New Homeschooler Questions

[orangejello]

:confused: I am confused on what curriculum to use. I recently started HS about 2 months ago and have yet to order in curriculum. My ds is a 6 grader who was on an IEP in PS. He cannot add or subtract yet, but can read very well. There are no behavior problems at all with him. He is just a wonderful child. I'm not sure if I should just be teaching him life skills or should I try and teach him what everyone else is learning. My ds was born very early 22 weeks and I'm not sure on curriculum since he was on an IEP in PS. Whatever I choose I want him to be able to retain info. I administered a test to see what learning style he possibly could be and the results were visual-tactile. I think I still need to have him tested by a professional because he is always washing his hands and trying to urinate every 5-10 minutes. He is fascinated by history and loves video games (wrestling, dragon ball z). He can tell about Lincoln, MLK, Washington, and Gandhi,etc; He even know the dates they were born and the dates that they died and if they were killed their assassin. Can anyone please help me in making a good choice on curriculum for my ds? I would like to try and keep it on national standards level if at all possible.

[Misty]

It sounds like your son is on the autism spectrum with dyscalculia and possibly OCD.. I have an almost 13yr old daughter with Asperger's, dyscalculia, and OCD. Her dyscalculia is not quite so severe as what you describe with your son though. She is probably right around 6th grade level in math (and struggling).. she is extremely advanced with reading, spelling, writing, etc. Her handwriting is atrocious though. You can see what curriculum I use for her in the margin of my blog (link below).

 

Welcome to homeschooling!

Edited April 20, 2010 by Misty

[Geo]

What has been done with your son to help him grasp numbers? A friend of mine has a child with dyscalculia in PS and they do the same approach to math with that child as the others....only over and over and over, ad nauseum. She has learned nothing. His lack of progress may be their failure, not his. Upon research, I have found Britain to be much more responsive to the needs of these children. My son has dyscalculia and I am finally ordering Addacus from the UK.

I wanted to order Addacus last Fall, but had some financial setbacks. I presently use Developmental Mathematics, which has been ok, but I feel he needs more variety and stimulation than DM can offer alone. Sadly, Addacus is expensive. The cost of materials aren't too bad, but the cost of shipping is high as well. I will be paying around $600ppd for the entire program (Pack 1, 2 & 3) which covers introduction to numbers through fractions. You could easily spend that much on math programs here, over a period of time.

Check it out: http://www.addacus.co.uk/index.php

It assumes no numeracy whatsoever. The author, Celia Stone, has been wonderful. She even called me from the UK,at her own expense, to discuss the program with me. I believe my son will be the first in America to use it. Hopefully, one day it will be more easily available in the U.S. As for now, she is presently waiting on a patent.

 

Hope this helps,

Geo

Edited April 21, 2010 by Geo

[orangejello]

Thanks Misty, your info was very helpful to me, and i will be looking into it more. However, I would like to know from you, what actually did you do to have your dd diagnose properly? Did you go to the pediatrician 1st or did you just set up an appointment with a psych or what type of professional?

[orangejello]

Geo, In ps he was pulled out for so many segments per day to get help. On his IEP for math it says base 10 blocks are to be used along with some other things. I asked my son what did he actually use at school and his response was that they used counting bears and so on. While at home though I have tried using the picture addition, starting out just focusing on one specific skill like 2+1, 3+2,etc; He started to actually get it, then I would wait a while and go back and ask him and he's having a hard time retaining anything. I even told him it's ok to use your fingers, but he gets frustrated and wants to "show me"(lol) he can try and do it in his head without using his fingers or manipulatives. He can identify every number but cannot connect it for some reason.

[Laurie4b]

I think you should definitely get a professional evaluation. Nonverbal learning disability may be a diagnosis tp have checked out. He had an evaluation at public school, right? Get the results of that evaluation because if they did a WISC-IV, those subtests will tell you a lot. (I don't personally believe that there is all that much to the whole learning style thing--we all have to learn in various modalities--except when a child truly has an "uneven brain" as demonstrated by scatter on the WISC subtests. ) Right now, I would google dyscalculia and see what comes up. It's likely to be more a matter of strategy than of particular curricula.

[SproutMamaK]

I'm afraid I can't be too helpful as I don't ahve too much experience with prblem like your sons.However my son is also a visual/tactile learner (he has autism), and Math U See has been great for getting the him to understand math concepts - they work hands-on with blocks and arrange them in patterns. It's very visually oriented. If you haven't already done so, see if you can check it out, it may help.

