Special Connection Homeschool

As we celebrate the day that Jesus rose from the dead I wanted to share these thoughts with you.  Upon a cross at Golgotha, Christ gave His life for you.  However, one can not fathom the impact of the cross without first examining and understanding the depths of their own sinfulness. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and yet while we were still sinners, even in the midst of our sin and rejection of Him, Christ died for us.   "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyo ne die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  And that is the reason that we celebrate his death. But his death alone would be pointless without his resurrection, for in it we have life. God offers that life to all who believe in His name...

I have to tell you about a trick that I have used to help Gess learn important and relevant, or high value, spelling words.  These are words that are important to her every day life and use.  Since Gess loves using the computer I started making her personal password words that I wanted her to learn to spell. We had to make Gess her own user once she got so good at typing on the internet that she ended up buying something on Ebay !  At first when I made her user I didn't require her to have a password but later we started using a password to limit her use.  I then decided to make the password educational.  If she could spell Jump Start and Mario it was time she learned to spell her last and middle name!  (Remember that this was several years ago, she certainly knows how to spell them now.)  It really is a great way to teach hard to learn or important words because kids will do just about anything to get their time on the computer! I do want to poi...

I have to say that A+ Tutorsoft is becoming my favorite math product.  Gess does extremely well with it and that has me excited because math has been our biggest struggle.  Check out my review in case you missed it. Remember that their 50% discount ends on March 31 so if you want to try it out, now is the time! To receive the 50% discount the code SPOFFER50 (expires 3/31/2013) I have also found out that A+ Tutorsoft has some text books too.  For a limited time you can get their Early Elementary Fractions WorkText PDF for FREE from Currclick .  This also expires 3/31/2013.  Their other WorkText Books are also discounted for the rest of the week priced at $2.49 each although they usually sell for $8.00.  This is a really great deal.  You can find those available at the A+ Tutorsoft Page on Currclick as well. I know it's not Friday but if I didn't tell you about the FREE book now you would have less time to actually get it FREE!...

I told you about the wonderful time we had on Spring Break but how about that finish?  I think we got about 5 inches of snow over the weekend, but Gess didn't mind.  Her and daddy got to play in the snow some more.  This time instead of making a snow man, they made a fort.  What an odd but fun way to end spring break!

Gess has been learning piano through private lessons but because of her special needs I felt that she could use some assistance, especially with practice at home.  When I had the opportunity to review Adventus I thought it would be helpful for Gess.  What I did not realize is just how in depth this material would be. I had to so much to choose from to start with.  I was given a one year subscription to the MusIQ Homeschool curriclum which consists of the following products. We chose to begin with Children's Music Journey Volume 2 which is geared towards students 4-8.  While Gess is older  than that I did not feel she was quite ready for the Piano Suite Premier software due to her special needs. Children's Music Journey is an interactive computer program that not only teaches your child how play the piano but also teaches music history and exposes the children to great classical music during each lesson. They even learn to read and write their own mu...

Is your Easter menu planned?  If not check out this FREE Everything Easter ECookbook from the Mr. Food Test Kitchen . Be sure to check out their other FREE eCookbooks too.  Enjoy!

It's spring break here in our neck of the woods so we decided to break this week too.  I actually do not always follow the local school calendar because we sometimes have different trip schedules, but this year we had something special for Gess to do.  She went to spend a couple of days with her brother off at college!  It was her first real trip away from home and Tim and his girlfriend Chelsie took really great care of her.  We dropped her off on Tuesday and she made it safely back home today.  Here we were showing her daddy around the Fort Hays State University campus before we left her behind. Here she is with Tim and Chelsie and her daddy outside of the building that houses all of Chelsie's classes. We enjoyed some of the art around campus as well. Tim is majoring in theatre and got the lead in the next play.  Here we are outside of the theatre. Inside you will see the display for the production and the cast list.  Her broth...

Homework sounds so silly in a homeschool setting.  Many parents argue that it isn't even necessary.  I used to be of that mindset myself, but I have realized there is an important concept behind it that children need to learn.  It is important for children to be given a task to do later and then to remember to do it without being reminded.  Unfortunately many children never get the hang of it, even if they go to a traditional school.  Kids continue to forget or simply not do their assignments.  This is something every adult must do in their life whether married or single, employed or a volunteer.  There will be always be tasks you must remember to do.  With Gess having special needs I think it is important to begin teaching her these skills. After the initial chuckle of whether or not we should even call it home work since all of our work is done at home, I started making assignments for Gess.  My board usually looks something like this. ...

Most parents who have special needs kids know well the value of a Hands-On Project for school. My Gess can learn just about anything if you can find a way to literally get her hands on it. We all know that is easy to do with things like science. Who doesn't love experiments? The challenge is finding ways to get our hands on subjects that are not quite so tangible.  Math is is tricky but there are really lots of ways if you try.  Here are just a couple examples we have used. Patterns and Sequencing Counting On - Basic Addition Concept We have focused on other concepts too, such as: Sorting Activity - Why Is It Different? Exploring Our Senses Reading can also be more hands on than just picking up the book.  Gess learned how to read using her hands playing Lotto. Introducing Reading With Sight Words Hands-On Projects not only make learning fun, they really help the student retain the information while having a lot more fun.  You ca...