teaching children with special needs

[Joyful3]

I know from reading these boards that there are moms here whose children face some special learning challenges. My youngest two would fit into that category, and I have some questions about HOD and homeschooling in general along those lines. I've been at this a year and a half with little opportunity to talk to other homeschool moms about these things and would appreciate any thoughts!

My DD12 struggles with motor coordination skills, abstract thinking, sensory issues, and social skills. She has a writing disorder as well. For those who have used HOD, how does it help teach abstract thinking/reasoning? I'm sure that narration must help, and I look forward to doing them with her when we switch for next school year. Right now we are using another literature-based curriculum that is full in terms of reading but lacking in interaction. Would it be good to take small steps to move her toward the concept of narration? Thoughts on how to do this? Other ways you see HOD helping address her areas of weakness? Ways I may need to modify assignments? It has been encouraging to see her use IEW to organize her writing. Left on her own she really struggles, but this has been a great tool for her. I am teaching her to use Dragon Dictation as well for writing assignments.

We have been using MUS with my DD and it has been such a great fit, I have planned to stick with it. She excels with her computation but has a weakness in reasoning skills. She's almost ready for pre-algebra. Thoughts about what to do there? She's loved the small glimpses of solving for the unknown that she's had so far and she does great with systematic teaching of skills, so someday algebra may be a strength for her.

We switched my DS6 to LHFHG about 5 weeks ago. It has been such a blessing!!! He loves the finger plays and acting the story out. His challenges are attention, impulsivity, sensory seeking, fine motor, executive function, and the list goes on. We are having him evaluated by a psychologist next week and already have a few clues about what she sees and will be looking for. She does not believe it is ADHD due to the sensory issues. I can see that; it breaks my heart to see how much this affects his every day functioning. Academically he is doing very well with reading and math skills, but fine motor is a challenge. I've been biding my time with writing because he is a boy, but suspect he may have delays there similar to his sister. I have seen so many ways that HOD is a great fit for him with short lessons that do not overwhelm his ability to be successful. I fear if he were in a regular classroom, he would be falling on the floor most of the time and have to bring all his work home because he would never get started, and by that time he would be exhausted. But that is the beauty of homeschooling, right? Any suggestions on helping him train his attention to the task and bring some of his impulses under control? Just as an example, when he held the flag to say the pledge this morning we talked ahead of time about looking at it and not moving the flag everywhere with his hand as he often will do. His eyes must have darted away at least 10 times in spite of his best efforts, so there is an underlying issue there that I think will be uncovered soon. Dietary intervention (due to a link between behavior and food sensitivities) and adding in the beginnings of a sensory diet have been a tremendous help, and of course we talk address spiritual matters and heart issues. I really think if he could control himself, he would, but also have training habits in the back of my mind, even if we have to start small. Really, we have been working on training him in these things all along.

Sometimes it is overwhelming because I feel like I'm teaching everything since there are a lot of intuitive learning gaps I have to help fill in. I'm thinking about things like learning social graces, table manners, self-care, play skills, etc. that typically functioning kids like my oldest son pick up quickly on their own. Thoughts on this? I'm getting better at learning to tackle one or two skills at a time. I love my kids and love homeschooling but it is hard to have to be everything to everyone all the time (i.e. Mom+teacher+therapist+nutritionist and that list goes on)!! One other thing that I am enjoying about HOD is the flexibility I think we will have to go to the children's museum, take an enrichment class here and there, meet friends to play, anything to get out of the house and give me a little break once in awhile.

I'm a former special education teacher so in His wisdom God prepared me for this wonderful task and even wired me for it, but it would still be good to hear from others. I'm sure I will have more questions as we move along toward next school year, but this is a start.

Thanks if you've read this far!!

Leah

[Dandelion5]

Hhhh

[LynnH]

My ds has writing issues, short term memory issues and has struggled with abstract thinking at times. We have been doing HOD for 4 years. As far as the abstract thinking I do think narration is a huge help. Oral narration came quicker than the written, and he does better when I read vs when he reads, but that has improved. I have done various things to assist him with narration. Most of them are things I have read on hear. We started out slowly and I would have him orally narrate after just a few paragraphs or a page and then slowly built up. I modeled narrations for him, not so he would narrate exactly what I did, but so he would see the kind of details and connections that should be included. He used to give very few details, now with oral narrations he gives many. In Preparing and CTC I think they give various types of oral narrations such as presenting it like a commercial. In CTC they also do an activity where they have to look through Proverbs and find verses that relate to what they just read. CTC also has the prophecy chart which really requires them to think and make connections. That really helped my ds with his abstract thinking and by the end of the year he was really good with this activity. Other things scheduled in HOD that help with abstract thinking are the Poetry study, and then in Rev to Rev which we are doing now there are higher level thinking questions that go with the reading and they read primary source documents and answer questions that require deeper level thinking. DITHOR also requires more abstract thinking.

