Photo by msburrows

As a homeschooling family, we are always looking for opportunities for our children to learn skills that we value but cannot provide ourselves. For our family, we seek out physical activities for our very busy and precocious children. We suggested that my dad give the girls dance/gymnastics classes for Christmas for this very reason. Today was C4’s first “Dance and Tumble” class for the winter session at the YMCA.

Not only did we want C4 to join a gymnastics/dance class for physical education and dance skills, but we also knew that there would be social, emotional, and neurological benefits from the class.

~C4 has Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), and she is definitely a sensory seeker. The activities in this class provide lots of proprioceptive input, which will help her with motor planning and balance. There are plenty of deep pressure activities in the class as well such as rolling, hopping, and jumping.

~This class gives C4 the opportunity to make some friendships outside of our current circle of friends. I hope that she can connect with other little girls who share her interest in dancing and gymnastics. The class gives her a topic to discuss with her friends, shared experiences, and time away from me and her sister to establish new friendships.

~I hope that the experiences she has will build her confidence in her physical abilities resulting in a better sense of what she can do independently. She often tells me that she is unable to complete a task that I have seen her do a dozen times. I suspect that her frustration is a result of her SPD sometimes and other times is part of her limit-testing as a strong-willed child. Perhaps she will gain better control over her proprioceptive function through her dance class and maybe learn a little about following the rules.

~Most of all, I hope that C4 has fun in this class. Today she was so excited that she was going to her class that she simply could not nap. As we got ready to leave the house, she kept telling A2 about how she was going to a special dance class that Papa gave to her for Christmas. When we arrived, she ran right into the room. She dove into the class. She smiled. She laughed. She was thrilled by the end of class. She made sure to tell Daddy all about her experiences.

I have high hopes for this little class!

Photo by jimmiehomschoolmom

There are many advantages to home education, and people homeschool for various reasons. Homeschooling  a child with special needs adds another layer of trails and rewards to your experience. If you have a child with special needs and you are considering home educating him/her, consider these benefits and challenges.

BENEFITS

~Scheduling appointments with certain doctors may be easier because of your flexibility, and you can schedule appointments with specialists and therapists during non-peak hours. You also can travel far to see doctors, therapists, and specialists who you feel are going to meet your child’s needs better than anyone local can.

~You are able to observe your child in a variety of situations, both learning and casual, to gain insight into his/her learning style and needs as well as see progress you wouldn’t normally see. You can share that information with professionals who work with your child. You can also observe whether or not your child tries out strategies that individual professionals are recommending.

~You have the freedom to develop a curriculum that is tailored to meet your child’s learning needs and interests. For example, you can let your child use a therapy ball as you and your child deem necessary or you can allow your child to have frequent breaks to  move as a reward for working hard on difficult tasks.

~You can reinforce the various techniques that other professionals are using throughout the day at times that seem the most appropriate.

~Your child will have more time to pursue interests that may help him/her academically, socially, physically, and emotionally such as horseback riding, karate, sport, gymnastics, dance, music lessons, and art classes.

CHALLENGES

~It can be frustrating and difficult to be at home all day with a child with special needs (depending on what those needs are). Do you have support available for both you and your child?

~Sometimes you will not see progress immediately. There may be times when you are not sure how to help your child. That may make you wonder if your child is benefiting from the learning experiences that you are providing or if you are capable of homeschooling. Again, do you have the support that you and your child need? Dads, extended family, and other homeschoolers are invaluable when you feel discouraged.

~Your child may need expensive equipment for various kinds of accommodations. Will you have the funds to buy, the expertise to use, and the space to store those items?

Consider all of your options before you decide to homeschool a child with special needs.

Plan a trip to your local children’s museum.

BEFORE YOUR TRIP

~Research together the exhibits in the museum including those exhibits that are there for only a short time. Plan out your schedule to include the exhibits you would like to spend the most time visiting.

~Decide how much money you will need to cover all of the expenses and create a budget. Don’t forget to include the cost of food and parking.

