Why I Decided to Home School
March 9, 2010 by Peggy
I usually stick to informational articles but this time I wanted to share why we decided to home school our kids. It is a clear illustration to me how God is always with us and has a clear plan for our lives.
My husband and I married relatively late in life and had the first of three boys. It wasn’t until our oldest was school age that we began to realize he wasn’t like other children. Intense meltdowns, delayed potty training, not wanting to play with other children and poor eye contact had us going to several doctors. Many evaluations later we were told he was on the autism spectrum. Autism? You mean like ‘Rainman’? No, actually more like ‘Temple Grandin’. (If you have the chance please watch the HBO movie. It will be on DVD this summer and probably on itunes as well. I cannot rave about it enough.)
I had thought about homeschooling before he was school age. The thought of putting my precious boy on a bus and being away from him all day did not sit well with me. Also my husband and I were growing deeper in our Christian faith and we wondered what path God wanted us to take. I read and researched but the local school seemed wonderful and so off to Kindergarten he went.
It was bad. It was very bad. It was too noisy, too bright. He was overwhelmed. He couldn’t keep up with his classmates and he knew it. He had horrific meltdowns. By this time I was convinced I couldn’t teach him – he needed experts, right?
Our middle son went to the local Pre K program and was soon diagnosed with autism as well. As for our youngest? I knew he was different from the minute he drew breath. He literally screamed in the car for the first six months of his life and I went places I only absolutely had to go until we could turn him around in his seat. After a long hard fight on my part it became apparent to even the ‘experts’ that he was on the spectrum also.
By the time our oldest was in third grade I was starting to realize public school was just not going to work for our children. His teachers really didn’t want to have anything to do with a kid who had meltdowns and couldn’t bear to be touched. He was also showing signs of having trouble reading, though the school insisted that it was due to his autism. I knew it wasn’t but we couldn’t afford a private evaluation at the time. Our middle son was being bullied and the school wouldn’t do anything about it and started to have meltdowns of his own.
By the end of that year I was adamant – I wanted them home.
I started researching and reading again and even bought a curriculum. But my husband asked me to try them at another school that had a year round schedule and a smaller class size. If it didn’t work then we’d bring them home. Our youngest started the Pre K program and seemed to do well.
At first it worked. My oldest son had a wonderful teacher and my middle son seemed to like the smaller classroom. Then the bullying started. Here we go again.
We spent hours at school. IEP’s (Individualized Education Plans), FBA’s (Functional Behavior Assessments), BIP’s (Behavior Intervention Plans) were all written and either poorly implemented or not at all. I literally sat with my middle child most of the school day in his class. My children were suspended, restrained, thrust into ‘time-out’ rooms and finally my oldest one was charged with assault for – as the outraged juvenile probation officer put it ‘a clear manifestation of his disability’. (The charge was dismissed – my oldest is hypo sensitive and cannot verbally relate when he is sick. He had raging case of strep when he had this meltdown) Then our middle son had his own meltdown and the school called Social Services and accused me of medical neglect due to an utterance he made. (This despite the fact that my cell phone records showed I called our therapist the minute I stepped out of the school building.) Social Services found the complaint ‘unfounded’ but I cannot begin to tell you how much it hurt to have my mothering skills called into question like that.
Logically, I know my sons have more doctors than my eighty year old grandmother and DSS concurred, but it HURT. I cried out to God and He answered me. I was looking to the wrong ‘experts’.
That was it as far as my husband was concerned. God could not have made it any clearer if He’d rented a neon sign and put it in our yard. The boys needed to be home.
And they’ve been here every since. That was three years ago and though I go through periods of panic and worry that they aren’t getting the education they need, I truly know better. My oldest son does have dyslexia and we are now beginning the remediation process late. My middle son has Central Auditory Processing Disorder and the quiet environment of our home has helped him tremendously. Our youngest – who would have gotten the ADHD label if he’d stayed in public school – now knows square roots. At age seven. It’s hard having teaching kids that are smart in areas that I struggled with in school. I’m starting to realize my own education was sorely lacking and my love of self learning has returned. I’m learning alongside my boys and I love it!
So that’s our journey to homeschooling. It was a hard road to get here but I am ever so glad that we are here. God showed me that He is the ‘expert’ when it comes to our children and He knows their every need. He makes it clear to us that He has plans for each of our boys.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11 NIV
Peggy Dalley has been married to her best friend and husband for 13 years. She uses the eclectic approach to homeschool their three sons, 12, 10 and 7. Her interests include writing unit studies, Bible study, history and she is working hard to become a Proverbs 31:10 woman instead of a Proverbs 21:9 woman.