As far as the writing this is how I have modified things. He does all the copywork in cursive because that is easier for him. I still write it out in cursive and I still draw lines for him to write on. For some things like his DITHOR workbook he dictates to me. For most other things he types. He types all his written narrations. He struggles with short term memory so as the readings have gotten longer I allow him to record some thoughts on his ipod as he reads and then he uses those thoughts to help him with his written narration. We only went to this after a few years of struggling and he often had to reread the longer passages. I thought it was reading comprehension, but it isn't, it is strictly due to his memory. For some other things he needs to write we use some Ipad note writing apps and a bluetooth keyboard. I have recently discovered a note taking app that incorporates dragon dictation so we are going to work with that some over the summer to see if that will help with things like Science Lab reports. For the mapping I go through and make a numbered key for him and he just writes the numbers down where they go and doesn't have to write the words. There was no way he could write that small. I know there are more things, but I can't think of them right now. It has been easy to adapt things as needed with HOD. You can look at my blog to see how we work things.

You can easily use whatever math works for your kids. My ds does better with a spiral math program so that is what we have always used.

[Joyful3]

Thank you so much for all the suggestions. I feel encouraged and hopeful!

I was thinking about Singapore for DD but wondering if it was too late in the game to change. Combining it with MUS may be a great way to get the benefit from both. She is just getting to the point where she is really successful with the MUS story problems, so something more challenging will be good for her. I will definitely be trying out Singapore with my DS.

We have an exercise ball and tried it today. It seems to really help! We need a different size but that is easy enough to change. My oldest son loved hearing about this and I emailed him the article. He has already used the ball to do his math on every day, and he is my "typical" child!

I like the narration ideas--for my DD anything creative will stir her to action. Maybe I will have to order the CTC manual soon and it could give me ideas to start with now, even if we're not ready to use it yet. That will get her used to how to do it. Modeling it for her is a great idea!

We are using Reading RX and I think that is helping. Hoping to get her back to regular Reading Detective material when she is done.

So much help in what you both wrote...I appreciate it so much!!

[water2wine]

I have a daughter with cerebral palsy. She has short term memory issues, complex reasoning issues, reading issues, and math issues. Basically all the thing in the language center of the brain. The Charlotte Mason ways of HOD have been wonderful for her. She is now the best narrator of all my six kids. I have seen that carry over to many pother areas of life. She is also probably the kid over time that has developed the most life discernment and that certainly was not the case before we started HOD. The Bible, the science and the way the history is taught I really think have helped her in that area. It is the what comes next and how do we put the pieces together skills that have helped her from those areas of HOD.

She has damage in the language center of her brain and we were not able to do Singapore with her. Maybe if we had started from the beginning she might have been able to have learned it but going back for her was too traumatic due to her age. It is sort of a language based math program in the way it has you think. My two youngest use it and honestly I wish I had started them all out on it and used it because it is a great program. The great thing about HOD for special needs is you can switch out Math and LA if your child has learning issues that need different materials and the program still flows just the same.

I would guess the hardest thing for you, because you have training, is going to be to let go and let the program work if you have not taught Charlotte Mason style. It was for me. But I found that the CM teaching was really the best for my dd to learn. All the dictation, oral narration and copy work really does teach without struggle and those skills do transfer. So I would say go with it as much as possible as written and if things come up in Math or LA just adjust. Carrie and Julie are great about helping make adjustments for kids with learning differences and that help is not something you are going to find with any other publisher. HTH!

Oh I should add that my dd is on the older end. She is 15 now and has been using HOD for many years now.

[Joyful3]

I would guess the hardest thing for you, because you have training, is going to be to let go and let the program work if you have not taught Charlotte Mason style. It was for me. But I found that the CM teaching was really the best for my dd to learn.

Thank you for saying this! I needed to hear it and will probably remember it often as we make the transition.

[Joyful3]

Lynn, I am curious what you did to teach your DS to type. My DD balks at this a bit but having some keyboarding skills would really help her in the long run.

[LynnH]

I started with the free online DanceMat typing and now I have Typing Instructor Platinum that he has used some. I will be honest though that since he has CP which results in hand tremors he hasn't been very successful using all 5 fingers to type. He is however a pretty fast 2 finger typist. I keep trying to get him to use 5 fingers, but the finger coordination just may never be there.

[Joyful3]

Thanks, Lynn. We have Typing Instructor and tried to use it last year, but I ended up putting it away to focus on cursive. That was a good call for the time since she is getting very proficient with cursive now. I think we will try typing again next school year.

Typing may be easier than writing but it's still fine motor, so I can understand the struggles with it.

[John'smom]

I use and love MUS with my oldest ds. I agree the word problems aren't what Singapore's are. I use and love Singapore for my youngest dd (supplementing with MM as well). I was just going to suggest that Singapore has a separate book that you can use with any program called Challenging Word problems. This way you won't have to run 2 programs necessarily and get the benefit of the bar model and more challenging word problems. Just an idea.

[Joyful3]

I gave her the pretest for 3A today and she got 74 which tells me that is probably where we would have to start. The word problems are what tripped her up. I am guessing she would move through the first few levels fairly quickly though. I'll look at both and see what seems best...thanks for the idea! Any other insights welcome, too!