Special Connection Homeschool

I have had people say that they have trouble commenting on my blog. The first time I figured out that I had my settings to only allow comments from certain users, and after I changed that they were later able to comment. But I found out that others are still having trouble commenting and I verified that it is still checked to allow comments from anyone. If anyone knows what else might be wrong, please let me know. If you continue to have trouble contacting me try leaving me a comment on one of my other blogs or on my Myspace profile to let me know so that I can continue to try to fix the problem. www.myspace.com/specialconnectionhs I look forward to hopefully getting this fixed so I can hear from you soon! ~Lori

Here is another great activity that was suggested to us by our Speech Therapist. This activity is designed to help speech specifically by teaching the child how to speak in the negative. Here we are focusing on the word " not ." It also helps a child learn to sort as well as to understand " why " something is different rather than just recognizing that it is. All you need for this activity are some index cards, sticky notes, baskets (or other objects for setting the activity up) and various items from around the house; 3 that are the same and 1 that is different. For these activities I use a large variety of items such as 3 square blocks and 1 round one, 3 girl dolls and 1 boy, 3 hats and 1 dress, 3 forks and 1 spoon, and 3 crayons and 1 pencil, etc. Just digging in your child's toy box will usually give you plenty of ideas for where to start. First we need to set the activity up. As always, my speech therapist has emphasized how important it is to set it up ...

You might notice that in my list of resources I have a section about Free Open Source Computer Software in which I share some links of some really great stuff that we use. I realize these programs are not homeschool specific, but there are benefits that homeschoolers can gain from using them. So, just what is Open Source Software anyway? Open Source software is free software that gives you the user the freedom to share, study and modify it. Yes, it is not only free financially, but it gives you the user freedom to use that software however you want. Those who know how to program are free to change it in anyway they want as long as they make their changes available for free as well. For those who are not programmers, such as myself, we get the use of their products at no charge and can offer feedback on how it performs. Now lets look at a couple of the benefits for homeschoolers who use Open Source Software. Financial Benefits : Since Open Source Software is available at no cost, it...

Spelling is another area that I was not sure we would be able to do yet since my daughter does not write very well. However, when I was doing my homeschool shopping last summer, I found this great magnet set at Mardel which turned out to be perfect for our needs. It comes with a magnet board (though you can use any magnetic surface) and several tiles of each letter including both capital and lower case. We now use this to teach spelling. In preparing the lesson, I took some tips I learned from our speech therapist and tried to present the lesson in a manner in which it was easiest for her to succeed. So, instead of making every letter available I found just a handful of relevant letters and placed them at the bottom of the board. I have also separated the vowels and put them at the top of the board. In the middle I write a line for each letter in the word. So far we have only worked on three letter, short vowel words (though there have been a few four letter ones). Next I s...