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Newbie, just starting WTM w/kids


Guest whimzzy1
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Guest whimzzy1

Hello, my name is Alizabeth. I have been married to my dh for 10 years and we have 3 children ds13 w/ADD, language LD's, Dyslexia, ODD and Dystheimia, dd w/ADD and comprehension LD's, ds 6 1/2 w/ADHD, a charmer, but boy is he hyper, busy always busy! And new baby boy due in June. We live in a small town in Eastern Iowa. My children were all in public school until this year 07-08. Myhusband and I made the choice to homeschool this year after no progress from the PS and "kind requests to have them tested and put on medication." I'd had enough!:(

 

This has been the most trying year for all of us. To be together 24/7 is taking some adjustment for my children. I'm totally overwhelmed on how to go about teaching them all three at the same time. I was ready to give up when the kindest women on a yahoo group offered to send me this book "The Well-Trained Mind". She said it was her bible and she loved it. Well, she did and I agree. Especially for someone just learning how to do this and not as organized as I would like to be. Everything is right in front of me. That is wonderful! ':)

 

So, obviously we are starting with this in the middle of the year and after PS. :confused:Have you any ideas how I do that, taking into consideration their LD's? My daughter and eldest son are at about the same level in Language Arts. She reads well, he struggles, but her comprehension is lacking, where he understands it, if someone elses reads it, or if he slows way down. That would be about a 4th grade level. Would it be okay to put them in the same level for that even though he is in 7th grade? Would he be missing too much? My fear of putting him in the 7th grade level is he would be too far behind to understand eveything w/o the base foundation there.

 

Should I worry about what they have missed starting in the middle of the year and book (4th and 7th grade vs. kindergarten)? Or just start them where they fit best and adjust accordingly?

 

I am excited about this book and having "a guide" at least for now, then adjusting to suit our needs. I am just nervous to get started.

 

thank you for any and all help,

 

alizabeth...who is off to wash more laundry! It multiplies when I am not looking!!:o

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Did you do what I did early in my ds's educational career and assume that my ds had ADHD or were you smarter and had your dc tested?

 

The problem assuming that the problem is ADHD/ADD is that there are many problems that display every single symptom (or almost) of ADHD/ADD. To make the problem more difficult is that many doctors haven't heard of any of these problems except ADHD/ADD. These other problems include developmental vision problems, food allergies and sensitivities and Sensory Integration Dysfunction or Processing Disorder (SID or SPD). I also feel that auditory processing problems should be included in that list. My ds suffered from every one of those problems EXCEPT ADHD. The nice thing about these problems is that medication is not called for, but therapy (or food avoidance) is.

 

Check out the following sites. Pay particular attention to the vision site. From your comments about your oldest dc, being a slow reader but having good comprehension if he's read to, I wouldn't be surprised if he had dev. vision problems. Dev vision is not tested for in the standard eye exam. A dev vision test tests for eye effeciency, teaming, tracking and many other things.

 

http://childrenvision.com/symptoms.htm In addition to this check list, ask your dc if the letters move on the page.

 

http://auditoryprocessing.com.au

 

This last link is for SID. A good book to read on the subject is The Out-of-Sync Child by Kranowitz.http://http://printables.familyeducation.com/forms-and-charts/behavior-checklists-and-charts/51756.html

 

For food allergies, read Doris Rapp's Is This Your Child?

 

Now, could you tell me what Dystheimia is? There's always something new.

 

I'll make a seperate post on a few initial ideas I have for academics.

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Before I get into a few ideas that you can incorporate immediately, I'm going to suggest that you look into a cognitive skills program called PACE or Learning Rx. Both programs are put out by the same company. The difference is in delivery (individual provider or company) and the range of products offered. With 3 children, it may be cost effective for you to become a PACE provider. You could then offer your services to others in your community and make some extra money. PACE covers many skills, including processing speed, working and long term memory and auditory processing skills. It also helps individuals with ADHD focus and concentrate. If your eldest does have dev. vision problems, that should be remediated before starting this program. Also your youngest should be 8 before starting. However it's a one on one program, so staggering your dc would not be a problem. I did the home based version, which is no longer available, and it did wonders for my ds's concentration, memory, listening skills and reading.

