Special Connection Homeschool

At the start of 2012 I blogged about the New Year Photo Book we were making that I found at No Time for Flash Cards . I wanted to post again today as a reminder to keep it going.  I also hope to get some new readers in on the fun. We started this a few years ago as a great way to talk about how we "grow up." Gess always seemed to talk about growing up as if it happens once and then suddenly you can do something. "When I grow up I will drive." I didn't think she understood that it is a process that is continually happening. This book is a really fun way to show that progress. When we started the book we went back through old photos and chose one favorite from each year to put in the book. Now at the end of the year we go look for a fun experience or simply funny photo that will represent what Gess was like that year. While we want it to show her size we also want it to show her interests or her attitude and things like that. For this year we chose...

Our tree is decorated, our shopping is done and our gifts are all wrapped. This last week we went and picked Tim up from college for the holidays.  I am happy and blessed to have everyone all in one place. Financially we are having a tighter than usual Christmas, but I am not upset or unhappy in the least.  All of my children will be here, we have a warm home, food on the table, clean water and are free to come and go as we please.  Holidays are not about the stuff for me.  It is about spending time together with those we love.  It should also be about something more.  Christ was certainly not born on December 25 and probably not even during this season.  However, if we are going to have a holiday focusing on Christ's birth, we should also remember that He came for a purpose. He came to save us from our sins.  Jesus was born so that He might die and He died so that we might live.  That is what Christmas should really be all about.  I ho...

I finally started a Facebook page for my blog.  I will share my blog posts there as well as other great resources for both homeschooling and special needs.  If you are on Facebook, please consider joining us!   https://www.facebook.com/specialconnectionhomeschool  

The Voice of the Martyrs is offering a FREE movie titled Jesus: He Lived Among Us for churches.  It is the complete story of Jesus' life here on earth as told in the Scripture.  For an animated movie it is pretty accurate and very powerful. The Voice of the Martyrs uses these in other countries to help spread the gospel.  When presenting the gospel to people who can't read or who simply won't pick up the Bible it is a great tool to use to tell them about Jesus.  Our church received one and used it with our kids class last year.  Here is the trailer. To get your church a FREE copy of this movie visit the Free Jesus Movie website by clicking on the image below.

This year we had the pleasure of attending a special event for persons with Down syndrome and their families.  They first treated us to an incredible breakfast.  Next came the fun.  They had 3 Santas so that the lines remained small.  We never really did the Santa thing, but Gess still likes to see him. They also had lots of fun games and crafts.  Here she is making a Christmas tree ornament for our tree.  I think we left there with 4 new hand made ornaments of various styles! She also made a Santa beard for herself. I think the antlers from her hand prints were her favorite.  She wore them all day. As we were leaving she specifically asked for a picture with the nutcracker. We had such a lovely time!  There were over 800 people in attendance!  Since we live in a small town it was refreshing to see so many other families and children with Down syndrome.  Gess has her few friends, but you know, there really are ...

Gary A. Haugen the President and CEO of the International Justice Mission will soon be releasing a new book, The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence .  As you know I am very mission minded and have been an advocate of IJM since I discovered them a few years back.  The work they do to help save people from the bonds of slavery is nothing short of amazing.  As we know there are no victims more vulnerable to the threat of trafficking than those who live in poverty.  They are the ones with out the resources and power to speak out against the oppression that faces them on a daily basis.  Their desperation will make them trust those who actually seek to bring them harm or simply give up all hope.  However, poverty alone is apparently not the only problem.  To address poverty we need to end the senseless violence that surrounds it.  The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence will address thi...

I was thinking the other day about the picketing going on of fast food restaurants and how they want workers there to make $15.00 an hour.  They are complaining that the minimum wage is not a fair wage.  In fact they are beginning to replace the word "fair" with "living."  They want every single person who gets a job to get a "living" wage, which means they can live off of what they make regardless of whether or not the work they do is worth it. Before you start getting all up in arms as if I am looking down on the fast food industry by saying their work is not "worth" a certain amount you must know that I have not only worked fast food, I was raised in it.  My daddy worked fast food almost all of my life.  He managed many fast food restaurants and was sometimes the supervisor of several stores.  I know first hand how physically hard the work can be.  However, while it is hard work, there are basically no skills required for non-management posi...

