Homeschooling with Dyslexia

Homeschooling with Dyslexia is an educational resource and support organization founded by Marianne Sunderland, offering curriculum recommendations, parent courses, coaching, and community for families teaching children with dyslexia and related learning differences.

What is Homeschooling with Dyslexia?

Homeschooling with Dyslexia is a comprehensive resource platform founded by Marianne Sunderland, a certified Orton-Gillingham dyslexia tutor with over 30 years of teaching experience. The organization supports homeschool families navigating education for children with dyslexia and related learning differences. Sunderland brings personal experience—seven of her eight children have dyslexia—combined with professional expertise to help parents understand effective teaching approaches and find appropriate curricula.

Key Takeaways

  • Founded by Marianne Sunderland, certified Orton-Gillingham tutor and mother of 7 dyslexic children
  • Provides curriculum recommendations based on science-of-reading research
  • Offers online courses teaching parents effective instruction methods
  • Supports families with mentoring groups, coaching, and tutoring services
  • Reaches over 70,000 homeschool parents through online community

Resources and Curriculum Guidance

The organization recommends curricula aligned with structured literacy and Orton-Gillingham approaches proven effective for dyslexic learners. For reading, programs like All About Reading, Logic of English, and Barton Reading use multisensory methods essential for dyslexic students. Math recommendations include Math-U-See for its visual approach and Teaching Textbooks for struggling learners. Writing programs like Essentials in Writing provide video-based instruction. The resources page is regularly updated with tested materials across all subjects.

Parent Education and Support

Recognizing that parents need training to teach dyslexic learners effectively, the organization offers courses specifically for homeschool parents. These courses cover individualized learning plans, evidence-based strategies, and multisensory teaching methods. The "Revive! Homeschool Course" addresses teaching struggling learners more broadly. Beyond courses, families can access mentoring groups, one-on-one coaching, and tutoring services. The approach emphasizes understanding dyslexia comprehensively, not just remediating weaknesses.

Philosophy and Approach

The organization emphasizes discovering and nurturing children's strengths alongside addressing their learning challenges. Multisensory learning—combining hearing, saying, touching, and moving with content—forms the foundation of recommended approaches. Rather than viewing dyslexia as a deficit to overcome, the philosophy focuses on understanding how dyslexic children learn differently and adapting instruction accordingly. This includes recognizing that homeschooling offers unique advantages for customizing education to individual needs.

The Bottom Line

Homeschooling with Dyslexia fills a crucial gap for families who chose homeschooling specifically to serve a dyslexic child's needs—or discovered the diagnosis after starting their homeschool journey. The combination of personal experience, professional certification, and years of community building makes this resource particularly valuable. The weekly newsletter provides ongoing tips and encouragement, while the broader community of over 70,000 parents offers connection with families facing similar challenges.

Frequently Asked Questions

Orton-Gillingham is a structured, multisensory approach to teaching reading and spelling, proven effective for dyslexic learners. It involves explicit phonics instruction using visual, auditory, and kinesthetic modalities simultaneously.

John Tambunting

Written by

John Tambunting

Founder

John Tambunting is passionate about homeschooling after discovering the love of learning only later on in life through hackathons and working on startups. Although he attended public school growing up, was an "A" student, and graduated with an applied mathematics degree from Brown University, "teaching for the test," "memorizing for good grades," the traditional form of education had delayed his discovery of his real passions: building things, learning how things work, and helping others. John is looking forward to the day he has children to raise intentionally and cultivate the love of learning in them from an early age. John is a Christian and radically gave his life to Christ in 2023. John is also the Co-Founder of Y Combinator backed Pangea.app.