Our Librarian’s Notes: Believing in Our Neurodiverse Children (ages 0-12 years old)

1 July 2025
2:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Our first Library Chapters session took place on July 1, 2025, and what a meaningful beginning it was. The topic, Believing in Our Neurodiverse Children, brought together homeschoolers seeking solidarity, strategies, and renewed confidence in parenting and educating their differently-abled children ages 0-12. 

Veteran homeschoolers Apple Teoh and Jonnansical Boo shared candidly about their journeys raising and educating their neurodiverse children at home.

Apple is a homeschooling mother of three young adults, aged 25, 21, and 20. She educates both neurotypical and neurodiverse children at home. Her two older children attained their American High School qualifications before continuing their studies overseas. Her youngest child currently attends the Little U microschool.

Jonnansical is mum to a vibrant 16-year-old boy who is full of imagination. She coached recreational and competitive ice skating for several years before becoming a stay-at-home mum. She believes in pursuing lifelong interests. She created Science Explorers for her son with special needs, originally as a safe environment within the homeschooling community, to help him develop his social skills. The programme has since evolved into an inclusive community for children of all backgrounds and diverse abilities through science, crafts, friends, and play.

Apple’s Open Book: Safe Spaces, Everyday Growth

Apple’s homeschooling journey started with the joy of teaching her child to read. It soon became a profound commitment to creating a safe, integrative space for her neurodiverse children, especially her daughter with Down Syndrome.

“The question I ask myself: Am I a safe mum?” – Apple

Key Insights:

• Beyond Mainstream Limitations: Apple felt that mainstream schools often lack integration, life skills education, and authentic inclusion for neurodiverse children.
• Homeschooling as Natural Stimulation: Her homeschooling lifestyle allowed siblings to learn together, enriching her children’s development in unexpected ways.

How She Supports Her Daughter:

• Cultivates a safe and adaptable environment at every stage of growth, reflecting on how it evolves at each juncture, and finding communities that are conducive for her children to perform and fail.
• Prioritizes multi-modal communication—speech, gestures, visual tools—to develop them as effective communicators.
• Teaches practical life skills alongside academic foundations.
• Fosters autonomy by encouraging her child to pursue passions that could lead to future independence.

Apple’s Goals While Supporting Her Daughter:

• My child can earn a living in a job she enjoys.
• The child is prepared for a volatile work environment.
• The child can take care of herself.

Results

Affirmations for Apple’s decision to homeschool became more pronounced when she observed the following in her neurodivergent child:

• Drive and perseverance in participating in what her siblings are doing. e.g., “Wait for me!”
• Intrinsic motivation to pursue her interests.
• Ability to engage with strangers.

“There will come a stage where they will have to be their own persons.” – Apple

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Jonn’s Open Book: Rights, Flexibility, and Freedom to Thrive

Jonn’s story began with early recognition of her son’s differences due to autism, alongside her personal belief in alternative learning pathways.

“I knew there were other ways to get education done.” – Jonnansical

Key Insights:

• From an early age, she taught her child to know his rights, protect himself, and advocate for his needs.
• She creates flexible, evolving learning plans that accommodate her child’s interests and strengths while addressing areas for improvement.
• Jonn creatively simulates scenarios for interacting with family and friends using digital tools (like ChatGPT)—rather than speaking with others—to maintain privacy and discernment.

How She Supports Her Son:

• Encourages freedom of choice in learning with structured commitment periods, and rewards successful work outcomes with leisure time to explore interests.
• Spreads learning throughout the day for sustainable engagement.
• Provides platforms for her child to teach and collaborate with others in safe and inclusive environments.

Jonn’s Goals While Supporting Her Child:

• My child has the freedom to pursue what he enjoys while also learning how to make it financially sustainable or work toward future independence through it.
• My child should be able to earn a living doing what he enjoys.
• I can continue contributing and helping the broader community of parents with neurodiverse children.
• I want to achieve my dreams.

A lot of things are possible even for children with special needs.” – Jonnansical

In 2010, at 10 years old, Colin Ong conducted a Game Engineering course for fellow homeschoolers. This is the video he created using InShot & Stop Motion.

Shared Takeaways

Both Apple and Jonn emphasized that homeschooling neurodiverse children is a faithful, evolving journey. Some common threads from their stories:

• Redefining success beyond academics.
• Building strong emotional and practical foundations for independence.
• Cultivating self-sufficiency and resilience.
• Embracing flexibility, mistakes, and continual learning as parents and as families.

“We (parents) are also in that state of learning and relearning.” – Apple

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Closing Reflection

This first Living Chapters session powerfully demonstrated that believing in our children—and in ourselves—is at the heart of homeschooling.

By sharing their stories, Apple and Jonn gifted the community with renewed courage, perspective, and actionable ideas.

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Want to Join Future Library Chapters?

Our Library Chapters continue to offer intimate, wisdom-filled spaces where homeschoolers can learn from one another.

Sign up or nominate yourself as a Human Book:
https://tinyurl.com/HostALibraryChapter

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