Look First, Learn First
February 28, 2010 by Patty
You know there are times when we wish to really bury the past. It haunts us, reminds us of what was, and terrifies us of what could be. And it colors everything we do, because it dictates who we are and what we have become.
For me, my past placed a deep shadow on the subject of reading.
I have a mild case of Dyslexia, nothing major and I can normally work around it by being careful. Re-reading sentences that don’t quite make sense, using spell checker religiously, and having my wonderful husband read things for content.
However, learning to read for me was a nightmare. My mom ran out of patience LONG before I learned the alphabet. And when there was no where to turn for help, reading became a “painful” learning experience. Back then, Dyslexia wasn’t known, and learning disabilities were spoken of in back rooms only. So for me to have such difficulties, well let’s just say it’s a miracle I don’t have a complete block when it comes to picking up the written word.
Now though I love to read. I love making my escape in far off lands, fighting dragons, falling in love with Romeo and finding buried treasure. And so when I began homeschooling, my greatest desire was to instill in my children that same love and desire. My oldest two girls were public schooled for a while and so someone else taught them the basics. I soon discovered though that my second child was facing the same difficulties as I did. She could sometimes recognize the high frequency words, but she couldn’t spell anything, she couldn’t read words in order and she couldn’t sound things out in the proper order. In short, she couldn’t read and her teacher didn’t care enough to work with her. She was falling more and more behind and so we brought her home to learn.
But remember what I said about the past and wishing to bury it? I soon found that I was ill equipped to teach her something that I had such ill memories of. I would lose patience so quickly, and the more frustrated she got, the more tense I became. So I had a good talk with myself and did what any good mom would do–I put it off until I knew what the heck I was doing!
I searched the internet for the answer–Hmmm, PHONICS right? I knew any good reader needed to under stand phonics so that’s where we began. I took a full year to review her phonics. I used Phonics Pathways, Flash cards, White boards, and the like. My patience was tested beyond my limits, but I had learned from my mom–to just back off. As soon as frustration was setting in, we packed it away for the day. It was a VERY slow process. And I never thought we were getting any where. After about 12 months of frustration and self-doubt (for both me and her) I went looking online again. I just knew there had to be an answer that I was missing.
What I found was Back on the Right Track Reading (www.righttrackreading.com) . It was a remedial reading program that took you through the next step. It helped you review the sounds, and then place them together, in a different way than Phonics Pathways (which took the Ba Be Bi Bo Bu approach). But this new program took it to their hands! You used 2 inch tiles that you wrote the sounds on. And you used them to work on taking the step from just saying the sounds to creating words. By using this hands on approach it took the need for my daughter to have to visualize the words in her mind and actually had her creating them in her hands. There was no need for her to keep it straight in her mind–as long as they were straight in her hands. She could just keep at it until she got it right. Her frustration level was reduced instantly!
Over the next school year my daughter went from barely being able to read (not necessarily comprehend) an early 2nd grade level–to a mid 6th grade comprehension level. Being able to switch gears and teaching style made all the difference. I have learned that for her, anything that I can get her to do hands on, is an instant success. Anything that she has to do internally is a long drawn out process. Her dyslexia has created a need to not only see things, but to work with them. Since this discovery, I have taken this into the other subjects that she struggles with. Such as math–every lesson is now done with manipulatives.
So what about the past? Do I still wish to bury it? Well yes and no. It’s not very pleasant memory-wise, but that memory did teach me to walk away when I was out of my depth. To look first, learn first, then teach it. Being a parent to a struggling child has its challenges. We just have to take the time to find out where the problem lies and keep looking for that solution.
Patty has been married to the love of her life for 14 years and has 4 kiddos she lovingly refers to as her monkeys. She is constantly threatening to run away to the Circus–unfortunately, she keeps being informed she’s already there! She loves throwing together this and that to create a unique learning experience that encourages a love of learning. Come feed their school mascot Shiver and check out her blog at Shiver Academy.
Admiring My Dyslexic Son
January 21, 2010 by Debra
Describing my middle son has always been easy for me. He has a good amount of healthy determination. He is a problem solver and loves a physical challenge. When he’s with peers he watches them for a bit and then picks a good one to become friends with. He’s an inventor and a builder. He’s sensitive and compassionate.
And we’ve just figured out that he’s dyslexic.
While I don’t think his dyslexia is severe, it consistently gets in his way: he talked late, he uses nebulous words like “things” and “stuff” when he tries to describe things, spelling is hit-or-miss, and reading has been a very slow going process.
