Special Connection Homeschool

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...

While Gess has Down syndrome, she is pretty high functioning and has attended our local church camp with me going as her counselor. She could participate in most things, it was pretty much a week of her tagging along and trying to be a part of the crowd. That's her every day life. People are warm and welcoming, but after a few minutes of conversing with her they are back to their own conversation and she struggles to keep up or moves off into her own space. They aren't mean and it's not their fault really, it's just life. They are at a different pace and a different communication level. It's tough, but she adjusts and never complains. Then there is life at Camp Barnabas where suddenly, for just one week, her world turns upside down. For that week friends go hand in hand together as one. You want to do a ropes course but happen to be in a wheelchair? No problem! Camp Barnabas can hook you up - literally!  There is nothing they won't help you do! No one stop...

This month our co-op visited the Fire Station where both firefighters and EMTs where there to take us on a tour of their facilities and vehicles to teach us some basic safety tips.  It was so much fun!  Gess had the honor the of being the one to try on the fireman's suit. Everyone also loves to sit in the drivers seat of the Fire Truck. Of course these things can also be noisy! Seeing all of these were cool but we learned some important things. Fire Safety Tips 1. Call 9-1-1 in case of an emergency 2. Stop, Drop, & Roll - This is the procedure you use when you or your clothes are on fire.      Stop running frantically fueling the flame.      Drop to the ground      Roll around to put out the flame. Don't forget to cover your eyes! 3. Crawl to leave a building on fire, don't walk. Smoke rises so be sure to stay down low. 4. Check doorways before passing through. First look to see if you see smoke ...

My daughter has Down syndrome and there have been many things that have been difficult for her to learn. From walking and talking to education and life-skills she has had many struggles along the way. Every time I find something successful I long to share it with others who might find it helpful. That was the entire reason I started this blog. However, this post is not about how I taught my daughter to pray. Instead, it is about how my daughter taught me to pray! Prayer is a popular topic to study. The Scripture has much to say about it and yet I find myself struggling to do it. Oh, I sit and bow my head just fine. I even have chunks of my day carved out for just that purpose, but what do I do when I am there? One thing I do is talk. Prayer is a conversation and I am good at that part, but it's the quiet listening I am not so good at. I also struggle with what to say. I have my list and I go down it. I have loved ones who need salvation and friends who are sick. I pray for my ...

Gess turned 13 last October and I have to tell you she is certainly showing great signs of maturity. I have blogged over the years of ways I taught her how to do chores, remember her homework, and regulate her screen time. Well, all the hard work has not been in vain! We seem to have a system that is working quite smoothly! I believe the My Student Logbook was the final tool that helped pull it all together. I reviewed this last September and it is a constant in our daily use now. What I do is list each subject that Gess must complete each day. Below that are other things she must accomplish such as chores, practicing her piano, reading a book, and making her bed.  To motivate her to complete them we have one rule. No Media until every box is checked off. That means: No TV No Computer (except for school related) No XBox No CD or MP3 music. She does get breaks in her day. She can play outside, with legos, color, or any other thing that is not media related. Thi...

Since I just shared about how I have used Motivated Moms to help me keep my house in order and also recently blogged about how Gesserine does not get allowance for doing her chores, I thought today I would share some tips on how we motivate Gess to actually get her chores done. First of all we started training her at an early age that she was expected to clean up her own mess.  Singing songs can sometimes make it seem like play.  "Now it's time to clean up, clean up, clean up. Now its time to clean up and put away our toys." Or "Gesserine is a helper. Gesserine is a helper.  Gesserine puts away her toys. Gesserine is a helper." As Gess has gotten older, she has gotten more responsibility and we have had to come up with new ways to motivate her to do her chores.  While we can't always make chores fun, we can help to make them a positive experience.  Below are a few of the ways we do that. 1. Have a great attitude .  If you hate chores, so will your k...

Motivated is not generally a term I would use to describe myself, especially when it comes to completing those every day tasks like dishes, laundry, and scrubbing toilets.   That is exactly why I asked to review Motivated Moms .  My house, like my life, is often in disarray and I needed some extra incentive to get things done.  When I read about my opportunity to review the Motivated Moms Ebooks I jumped at the chance!  Actually I was a bit less enthusiastic, but I knew I needed it for my own good. The Motivated Moms Ebook is a printable chore planning system for us mothers to use but of course it is useful for anyone running their own home, even if you are not yet a mom.  It comes in sixteen different formats which covers daily or weekly lists so there is one to suit just about every need.  I chose the 2014 Motivated Moms Chore Planner with Scheduled Bible Reading in Black and White .  You can also get it in color and without the bible readin...

Our speech therapist has shared with us that Gess' rate of speech will be her worst enemy.  This child has a wonderful vocabulary and can read at her current grade level.  What she really struggles with is speech intelligibility and most of that is due to the fact that she just talks too fast.  Of course there are other factors that makes it hard for her to understand, but the number one factor is the rate of her speech. In order to fix this I found out that I needed to work on my own rate of speech as well hers.  Apparently, do what I say (speak slowly) not as I do (speak quickly) doesn't work very well.  While we don't consider our speech fast, to a child with special needs, it really is.  They have trouble discerning every sound we make when we talk at our normal rate and when they try to mimic our rate they can't properly express the sound properly. Now before working with Gess I need to start working on myself.  Speaking slowly and softly to y...

