Special Connection Homeschool

In our World of Science book we are learning about atoms so I logged on to Easy Peasy All-in-one Homeschool to find some supplemental ways to explore them. On their Easy Peasy Chemistry and Physics page I found links to these fun interactive helpful tools! At Molecularium we played in the Nanolab. There you could build molecules, zoom in to see their size, and check them out in the different states of matter. Then at Learn.Genetics we found a cool tool that lets you get a feel for the real size and scale of a cell. Use the scroll bar along the bottom to keep zooming in. It's really cool! We followed up with this video showing the size by continuing to look at things that are 1,000 times smaller than the object we are looking at. The music is just background and has no context, so we muted it as we watched. It's really hard to wrap your head around how really tiny an atom is, but these sure do help give us some perspective.

By A+ I don't actually mean that's my daughter's grade, but rather it is the program we are using for math again this year.  A+ Tutorsoft is math program you can purchase to use online or on a CD. It has instructional videos, interactive quizzes, as well as both online and printable worksheets and exams. It has everything we need for one year of math. Gess really struggles with math so we are using the 3rd grade curriculum. Gess has been unable to memorize her math facts so I still allow her to use helps (including counting on her fingers) to help her solve problems, but she is able to add and subtract large numbers that way. We will begin focusing on multiplication and division this year. I prefer A+ over other online programs because the lessons are presented in a way that Gess seems to both enjoy and understand. When it's time to do the interactive quiz I often have her solve the problem on the board instead of a worksheet. She enjoys that. Here she is compar...

So I am checking out Facebook from Educents and I see this banner come across my feed telling me that Minecraft Math is on sale. That piqued my interest because Gess isn't very fond of math but she loves Minecraft. I grabbed it and figured I would use it as a supplement this school year. Then it happened. Gess heard me telling her dad about it. "Minecraft Math?" She asks. I tell her yes and show her the book. For the next few days she kept asking me if we could do Minecraft Math. I told her we would during school and blew it off. Eventually I realized that if she wanted to do it during the summer I would not stop her! She was asking for math so why in the world was I saying no? So I got them printed up and we started right away. Here are the books we used. The books are still on sale for awhile!  Even so, it's not that expensive. I also picked up the writing one that we will use later this fall. We have completed the one on angles. She really enjoyed it. At o...

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...

Last year I reviewed a reading program titled Essential Skills Advantage or ESA . We really loved it and Gess still uses it a few times a week to supplement her other lessons. While you can get some perks with a premium membership, the program itself is absolutely FREE .  The activities are colorful and engaging.  Here are a few Gess has done. Anyway, I love suggesting resources that work for us. That was the main reason I started this blog. When I find a great resource and its FREE, I have to remind my readers about it from time to time. So give ESA a try. I think you will find your child might like it too. It certainly won't cost you anything to find out!

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 special needs and math is where she struggles the most. Her brain just doesn't work mathematically so it is really tough to teach. Because it is so hard she really dislikes doing it. Therefore, finding ways to make math more enjoyable for her is my goal in life. Mathletics from 3P Learning  works to make math fun and exciting so I was glad when I was given the chance to review a one year subscription. While Gess doesn't like math, she does like athletics and the competitiveness that comes with it. That is what  Mathletics  has tried to instill into their program. As well as practicing math online, you can challenge people from around the world and win points for your team!  You can also simply practice and work your own bronze, silver, and gold certificates. While Gess can't keep up on the team challenges, she loves earning points on her own! When you log on you get to see the scoreboard. This will tell you what players and teams have the hig...

I shared with you during my review of Captivated The Movie how we were concerned about the amount of media Gess was absorbing.  It truly was affecting her behavior.  After one outburst we put her on a 30 day media fast, inspired by the movie.  For 30 days Gess had no computer time, no video games, no television, and very limited exposure to music.  During that time we saw a tremendous improvement in both her behavior and habits.  She has learned once again to enjoy the thrills of reading and creativity, things she usually loves. Having a daughter with special needs it is really important to me to not only limit her media intake but find a way to help her learn how to self monitor those habits.  For now we have made a visual monitoring system.  It isn't the prettiest thing in the world but we went with materials we already had around the house.  We chose to use colored clothes pins clipped to a board which explains the value of each one. ...

We had a sick day today as Gess is struggling with a sinus infection and bad cough.  The meds have finally started to work and so she woke up feeling better than she has in a few days.  Since it is Friday I decided to do no school and just let her rest.  So, what does a homeschool kid do when there is no school?  Study maps of course! Well that reminded me about this cool FREE tool I found awhile back.  I have been meaning to mention it on some Free Friday, so here you are!  It's the National Geographic MapMaker .  They have printable 1 page Maps as well as a colorful Interactive MapMaker where you can add your own data, tools, and themes to make your own maps. We were just studying about salmon so Gess wanted to learn about Alaska. Now she can add her own icons on the map.  Here she has fishing boats and of course fish to represent the salmon in the region we learned about. If you need some maps for class or have an aspiring map-o-olg...

My daughter Gess was thrilled when I announced that our first Schoolhouse Crew Review this year was from Science4Us.com .  Science happens to be her favorite subject and this review actually allowed her to study it more independently.  Since Gesserine has special needs she often needs a lot of teacher interaction and instruction during text book reading and of course experiments generally need to be supervised as well.  However, the Science4Us.com Online Subscription was a mixture of classroom instruction, hands on experiments and interactive video lessons which allowed Gess to work more independently. Science4Us.com offers interactive, standards based, online science instruction for K-2nd grade and also works as great review for grades 3-5. They have over 350 online lessons through which you can explore earth and space, physical science, inquiry, and life science.  They base their material on the 5 E Instruction model: engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and ...