Special Connection Homeschool

History is one of my favorite subjects but it is the most challenging to teach to my daughter who has special needs. She is such a literal, hands-on learner that it is often difficult for her to comprehend things outside of her personal experiences. That is why I always look for engaging ways to teach the subject. I am happy to report that we found a great tool for that with Veritas Press . For the purpose of my review I received a one year subscription to the Veritas Press Self-Paced History program . We chose  Veritas Press Self-Paced History: Old Testament and Ancient Egypt for our course. We also received a set of the  Old Testament & Ancient Egypt Flashcards . I absolutely love that Gess is learning history from a solid biblical perspective! The Bible is part history and it is reliable so that should be the way we teach it.  The program starts with creation and adds in historical events on the timeline as they happen.  Having these compon...

I have used and reviewed A+ Interactive Math in the past. Currently they are offering a special for the summer. Right now you can try it FREE for 3 months ! This comes with no strings attached, not credit card information, or any other thing that might make it too difficult. If you are wondering if this program might work for you, this is the time to give it a try!

Library and Eductional Services is a family owned wholesale distributer. They offer books, DVDs and other CDs that are in line with Christian principles. In addition to offering these wholesale prices to resellers and large groups such as churches, schools, and libraries they also offer their services to homeschoolers. It is certainly refreshing to be able to buy high quality content at discount products. I really love that I know the videos I purchase will have the values I hold dear. In fact, all of their science products are evolution free. As you know, my daughter loves science. It is her favorite subject so when we had the opportunity to review their newest Series 2   Go Science DVDs , I jumped at the chance. Having reviewed and loved the first series of Go Science  I knew my Gess would be excited to learn more about science with these. For the purpose of my review I received two videos from the  Go Science DVDs  Series 2 : Volume 2: Life Science / Weathe...

While Gess has been to church camp in the past, I have had always had to go as her counselor.  There are also always some activities she can't do well, or competitions she can't compete in equally, or just some times she can't keep up and needs to rest. This year we did something different.  For the first time Gess went to camp without me.  For the first time my husband and I had an entire week to ourselves. For the first time I was able to leave Gess and not have to worry about how she would handle things or how those watching her would handle her.  For the first time Gess went to Camp Barnabas . Camp Barnabas  is a camp geared specifically for special needs children.  They have camps for ages 7 to adults for every challenge your special one might face such as intellectual, physical, developmental, chronic illness, and more.  Campers are assigned their own counselor who follows them throughout the entire camp experience. They sleep in the cabin wi...

Speaking of summer reading, Raising a Self-Reliant Child has the coolest idea to motivate your reader to read this summer, or anytime. Check out the beautiful FREE reading passport printable she made. We are definitely going to do this! I will save it for after the summer reading program when Gess seems to slow down a bit.  Click on the image to check out the blog and find a copy of your FREE passport.

My goal for both Gess and myself is to find books at the library simply by browsing the shelf. I don't want to have a specific book in mind, I want us to just search. In both fiction and non-fiction we found some interesting reads. In fact, we found some books we might not have otherwise thought of! Gess is up to 4 books read now.  Her first two were from The Magic Tree House collection. I made her find something different after that. She seemed to enjoy this one about Sir Lancelot. It was in the fairy tale section. This book her and I read together for a review we are doing. I would have her read a chapter all by herself. Then we read it together the next day for review, so we could answer review questions about it. My first book was The Hobbit. I can't believe I just read this. I loved it! I will, however take a break from reading more in the series just yet. However, I have caught both of the movies and while I enjoyed them immensely, I do believe the boo...

Gess tried  dancing when she was 7 years old. She liked the dancing but the recital at the end was a bit too much for her.  That summer we tried gymnastics. At the end of summer I gave her a choice. Did she want to keep going to gymnastics or go back to dance? She was for gymnastics all the way and has loved it ever since! That was 5 years ago. I am saddened to say that our gym is closing down. We were so tremendously blessed to have had it as long as we did. Her coach is an amazing athlete that you probably continue to hear about in the future. I have a feeling he is moving on to coach on a more competitive level. At one time he held the record for the mini-trampoline for Team USA. He is sure impressive. While Gess didn't excel at gymnastics, she certainly enjoyed it! Here she is with her coach, Casey Finley. You might have seen him on TV last year as one of the American Ninja Warrior contestants, or on NBC doing flips on a trampoline while wearing skis before the Sochi ...

A Virtue, according to Miriam Webster, means a "morally good behavior or character." That is certainly something I want to instill in my children and something very much needed in society in general. We Choose Virtues was created to help with just that. Using memorable catchphrases for every virtue they help children not only learn what a virtue is, but what it means to actually be virtuous. We had the opportunity to review the parenting cards and a few of their other products in the past. These were a wonderful tool and really helped my daughter, who happens to have special needs. It has been a great success and these phrases are still used in our home to this day. Since we had such a positive experience with them I was eager to review the Youth Virtue Journal  now that Gess is becoming a teen. Along with the journal you also get these downloadable PDF files: Youth Mentor's Handbook, Youth Character Assessment, and List of Scriptures and Bible Heroes. I was al...

Have I got some fun products to tell you about today! This latest review had us really wrapped up doing some neat hands on activities to help with both reading and math. Learning Wrap ups were created by a teacher who was looking for a new way to teach math facts to students who were not responding to flash cards and drill sheets. Now they are adding even more products that are trying new approaches to reach students. Having a daughter with Down syndrome who responds more to hands on learning I thought I would give these products a try. For the purpose of my review I was given all of these! Learning Wrap ups Basic Math Intro Kit w/o CDs  $44.99 Learning Wrap ups Vocabulary Intro Kit  $35.99 10 Days to Multiplication Mastery Wrap up and Book Combo  $12.99 10 Steps to Addition Mastery Wrap up and Book Combo   $12.99 (I already had the wrap ups so simply got the books but these are great if don't want to buy the entire kit.) 1st Grade Math Learning Pale...