Cindy LaJoy
Founder of Blue Collar Homeschool, LaJoy Educational Services/Blue Collar Homeschool Certified Special Needs Job Coach, Special Needs Academic Advisor and Educator at True North Homeschool Academy, owner of Buckaroos Slices and Scoops (a business employing those with special needs), mom to five special needs young adults. Featured guest on numerous podcasts on homeschooling, international adoption, and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.
About this speaker
Cindy LaJoy is the quintessential homeschool educator. Educating her five internationally-adopted children (whose special needs range from FASD to dysgraphia to gifted), led her to develop a “different kind of homeschooling excellence” that she began at her kitchen table and turned into a 10,000+ member Facebook Group known as Blue Collar Homeschool. This group, and its companion website which is chock full of resources and links for families, provides families with the support she wishes she had along her journey.
Combining her love of teaching, her entrepreneurial spirit, and her training as a Special Needs Academic Advisor and job coach, it was no surprise to her friends and family when she dreamed up Buckaroos Slices and Scoops, a pizza and ice cream business specifically designed to accommodate the needs of her young adult children so that they might not only survive in the employment world, but one day thrive as business owners. And, of course, the mission of this business is also to hire others with special needs as well!
Cindy’s real-world experience in these many arenas has led her to being the guest speaker on numerous podcasts in the US, Canada, and Nigeria, and to being asked to contribute to three different books on special needs and homeschooling. Believing that learning is a life-long pursuit, she is currently pursuing ordination as an Interfaith Minister through One Spirit Seminary and hopes to complete a course of study in Spiritual Counseling within the next three years.