Since earlier this week I shared about how we made our Advent Candles , for my FREE Friday post I figured I would share some links to some FREE Advent Printables . A Virtuous Woman has a really neat spin on Advent Scriptures.  She offers Christmas ADVENTures in Prophecy which offers 25 readings about the life of Christ that fulfilled specific prophecy. Happy Home Fairy has free printable Bible Verse Advent Cards .  They had a neat idea about adding this to your little elf on a shelf, if you choose to do that.  Heart of the Matter has a Happy Birthday Jesus Printable Advent Calendar that is in the shape of a birthday cake. DLTK has some good preschool craft and printable ideas for Advent Calendar Activities .

I was on Pinterest trying to find some new Christmas crafts to do when I came across this one for Glowing Paper Advent Candles .  That looked so perfect for Gess!  These are really easy and we plan on using these at home.  We only started using an advent calendar a couple of years ago and we have never used the candles.  Since we do not have an advent wreath for our home we will use these.  I made up cards with the verses that we will read as we light one each week.  It will be fun and Gess will be thrilled she had a part in creating it. All you need is: paint 1 toilet paper roll for each candle yellow construction paper for the flame 1 package of flame-less tea light candles glue scissors While traditional advent candles are purple, pink and white we didn't worry about the color.  Instead we cut out a shape to represent each candle so I let Gess paint the candles any color she chose. Next you cut out something to make the flame and g...

I saw this on Facebook one day and thought how truly accurate that is.  How my heart grieves that we can so quickly put away our feelings of thankfulness for greed and envy.  I went Black Friday shopping once and it broke my heart.  As we waited in line for the object of our choice, seeing grown ups fight over things like a Buzz Light Year doll was too much.  Really, do you think that is what is going to bring your child happiness?  Oh man, do we have a lot to learn. So today, instead of a Free Friday post, I decided to help share something that will not only save you some money but maybe it will help free you from the consumerism nightmare that is upon us today. I shared this video before and will probably share it every year.  Before we start spending all that money, let us take a moment to consider what else we could do with all that money.  This video has a bit of a different spin. Instead of comparing the cost of Christmas to bringing clean...

Now that we are on our official winter break I have decided to keep Gess busy by focusing on cooking skills.  I try to do that through the year but too often its just easier to do it myself.  Trying to fit everything in our day is hard enough as it is.  So instead of just helping on occasion we are going to try to cook every day!  She enjoys it, it keeps her busy, she will learn a few skills, and it gives us some quality time together. This weekend she fried her first fried egg.  Well, I she didn't do a great job at flipping it and had help from me to keep her from burning herself.  (I held the pan as she flipped and put it on the plate, etc.)  I cooked a few myself first to show her how.  Hers ended up more scrambled but I managed to help her save one with yolk as she likes that.  I think we will try scrambled next weekend, she does that much better! Right now we are working on the basics, not so much the technique.  I am j...

Online for Life is offering a FREE ebook Abortion - The Ultimate Exploitation of Women .  I haven't read the book yet, but I have downloaded my copy.  It will hopefully be a good resource to dispel the myth that abortion helps women.  Abortion is the murder of an unborn child and the procedure is also harmful to the women who have it, both physically and emotionally. “This important book exposes two of the best-kept and dirtiest little secrets of our day: that selfish men often bully women into abortions and that countless women are profoundly hurt by this ‘choice’ in which they feel they had no real choice. The truth is finally getting out. It’s about time.” —Eric Metaxas, New York Times bestselling author Click on the book to sign up to get your FREE copy today!

The Schoolhouse Review Crew has announced the winners of their Blue Ribbon Awards !  From all of the companies we review they let those of us on the crew vote for our favorites.  Out of 83 companies there are 38 Blue Ribbons going to 28 different companies!!  I have to say there have been some amazing products that have truly changed our lives and I was glad to see most of them win something. You go to the Schoolhouse Review Crew Blue Ribbon Award post to see the list of  ALL the winners.  Below I am going to highlight ones I have either used or reviewed. Favorite Reading Instruction Curriculum: Logic of English Logic of English had the most impact on our educational journey.  I love it because it helped Gess to get some of the things she was missing in other programs, the games make reviewing fun, and the way they emphasize the phonograms has helped Gess in her speech. It was just an all around wonderful product and I am so thrilled that they ...

