DandelionMom
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Posts posted by DandelionMom
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I can really relate and can offer you some hope. My oldest daughter is very similar to what you are describing, and was multiple grades above level in everything but math for years. When she turned 14 she wanted to test into college, which she did, but was worried that her math score would prevent her from taking the math courses they offered. Luckily that allowed her to take a few remedial math courses to catch up to college level. I was extremely worried about how she would do because, like you told, she would never remember math facts and was still counting on her fingers at age 14. She ended up making a B! There is hope, and kids like ours can actually make it through a math in college one day. I NEVER would have thought that my oldest would be able to understand, let alone make a good grade in math. There is hope!
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I create a binder with 52 sheets of paper that each feature a weekly chart and the numbered weeks. We school year round so we use 52 weeks. I usually only fill in two weeks at a time because that way I can adjust as I go if something we are using is not a good fit or if we are taking longer than I had planned for a certain topic or project. I also highlight the tasks we complete from the day, and if I miss a few that is OK because I can look back and see all that we actually accomplished. It may not be perfect, but has been working really well for my youngest 2E daughter!
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We switched from Singapore to Saxon using the books and the teaching CDs...and the difference is amazing! Saxon works SOOO much better for my Aspie daughter than Singapore. I highly recommend at least trying it.
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This is similar to my story, except with a nine year old boy. I think home schooling has been a huge benefit as we could stress the subjects he excelled in while taking our time in the areas he struggled with (handwriting due to pencil grip).
I agree, this is one of the best parts about homeschooling for us. We can spend extra time doing more review where needed, or using time doing OT.
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I feel ya, my youngest has sensory integration and just got glasses over the summer. She refuses to wear them.
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I highly recommend Saxon combined with the Saxon teaching CDs. We switched from Singapore because it was not the right fit for my 2 girls with Aspergers, but Saxon is the perfect fit. Plus, the formatting for Saxon is different than Singapore, meaning that grade 3 in Saxon is actually like grade 2...but your child will never know. This is awesome for my girls who self-defeat themselves. The teaching discs are a huge help for me because I have difficulty teaching math.
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We have used the Feingold diet off and on over the years. It works amazingly well for my two daughters who have Aspergers. The sensory issues and over-exitabilities get much, much better.
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I probably need to update my signature, but we are using:
DD (15):
Penn Foster Mechanical Engineering program
Community College English Comp. 121
Community College Pre-Algebra
Vocabulary From Classical Roots D
Rosetta Stone Italian
Rosetta Stone Spanish
Rosetta Stone Latin
DD (8):
Winter Promise Middle Ages
Story of the World Middle Ages
Exploring Creation Through Astronomy
Exploring Creation Through Botany
Saxon 5/4 with teaching discs (invaluable!)
Exercises in English D
Vocabulary From Classical Roots 4
Writing a 5 paragraph essay every 2 weeks
Rosetta Stone French
Rosetta Stone Spanish
Rosetta Stone Latin
Plus various Waldorf-style handwork, songs and crafts.
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That is hilarious! :lol:
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You are the first person I have heard who actually like the Winter Promise curriculum. I had been eyeing them for so long but then I read all kinds of negative reviews and wasn;t so sure...
tell me your take on them..why is it working for you?
Well I really like that it includes a giant binder with a schedule in it for the year which shows which projects, worksheets and reading will be done each day. As someone who struggles with making a schedule, this was huge for me. I also really loved that it incorporated different learning styles into the materials. I could choose to carry out the project that involved drawing instead of one that I know my child would not care for. I found the materials to be balanced and interesting, combining great books with different and varied activities. I decided to stick with Story of the World instead of the main history book they use, but I still use the supplemental history books, projects and maps they include. I really like the pace and how much work is accomplished on any given day, and I like that we can pick and choose the activities.
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Wow that is fascinating! I wish I could see what our tubes look like!
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We deal with this issue as well and finally learned not to buy whole, packaged curriculum so quickly. It is so easy to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars of materials just to have your child fly through or "test out". Although it is great, I think, for the kids to learn so fast, we have wasted a lot of money that way.
Now we tend to follow interests more than a set curriculum, and any curriculum we do buy are carefully chosen as blocks. One of these is Winter Promise, which creates curriculum in grade blocks, like grades 4-6, instead of single grades.
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We have had evaluations for both of our children, which I found invaluable in helping us better understand and know how to parent/educate our kids. The evaluation, especially when conducted by people who understand children and autism, is not as bad as you may worry it will be. Kids can actually have fun during the evaluation because testers often use games and stories to find out what they need to know.
As far as the skin picking, my youngest daughter suffers from eczema combined with mild OCD, and she also picks her skin like crazy until her skin bleeds. It has been a problem since she was about 2-3 years old. We are very anti-med and would never medicate, but have found that some OT methods have worked well, such as massaging and brushing the skin that itches vigorously with an OT skin brush. Also make sure that you are not using perfumed detergents and soaps..this causes my daughter's issues to be much worse.
