Special Connection Homeschool

My most recent review turned out to be a pretty cool way for young kids to learn about far away places and cultures.  Carole P. Roman with Away We Go Media has written a series of children's books titled If You Were Me .  Each book shares what life was like in various places.  For our review we received the books: If You Were Me and Lived in...Mexico If You Were Me and Lived in...South Korea If You Were Me and Lived in...France If You Were Me and Lived in...Norway   What I loved about the way these books were written was that it wasn't just explaining what they do in that country.  Instead they try to get you to imagine what it would be like if you lived there. The first page says something like "If you were me and lived in France, your home would be here in Western Europe."  Then they show the illustration that is on the cover where they are pointing to that place on the globe.  To make sure Gess got this we had her find it on the globe t...

Gess had to make a castle for her Bridgeway Academy final class project and I wanted to share more about the process she went through in designing her castle. We began our class reading the Magic Treehouse The Knight at Dawn .  I don't know why we haven't read more of these books but it was really great.  It also did help to stir Gess' interest in the middle ages. As we began to talk about castle design we had Gess read more about castles.  Here are a few books that she chose. This last one If You Lived in the Days of the Knights actually had a really great page that showed a castle and labeled many of the different parts of the castle you might find.  I wish I had taken a picture of it when I had the book at home, but it was really helpful in showing Gess what features would be good to have in her castle. Since using Minecraft was an option Gess was really eager to get started.  Minecraft is a great game, if you haven't tried it, you sho...

Since October is Down Syndrome awareness month I figured it was as good a time as any to share this resource.  Here is a PDF for families of children who have Down Syndrome that tells you all the health care needs your child should be checked and treated for at various ages.  It's a really handy tool to take to your appointments to make sure they are checked for things that are common among persons who have DS. Visit Healthy Children.org and click on the link that says: Click here to download the complete guide, "Health Care Information for Families of Children with Down Syndrome" (PDF). 

I have been using VocabularySpellingCity for my spelling for awhile now but I was just using the free aspects of it.  When I had the opportunity to review the Premium Membership again I was thrilled.  I was thinking about getting it myself but trying to determine if I should.  After reviewing it for this last month I can say without a doubt I am glad I did.  VocabularySpellingCity Premium Membership offers so much than the basic program. Invaluable tools such as record keeping, progress tracking, student log in, and extra games and activities make it well worth the additional $29.99 a year.  As a parent trying to give her special needs student some independence the tracking tools are essential. The thing I loved the most about VocabularySpellingCity is how easy it is to make and modify spelling lists.  We have a curriculum we are using for English that incorporates the spelling words with the grammar you are using so it is important to be able to m...

While I love the philosophy of homeschooling there are times when I wish Gess had more class experiences.  I have had the opportunity to join a co-op but our schedule really doesn't allow us to commit to three to four hours each and every week, especially since members have to help prepare for those classes too. I just don't have the time.  However, I found a wonderful alternative by using an online classroom through my latest review.  Bridgeway Academy truly does provide homeschooling help by offering an entire homeschool program or for those of us who just want some extra material and class experience they offer learning labs an online homeschool co-op which is what we reviewed. The Bridgeway Academy Learning Labs offer 9 weeks of in depth learning in various subjects and grade levels that change each semester. Their pricing varies by grade as well.  We chose to review the course Social Studies Through the Magic Tree House – Middle Ages (Elementary) . In t...

Gess got to attend Special Olympics Bowling for the very first time!  Every October she gets sick and so far she has gotten sick when it was time to go.  This year, however, she has stayed healthy, at least until the day after. She is suffering from a cough and cold right now.  Anyway, Gess had a great time and did very well.  I was impressed with how much she improved at throwing the ball.  Her biggest challenge was getting it all the way down the lane.  Here is a great shot of her doing just that.  This ball knocked down 8 pins! Of  course there was a lot of waiting at bowling, but Gess did good at that too.  Between her joke book and tablet she was pretty content. At the end of the day she ended up with the silver medal! She was very pleased!

Since Gess has Down syndrome there are many things that she struggles with.  While she can identify rhyming words, it is often difficult for her to actually tell what word rhymes when she is not given choices. This week in speech therapy our therapist gave us a nice little tool to give her a visual clue for rhyming words. Using a white board or chalk board or even index cards you make a card list using only consonants. You can also choose to leave out q and x if you want. Then you ask the child to rhyme a word and write that word to the side.  "What rhymes with cat?" To help aid them in seeing what they are looking for to make the word rhyme you take away the first letter and leave the other two like this. Then you lead them to look at the letters on the side and see if any of those work to make words that rhyme.  When they choose a letter that doesn't make a word you just let them know that isn't a word.  You continue on writing down the words they ...

I found a really neat resource for junior high and middle school students.  While this isn't something I would probably use with Gess, this is totally FREE so I had to share it for those who might find it helpful. Stossel in the Classroom offers FREE DVDs that have segments from his conservative television show.  Accompanied with a FREE Teacher's Guide these are excellent tools to help teach young adults about the free market principles that I believe are essential for freedom. The 2014 DVD is now available.  Be sure to check out this incredible FREE resource by clicking on the DVD below. And don't forget your Teacher's Guide !