After reading up on this learning disability I have found out many things about its inner workings. But what’s really been made clear to me is not the severity of my son’s weaknesses but the abundance of his strengths. I’m learning that he relies heavily on context in order to understand meaning. I’m also learning that this applies to more than just words.
He understands his entire world by noting its context. He solves problems by considering the situation and calling upon his prior knowledge. He chooses friends by first noting their character. He knows how to serve others by picking up on their emotional cues. He can even find all the lost things in our house just by paying close attention to his environment. These traits demonstrate his genius ability to create sense and purpose out of the world in ways that don’t require reading. However, when it does come time to read, he perseveres through it just like any other problem he encounters, by fitting together everything he knows until it all makes sense.
I am amazed at the remarkable strengths this “disability” brings out in him – intuitiveness, creativity, and empathy among them. This new knowledge about my son doesn’t disappoint me in the slightest because I’m confident he has all the skills he’ll need to create a purposeful and fulfilling life in the years ahead. We’ll just cheer him on no matter how long it takes him to get there.
Debra Anderson has been married to her true companion for 15 years and has three sons ages 10 and younger. Debra’s passions are education, art, her husband, church ministry and missional living — not in that order. She has served as her co-op’s coordinator in Portland, Oregon and recently moved to a new home and a new co-op in the Denver metro area. Debra has her seminary Masters degree in Christian Education and has always home educated their boys — even on the hard days. She maintains a blog at emergent-homeschool.blogspot.com.
Review: Lemon the Duck by Laura Backman
If you look like a duck and quack like a duck, you must be a duck. What if you can’t walk or move like a duck? Are you still a duck? Ms. Lake’s class has been watching four eggs in an incubator and they just hatched. What happens when they discover that one is not quite right? Will they care for the duckling even though it looks and acts different than the others? Will they try to better the duckling’s life?
Lemon the Duck is a heartwarming story that will win many hearts. Lemon is a duckling born with physical disabilities. Together with her human classmates she will deal with not only her special needs, but the separation with her family and overcoming obstacles that stop her from functioning as a normal duckling.
Author Laura Backman takes the subject of special needs and brings it to a kid’s level of understanding. This book is a great way to introduce your child to this topic. The caring and compassion of Mrs. Lakes’ class will inspire the whole family to reconsider how they view others. And if you are a family with a special needs child and looking for a book to explain these needs to a sibling, this is the book for you. From the moment you open the book, your child will engage in the needs of this duckling and the role Mrs. Lakes’ class partakes in it. Lemon the Duck is an inspiring story to share with all.
You can meet Lemon on her blog, “The Chronicles of Quack“.
To purchase this wonderful resource you may find it on Currclick for only $4.98.
Amy Fleeker is a part of a great family that includes a husband of 12 years, 3 children, a dog and a cat. Her homeschooling style is eclectic with a emphasis on classical teaching. When with her family, you can find her watching movies, playing board games, and living life with a great sense of humor and knowing that God is all around. In her spare time she enjoys scrapbooking, tatting, crocheting and doing a little family history. You can visit Amy at her blog, Counting Change Again, or at the HOTM forum, where she is the Lead Moderator.
Review: Made With Love by Sue Ellen Hale
Do you need a healthy helping of the warm fuzzies? Made with Love is a collection of art and craft recipes that will take you back to your childhood. Want to make colored macaroni rainbows? Homemade clay or paste? Sue Ellen Hale has taken the leg work out of finding the old recipes and compiled them in one easy to read book.
The recipes can be made with household items. Frugal, simple and fun. That is a recipe for a fun afternoon art class with your preschooler or elementary child. The kids and I really enjoyed this book.
Many of the recipes have a aromatic ingredient like peanut butter play dough or apple cinnamon ornaments. This is wonderful for your sensory child or a child that has sight impairment.
Made with Love is a wonderful collection of hands on recipes that lead naturally to a highly kinetic, enjoyable art time. Thank you Sue Ellen for compiling so many of my childhood memories into this delightful book!
This item is available for purchase through CurrClick and can be found: HERE.
Heather Laurie and her husband, Christopher, have been married for 13 wonderful years, and have been blessed with 7 children, two of whom are awaiting them in Heaven. They began their homeschooling journey eight years ago, amidst trials and unexpected journeys, including genetic disorders, austism, sensory disorders, and lupus. Heather and her husband created the ministry Special Needs Homeschooling as a way to use their trials for the Lord’s glory and to encourage special needs parents and homeschoolers.