[Misty]

Thanks Misty, your info was very helpful to me, and i will be looking into it more. However, I would like to know from you, what actually did you do to have your dd diagnose properly? Did you go to the pediatrician 1st or did you just set up an appointment with a psych or what type of professional?

 

It would depend on what your health insurance wants you to do.. If you need a referal from the pediatrician, then that would be your first stop. If not, go straight to a psychologist or pediatric neurologist or developmental pediatrician. My children were diagnosed by a child psychologist. I had to ask our pediatrician for a referal first. I took in a list of symptoms so I didn't forget to mention anything (this also prevented me from talking about my child's symptoms too much right in front of her, which I did not want to do).

[Geo]

Geo, In ps he was pulled out for so many segments per day to get help. On his IEP for math it says base 10 blocks are to be used along with some other things. I asked my son what did he actually use at school and his response was that they used counting bears and so on. While at home though I have tried using the picture addition, starting out just focusing on one specific skill like 2+1, 3+2,etc; He started to actually get it, then I would wait a while and go back and ask him and he's having a hard time retaining anything. I even told him it's ok to use your fingers, but he gets frustrated and wants to "show me"(lol) he can try and do it in his head without using his fingers or manipulatives. He can identify every number but cannot connect it for some reason.

 

Well, I certainly know what you are talking about. I found "Mathematics Their Way" very helpful at this stage. It was great for games and activities that help make those connections. They have a connecting" level for this very thing. I could send you some samples that you could try with him. Let me know.

 

Geo

[orangejello]

Well, I certainly know what you are talking about. I found "Mathematics Their Way" very helpful at this stage. It was great for games and activities that help make those connections. They have a connecting" level for this very thing. I could send you some samples that you could try with him. Let me know.

 

Geo

 

 

I would love to receive samples. I willing to try anything at this point. Thanks

Edited April 22, 2010 by orangejello
I would love to receive samples. I am willing to try anything at this point. Thanks

[Geo]

Before I send samples, let me ask this; does he have a grasp on the meaning/quantity of the numbers he recognizes? If you ask him to get 3 forks out of the drawer...can he do it? Can he demonstrate this with all numbers up to 9, or whatever numbers he has learned? Also, do this: put 5 pennies in his hand and ask him how many there are. If he says "5" (it's ok to count), good! Now, without removing them from his hand...separate the 5 into 2 groups in his hand (2 & 3 or 1 & 4)...all while he is watching you...then ask, "how many now?" If he answers anything other than 5 or has to count them again...he is not ready to move onto addition/subtraction just yet. It's called "conservation of number" and is a developmental step to "counting on" as well as addition/subtraction. I can send some ideas for working on that, as well.

Geo

Edited April 22, 2010 by Geo

[orangejello]

Before I send samples, let me ask this; does he have a grasp on the meaning/quantity of the numbers he recognizes? If you ask him to get 3 forks out of the drawer...can he do it? Can he demonstrate this with all numbers up to 9, or whatever numbers he has learned? Also, do this: put 5 pennies in his hand and ask him how many there are. If he says "5" (it's ok to count), good! Now, without removing them from his hand...separate the 5 into 2 groups in his hand (2 & 3 or 1 & 4)...all while he is watching you...then ask, "how many now?" If he answers anything other than 5 or has to count them again...he is not ready to move onto addition/subtraction just yet. It's called "conservation of number" and is a developmental step to "counting on" as well as addition/subtraction. I can send some ideas for working on that, as well.

Geo

I know that he can identify numbers when he see's them. I think your talking about being able to recognize them, right? Well I tryed the activity you stated with him. I asked him "how many?" He counted them up and said "5". Then I rearranged them several times into groups, and sometimes his response would be 5 other times he would say 2 and so on, and that's only if I separated 3 on one side and 2 on the other.Whats so funny:) to me is, he did exactly what you stated he asked me on one try "Is that right?"

[Guest kgirlula]

I also find computer games that have math concepts really help due to the "play" and repetition factors. It has really helped two of my children, one special needs and the other who just struggles with math. Their favorite is the math version of Carmen Sandiego...

 

I used Math-U-See to teach the basics and learn skip counting in all numbers since that is the bases of multiplication. I have been very happy with it.

 

KelLee

Maine

[peacefully]

.