Hope that helps!
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Just adding in that we still use Handwriting Without Tears for our 8 and 1/2 year old. I don't think it is too babyish at all...we love that program! It helped our oldest immensely by turning her illegible handwriting into beautiful, clear handwriting.
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I have 2 Aspie/Savant daughters who my husband and I homeschool. I cannot speak highly enough about homeschooling twice exceptional children. I truly believe that homeschooling changed my oldest daughter's life and is allowing her to live up to her full potential. She has severe sensory integration dysfunction (3rd percentile), but since homeschooling her for the majority of her life people are shocked to hear that she has special needs. She is very normalized, which would never have happened had she spent her childhood in a classroom setting.
When you homeschool a child with special needs, you allow them to learn at their own pace, whether fast or slow, and you can incorporate social education and OT into the homeschooling day. Social interactions are monitored and more easily observed, making social learning better understood by your special needs child.
I hope that helps!
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I have 2 Aspie/Savant kids ages 15 and 8, and we are having great success with the Winter Promise curriculum and free-forming a lot of history/science subjects to include reading books on the topic, writing about the topic and watching documentaries about the topic. This seems to work better than following a rigid curriculum.
I also switched from Singapore to Saxon for my youngest and am using the Saxon teachering DVDs with the curriculum, which has been HUGE and extremely helpful!!!
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Aspie mom of 2 Aspie/Savant kids,
Best past gifts:
Kitchen tongs (they are turned into all kinds of creatures)
Paper clamps
Whisks
Cardboard boxes
Bag of craft supplies
Sticks and rocks
Camera tripod (but not for a camera)
Yarn
Ideas for this year:
Metal strainers (to make a robot)
Cheese graters (but not for cheese)
Sticks and rocks
Still looking for ideas.....
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I have a slightly different perspective as I was a child with selective mutism from ages 4 through 11. I went to public school and did not know until I was in my late 20's that I had Asperger's. Public school made me so overwhelmed that I simply could not speak most of the time. Although I was the child who finished my work first in class and received all "E's", everything scared me or confused me socially to the point where I couldn't talk. I obviously homeschool my children now, and I no longer suffer from SM unless under extreme stress. I highly recommend homeschooling. I don't know if that is helpful or not ;)
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I agree that an evaluation can really help you know what your next moves are, and it can help you better identify what the root of the issues are. My oldest was incorrectly told by her pediatrician that she had ADHD when she was 4, and even wanted to put her on medication. However, when we took her to have a complete evaluation conducted by people specializing in autism and sensory integration, her scores clearly indicated that she actually had high functioning autism/Aspergers and severe sensory integration dysfunction. If we had put her on medication without having an evaluation by a knowledgeable center, it would have left her without the right therapies and medicated. I recommended an eval. Just my 2 cents;)
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Outstanding!!!
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Yay! I went through this last year and OH BOY was it difficult to start our lesson back again in the fall. I think when you have a child or children with special needs they can really need the structure throughout the year to be the same. Just by 2 cents.
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We actually still use Vocabulary From Classical Roots D and Wordly Wise 10 for our 10th grader because I find them highly beneficial in her work. DD wants to be a professional writer, so we find that the more vocabulary exercises the better. These two programs increase in complexity and usage the higher up the grade also.
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I was tested as a kid, and my mom always refused to tell me my IQ. She said the psychologist called it "so high as to be statistically inaccurate".
To this day I wish I had that number! Dunno why... self-validation? (I'm a classic gifted kid who melted into the average... lots of self-doubt now that I'm an adult. That's another thread, though.)
I hear you...same happened to me!
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I had a suspicion when my oldest daughter started speaking at 4 months, and taught herself to read at 3. People used to stop me in the middle of the grocery store in awe that my 10 month old was talking to them in complex, understandable sentences. We took her to the Gifted Development Center when she was 4 to be tested because we didn't know what to do with her and found out she was PG. Our youngest daughter followed suit, talking at 4 months, taught herself to read at 3, and scored even higher than her sister on her IQ tests.
I highly recommend the Gifted Development Center because they specialize in extreme giftedness and visual spacial learners, and I also recommend the Davidson Institute, who has helped our family tremendously by supporting and advocating for our daughters throughout their childhood.
I have a different opinion than some in that I highly recommend having testing done if you think your child may be PG. My oldest daughter could have been misdiagnosed had we not had her tested because she was extremely precocious and also has aspergers. Testing allowed us to formulate an educational plan and enabled us to respond to our daughters with understanding instead of frustration. Just my 2 cents.
does anyone use a weighted pencil?
in The Learning Challenges Board
Posted
Wow weighted pencils!!! I have to look into this!