Special Connection Homeschool

Summer time is finally here and we have not done any school all week! (We will, however, have one day of school each week over the summer so we can complete the amount of required days for our state...we are currently 8 days short). Other than the one day a week of review for 8 weeks we do not plan on doing any real "school" stuff, but we will be really busy. We have lots of activities planned, but they are things she wants to do, not has to do. We are not looking for structure, just good old fashioned fun, like heading to the lake to see some friends and staying in a hotel while visiting her aunt. She also will be in the library's summer reading program. She has done that every year since about age 2 and she just loves it. Whenever she is done with her book she can't wait to "put it on the list." Last year she read all the books by herself and will be doing the same this year, though we are getting harder books this time. She did a great job on her...

I have been wanting to blog about the great phonics reading curriculum we are using called Beginning Steps to Reading from Eastern Mennonite Publications (they do not have website). I did not even realize it until today but this material is even recommended on NATHHAN (Nathional Challenged Homeschoolers Associated Network) under resources for Down Syndrome which says it has been used by several families that have taught their child with Down Syndrome to read phonetically. Well, it certainly is working with my daughter and I will be telling you more about it soon. For now though, I wanted to share what we did the last few years that enabled my daughter to be ready for this step. Several years ago, when my daughter was around 3 years old, I was really trying to find some ways to work on her speech. One thing I found in my research was that reading was able to enhance speech and they recommended teaching reading by using sight words. I am always willing to try a new approach an...

I had no idea that Gess had Down syndrome when she was born and I was rather shocked when I got the news. It was not actually the words Down syndrome that had me distressed though. I did not know anyone personally affected by DS, but I was the tolerant type and I absolutely loved the television show Life Goes On back in the 80s so I knew that wasn't " all " bad. I was just too distracted to care when I found out there was an additional diagnosis that went with it. What I was not aware of at the time was that there are several serious medical conditions that are common in people who have DS, including various heart conditions. So, while they are explaining to me that they think my daughter has Down syndrome they are also telling me that her heart is defective and it will have to be surgically repaired. That is when and why I cried. The emotional roller-coaster I went through in the early days of her diagnosis can not really be put into to words, but I can try to shar...

Don't you just love those moments when you see that everything you have worked so hard for all year has made an impact on your child's life? Well last night as she was sitting with a pad of construction paper, crayons and markers Gess got very creative and showed us this! Now I know you all realized she could spell it after my Ebay blog a couple of weeks ago. Yes, she has typed Jump Start into the browser dozens of times, if not more. However, this is the first time that she has written it on her own. Not only that, it is the first time ever she has written anything on her own!! We made my son and hubby birthday cards last month, but even then I wrote the word and she copied it. As you can see she did a pretty good job. But she wrote Jump Start completely and utterly on her own, with no help or assistance from us. She finally wanted to write!! Then today when she had to write the answer to her Bible story for reading she wrote God on the paper without me having to sh...

While surfing through some of the blogs I follow I found a great post one day by the Junior Crew 2009 . The article was about Online Books and Videos for Kids . In that blog was a link to Junior Crew Book Shelf which had tons of great website resources for kids. One that we have recently gotten the most use out of was Crawford the Cat . Crawford the Cat is a great site that promotes some basic hygiene, health and social skills. They offer 5 minute videos on various topics like washing your hands , brushing your teeth, table manners , and exercise . There are 13 different videos in all as well as some games , books and coloring pages to print so you can reinforce the theme of each video. This is an excellent resource to teach young kids some very basic, yet essential skills. Last month we spent lots of time watching the Crawford Brushes His Teeth video since my daughter had her 6 month check up at the dentist. We watched this video as we prepared for the visit so that we cou...