Keeping lessons interesting and meaningful?

[chrfath]

I have been looking for different curriculums to use with Veronica(7 w/down syndrome). We tried Oak Meadow and we tried Heart of Dakota, nothing seems to be a good fit. It is like I am trying to cram the square peg into the round hole. I have been looking at another curriculum(CHC) again because I love the idea of having everything planned out for each day. Things are nicely tied together and flow well. I just don't know that is what Veronica needs. We finally have a good fit with OM for our oldest and that is such a huge relief. ;)

 

So, what do you do to keep lessons interesting and meaningful? Keeping things relevant and engaging? I think we could do some fun unit studies if I remember to keep things simple. Or some lapbooks that she could look back over and enjoy.

 

I have always felt she needs to be focusing on life skills and things that are important to her day and world. Some concepts and presentation is just so vague and abstract. Of course I want to teach her to read and do basic math computation.

 

We keep trying to do the workbooks from Rod and Staff and Veronica thinks they are all meant for drawing a line from one item to the other. We did too much of that tracing type work and she just keeps transfering that. Maybe meaningless worksheets aren't the thing for her.

 

Veronica is really more like a 3-4yo in most of her skills. I struggle to with

being at that level for her and pushing her a bit. I wonder how much futher along we would feel she is if her expressive language was better.

 

Anyway...enough jabbering on. Please share if you can.

[EKS]

Some ideas:

 

Have you looked at Math U See? It was created by a father to help his son with Down's syndrome learn math.

 

Does she know how to print yet? Handwriting Without Tears is a good program for learning that. If you want to get away from workbooks, you could use the slate (that they recommend) in combination with the two lined paper for practice. Or you could get the books for yourself as a reference and use something like Educational Fontware to make practice pages.

 

I don't have a child with Down's but these are two things that came to mind.

[Greta Lea]

The author is SUCH a nice man. I bet you could email him with questions about what they did and used with their son who had DS (he's grown now, I'm pretty sure).

 

I don't have a child with DS, but if I were you I think I'd just read, read and read to her from picture books. If she's developmentally a preschooler, she's gonna enjoy and learn from those picture books.

 

Honestly, that's what I'd recommend to any mom of a 7yo (developmentally delayed or no).

 

If you are wanting something laid out for you, I'd look at Sonlights Preschool Cores. They use WONDERFUL picture books and it's all planned out for you.

[Geo]

I have no personal experience or knowledge to draw upon to help you. BUT-

whenever I am faced with the unknown, what do I do? I google!

 

Here are a few links that have helpful information.

 

http://www.loveandlearning.com/home.shtml

 

http://www.time4learning.com/teaching_your_down_syndrome_child.shtml

 

http://onajoyfuljourney.blogspot.com/2009/03/help-with-curriculum-homeschooling-down.html

 

http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/weblinks/Down_syndrome.htm

 

If I find anything else I'll come back and include it here,

Geo

Edited June 4, 2010 by Geo

[merry gardens]

I have been looking for different curriculums to use with Veronica(7 w/down syndrome). We tried Oak Meadow and we tried Heart of Dakota, nothing seems to be a good fit. It is like I am trying to cram the square peg into the round hole. I have been looking at another curriculum(CHC) again because I love the idea of having everything planned out for each day. Things are nicely tied together and flow well. I just don't know that is what Veronica needs. We finally have a good fit with OM for our oldest and that is such a huge relief. ;)

 

So, what do you do to keep lessons interesting and meaningful? Keeping things relevant and engaging? I think we could do some fun unit studies if I remember to keep things simple. Or some lapbooks that she could look back over and enjoy.

 

I have always felt she needs to be focusing on life skills and things that are important to her day and world. Some concepts and presentation is just so vague and abstract. Of course I want to teach her to read and do basic math computation.

 

We keep trying to do the workbooks from Rod and Staff and Veronica thinks they are all meant for drawing a line from one item to the other. We did too much of that tracing type work and she just keeps transfering that. Maybe meaningless worksheets aren't the thing for her.

 

Veronica is really more like a 3-4yo in most of her skills. I struggle to with

being at that level for her and pushing her a bit. I wonder how much futher along we would feel she is if her expressive language was better.

 

Anyway...enough jabbering on. Please share if you can.

I don't have a child with Down's Syndrome, but I have used some materials developed for children with special needs from Gander Publishing http://www.ganderpublishing.com/Browse-by-Subject.html and Remedia Publication http://www.rempub.com/. They have several books on life skills. And perhaps a program for language development, like Talkies might interest you http://www.ganderpublishing.com/Talkies.html

 

I doubt that you'll find a program that's clearly planned out for each day of the school year. My experience with my special needs child (dyslexia and some language processing issues) shows me that my child doesn't always learn at a predictable rate. But special needs programs and workbooks have helped to keep the information at a level where he can work on them one step or one page at a time, with some predictibility that I can use for planning.

 

Hope that helps and God bless you!