Special Connection Homeschool

Today is a national campaign targeted at ending the derogatory use of the word "retarded." If you know me you know that I am 1) for the right of free speech and 2) do not buy into political correctness. Still, you would also know that I am one who always tries to show respect. When I challenge a person, I challenge their ideas, their teachings, and their comments, not their physical appearance, skin color, or any other personal trait. Even then, I still respect their right to disagree. Respect is something that people with disabilities and special challenges never seem to get, and they are the one group of people who deserve it more than anyone else. People with special needs like my daughter who has Down Syndrome work extra hard to accomplish the most simple tasks of life. Instead of cheering and applauding their accomplishments we use words that are supposed to simply describe their delays, such as retarded, and use it to insult others. This group of people would d...

In our Science curriculum we began studying nutrition so I started on my journey to find out how to emphasize nutrition in a hands on and interactive way. The Food Guide Pyramid popped into my head. Of course in searching I came across the new and supposedly improved Food Guide Pyramids. Personally I do not like them. For one, that is not how you make a pyramid! Pyramids are made with blocks built one upon the other. The Egyptians did not make a pyramid with color coded lines. To me all they did was keep the shape and threw out the visual aspect of the teaching. Since my daughter is a very visual learner I started looking for the old Food Guide Pyramid and that is what we used. Now she can not only see the foods directly on the pyramid, she can more readily see the size of each section since that corresponds to how many servings of those foods you should have. This has really been a lot of fun since we have already been exploring our senses through food. This has allowed u...

I try not to spend too much time on politics because I do respect everyone's right to disagree. I just want to make this one post to share one issue that I do believe strongly in and does affect homeschoolers, and that is parental rights. I feel that parents are losing their rights in this country and I believe that an amendment to the Constitution is the only way to protect it. I do believe that the Consititution is something that we should not mess with very often, but to me this is one area I believe it is worth it. Well, Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, plans to introduce the Parental Rights Amendment in the House on March 31. There are currently 56 Cosponsors of the amendment. To see the list of sponsors click here. If you agree with this amendment please see if your representative is a sponsor and if so send them a note of thanks. If not, send your representative and ask them to do so. If you are unsure about how you feel or if you simply want more information visit...

Well we have been busy getting ready for Saint Patrick's Day, in fact you can say we probably celebrated it early. Last night we made our tasty treats, this morning we made shamrocks and this evening we had our corned beef and cabbage dinner. Yes, we will still wear green on March 17th and say Happy Saint Patrick's Day but we have pretty much done all the "traditional" things. On a personal level I have become a big fan of Patrick and admire his commitment to sharing Christ, not only with people of a different culture, but people who had once enslaved him. On my personal blog you can see my review on a book about Patrick that I thoroughly enjoyed. To get Gess into the holiday spirit we implemented a few ideas I found in one of the blogs I follow. No time for flash cards had several cute ideas. I borrowed two of them and used them not only with Gess but with our Sunday School class. The first was the snack. Saturday evening Gess and I spent some time in the kit...

Handwriting Without Tears ( HWT )is a handwriting curriculum that uses a developmentally based, active learning approach to teach children how to write. It implements the use of blocks, songs and special instructions to help a child learn how to write their letters. I found the blocks particularly appealing. I discovered HWT through a fellow homeschooling mother at my church. She was watching my daughter during church one Sunday and they were playing with musical instruments. She discovered that my daughter was making letters out of the drum sticks, so they made a game of it. That afternoon she told me about Handwriting Without Tears and the blocks that they use to help you shape the letters. I ordered it and found it to be exceptional. While the first set of materials I purchased had the Preschool books rather than the Kindergarten set, this photo shows the basic materials I started with. The concept is to first build the letters with the blocks. You can get letter cards tha...