 

OK, for your 6.5 yo. things are simple. Keep him in motion as much as possible. You practice math facts while bouncing a ball, phonics while jumping on a mini-trampoline, puzzle maps by running across the room to land and insert a piece, time lines by having the master in one room and the timeline to be completed in another. When he absolutely has to sit down, have him sit on an excercise ball that'll roll back and forth just enough to feed your ds's need for motion. It won't roll across the room, it'll just "twitch" back and forth. Keep the lessons short. For reading, I'd get Sound Reading CD (nothing else from the site) and Reading Reflex because of some language difficulties you've mentioned that your older child has. For math, I'd use a manipulative driven program such as Right Start or Shiller's.

 

You mentioned your dd has comprehension problems. That can be caused by a ton of things - visualization problems, poor memory, poor vocabulary, complex sentence structure, etc. Idea Chain is a good home based program for helping with visualization. In addition to PACE, I'd work on having your dd memorize poems and other things. Often with vocabulary, the problem is the various meanings or shades of meanings a single word can have that causes problems. For this, I like Wordly Wise and analogies. Critical Thinking Press has a good set of analagy programs that teach how the words are related as well as the practice of making analogies. Outlining can help with pulling out the important ideas of a paragraph or article. However, be careful. My ds outlined a paragraph with an opening dependent clause and thought the dependent clause was the topic of the paragraph. Focus first on the more basic things like visualization. Outlining is a higher level thinking skill that needs the uderpinings of more basic things.

 

For your older ds, I'd try to get as much teaching material as possible in either CD form or DVD. He can read along with many books on tape, or just listen to them so he can advance his analytical skills. My ds is learning Latin via Latin For Children DVD's. (Mine is 13yo too and enjoys it). My ds is also listening to the adult CD's and DVD's from The Teaching Company in history and science. This would reduce the amount of reading your older ds would need to do while still getting advance instruction. Finally, I'm using Chalk Dust math with it's excellent DVD instructor.

 

One last thought. This year I've started using Junior Analytic Grammar and Sentence Composing for Elementary School for my 13 yo. I'm very pleased with the results and you might find them helpful. JAG is efficient with minimal reading. Review is built into every lesson. Sentence composing is helping ds, with remediated language problems, finally write interesting, complex sentences. I think it's also helping him with his reading comprehension as he learns about how various phrases flesh out a basic sentence.

 

I hope you're able to wade through this hodgepodge :rolleyes:

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My ds is also listening to the adult CD's and DVD's from The Teaching Company in history and science. This would reduce the amount of reading your older ds would need to do while still getting advance instruction.

 

 

Kathy,

 

Who you recommend these courses for a high school dyslexic student? Would they be a stand alone course or would they need to be supplemented? Last year my dd used TC's High School World History course for the 8th grade. I didn't think it was quite high school material, but she gained a broad sweep of world history and enjoyed the course too. I haven't seen any other courses, so I don't have much to go by. Do these courses have booklets that you could use to call these courses a complete course? I'm thinking that they might include additonal readings.

 

Thanks,

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[quote name=Jan P.;34383

 

Kathy' date='

 

Who you recommend these courses for a high school dyslexic student? Would they be a stand alone course or would they need to be supplemented? Last year my dd used TC's High School World History course for the 8th grade. I didn't think it was quite high school material, but she gained a broad sweep of world history and enjoyed the course too. I haven't seen any other courses, so I don't have much to go by. Do these courses have booklets that you could use to call these courses a complete course? I'm thinking that they might include additonal readings.

 

Thanks,[/quote]

 

turn them into a complete high school course with minimal reading.

 

The course books that come with the adult courses typically include an introductory paragraph to each half-hour lecture, an outline of the lecture, recommended and supplemental readings and a couple of essay questions. Sometimes graphs, timelines and other visual aids are included. I don't think the course books by themselves add enough to make for a year long high school course. But if you add in the recommended texts, and depending on the course, you could easily have a half or full credit course.

 

However, with some creative ideas, you could turn these lectures into a full course without a lot of outside reading. The obvious is to combine several narrowly focused courses. For example, a middle ages class could include a course on the Byzantine (sp) course, the Vikings course, 4-5 courses on the Middle Ages and a course on the Renaisaince. Or you could take a survey course as a spine and insert narrow courses where appropriate. Or you could combine the Shakespearean courses with DVD's of the plays. Or books on tapes with some of the book courses. Or...

 

On the High School boards, I've read that a high school year consists of somewhere between 120-180 hours. In piecing a course together, I'd keep those hours in mind.

 

Having said that, my ds is still in middle school and I'm currently using them as supplements. Also I'm not testing him on these supplements.

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