Special Connection Homeschool

We took Gess to the dentist the other day and she had a very good report: still no cavities!  Gess actually takes very good care of her teeth.  We go for regular check ups twice a year and I worked hard to instill good habits in her.  As I was talking with the hygienist, who also has a child with Down syndrome, I realized it might be helpful to share some of the things we have done. When Gess was younger she made quite the mess using toothpaste.  It's hard to know just how much toothpaste to squeeze out of a tube and sometimes our kids lack the motor skills to squeeze it at all.  I found that the pumps were much easier and neater for Gess to use.  You can find them in many different brands for adults as well as children. One thing Gess always got from the dentist besides a toothbrush was a sand timer.  It's a good visual way for children to see how long they should be brushing their teeth.  We don't use them anymore now that Gess is 11, b...

Recently I shared with you how much Gess has been enjoying board games and today I get to tell you about a new one we have been playing.  The Presidential Game is a neat way to not only have some family fun, it's a way to learn about how our election process works.  The Presidential Game is a strategy game where you play in teams of two.  You have Repulicans which are the red team and Democrats which are the blue team.  The object of the game is to win the election by securing 270 electoral votes.  Before the game begins you agree on how many weeks are left before election day.  There can be as many as 30 weeks which means each team gets 30 turns.  They say this takes about an hour of game time.  We usually went with half that choosing 15 weeks.  During each turn the team decides if they want to go campaigning or fundraising.  The amount of votes they receive in each state from those efforts is determined by the roll of the dic...

I have mentioned Gess' famous gymnastics coach before.  Well Casey has been in the spotlight again.  He was a first timer on the American Ninja Warrior show and made it to stage 3!  He also had the fastest time in stage 2.  He is really incredible!  He is also amazing with the kids.  Gess absolutely loves going to Casey's gym.  He is completely involved with each student and does an amazing job teaching them.  His patience is remarkable and he has certainly helped Gess through some great struggles and fears.  She looks forward to each and every class and now has a dream of being an American Ninja Warrior when she grows up too. Here is a glimpse of the gym Gess gets to go to but more importantly you will see Casey's son who has apparently inherited that jumping gene that Casey has.  Look for Max in future Olympic and sporting events.  This kid has talent!

Sometimes being on the Schoolhouse Review Crew affords me to the opportunity to review something that benefits me as well as Gess.  As the women's missionary leader in my church I find stories about the adventures missionaries endure truly inspirational.  The book Seed Sowers - Gospel-Planting Adventures by Gwen Toliver arrived at such a perfect time in my life that it became an encouragement and motivation that helped get me through some trials of my own. My mom was recently hospitalized with heart failure and I had this book I needed to read and review.  My intent was to do it more of a read along with Gess and use it some in our studies.  We have managed to do that with one story so far, but due to the family crisis that is about all we have done together.  I, however, have read the book myself while mom was in the hospital and it was absolutely a God send!  Reading about the trials and tribulations these people faced and the miraculous means in...

The National Down Syndrome Society is announcing it's new awareness campaign Get to Know Me which comes with a FREE poster and lesson plan for school age kids.  This is perfect not only for school rooms, but church and religious organizations, community centers and more.  To learn more and get your FREE resources click on the image below.

You have finished your schooling and all of your chores and now you have to run to the store to do some shopping.  You are in a hurry but you notice your child is dragging behind.  They keep stopping to look at everything!  It's so frustrating because you are tired and just want to get home so you can finally relax, or worse yet start dinner and do more work for the day.  What do you do? Typically we hurry the child along and scold them for continually stopping.  The problem is that we are missing some valuable opportunities for learning.  The hardest thing for me to do as a homeschool teacher was to stop thinking that my school had to look, act and function like a brick and mortar school.  The fact that you school at home does not mean that once the clock hits a certain time or when the lessons are complete that school is over.  Homeschooling means that the child is constantly in a state of learning. Being the parent of a child with special n...

I am so excited I finally get to tell you about the latest product I had the pleasure of reviewing!  Logic of English offers a different approach to teach reading, spelling and writing.  I was truly astounded at how well this system really seems to work, especially for my daughter who has Down syndrome. For the purpose of my review I was given the Logic of English Essentials - A systematic approach to reading, spelling and writing .  I received the Teacher's Manual, Student Workbook, Basic Phonogram Flashcards, Spelling Rule Flash Cards, Phonogram Game Cards and the Phonogram and Spelling Game Book. I have to admit when the package arrived I was a bit overwhelmed!  There is so much to this program and the approach is not like anything I have tried before.  I have done both phonics and a blend of phonics and sight reading, but this is different. There is a lot of information to take in and the size of the books are proof of that. Look at the size of the...

In my conversations with non-homeschooling families I often get comments that while I am doing a great job teaching Gess some parents are just not smart enough, or educated enough to teach their own children at home.  I remember one conversation in particular where they were saying a specific mom was just not intelligent enough to homeschool her kids.  In fact, she wasn't very bright at all and therefore should not be allowed to homeschool.  My response was, "Oh I didn't know she was homeschooled."  With a confused look they responded "The mom?  Oh no she wasn't homeschooled.  She went to public school." To which I replied, "Well it doesn't look like that worked out very well for her then, does it?"  I believe that doubting the ability of a person to be able to teach a child is not an argument against homeschool but rather one against the value of the school that person attended, which generally turns out to be public school.  If the scho...

As Gess has gotten older I have found that computer based lessons are a great way to give her some independent learning experience.  I hear many parents who have children with Down syndrome say they love using Time4Learning so I thought I might try it again and see if it worked better for Gess now that she was older. Time4Learning is a homeschool, after school or summer online study program for preschool through high school covering math, language arts, science and social studies.  It can be used as an entire curriculum or an addition to your current program.  One of the nice things about it is that your child not only has access to their grade level but they can also access one level above and below it.  This enables you to modify learning according your child's personal skill level.  They even let you choose different levels for each subject which was really nice since Gess' skills vary greatly between language arts and math. I had Gess in 1st ...