Curriculum (a?)

I pick and choose our curriculum materials to suit dd’s needs. It’s pretty easy to do, and usually costs considerably less than
a pre-packaged curriculum. The biggest problems with investing in a canned curriculum are (1) they tend to cost a lot of money so, if you find as you get into it that it isn’t working well, you’re either out a sizeable investment or you’re stuck with something that isn’t optimal for your needs, and (2) LD children often don’t fit the canned curriculum mold, so you end up supplementing and modifying a lot anyway.

What are you using for resources? The homeschooling boards at http://www.vegsource.comn are truly excellent sources of information about curriculum materials. You can post specific questions and get a variety of viewpoints, or you can search to find numerous posts on just about any curriculum material you want to research. You can even describe your child’s strengths, weaknesses, and learning style and get suggestions about curriculum materials to check out.

Especially in the elementary grades, the primary emphasis needs to be on reading and math. If learning to read is going slowly, supplement a lot with books on tape and reading out loud (hearing written language spoken is one of the best ways to develop advanced language skills). Supplement math with critical thinking activities and games.

There are many books available on homeschooling that give guidelines for curriculum to be covered.

With the pick-and-choose approach, you are free to discard something that doesn’t work well for your child and try something else. This makes homeschooling a great deal more productive and fun.

Here are my all-time favorite curriculum choices so far: Singapore Math, Reading Reflex, Narnia series (both books and tapes), Harry Potter series (both books and tapes), Easy Grammar (not Daily Grams), critical thinking and visual perception workbooks from http://www.criticalthinking.com (although they are cheapter to buy from http://www.rainbowresource.com — email them for their wonderful printed catalog of homeschooling resources), the SET game, Quarter Mile Math — I could go on for quite some time.

Mary (my 2 cents worth, anyway)

I’d like to add to what Mary has said:
Early Reading (K to 2), Ladybird Key Words, reissued by Penguin
Phonics Check znd Double Check from Scholar’s Choice
Scholar’s Choice Online catalogue — ooodles and oodles of excellent stuff, and a savings on exchange rate from Canada.
Your local used book stores — a prime resource!!

Ana
I agree with Mary MN and victoria.
I would add a book for phonemic awareness.
I think this is a real key point for some children. Not only is it their large weakness, it is also what holds them back in reading and spelling. I highly recommend Maryln Jager Adams book “Phonemic Awareness in young children” this is available from Brookes Publishing 1-800-638-3775 or www.brookespublishing.com . This book has many games and explains well for the parent how to develop the child’s phonemic awareness.
I like miquon math. It’s not your typical math book, but it is inexpensive. The parent “key” is important, but can usually be bought second hand at a curriculum fair. I think it is good for developing their already creative minds about math. ie to add 23 + 45, that means to add 2 sets of 10 with 4 sets of ten to get 6 sets of 10, ….etc. It encourages to understand WHAT you are doing in math, not just add these numbers and then these…..
I also highly recommend getting the EPS cataloge www.epsbooks.com. One of my favorites is reasoning and reading. It encourages putting ideas in catagories which will lead to paragraphs.

If the phonemic awareness is still slow, you may want to consider Lindamood Bell LIPS. I think Earobics is great for them to learn to hear the sounds. But they also need to FEEL the sounds on their lips, tongue, mouth formation. Then when they are making the /sh/ and they have difficulty hearing their own sounds, they can also feel the formation of the sound. I think this feeling part is their strength and can really help them.
I would of course get a good Speech Language Evaluation.

and you are right, for sensory integration, the OT is the expert.
best wishes.
mary

Greetings Ana,

Welcome to the wonderful world of homeschooling! Two other “must have” books: Homeschool Your Child For Free: More Than 1,200 Smart, Effective, and Practical Resources for Home Education on the Internet and Beyond by LauraMaery Gold and Joan M. Zielinski and How To Increase Your Child’s Verbal Intelligence: The Language Wise Method by Carmen & Geoffrey McGuinness. WorldBook.com offers a scope and sequence for each grade level. Wordly Wise 3000 is a highly recommended vocab program. Kaleidoscapes.com is a homeschooling website with various active discussion boards including the main board, special needs, curricula, high school, and monthly special topic. Just this week I ordered materials from ResourceRoom.com, Timberdoodle.com and EPSBooks.com. Free typing lessons are available at EasyType.com. I love TeachWithMmovies.org. Discovery.com offers lesson plans developed for their Discovery School programs. Have fun!!

Blessings, momo

Dear Ana-

This is my first year to home school my son who has learning disabilities. I am so over joyed with his progress! My son also has had alot of difficulties with reading. He has started vision therapy and he has come up two reading levels since September of 2000. I also notice that he is doing better in the area of language arts. I notice that my son does not deal with the stress of the regular school setting. My son has been allowed to work at his own pace and I am able to work with alot of different programs and methods to find out what works for him. My son enjoys typing instead of writting so he is allowed to dictate to me and he types the information. (There are several childrens writing and typing programs for computers) and he is required to do a small amount of writing also. For his work he is allowed to play a really neat game on the computer. I always try to give my son a treat to shoot for. The harder the task I ask of him the bigger the treat. He just finished a very large project for a science fair. I only assisted him alittle. This never would have happened a year ago. Our home school program is through the county school district office as they offered classes at their facility and there is alot of peer interaction in a low stress/no stress setting. Check what is available in your area and look for assistance from the school district as you can continue to use services from the special education department at the regular school at the same time you are home schooling.
Best wishes to you, God Bless You in your quest.
D.D.

Thanks very much for all of these ideas. I’ve been busy looking around at all the websites and I’ve ordered some of the books that were recommended. I’m beginning to think that my son may need a cooling down period (de-schooling) while he learns to enjoy learning and that will give me some time to think about my next move. I think that this will be a lot of fun! He’s already insisting on learning about Roman History!

is A Child’s History of the World. It’s really a fun book — starts with Stone Age man and works its way up. It’s aimed at about an 8yo level (reading level is about 3rd/4th grade), but my 10yo dd is thoroughly enjoying reading it with me. We take turns on the reading. It’s a little simplistic for her, but she enjoys that, and her retention is very good because we are having fun reading it.

There are several chapters about the Romans sandwiched in there between Stone Age man and post-WWII.

I got this book on the basis of other parents who said it was wonderful. In my opinion, they were right!

Mary

It sounds great. How do I order it. Is there a catalog I could order out of maybe? If so, what is the 800 number to request a catalog? I am always looking very new materials to consider. Thanks.

Nell

I ordered it from the school’s online catalog. Their homeschool website is http://home.calvertschool.org/hs/homeschool_title/

Mary

I saw elsewhere that you mention a teenage son. This book is suitable for about 8-10year olds. Maybe you have younger children also, but I wanted to be sure you understand the age range before you order!

Mary