world of homeschooling brought Allison and Ashlee together where they found a community of other families whose children were also medically fragile. Through this endeavor they found a need in the community to provide educational opportunities, support, and education to parents and families. Families whose children were dealing with special needs due to the lack of resources available were also met with a lack of resources for homeschooling. The Handpicked Education provides community, support, and endless opportunities for education and enrichment for the whole family through its programs like The HP Nature Group Co-Op, fishing club, book clubs, Life Skills class, Homeschool Support, Handpicked Conversations, and more…
The Handpicked Education - Blog
Hi! Allison here!
I have been homeschooling my children for over 6 years, starting with my oldest child in preschool. I hope that my experience over the years as both a homeschool teacher and a child development nerd can be of service to you and your family! Take a look around the website and if you have any questions, don’t be afraid to reach out!
All the best,
Allison
President, Founder
The Handpicked Education
Love in Action. The more and more I read over this full passage, the more I believe that truly this is the ultimate school philosophy statement, the purpose and know-how of all we do as mothers and all our children will do as the next generation. 💛
“Some things will anchor you at sea when the chaos feels so thick you feel you could drown from it all, but those anchors do not act as weights to hold us down, drown us or keep us from moving forward, they anchor us so that when the storm finally calms, the chaos has subsided, and the skies begin to clear, we have not drifted from who we once were, but instead, have become who we were always meant to be.”
Toddlers are full of energy, inquisitive, and let’s face it -- downright exhausting at times. Despite being cute as can be, they talk over you, make lots of noise, and often destroy things in their wake. So how in the world can you homeschool when you have a toddler?
I have to ask you to take a moment and consider what you are feeling: loss, fear, sorrow, overwhelm? Those are hard feelings to manage, now imagine those feelings in your children and remember that they may not know what these feelings are or what they can do with them. That lump in their throat, flutter in their stomach, seething under their skin, they may have no idea what that is. Can you imagine how terrifying that would be? On top of that children are very intuitive and can feel that you are having big feelings as well but may not know if those feelings are about them, if they are safe, or if they will ever go away.
10 Essentials for Teaching at Home. An easily attainable list of essentials for teaching your children at home.
It started with me realizing how my children retract from me when I scold them, when I get angry with them or when I react too harshly. Key word - retract. You know what happens when my children retract? They disconnect from me. What I realized through this, is that what we ALL need TO connect, to learn, to grow, is to feel safe. Connection to each other and to other things is what enables us to understand, to grow, to learn, to move forward. Isn't that exactly what we want when we are teaching our children? We need them to make the connections in order to keep moving forward...
We all know that children go to school to “learn” but how exactly are they being taught? I am a firm believer that NOTHING is one size fits all, especially when it comes to learning. To be honest, I never in my life thought that I would be a home educator. Never did I think to myself when I had my first child, “Hey, I am going to homeschool him because that is how I feel he will learn best.” Instead I was the parent that couldn’t wait until my first born was school age so I could send him off to school to start his education, and honestly, give me a break a few hours a day. Somewhere along the road that all changed…