Special Connection Homeschool

Gesserine is almost a teenager. In October she will be turning 13. She has lately started carrying around a purse that she has had since she was a little girl. She never played with the purse until now. It just sat in her toy box year after year. Then suddenly, she wanted to start carrying it. I was excited because I tried to get her to start carrying one a couple of years ago, and that too never interested her. I am glad she is finally wanting to do it! The purse is really small so it isn't very practical or comfortable. I felt she needed one she could actually use so last weekend we went purse shopping. Gess isn't really good at browsing for things. There are so many options she doesn't even know where to start. Even when its time for lunch in our home she will ask me to give her some options, so we started with that. I picked out several purses I thought she might be interested in and asked her if she liked it or not. If it was a yes, it went into the shopping cart unt...

As most of my readers know, my daughter Gess has Down syndrome. While she is a great reader there are some reading skills she still needs to practice, comprehension being one of them. Like most kids, Gess loves computer games and activities but because of her special needs not all of them work well for her. Thankfully, my latest review turned out to be perfect for her. Essential Skills Advantage is a complete online reading and language program for grades K-6. They have over 20,000 activities to keep your child engaged while they learn. Starting with reading readiness skills and phonics for kindergarten they work up to some great activities such as reading comprehension and spelling for the upper grades. That is where Gess spent most of her time. For the purpose of my review I received a one year subscription to  Essential Skills Advantage . Here is how it works. When you log in you come to a menu with all the activities that are offered. Once they select their activ...

Gess has Down syndrome so as most of you know, she really struggles with learning her math facts. However, I know a mom whose child was successful in learning their addition facts. They said the key was to drill regularly. Unfortunately that is where I fail. I found it so frustrating for both Gess and myself that I tended to put it off. When I saw that UberSmart Software was going to allow us to review UberSmart Math Facts I thought it might be the perfect solution to my problem. UberSmart Math Facts  is a computer program that works like regular flash cards. It is very simple and easy to use which is one of the things I loved about it. To learn your math facts you don't need flashy, you just need repetition. You start by learning the math facts. To do that they simply show you the flash card without the answer. Then you click the show button to see the problem with the answer on the other side. Once your student has used the learn feature a few times they are now read...

I was looking for a song to help Gess review the months of the year. She had this memorized once but since we don't really talk about the order of the months all the time she seems to have forgotten. Since we memorized the days of the week by a song, I thought I would find one for the months of the year too. In doing so I found some really great videos for young kids! KidsTV123  has great quality videos for kids. These songs are really well done and are not as annoying as your typical kid song. I also like that the music is calming and slow. It is easy to follow and gets them thinking about the words rather than just bouncing around. These are really great for kids with special needs! Here is the song we used for the months of the year. We also discovered this one and Gess loved it as right now she is really interested in the solar system! They have several other topics including opposites, countries, states, numbers, alphabet and so much more. You should really check...

We officially started school yesterday and it went really well. It felt good to have some structure back into our day.  We started by reviewing where we left off. This is important with Logic of English . I want to make sure Gess has remembered all the phonograms before introducing her to new ones.. She has done an excellent job in retention and there are only a few that she missed in her first review. We will have those back  easily by the end of the week! For Math I am using the Mathletics Curriculum Assessments Books to see what Gess needs the most work on before moving forward. We will probably be doing these for the next few weeks. We are also reviewing the letters she has written in cursive . You can see her practicing here. I have also introduced a new Log Book method of keeping track of independent work she needs to do in the latter part of the day. She will have a couple of worksheets each day along with her computer work. The Log Book is a review item th...

I have a daughter who loves to read therefore we spend lots of time at the library. As a parent I wish she had more access to books that promoted a Biblical worldview. That is why I was glad to have an opportunity to review one of the books from Wizzy Gizmo . Wizzy Gizmo  is a company that offers children's books that not only have a biblical worldview, but are actually about the Bible. Using a fictional narrative their characters end up in situations where they learn about and experience events from the Bible. For the purpose of my review Gess chose to read Book Two: In His Image . Wizzy Gizmo  derived their name from the main character in their books. The character Wizzy Gizmo is a science professor and an incredible inventor. His invention Gizmovision has the ability to make any book literally come to life. He uses this invention to help teach children about the most important book of all time, the Bible.  Book One: Who Created Everything?  was of course ...

I hope some of you have been enjoying my Morning Devotions. I am doing them because they are keeping me accountable to my own personal Bible study time by writing down what I have learned. I figured sharing it with others might help them find time to have a devotion as well. Sometimes my biggest problem is deciding what to read therefore I have found having a devotional to read with can certainly be helpful. However, since this is a homeschool blog I will probably stop posting them here. I will, however, keep the link at the top and side bar of my page so those interested can easily find them. I will start that later today so for anyone looking for today's devotion, I apologize that it won't arrive until later but I have to set the blog up first. Since today is our first day back to school, that will have to wait until this afternoon.

We had our organizational meeting today for our Homeschool Co-Op. This is the first year I am participating. I think it is only the third year they have done one. We live in a small town, so its a small group which probably works best for Gess anyway. It will keep her from being overwhelmed. Because it is small I offered to be the secretary. I manage to become the secretary for about every activity I get involved in! I am the secretary of our local Down syndrome support group, I was the secretary of our diet club we had. I was secretary for our church AWANA club for many years, and when my boys were young I was the secretary of our local little league!  Oh well, at least I know how to be a secretary, right!? We meet every other Friday for the school year beginning the 2nd Friday in September. We are planning 6 field trips, a science fair, visits to the nursing home 3 times a year, will have a couple of moms activities, an open house, and an end of the year party planned.  Du...