Review: Understanding Special Education
Understanding Special Education: A Helpful Handbook for Classroom Teachers(Scholastic)
by Cynthia Stowe
Whether you are a parent, a family member, teacher, Sunday school teacher or part of an agency that deals with Special Needs, this book would be beneficial to you. Don’t be fooled by the title, the classroom teacher is not the only one that can flip through this book and learn a few things from it.
The Book is divided into three different sections:
- What are some challenges students face?
- What do I need to know about the Special Education System?
- Appendix
Included in the first section are stories that introduce you to special needs, an explanation of that disability and gives you an idea of what that student may need for you. The second section gives a great explanation of what the special needs education system has to offer you and your child. It emphasizes that it takes a team to help this child blend in a regular classroom and everyday life. This e-book also gives you information on background, eligibility requirements, Individual Education Plans (IEPS) and Privacy Issues. And in the Appendix is a great wealth of information for you to continue your research with the aids of a list of books and websites. Overall this book is an informative useful resource for anyone that has a special needs child in their life.
This item is available for purchase through CurrClick and can be found: HERE.
Amy Fleeker is a part of a great family that includes a husband of 12 years, 3 children, a dog and a cat. Her homeschooling style is eclectic with a emphasis on classical teaching. When with her family, you can find her watching movies, playing board games, and living life with a great sense of humor and knowing that God is all around. In her spare time she enjoys scrapbooking, tatting, crocheting and doing a little family history. You can visit Amy at her blog, Counting Change Again, or at the HOTM forum, where she is the Lead Moderator.
Review: Super Star Speech Bundle
December 16, 2009 by AmyF
Your household will be a super star with this bundle. When a child has been recognized with a speech impediment, one of the steps to correct it is speech therapy. This bundle may seem like speech therapy in a box, but remember that you still need help from outside sources. In more severe cases, it reinforces what your child has learned with their speech pathologist. While with minor cases it gives you some information that may seem useful to you. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights it has to offer you.
In Speech Made Easy you will find an Articulation Test with easy to follow directions, response sheet and error analysis. Guiding you a little further in therapy, you will find some suggestions for a therapy plan and form to fill with your findings. Then you find pages on specific sounds with detailed instructions on how to teach them. And best of all, you will find sections with therapy games, activities, practice pages and picture cards.
The other two ebooks offered in this set, focus on the specific sounds of R, L, S, Z and SH. These are the most common sounds that a child can mispronounce. And you will be glad to find the extra help that is offered in them. Each sound is introduced by showing you the correct way your mouth should be formed to pronounce it correctly. Tips are given as suggestions for extra practice for the sound they may be working on. And like the above ebook you will find word list, games, practice sheets and picture cards with each sound.
In all the Super Star Speech Made Easy Series you will find sample lessons and the forms you can use to record your plans in. Simply said on the title, it is truly Speech Made Easy!
This item is available for purchase through Currclick and can be found: HERE.
Amy Fleeker is a part of a great family that includes a husband of 12 years, 3 children, a dog and a cat. Her homeschooling style is eclectic with a emphasis on classical teaching. When with her family, you can find her watching movies, playing board games, and living life with a great sense of humor and knowing that God is all around. In her spare time she enjoys scrapbooking, tatting, crocheting and doing a little family history. You can visit Amy at her blog, Counting Change Again, or at the HOTM forum, where she is the Lead Moderator.
Review: Made With Love: Flashcards for Early Education..
December 15, 2009 by Cassie
When it comes to e-products there are a LOT more options out there in recent years then there used to be. I was 
thrilled to get the opportunity to review a product that is geared towards very young children as I have found these resources harder to come by. Made With Love: Flashcards for Early Education and Speech Delayed Children is one such product. It is also a useful resource for older children that may have some speech delays. This product only requires a printer, scissors, and some quality one-on-one time with your child. The flashcards print in alphabetical order and are in full color. I had the opportunity to use these cards in my home with my 19 month old son, and with my friend’s 3 year old son who has slight speech delays. I was surprised to find it very easy to make using these cards an enjoyable experience for both of them. They both really liked the bright, colorful photos on each card! There is a wide range of words in this set, starting with simple, one-syllable words like “ball” and moving on into more difficult words such as “watermelon”. There are 70 flashcards in all.
For my toddler, we used the cards in the following way: I went through and chose all of the simple one and two-syllable words that I thought he would recognize. I then showed each card to him, one at a time, and said the word aloud to him. Then I gave him the card and asked him to say the word. He really liked collecting the cards and looking at the pictures. We even practiced our animal sounds!
