Special Connection Homeschool

Like games , exercise can be beneficial to learning even when you are not doing a lesson.  Exercise gives oxygen to the brain and stimulates brain plasticity which makes it easier to grow new neuronal connections.  In other words, physical aerobic exercise works out the brain as much as the muscles! Whether I am teaching Gess at home or a bunch of kids at church I have noticed that if they do not seem to be engaged in the lesson taking an exercise break can help get them back on track.  It not only helps them refocus but using that energy gets the oxygen moving again and their brain just simply seems to turn back on.  So if your child is struggling with a lesson, getting frustrated, seems disengaged or even just tired, stop the lesson and take a break.  As little as 5 minutes of a physical exercise can make a big difference. Ideas for quick breaks in class are bouncing or dribbling a ball, hula hoop, running laps, jumping rope, skipping, jumping jacks, pus...

Games are a fun way to get our hands-on learning and there are many ways to implement them into your educational program.   One thing you can do is find games that are meant to be educational but I am not usually willing to drop my money on those as they can be rather pricey.  So what I do is either use what games we have or make up my own.  If necessary I change the rules or add my own twist to help my daughter who has special needs. For instance Yahtzee was a good way to learn adding, especially when we were learning our doubles math facts . Gess does great if she uses the large print Yahtzee score card from BoardGameGeek . To help with money we made up a game called Can I Buy That ? War is an easy but excellent way to teach greater than and less than.  Gess was really slow when she first started playing but now she is pretty quick to grab her cards when she wins! Crazy 8 is another good game.  It took Gess awhile to figure ou...

Manipulatives are a great tool to enhance learning and retention.  There is something about putting your hands on an object that helps you remember.  As I mentioned in my first post it really turns a lesson into an experience.  There are lots of ways to incorporate maniplatives into a lesson.  Some curricula come with them but if they don't you can always make or buy your own. Blocks are a great way to put your hands on learning.  Of course we all know about the alphabet blocks and those certainly helped Gess learn her letters.  But they can also be used to learn lots of things.  Here is Gess learning her books of the Bible . All they did here was write the books on the blocks.  Arranging them in order was a fun way to practice. Speaking of alphabet blocks, the other day at the library we saw they had letters made out of cloth.  You can also find puzzles that have letter and number shapes.  They can be pretty cheap.  Thos...

Yesterday I talked about Why Hands-on Learning is Important .  Today I want to share some ways that you can take a lesson and add some hands-on elements to it.  This will make the lesson more interesting and aid in your child's retention of the material. Manipulatives, such as blocks are a great way to get your hands-on something.  Handwriting Without Tears uses blocks to teach how to write letters.   They also use chalkboards, sponges, and play dough as well.  You can also teach a child by having them write in sand, salt, or other textures to feel the writing process. Memorizing Scripture and other facts is easier with motions.  Gess learned this large passage of Scripture with the aid of motions to help her remember the words. Another activity that works well is matching words to definitions or pictures.  We learned  The 10 Commandments by matching the image with the name.  You can do this with spelling and vocabular...

I have been working on my posts for the 5 Days of Blog Hop from the Schoolhouse Review Crew which is coming up August 5-9 .  There are several topics that will be addressed by other writers.  I am looking forward to reading them.  Some that are on the top of my to read list are: Science Fun Homeschooling with Special Needs A Learning Lifestyle Dad Friendly Homeschooling Being His Hands and Feet. There are several more topics of interest from homeschooling styles, curriculum selections, beginning the homeschooling journey, field trips and so much more. I wanted to let you know what my posts will specifically be about.  Here are my topics for 5 Days of Hands-On Learning. Day 1 - Why Hands-on Learning is Important This explains some reasons hands-on learning is important and how it is helpful for children of all learning styles whether or not they have special needs. Day 2 - Adapting Lessons to Hands-on Learning This post gives some basic examples ...

I will be participating in a 5 Days of...Blog Hop.  Instead of all of us writing on the same topic, we are each branching out and covering something different.  My posts will be on hands-on learning.  Here at Special Connection Homeschool most everything we learn is hands-on.  I think it is one of the best parts of homeschooling and especially essential if you have a child with special needs.  So if you would like to learn a little more about the hows and whys of hands-on learning, be sure to check back August 5 - 9 for my 5 Days of Hands-on Learning .

Most parents who have special needs kids know well the value of a Hands-On Project for school. My Gess can learn just about anything if you can find a way to literally get her hands on it. We all know that is easy to do with things like science. Who doesn't love experiments? The challenge is finding ways to get our hands on subjects that are not quite so tangible.  Math is is tricky but there are really lots of ways if you try.  Here are just a couple examples we have used. Patterns and Sequencing Counting On - Basic Addition Concept We have focused on other concepts too, such as: Sorting Activity - Why Is It Different? Exploring Our Senses Reading can also be more hands on than just picking up the book.  Gess learned how to read using her hands playing Lotto. Introducing Reading With Sight Words Hands-On Projects not only make learning fun, they really help the student retain the information while having a lot more fun.  You ca...