~Have your children use maps to locate the museum and determine the best route to take to get there.

~Read various books related to one of the exhibits.

DURING YOUR TRIP

~While visiting the different exhibits, ask your children probing questions. Encourage them to make hypotheses and deductions. Show them how certain things work.

~Bring your science journals along. Have your children spend some time at the museum writing about a science related exhibit.

~Take photos of the activities your children enjoyed the most. Use those photos to write a story. You can even make a book about your trip.

AFTER YOUR TRIP

~Write letters to the museum staff about your experience. Include postive experiences as well as anything you feel needs to be changed.

~Make note of topics that your children found interesting at the museum. Continue to study that topic in the coming weeks.

~Create your own brochure for the museum. Include directions, parking information, dining options, the cost of admission, and information about the exhibits. Use thumbnail size photos from the visit in the brouchure.

Photo by Marco Arment

Using videos in your homeschool can enhance your children’s learning about a given topic. If you are savvy about how you use those videos, your children will gain a better understanding of the topic at hand. Here are a few tips to help you out.

~Preview the video.

It is always best to know what to expect from a particular video in case there are concepts that need to be explained or there are parts that you want to skip.

Decide what clips are worth showing to your children.

Take notes on what you want to highlight for the children.

~Before watching the video with the children, have a discussion about what they will be watching and what your expectations are.

Have the children take notes while watching the video. Focus their note-taking with a question or a specific topic.

~Watch the video with the children.

Show one clip of the video at a time.

Assist the children with note-taking.

Be willing to stop the video if the children are confused or need more direction.

~After viewing the clip, have a discussion.

Have the children use their notes during the discussion.

Discuss the children’s ideas and questions and clarify any misunderstandings.

Make any points about the clip that you deem important.

Hopefully these tips will help you and your children use media to your advantage in your homeschool.

Kick start your first day back to school without kicking and screaming (from either the kids or you)!

~Mom, you need a little quiet time to get your head in the game. Ask God to lead your school day, and perhaps find a verse that you can keep on hand to motivate you.

~Coffee never hurts in times like these! Try offering chocolate milk or a smoothly to the kids to celebrate returning to school.

~Play some soothing music as you start your day. Music can change everyone’s mood!

~Take it slowly. On days like these you are not getting anything new done. Try doing some review. Perhaps you could play an educational game, or let the kids choose something that they enjoy doing. C4 loves it when I read to her, so we often warm up with a few great books.

~Sometimes having a goal is motivating. Set a goal for the day and reward everyone once you achieve it.

~This might be a day to do some science experiments. Hands-on work can be fun. Do experiments that are completely unrelated to what you have been doing. That might make it seem like they are not doing school work.

~Take the focus off of your life and do something for someone else. Make a meal and deliver it to a family that has a new baby. Visit an elderly neighbor with some homemade cookies. Write thank you notes to your church leaders. Put together a care package for someone serving overseas either in the military or as a missionary.

~Be patient with yourself and the children. it is always difficult to get back into the routine. In a couple of days you will all be back on track!

What do you do on those days when you and the kids are just not interested in getting into school?

Photo by Muffet

Here are a few more homeschool activities that you can do with your kids in the snow.

Photo by Russ Beinder

~Take your children snowshoeing. It is a lot of fun to hike in the winter with snowshoes! Take the opportunity to see how the woods have changed since the fall.

~Create a map in the snow in your yard. Use water tinted with food coloring in spray bottles to draw the outlines of the continents, for example. Or use cookie cutters in the shape of the United States
as stamps. Put a a paper towel on a cookie sheet and add a little watered down paint on it. Dip the cookie cutter into the paint and stamp the snow with it.

Photo by Mcclaire2

~Go cross country skiing. Skiing in itself is fun, but you can add another dimension to the experience by teaching a geometry lesson. Learn about rays & lines. Explore perpendicular, parallel, and intersecting lines.

~Do some experimenting with the snow. For example, melt some snow and test the pH of the water with a pH testing strip. Or melt the snow and refreeze it to observe the structure changes.