Life skills are an essential part of homeschooling when you have a child with special needs, but they are really something everyone needs.  I fear that while kids today are learning to read and write there are still some skills that they are lacking, particularly those relating to housework.   I think part of that reason may be the fact that we pay our children for any work they do. While I think finding a way for young people to make money is a good idea, I believe that paying them for work that has to be done sends the wrong message.  Kids today grow up believing that they shouldn't have to do any work at all unless they are rewarded in some tangible way. Too often then not, when children grow up and stop getting paid for doing their daily chores they often stop doing them.  When they move out on their own their house becomes a disaster.  Even those who manage to keep their house tidy seem to do so with a resentful and despondent attitude.  I know th...

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...

We took Gess to the dentist the other day and she had a very good report: still no cavities!  Gess actually takes very good care of her teeth.  We go for regular check ups twice a year and I worked hard to instill good habits in her.  As I was talking with the hygienist, who also has a child with Down syndrome, I realized it might be helpful to share some of the things we have done. When Gess was younger she made quite the mess using toothpaste.  It's hard to know just how much toothpaste to squeeze out of a tube and sometimes our kids lack the motor skills to squeeze it at all.  I found that the pumps were much easier and neater for Gess to use.  You can find them in many different brands for adults as well as children. One thing Gess always got from the dentist besides a toothbrush was a sand timer.  It's a good visual way for children to see how long they should be brushing their teeth.  We don't use them anymore now that Gess is 11, b...

You have finished your schooling and all of your chores and now you have to run to the store to do some shopping.  You are in a hurry but you notice your child is dragging behind.  They keep stopping to look at everything!  It's so frustrating because you are tired and just want to get home so you can finally relax, or worse yet start dinner and do more work for the day.  What do you do? Typically we hurry the child along and scold them for continually stopping.  The problem is that we are missing some valuable opportunities for learning.  The hardest thing for me to do as a homeschool teacher was to stop thinking that my school had to look, act and function like a brick and mortar school.  The fact that you school at home does not mean that once the clock hits a certain time or when the lessons are complete that school is over.  Homeschooling means that the child is constantly in a state of learning. Being the parent of a child with special n...

You know chore charts are not just for children.  As I have been struggling trying to keep the house work up among all my summer activities, homeschooling projects, exercise, blogging, church activities and other every day life events I realized that I needed a hand.  Since Gess is getting older and taking on more responsibility I though it was a good time to put some order into her routine of helping.  Then Chelsie gave me a great idea that she uses.  By breaking up my weekly chores into daily tasks I don't have to give up an entire day to nothing but cleaning house! Taking her idea and breaking up the daily chores I came up with the following list.  There is one for each of us and an extra one that goes beyond the standard chores.  It's the stuff we do at least once a week to keep our house neat and clean.  What I love about it is that if something happens on that one day I had set aside to clean the house, it doesn't mean that my entire house get...

A couple of years ago I wrote Fostering Independence: Breakfast Cereal about one of the ways we enabled Gess to fix her own breakfast and it was by using the small boxes of cereal. Well, that worked for awhile but as Gess got older the small boxes were too small for her appetite.  They can also be expensive.  Another tool we have been using are the tupperware style containers that help you keep Cereal fresh.  These are neat because Gess is not always good at rolling the bag up.  We had a real issue with ants getting in our pantry and several times they were in our cereal because she either didn't close the bag well or so much cereal fell in the bottom of the box outside the bag that the ants still found it.  Getting these handy things not only helped with ants, it helped Gess do a better, neater job at fixing her own cereal. Now Gess makes less of a mess and more importantly we got rid of our ant problem! We are still working on milk spills....

I posted about our home-made laundry soap a little over a year ago.  It really does work well and saves you lots of money.  I did notice though that some of my whites were becoming a bit dingy so I did add some Oxyclean into the mix.  Now that we know we like it, we make a huge batch at once.  It should last us at least 6 months.  Here is the recipe: 1 Box Mule Team Borax (4lb 12oz box) 1 Box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (3lb box) 1 Box Arm & Hammer Baking Soda (4 lb box) 1 Container Oxyclean (1.3lb) 4 bars of Ivory Soap (Or Fels Naptha or any soap you prefer) It is really easy to make the soap and not all that messy.  All you do is dump the box ingredients into your storage container. Grate the bar soap in the food processor. Then just mix it up.  Look at all that soap!  This means I won't have to make laundry soap for half a year!  Better yet I won't have to buy it.  I save so much money with very...

We are doing some school over the summer so this week for our Summer Reading Program Gess read some books that go along with our lessons.  Right now we are studying about the land and are learning about the various resources that come from it.  One of the greatest and most important resources is food. This week we are focusing on food that comes from animals and so Gess chose several books about cows, pigs and chickens.  She started with books about cows and after she read the book Hooray For Dairy Farming she was excited because at the end of the book it had a recipe to make a banana milk shake.   Using milk, that comes from a cow, and ice cream, which is also made from milk that comes from a cow, we added a banana, which comes from a tree, and made a delicious snack.  While I said we , the only I thing I actually did was assemble the food processor and pour the shake into the glass.  Gess could have done it totally by herself if we had a blender...

I am just super excited to tell you about the latest product I reviewed for the Schoolhouse Review Crew - Simplified Pantry .  It is not actually a homeschooling product, but rather something that every family can benefit from.  I grew up in a home where both parents worked and we ate a lot of fast food for dinner. I never really learned many cooking skills and so I always had to cook by following recipes.  Every week I planned my shopping list by the menu I prepared for that week and I would buy only the ingredients for those meals.  That of course always had me running back to the store several times because I would either forget something or have a change of plans.  Many times it meant eating out because if one of the meals didn't work out I had nothing ready to fall back on.  To help put an end to all this needless planning and preparation, not to mention the waste for all those "special" ingredients you buy that are only used once, Mystie Winkler ca...