Special Connection Homeschool

My daughter Gesserine has Down syndrome so expressing herself has been an issue we have had to address on a daily basis. While her reading and comprehension are really tremendous, explaining what she wants to say is quite the challenge for her. That is why we have not done a lot of written reports. However, I love the approach that Hewitt Homeschooling has in their  My First Report  curriculum so I was thrilled to review one their products again. My First Reports  will help teach your child how to put their research on to paper. In your package you will have all the materials you need. Each theme has several categories inside and you get to choose to do as many or as few of them as you like. For the purpose of my review Gesserine chose My First Report: Outdoor Activities for the focus of her research. Inside you will find the pages for each of the categories you are to cover. On each page they have several questions to give your child an idea about what to disc...

While we won't be starting school for several more weeks, I have been working on getting our workspace organized. I am still looking into to ordering a few more items for our curriculum and soon I will post about what we are doing. We are starting middle school (6th grade) this year, so I am very anxious to see what changes that will bring!  For now, here is a look at our workspace. It is small, but it gets the job done!

Gess has been studying outdoor activities for a product I will be sharing soon. One of the activities she focused on was hiking. She really got into reading about it and studying it. Her enthusiasm for hiking and camping had her packing backpacks several times a week.  One day I went to brush my teeth and couldn't find my tooth brush or the tooth paste. That is because they were in her room with all her other camping and hiking gear! She just couldn't stop talking about hiking. She was constantly telling me about poison ivy, how to avoid ticks, and what I needed in my first aid kit. We started by making sure we had all the appropriate hiking gear. We put our First Aid kit in a zip-lock bag so we could fit easily in a fanny pack or backpack. Then we headed out to the lake. They have a 1 mile nature trail there with signs to help you learn about the animals, plants, and trees that grow in the area. We were sure to read each and every one. The trail itself was listed as mode...

Adding music to a homeschool experience is always a treat but somewhat hard to implement. Unless the parent knows how to play an instrument they need to find other outlets for their children to try to learn. HomeSchoolPiano is offering a solution that will allow your students to learn piano in their own home. While Gess takes private lessons, with her special needs I thought she could use some extra help at home so I wanted to give this a try. For the purpose of our review we received the HomeSchoolPiano Complete Set of Books . This package includes lifetime access to the entire program for up to 5 students, video instructions that can be streamed online and are also downloaded for offline use, workbooks in PDF form, and interactive quizzes which are a great way to see how well the student is following along. These lessons start with the very basics with what they call CorePiano. These lessons are for those who have never taken piano before and do not know much at all about...

The newest July-August edition of the The Old Schoolhouse Magazine is now out! This is available at    www.TOSApps.com  or   www.TOSMagazine.com .  Check out the articles available this month, there is something for everyone.

The UW Sports Camp team came to our church again this year.  They do an amazing job and it is much more fun than a typical VBS. While the kids focus on sports, or drama if they aren't athletic, they learn principles of team work that fit in perfectly with their bible lesson.  This year we learned about Moses and how he stuck with God's "Game Plan" even though it didn't look like it would go well.  Making bricks without straw, this didn't seem to be a good plan, but in the end, God proved right.  Their bible verse was Jeremiah 29:11-12. For I know the plans I have for you" — this is the Lord's declaration — "plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. You will call to Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. Gess chose soccer this year instead of Cheer-leading. That was way too loud and intense for her last year. Her coach was from Zimbabwe!  It was so exciting to have an opportunity for her to lear...

Gess helped me make this yummy dessert for our church 4th of July picnic. I thought I would share.

Moving Beyond the Page is a complete and comprehensive secular homeschool curriculum that is very hands-on. They offer material that intertwines and works together so you can use their products to have all of your subjects in sync. For the purpose of my review I was given products from both Language Arts and Science . Language Arts Package - The Family Under the Bridge - This came with an online curriculum guide and the physical copies of the books  Punctuation Celebration and  The Family Under the Bridge . Science Package - Dirt and Plan ts  - This came with the physical curriculum guide and the physical copies of the books Dirt: Jump into Science and Experiments with Plants . I will start by telling you about the  The Family Under the Bridge . The book was really great to read together. It is an endearing story about the experiences of a family in France that ends up homeless and the relationship they build with another man who is living under ...