Special Connection Homeschool

For High School our state requires the following for Social Studies: Three units of history and government, which shall include world history; United States history; United States government, including the Constitution of the United States; concepts of economics and geography Here is how I plan to meet the requirement and teach my daughter who has Down syndrome. Veritas Press is a product I have continued to use since reviewing it. In middle school Gess has completed the first two in the self-paced history courses which were Old Testament and Ancient Egypt and New Testament Greece and Rome . This year she will be completing Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation . That will be part of "world" history. The self-paced series is considered an elementary level curriculum but it offers a way for me to give her one class that I don't have to teach. It allows her some independence that way. Gess loves the way it is presented and with quizzes often done via games, ...

With Gess entering High School I have to make sure that she completes the requirements for graduation. Because she has Down syndrome I am able to adapt the subjects to her current level of learning and capabilities. As we start the 9th grade I am trying to make sure that I have a plan in place. I know that parents who homeschool their child with special needs often want to know what to do for high school. I know, because I am one of them! Well, I am learning as I go but I think I have it figured out! Before I get into the curriculum we need to talk about record keeping. I have been using My Student Log Book s since I reviewed them a couple of years ago. It has been helpful for Gess to track her own work and keep her on task. Here is an example of that from my previous review . While I used it as a visual check list, it is so much more than that! If you utilize all the functions in this book you can keep track of your student's work and easily transport that information on...

Lately I have been entering the adult summer reading program along side my daughter. Once she reached middle school the goals for us have been the same: Read 10 books over the summer. It makes it fun because we often race to see who finishes first. Gess usually wins. They even give adults a break and let them read from any section of the library, but I always chose adult books - until now. Since Gess is entering high school and reading comprehension and books reports are part of her requirements I have decided to use some resources from Progeny Press. I reviewed their guide for Hall of Doors: Dragon's Hoard a few years ago and we really like it. While Dragon's Hoard was on their upper elementary level list of books, for high school I will try using their middle school guides. I will probably only have Gess do one per semester because of how long it takes her to read a book of this length and how difficult it is for her to examine it thoroughly. In the past she always read a ...

I never really intended to stop blogging but life has been really hard. I have had some serious things that have taken priority. I also really struggled with what to write on a regular basis. With Gess in middle school these last few years there really was not anything new to cover. Unlike before where she was always learning a new concept or coming up with a new challenge, we were pretty much settled in.  Like a typical student, we did the same lessons each day and that is really not all that interesting to write about that! This year though, Gess will be starting High School! I have been doing research into high school transcripts and state requirements so she can get a diploma at the end of the next four years. I am learning a lot and so I will be sharing about that! I am in the process of planning next year and getting my curriculum ordered. When I am done you will hear about it! Summer also affords more time for writing and we sometimes do some interesting things worth wri...

Gess and I practice shopping in many different ways. Sometimes she writes her own list, sometimes she just follows mine. I always try to have her find things herself. I will pick a few items and have her take me to that part of the store and find it all on her own. I will send her down and aisle while I wait and have her grab things I know she can find. She also helps me check out of the store. She loves doing the self check out for she can do that all on her own! She even knows how to pay with a debit or credit card as well as cash. This past year we have been focusing on cost. We practice rounding items in the store to add as we go along. At one point she looked up asked me, "Are we doing math at Wal-Mart?" I was busted and admitted that we were. I also used that as an opportunity to explain we always use math at Wal-Mart or any other store. Shopping requires math. Whether you do it in your head or just let the cash register do it for you, math is required! The latest e...

I am super excited to tell you about our latest discovery! This program is helping my daughter, who has Down syndrome, memorize her multiplication facts. This is really incredible when you consider that she has yet to master her addition and subtraction facts! It's all thanks to this handy resource we found called Times Tales . Times Tales introduces the times tables as stories. Each number is a "character" and in the stories those numbers interact. When they do you unlock the answer to what happens when you multiply those two characters together. The trick is that they don't mention that at all until the child has memorized the stories exactly as written! Gess is an excellent reader and great at memorizing when it comes to bible verses, rhymes, and songs so this was right up her alley. Stories make sense to her - numbers no so much. Now that these numbers have a story she has her facts all figured out! Along with the video you get downloadable resources t...

I had quite the year last year. I had a hysterectomy in June and just as I got my OK to become active again I had a terrible pain in my shoulder which turned out to be from a herniated disc in my neck. That put me down another 3 months. After that my mother's heart failure progressed and my responsibilities for her doubled. So now that things are calm again and a new year is upon us, I have a lot of goals that I want to accomplish. I sat down one day and listed all my goals. I want to read through the bible in a year, memorize more verses, have daily quiet time, exercise, lose 25 pounds, and my list kept growing and growing. Looking down at it all on paper completely overwhelmed me. Then, the Lord started to show me something. My pastor preached a New Year's sermon and ended it by stating that no matter what you were able to accomplish that year, were you faithful to God? If you were faithful that was enough! God had already been revealing this to me in his Word. I was seei...

I want to apologize for my unannounced absence. My mother's health has been poor and I have just been overwhelmed taking care of her and trying to keep up with school, church, house, and life in general. It has also been difficult for me to find things to write about. Now that Gess is older I don't have as many "ah ha" moments to share. Our school is pretty structured and she is doing amazingly well. I also feel bad that many of the tips on here are now outdated. Information that was once so hard to find is now available in so many places. Tricks that we had to use are now nicely packaged into new curriculum or even software. You know, Gess learned to read without an Ipad or any app for that matter. While I think those tools are nice I actually think that our hands on approach was probably somewhat better anyway. I do think touching objects is better than clicking on them. My plan for this year is to try to blog at least once a week. I realize that barely makes ...