~You can also find some great snow learning activities at The Parenting Exchange.

When I created a wish list for my kids for Christmas, I came across a real gem of a toy called WEDGiTS. I recommend that you try it out in your homeschool!

My 4 year old was engaged in using this toy for at least 45 minutes, which is unheard of for her, and she came back to it later in the day. My 2 year old was engaged in using it for at lest 30 minutes. When both of the kids worked together to build things, I observed them solving problems cooperatively, and they were not competitive. They were being creative with the structures they were building. This toy also improves spatial relations skills. I also think they were communicating better with each other than they do with a number of other toys.

I hope that you try this toy with your children, too. I think that you will be happy that you did!

Photo by baldur

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and our family is really excited! Our day will be FULL of baking, cooking, building a gingerbread house, and tracking Santa’s trip.  I’m hoping God will hold the time still so we can get it all done and savor the special moments.

The children are making zucchini bread for Christmas Day. It is one way that I hope to sneak a vegetable into their diet this week. The girls love baking breads, too. Measuring, pouring, following the directions, and watching the changes to the ingredients are all great math and science experiences. Baking together is also making memories together.

E’s cousin from Mexico is visiting us this Christmas. We plan to make empanadas with her. The kids will learn a little about their heritage through this cooking experience. They can practice their Spanish skills while we cook, and maybe they’ll hear some stories, too.

I am really excited to build a gingerbread house with the kids for the first time this year! We have seen kits in the stores, but buying one was not a priority. Today Daddy found one that was on clearance, though! The gingerbread pieces are already baked, so we just have to construct the house. We are going to have a great time getting messy and laughing together. This is definitely a photo opportunity!

A very special tradition for Christmas Eve is baking cookies for Santa. This year is no different.  He needs a snack so he has energy to deliver all of those toys!

Throughout the night we will track Santa’s trip through NORAD Tracks Santa. There are videos posted that tell where Santa is, and they give a little information about each country. It is a fun way to infuse some geography, culture, and history into your Christmas celebration!

On top of all of that we have a church service to attend. There will be a Chirstmas drama at this family friendly service. A few of our friends have children performing in it, so the kids should be excited about it!

Christmas Eve will be great!

Photo by *clarity*

Instead of letting the snow distract you and your children from school work, try these ideas for using the snow to your advantage in your homeschool. This is the first in a series of posts about learning opportunities in the snow.

~Practice handwriting.

-Use a stick to write the letters and numbers in the snow.
-Try using a paint brush and water tinted with food coloring to practice writing letters and numbers.
-Use your feet to make BIG letters and numbers in the snow. Color the letters with tinted water in a spray bottle.
-Pack snow into a container and “build” a letter out of snow (similar to building a sand castle).

~Learn geometry.

-Draw shapes in the snow with a stick, or use your body to make shapes in the snow. Organize the shapes by number of sides.
-Pack the snow into different shaped containers and flip them over to reveal a cube, a cone, or a sphere.
-Investigate the best way to draw a circle in the snow.
-Make a circle in the snow and measure the radius and the diameter.
-Use bowls, cookie cutters, cups, or other containers to press shapes into the snow to make tessellations.

Have fun learning in the snow!

I showed the kids how to make snow angels! They had a really great time doing it, and Daddy had fun taking pictures of our masterpieces. I decided to tie our snow adventure into our Advent activities by having the kids make a heavenly host of snow angels! They worked hard to make snow angels all around the yard.

This activity is a fun way to engage a kinesthetic learner in a vocabulary lesson. Unlike the fine motor activity in my previous post about a heavenly host of angels, this activity focuses on gross motor skills. A2 responds better to fine motor work while C4 has more refined gross motor skills. By giving the children both experiences, I was able to add depth to thier understanding of the concept.

We might take this idea to another level and try to paint our snow angels next time. We might even try to make birdseed snow angels. It would be fun to see which birds and other animals eat the seeds!