We celebrate Christmas, but we also do some Hanukkah activities. We will be starting a devotional for Advent this year as well.

Love FIAR here. :)

My dd3 is adopted from China. She is visually impaired. She has a condition known as Peter's Anomaly, which can be genetic & a stand-alone problem, or it can be part of a broader range of problems including mental retardation, or it can be caused by fetal alcohol syndrome. Since she was almost 2 when we adopted her & of course we have no idea about her birth circumstances or biological mother's habits, we just don't know exactly what our little one may have. She is about 2 years behind in development. She can walk now, but she doesn't talk much yet. She knows a few words, but she mostly sings songs. She LOVES music, and she can memorize a song after only hearing it a couple of times. We have some suspicion that she may have a form of autism, but then again it's hard to tell if that's the case or if her delays are due to her vision impairment and the fact that she was institutionalized and severely neglected in her orphanage. I do have a hard time dealing with it some days. It's a lonely feeling b/c I don't have any IRL friends with special needs children.

I voted for other. We like Cheerful Cursive. :)

Thank you, that does help. It sounds like what I'm looking for, as I'm going to be pretty relaxed with her schooling, especially at this age & considering her needs.

Thanks for the input. I'll join the Yahoo group and ask some questions. I'm looking into Pre-K for my dd3.

Rainbow Resource :)

Absolutely a spine surgeon...but here's my disclaimer: my husband works for one.:D

I'm looking into this for my youngest child, who is visually impaired and has developmental delays. It seems like this approach would be good for her. If you use or have used this curriculum with your special needs child, what do you think of it? How does it look in your schooling if you use it? BTW, I'm just going to use the curriculum, not going to enroll in the online school. Thanks!

Thanks. By the way, I love your blog.:)

I'm looking into this for my youngest child, who is visually impaired and has developmental delays. It seems like this approach would be good for her. If you use or have used this curriculum, what do you think of it in general? Also, what do you think of using it in my specific situation? Thanks.

http://homeschoolenrichment.com/ is my favorite. They are going to publish an article that I wrote in the Mar/Apr 2012 issue. :)

Oops...double post

http://www.amblesideonline.org/curriculum.shtml http://oldfashionededucation.com/ http://www.homeschoolshare.com/ http://appliejuice.wordpress.com/brain-suff/living-book-list-for-science/

When my older children are doing independent work, I take that time to do "school" with my 3yo. I do several things with her, such as reading, having her "write" on her dry erase board, playing with blocks or play dough, water play, painting, listening to music, or doing crafts. I have several posts on my blog about some of the things we do. Of course she also listens in on her siblings' schooling, too.:)

We enjoy lapbooks and find that they are a fun way to reinforce what we're studying. I especially loved the FIAR years with my older children, and I look forward to using it again with my youngest child. We found the lapbooks & resources from this site to be great: http://www.homeschoolshare.com/five_in_a_row_resources.php And they're free!:)

I'm planning to purchase it from Rainbow Resource, along with several other things of course-gotta take advantage of free shipping on orders of $150 or more.:D

Anyone use this: http://www.floweringbaby.com/ It's new, so I'm having trouble finding reviews. I'm thinking of using the One-Two level with my dd3 (adopted from China). She is visually impaired & has developmental delays, so this age level fits her. Thanks!

Our current read-aloud is Johnny Tremain. We are using Sonlight Core 3+4.

We follow these schedules: http://www.amblesideonline.org/ArtSch.shtml http://www.amblesideonline.org/ComposerSch.shtml

I've used both Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and Phonics Pathways with great success. Both are inexpensive, yet effective. I purchased mine from http://www.rainbowresource.com/index.php

Thank you for the advice.

I just posted about some Montessori inspired things that I've done: http://freeindeed-redkitchen.blogspot.com/2011/07/montessori-inspired-activities.html

I love no time for flash cards, too. Also, here are a couple of others: http://theattachedmama.blogspot.com/search/label/Tot%20School http://www.homeschoolshare.com/

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I like both Waldorf & Montessori styles, as well as Charlotte Mason, so I think I need to take some time to just sit down & write out a plan that pulls in the aspects of all these that I like. Now if I can just make myself do it!:tongue_smilie: