Special Connection Homeschool

Since it is spring break here we decided to take a day to spend with some of our friends who go to public school. We had three friends over today and we decided to do some of the art that Tim did with us during Drama Therapy . The collage was a hit by everyone. Even I enjoyed it!  You take a piece of paper and a bunch of magazines. Then find things you like or words that describe them or just anything you like about you. What do you like to do? What do you like about yourself? How do you feel? It's a great way to be expressive and the kids really got into it. I loved how the children went for words like beautiful, fun, creative, and bright future. Even the word lazy was in the context of "Sometimes I like to be lazy and relax." Don't we all? Here they are finding just the right words and pictures for their artwork. This took up quite a bit of time and they chose to do this over video games. At least the girls did!  It led to some really great conversation too. ...

Have you ever heard of Drama Therapy? If not, you should. It is something that is starting to really take off. My son is actually in grad school getting his masters in Drama Therapy. When he entered the program it was new to me too, but I am excited about what it can do. So far my son has worked with lots of kids with special needs, particularly many kids who are on the autism spectrum. Over spring break he came down and did a drama therapy session for my homeschool co-op. I was thrilled! While Gess is the only child in the group with special needs, drama therapy is a great way for any kid to learn. It enhances thinking skills, creativity, motor skills, reasoning and much more. I can't really share many pictures but here are two that give you a small hint about how it works.  The leaders engage the children in all kinds of pretend scenarios then the fun begins. During the art hour they brought crafts that helped the child to think about themselves. They could do two thi...

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Gesserine had the honor of having 3 entries in the in the Southeast Kansas Children's Art Festival. The local art gallery displayed children's art from many southeast area public schools, christian schools, and homeschools. Our co-op had four entries, Gess being one of them. Her entry "Birds" even made the window display! It was exciting to enter an art museum and see your own work on display!  Here is the display with our co-op entries. Gesserine's are the two on the right, the fan and the house.  The other entries are really great too! We had fun looking at what other children had done. The ones from schools were chosen by their art teacher, and they were certainly worthy of it. Here are a few that captured Gesserine's attention. She even voted for the one of the planets as her favorite. The children's art exhibit will be up all month. What an exciting thing to say that your art has been on display at an actual art museum! 

I don't like to share sales very often, but the Veritas Press Self-Paced History is something that has been a tremendous blessing for us. It enables Gess to work almost totally independently and she is enthralled and fascinated by history in a way she never was before. The fact that it ties Biblical history into secular history is a plus for me. Check out my review last year on their course Old Testament and Ancient Egypt to see just how great this program is. The program costs $199.00 but from now until March 14th you can get it for only $99 ! If you aren't ready to start the course now you can wait until as late as September 1, 2015. I signed up immediately when I realized that. Gess is nearing the end of her Old Testament and Ancient Egypt course so I wasn't ready to begin a new one. You get the subscription for one year but since you go at your own pace your student can finish sooner. We pretty much stretched it out of the entire year so Gess could get the mos...

By now my readers know that Gesserine is a weather nut, so last year I took her to the Storm Fury on the Plains presentation put on the by the National Weather Service out of Wichita. She sat through the entire 2 hours and couldn't wait to go again. They do this annually so last night we attended it again. I am glad we did because last year I had no idea how much information would be in one of these things and I forgot so much of it when I got home. This year, I took notes! The Storm Fury on the Plains is an official weather spotting training session. They offer these in every county because Kansas has the second highest number of severe weather events in the country. Only Texas tops us simply because it is bigger. Per 1000 miles, we are just barely behind Oklahoma. Basically statistics confirm what we already know, we are in the heart of tornado alley.  The information they give you is fascinating and of course educational.  We were quizzed on trying to determine ...