Special Connection Homeschool

As most of you know by now, Gess has Down syndrome. She is a bright girl, can read very well, has great problem solving skills, has a great interest in science, and has a great love for learning. Our struggle is with math. She gets the concepts of what we are doing and with helps can do her basic problems. At age 13 she can now tell time, count money, measure ingredients, add and subtract with objects, but she struggles with memorized facts and therefore can't do problems in her head. Even with what she can do, math is still very difficult and therefore she doesn't like it. All during the school day she never complained, until it was time for math. "It's too hard" she would fret and for a child with special needs that is the truth. It's not hard the way we think of hard. Her mind simply doesn't work that way. Gess is not the type of kid who will complain and whine over every little thing, but math, for Gess, is extremely hard. The memorization thing ...

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 ...

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...

Each year the TOS Crew mates vote on which products they liked the best.  I have to tell you, this was my first time on the crew and I was amazed at how many products I actually liked and now use.  I was excited to participate in the voting and having a say in which companies get awarded. The winners of the 2011-2012 TOS Homeschool Crew Blue Ribbon Awards  are (drum roll please)...   Favorite Reading Instruction Product:  Reading Eggs* Favorite Writing Product:  Write Shop Favorite Language Arts Product: Progeny Press Favorite Social Studies Product: TruthQuest History Favorite Science Product: Amazing Science * Favorite Math Product: Math Mammoth * Favorite Online Math Product: Math Rider Favorite Foreign Language Product: Visual Latin Favorite Fine Arts Product: Artistic Pursuits Favorite Christian Education Product:  Apologia: Who Am I? * ~~~ Favorite Preschool Product: Before Five in a Row Favorite Elementary Product: All ...

While Gess is an excellent reader, one area that she really struggles with is math, which is pretty typical for children with Down syndrome. Because of that I planned on tackling some life-skills math topics such as time, money and measurement this year. So when I saw I had the chance to review Math Mammoth I jumped at it. I was hoping to be able to review at least one of the topics mentioned above, but was pleasantly surprised when they allowed me to review all 3 of them! So what is Math Mammoth ? "Math Mammoth offers affordable, yet quality math worktexts and workbooks for grades 1-8, available as both downloads and printed books. These books concentrate on conceptual understanding and are strong in mental math. The directions in the worktexts are written directly to the student, and are often self-teaching, thus requiring little preparation and involvement from the teacher." I can certainly vouch for the affordability, quality and ease of teacher preparation. E...

Let me introduce you to Professor Ana Lyze. She is a researcher in the obscure, abnormal and the bizarre. She also happens to be a character in The Old Schoolhouse unit study series that I had the opportunity to review this month: The Curiosity Files . This amazing professor has a unique way of piquing your interests in subjects you might not otherwise think about studying. So far the series has covered all of these fascinating topics: Blue Diamond Dung Beetle MRSA Puffer Fish Red Tide Zombie Fire Ants Blue-footed Booby Cicada Killing Wasp Quicksand Platypus We had the privilege of sampling the unit on Red Tides . I was immediately captured by how visually appealing the unit was. It was colorful, had interesting photos, and the font was really easy to read. The writing style was captivating and it did not take long before Gess and myself were both eager to learn more about these pesky red tides. I was truly amazed at how easily we were able to touch on every subject of study b...