Does anyone have any recommendations for a 5-6 grade grammar program in PDF? I've got two blind daughters I'm homeschooling, and if materials are available in PDF, it is a huge time saver in converting them to braille. I'm trying not to cry that I'm out of the Peace Hill Press currriculum (all available in PDF - loved it) now for everything except writing, so I'm going to have to start doing a lot of print to braille converting by hand. Anything in electronic format cuts down my converting time significantly.

It's called a Cranmer's abacus for the blind. It's adapted from a Soroban abacus. My girls do all their computations on it. I taught them myself. It's not hard. Just don't get sucked into the whole audio book thing; kids who listen don't develop good writing skills.

If your son has a progressive eye disease, then yes, starting on Braille early is by far and away the best thing to do. I'd look at APH (American Printing House for the Blind) and the National Braille Press, as they both have a lot of materials available. The first that comes to mind is: "Just Enough to Know Better." The Hadley School for the Blind offers a variety of free courses for parents interested in learning Braille. I learned Braille through Hadley. If your son does turn out to have a progressive disease, I'd be glad to talk further with you about what your options are for educating him. I have one low vision kid and 2 blind children, so I have a little experience in that area :-)

Nemeth code is the universal Braille math code. It makes learning the alphabet in Braille look easy.

I wouldn't bother learning Nemeth code if I were you. Stick to the basic English contractions and literary numbers. That's plenty right there.

Early as in the same time sighted kids are taught to read print, as opposed to high school when low vision kids who have slipped through on 36 font print can't keep up with the required class reading anymore and turn to Braille out of desperation. Then they are stuck maxing out at 50-100 wpm instead of the 200-400 wpm that kids who learn Braille in the 4-6 year old range attain.

Braille can be used in all languages, even character languages like Mandarin. There are differences in Braille in different languages. Standard English Braille has 189 contractions to reduce the amount of Braille required per page. I don't know the contractions for other languages, but know they do have them. Latin is taught in uncontracted Braille (which I do know b/c my girls study Latin). If they want to study another foreign language, I'll have to figure out the Braille specifics for that language. If taught early enough, Braille readers can read at the same speed as sighted readers. Unfortunately, that is rather the exception than the rule. To the earlier question about certification - yes, it is a big deal. Would you have someone teaching reading (in ps) who had never learned to read themselves? Our ps tried to have someone uncertified as our girls' Braille teacher but backed down after we pointed out that they knew more Braille than he did, and would you have someone teach 5th grade math who never got past 2nd grade? They did find someone certified after that.

Teachers of Braille are called "Teachers of the Visually Impaired" or TVIs for short. It is estimated that America alone needs about 5,000 more TVIs than are currently certified. There is the additional problem that many TVIs who were certified years ago have not kept up their Braille skills b/c they have been teaching low-vision kids, and everyone thinks that if a kid has "any" vision, they don't need Braille. That is a whole 'nother soapbox I won't go into, but it functionally means that even many certified TVIs are not really qualified to teach Braille. So the number of TVIs needed in America is even greater than 5000. Annually, only 200-300 teachers are certified as TVIs in America, so you can see the need isn't going away any time soon. Many TVIs work as itinerant teachers (going from one school in a given area to another throughout the week) b/c unless a school district is really large, it is unusual to have more than 1 Braille student at a time in most school districts. As a personal example, my school district had a TVI for my girls for 3 years before she decided to go into administration. The district could not find another teacher, so I offered to home school them if the school would give me their equipment (which is what we wanted to do anyway). The district advertized for 6 months without ever finding a qualifed replacement. We're not talking simply not a good fit - we're talking no one who even knew as much Braille as my girls already did. So it worked out for me but it would have been a huge problem for a parent who wasn't able to homeschool. In closing, the need for Braille teachers is huge in America and even more so in the rest of the world. With my knowledge of Braille, I can go pretty much anywhere I would want to go in the world and find a job. It might not pay as much it does here in America, but if anyone is interested in service work abroad, knowledge in teaching the blind is very much in demand.

Is this a vision problem or a reading problem? My girls are blind, but we use very few audio sources. That said, a Mac can be set to automatically read files. My girls use a Mac to access the Web so we don't have to buy a separate screen reader.

As the homeschooling mom of two blind children, I can tell you all about Braille. There are Braille typewriters and yes, people do use a slate and stylus to "handwrite" Braille. We use Braille all day long at my house. There are many jobs for people who know Braille well enough to teach it. There is a huge lack of Braille teachers in America, and no, "talking books" are not a substitute for Braille. If a blind person can't read Braille, they don't understand spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, or any other common writing conventions. So if anyone is interested in learning Braille, please encourage it. They can make a living off of it if they want to.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I'll look them up. I have asked a couple of publishers about selling a PDF version of their materials, but so far no one has agreed to sell me a PDF file. By Federal law, a book can be completely copied for the sole purpose of translating into Braille, so I can take a print book and copy it completely without copyright infringement. It's just very time consuming.

I'm planning on starting Latin this fall. I have a rising 4th grader and two rising 5th graders, who are ESL learners, so we've put off Latin while working on basic English. My two 5th graders are also blind. Any curriculum that is available in PDF is invaluable to me, as I can simply use a computer to convert it to braille. Printed books are much more time-intensive as all pages must be scanned and converted using OCD software before being translated into braille. So any suggestions on Latin curriculum in pdf format would be greatly appreciated.

I have two girls adopted from China who still speak Mandarin fairly fluently after three years home. It is a struggle to find materials they can listen to. They are blind, so we don't worry about books or other print materials. I'm not sure how I would teach Chinese braille :-) But where can you order materials for listening? I don't read Chinese characters much at all, and obviously, neither do they. I'd love some suggestions of where I could get additional songs, stories, or audiobooks for them to listen to in Mandarin.

I too have a daughter with Peter's from China. She reads Braille exclusively. As you probably know, global delays are common in VI kids. I'd listen to advice your therapists tell you on things to do at home. You may consider that Braille may be her best medium. My daughter reads braille at the same speed as sighted kids read print. A Teacher of the Visually Impaired (TVI) should be able to advise you on pre-braille reading skills. They are essentially the same as for sighted kids. Don't wait for your opthamologist to tell you whether or not she needs braille. If you think she does, then start her on it.

Yes, we have an account with them and with the NLS system.

I'm been following a classical curriculum for my sighted children, and am thinking about pulling a blind child out of public school. I'd love for her to also follow the classical approach. Does anyone know if there is classical curriculum available in Braille?