For my friend’s son, I showed him each card to first see if he recognized the picture on it and could tell me what it was. If he did, I repeated the word back to him and then gave him the card and asked him to say the word again. If he did not recognize the picture, I told him what it was, then gave him the card and asked him to repeat the word. Again, he really enjoyed making a pile of the cards as he practiced saying the words.
I would highly recommend this product to anyone with toddlers just learning to say words up to school-age children that need help and practice to correctly pronounce common, everyday words.
This product is available for purchase through CurrClick: HERE.
Cassandra Simpson is a homeschooling wife and mother of four children, ages 1, 8, 9, and 12. She is starting her 6th year of home educating in Indiana and uses a “Classically Eclectic” teaching approach. Cassandra is the Assistant Lead Moderator for HOTM’s forum and loves talking homeschool with anyone who will listen! Her hobbies are reading, blogging, sewing, and cooking. You can check out her family’s blog at In His Image.
Review: Diagnostic ELA/Reading Assessments by Mark Pennington
December 14, 2009 by Cassie
As a homeschool parent living in a very homeschool-supportive state I have never been required to have my children take standardized tests. In many ways, this is great for us. But there is a lot to be said for regular testing. As a parent-teacher, you walk away from the experience with a real idea of how your child is performing compared to his peers. Ideally, any weaknesses will be revealed and you can then formulate a plan to strengthen those areas.
The only area I have ever really stressed about educationally is reading and language arts. So very much of education hinges on our mastery of these areas! I am always evaluating and questioning if we are doing enough to prepare our children for a lifetime of learning. I was thrilled to receive Diagnostic ELA/Reading Assessments by Mark Pennington to review!
Let me just start out by saying this is a jam-packed resource. Although it was written with the classroom teacher in mind, every single assessment is totally and completely usable for the homeschool setting. The first 12 pages explain why these tests are useful, if not necessary, for evaluating student’s abilities. It is also explained how to go about using and administering these tests. There are 18 different areas that are tested ranging from beginning reading skills all the way through high school writing competency. This would definitely be a resource you could use throughout your child’s schooling, no matter what the grade or age. Each individual assessment has a teacher’s instruction page which informs you exactly which skills are being evaluated, how to administer the test, and how to record and use the results to help your student(s). Not a single language arts skill area that I can think of is ignored in this thorough assessment package. The assessments are very easy to use and also easy to score, making evaluating your child’s skill levels quick and painless for both parent and child.
The fact that this is a multi-grade level resource makes it very much worth the initial investment, especially considering that in e-book format, you can print as many copies as you need for all your students to be assessed on a regular basis. I would very highly recommend this useful tool for any parent who wants a clear picture of how much their child is learning and applying in the reading and language areas of their education.
This item is available for purchase through CurrClick and can be found: HERE.
Cassandra Simpson is a homeschooling wife and mother of four children, ages 1, 8, 9, and 12. She is starting her 6th year of home educating in Indiana and uses a “Classically Eclectic” teaching approach. Cassandra is the Assistant Lead Moderator for HOTM’s forum and loves talking homeschool with anyone who will listen! Her hobbies are reading, blogging, sewing, and cooking. You can check out her family’s blog at In His Image.
Review: Phonemic Awareness and Phonics Toolkit
December 13, 2009 by HeatherL
When I starting homeschooling I thought you taught phonics and “the light went on” and off you went. Reading didn’t come that easily and then my next child didn’t speak clearly. I didn’t know that both these problems came from their inability to work successfully with pesky little things called phonemes.
While reviewing the book “Phonemic Awareness and Phonics Toolkit” by Mark Pennington hours of speech therapy came back. Mr Pennington starts with assessment and showing you exactly what a phoneme is and sounds like. Then he steps you through testing. Can your child hear the individual sounds in a word, does your child know how to rhyme? This is exactly the tool I needed when I started looking into ways to help my children through the early years of reading and speech delays.
I was impressed with this book! It can be used to enrich speech therapy or if your child is beginning to stumble in regular phonics programs. There are many concentrated lessons to isolate and work with each phoneme. I can see this book being a delightful tool for a child with apraxia, speech delays, CAPD, dyslexia, or a general difficulty hearing and working with letter and their sounds. I give this book a thumbs up!
This item is available for purchase through CurrClick and can be found: HERE.
Heather Laurie and her husband, Christopher, have been married for 13 wonderful years, and have been blessed with 7 children, two of whom are awaiting them in Heaven. They began their homeschooling journey eight years ago, amidst trials and unexpected journeys, including genetic disorders, austism, sensory disorders, and lupus. Heather and her husband created the ministry Special Needs Homeschooling as a way to use their trials for the Lord’s glory and to encourage special needs parents and homeschoolers.