While I am writing this society is mourning the death of a famous actor and comedian. While he was extremely talented he also had a history of depression and addiction and it appears that he may have taken his own life. People who have never met or personally known him are wondering how he could have killed himself. While I don't know why this particular person committed suicide, I do know that money, fame, fortune, possessions, talent, drugs, activism, social justice, or power will not buy you happiness. It's the world, not Scripture, that says the meaning of life is to "be famous," "get rich," "make a difference," or be "remembered." There is no hope in any of that stuff! Christ is our only hope! To suggest that it comes from anything else is foolish. Rom 1:22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, God not only tells us that men who claimed to be wise became fools, he explains how that happened. Through Paul He carefully lays out t...

In verse 17 of Romans Chapter 1 Paul speaks of the righteousness of God, but starting in verse 18 he begins speaking of the wrath of God. Rom 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. That is right, while God is love, He is holy and the righteousness of God requires that He judge ungodliness. Whenever I read this particular passage it is so evident to me that this accurately defines the world we are surrounded by today. Not only are the movements in society evil, they are trying to suppress the truth. It isn't enough that they ignore it, they want to shut it out and somehow try to invalidate it. Thankfully truth lies in our infinite God so that will never happen. Rom 1:19-20 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever...

Rom 1:16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith." It is beyond me to try and explain these verses for the power of God is already in them so they do an incredible job on their own saying what needs to be said. What I want to examine in my daily walk are these thoughts: Am I ashamed of the gospel? Most Christians would be quick to say no and if you spend any time at all on Facebook or social media you can see all sorts of biblical posts from Christians who claim to be unashamed of the gospel. Is that enough though? Is that what Paul meant? I am unashamed to post bible verses on the Internet? I am unashamed to forward an email? Hardly. While doing that can be a good thing, it is not in itself proof that you are not ashamed of the gospel. Unfortu...

My daughter has Down syndrome and is entering middle school so I want to begin an even stronger focus on helping her understand how to handle money. I am also trying to figure out a way for her to make some money. She recycles cans and that is fine, but I want more of a business model. It would help if I was crafty, but I am not! My goal is try to find something for her to make and sell. In the meantime I picked up this workbook and so far it looks perfect for what I want to cover. They have this for three age levels: kids, teens 11-14, and teens 15-18. This has practical, down to earth steps about money management. It appears to teach both how the system works and then how to manage your own money. It is from a Christian perspective which is very important to me. I am considering ordering the actual book Money Matters for Teens to go with it, but it looks like this can be used all by itself.  Here are a couple of quotes from the introduction that I enjoyed. "The purpose ...

Paul was a great example of how we should treat other Christians. His love and commitment to follow believers was truly beyond compare. I think what stands out to me most is how he was always in prayer for them and very rarely for their health or financial circumstances like we so often pray today. No, his prayer and desire for others was for their faith to be strong and effective. When it was, his prayer was one of thanks. We should look closely at how Paul not only greeted his brethren, but how he prayed for them and use that as an example of what our prayers and fellowship should look like. Rom 1:8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. I don't know about you, but I tend to spend much of my prayer time for those who are weak in the faith. I know that it is good to pray for those who need help, but do I really spend any time praying for those who are working diligently for Christ? I need to spend more time ...

As I began reading Romans this morning I noticed when I got to verse 8 that I had left the introduction of the letter. I seemed to perk up as if I was now getting to the good stuff. I immediately chided myself because I know that what I had just read was powerful. I think the hardest part about being a seasoned Christian is to be able to read the Word fresh each day. It's more than reading the words and checking it off the to-do list. It means we have to read it to gain understanding. So let us do that while we go through the Word together, starting with the introduction of the letter to Rome. Rom 1:1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, Paul starts by telling us who he is, but then continues to expound upon who Christ is. See, our only identity as a Christian should be in Christ. Paul was called as an apostle and was set apart for the gospel of God. That's it. That is his identity. He is not significant in any way. His ...

I feel led to share my thoughts from my morning devotions with you all. While I am currently going through the book of Roman chronologically, I may not always do that in the future. Even though they are currently being written in order, they need not be read that way. Feel free to only read them when you happen to stop by or try to catch them every week day. They will be stored on my Devotions Page if you want to catch them at your convenience. You can access this page quickly by using the button at the top of my blog. I hope you find these beneficial. Beginning August 11, 2014 Romans 1:1-7

This week was our pool party for those who completed the summer reading program. My mother had a medical appointment out of town and surgery the following day, so for the first time we missed it. Anyway, I just wanted to share how Gess finished out the year.  She easily completed the program with the following books!

We are getting ready to start back to school on August 18th. This will be Gess' first year in middle school. Here are my current curriculum choices for the year. Language Arts/Speech Logic of English  - We reviewed this last year and I absolutely love it!  However, with Gess' special needs and our other reviews, we have gone rather slowly through the book. I hope to complete it this year. Essential Skills Advantage (ESA) - I am currently reviewing this product but so far we love it! It is affordable and a really great way for Gess to have some independent work in reading. Writing Logic of English Cursive  - I am not sure cursive is going to take or not but I am going to give one more year a try. It really is easier for her when she uses it. It's easier to read and all that, but we have the habit of printing to overcome so I am not sure she will stick with it. Essentials in Writing - We have spent quite awhile on Level 1. This year we are moving up ...