We have the Seeds of Faith CD and it is really great. Its a fun way to learn and memorize Scripture as well as just enjoy to sing along with and praise the Lord. Gess really loves it! So when I saw they were giving away the Seeds of Praise for FREE between now and Thanksgiving, I just had to let you know now. I am not waiting until Friday!  Click the link below and download.  They make it super easy! Seeds Of Praise: Free Download Through Thanksgiving We want to get God’s Word to every family through music. One way we’re doing this is by offering the entire Seeds of Praise record as a free download. Not only do we want you to enjoy the music, but we encourage you to join our mission by being a Seed Planter.  Feel free to share the link with your family and as many friends as you would like to. It will be available through Thanksgiving.

My middle child Tim is still off at college studying theatre and last month we went to see him in another one of his plays. Tim's girlfriend Chelsie also attends college there and has a part time job at a really neat place called Pottery Works.  This is not a place to go and buy complete works of pottery but a place where you can go to make your own.  They have a large variety of pottery pieces to choose from along with tons of paints and stencils to decorate them with. The day we arrived, while Tim was at the theatre preparing for the show, Chelsie treated us to a Pottery Works experience and paid for us each to make a piece of art.  The huge selection was a bit overwhelming for Gess.  She wasn't sure what to make, but eventually she decided on a trinket box.  She also chose a rose to go on top of it.  At first I wasn't going to do anything but after watching Gess have so much fun, I decided to go ahead and give it a try too.  I made my husband a c...

Gess is getting excited as it gets close to December.  She really loves Christmas and can't wait until it gets here.  She actually starts counting down the days as soon as her birthday is over, which is on October 25th.  While Thanksgiving is fun and family filled, its nothing like the joy of Christmas.  Because Gess has special needs I try to find fun, hands-on ways to teach her about the holidays.  I do not just want her to like what we do, I want her to know why we do it.  That is where Homeschool Legacy comes in.  They gave me the opportunity to review their Once-a-Week Unit Study - Christmas Comes to America and we have had tons of fun learning how all the wonderful traditions that we enjoy came to be. The Homeschool Legacy Once-a-Week Unit Studies are a great way to learn about topical subjects such as Christmas, the Weather, Birds, Knights and Knobles and so on.  What you do is fill four days of school with your usual subjects...

Today marks our 186th day of school for this year which means we have met the legal obligation of the amount of days we must do school.  While I am not quite done for the year its nice to know that I have done what has been legally required of me and can end my year on time!  This is the first year I have done school from January to December and so far I like it.  This is the most hectic time of year for me.  Due the holidays and constant winter illnesses, it is hard to stay on track.  Therefore I have prepared well.  With the classes we did over the summer, we are almost ready for a full holiday break!  I will stop the week of Thanksgiving and not do much until after New Years.  Gess will do some computer lessons to keep English and Math practiced and boredom down to a minimum.  We will also focus on some Christmas lessons and do lots of family activities.  While school will be breaking my blogging will be to a minimum as well. I wi...

This week at our monthly Homeschool Mom's Night Out, one of the moms shared this great resource.  It is Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool which is a FREE online Christian homeschool.  You can do your entire homeschool agenda from this one website or use it as a supplement.  While I don't think this would work well for us for a total curriculum I certainly plan on using it for our history and to supplement some of our other subjects.  It will be nice to have one curriculum that is done for me at least part of the time.  I can't wait to try this out.

My daughter, who happens to have Down syndrome, absolutely loves science.  I think it is because she loves exploring the world around her through experimentation in a way in which she can visually see what she is learning.  With that in mind you can see why we were eager to review Apologia Educational Ministries curriculum Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics ! You may remember how thrilled we were with one of their other products, Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology that we used at the start of the year.  Well, Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics was definitely on that same level.  I love how they have a solid scientific foundation presented in a way that supports the Word of God.  In fact they begin by telling the student that chemistry and physics are "the sciences God created to make everything around you operate as it does"   The rest of the lessons help you explore the world God made through the scien...