Curriculum for home school child with aspergers

[Guest sedwards]

We just began home schooling our 9 year old son with aspergers two weeks ago. The school system demonstrated time and time again that they were not able to meet his needs. He has done very well since we made this change.

 

I am trying to get information from other families that have any experience with different curriculums. Any information on what curriculums have worked or not worked, what you liked about a certain one, or what you didn't like. Even if the curriculum was not used for a child with aspergers, I would like to get your opinion on any that have been used.

 

Thank You

[elise1mds]

Are you looking for a boxed curriculum or bits and pieces to put together to make your own?

[Mesa]

My Aspie (ADHD and SPD) is bright... very bright. He does need repetition, so I now look for programs that have a lot of review.

Some of our programs that have worked (I wont list the flops too many to list!)

Math: Spiral math such as Saxon mixed with a more rigorous math like Math Mammoth.

Grammar: Abeka has been my fav so far.

Writing: My reluctant writer does well with IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing)

History: He LOVES reading so Sonlight, SOTW have both been wonderful.

Science: Another fav subject. Anything works. Apologia for depth, Abeka for the worksheets (LOL he loves the worksheets! I dont even assign them) Sonlight.

Spelling... hmm that area has always been a struggle. I want to try the program IEW sells. All About Spelling has been good though too.

 

Good luck!

[Rhonda in TX]

At that age, my son used the following:

 

Math: He needed a workbook format, so we used Abeka and then Christian Light Education. I preferred CLE because the pages were simpler and less distracting.

 

History: Sonlight was a great fit at that age. Core 3 was a huge hit here.

 

Grammar: We used Rod and Staff then and still use it now. DS actually loves that program. I've tried to switch to other things, but he always asks to go back to R&S.

 

Writing: We did mostly oral narrations at that age. Sometimes I would type them out for him and then he would draw a picture to go along with it. When we started written narrations, we used the notebook pages found here. We now use IEW (can't say enough good things about that program). If you want to start formal writing now, I highly recommend it. I let my son type all of his writing assignments, as writing is physically difficult for him.

 

Handwriting: Handwriting Without Tears - excellent!

 

Science: We used Apologia Elementary, but I wish we had used something more rigorous, like BJU. Science is a struggle for him now (as are other things now that the depth of thinking required has changed) and I think it would have been better to be exposed to more science at a younger age.

[AngieW in Texas]

What worked for my Aspie:

 

SL was great for my dd all the way up until high school. We only used their history and literature and had to throw out all the religious stuff.

 

Miquon Math followed by Singapore Math worked great for her. We weren't sure what to go with next because she thought Jacobs Algebra looked intimidating (big thick textbook compared to thin little workbooks in Singapore). She did Kinetic Books algebra I and Jacobs Algebra together for a full year (switching back and forth between programs at the end of each chapter). The thing she didn't like about Kinetic Books at first ended up being what she liked best about it. It gives immediate feedback for all the practice problems. She had a really hard time with that right at first. She was emotionally attached to her answers and needed some time between when she answered the question and finding out that she had done it incorrectly. OTOH after she did an entire lesson incorrectly in Jacobs (mixed up the exponent rules), she discovered that finding out you're doing it wrong immediately helps a lot. She never went back to Jacobs after that chapter. Now she loves Kinetic Books. She did go back to Jacobs for Geometry because KB didn't have a geometry program yet (and they have it listed as a product now, but it still isn't available for purchase). It took her about halfway through geometry before she really got the hang of it. I had to sit with her through each lesson at first, but by the time she got halfway through the text, she was able to do almost every lesson independently (aside from maybe 2-3 problems/week).

 

She loved the Prentice Hall Science Explorer series for middle school. We had used Usborne books before that, but she told me that using those books for school ruined them. They were supposed to be fun and they couldn't be fun books if she used them for school. She wanted an actual textbook. She actually started the PHSE series in 5th grade. I will make sure that my youngest does high school chemistry before she does high school biology. I thought it would be fine for my Aspie to do biology first since she is my science-y kid and was very interested in the life sciences, but she would have had a much easier time of it if she'd done chemistry first.

 

She did very well with IEW for writing. She thought she couldn't write until we got IEW. It gave her a structure to hang her thoughts on. She found that she was quite a good writer. Windows to the World in 9th grade was great. She could actually write very good literary analysis papers. Again, we had to skip over the religious stuff. One section in the book where the author was espousing her religious viewpoint really upset her, but she got over it. I just made sure to let her know that she could cross out anything religious in the book.

[Mert]

:bigear:

[Nature]

My Aspie also has learning disabilities, so it seemed as though we were always curriculum hopping, search for that ‘perfect’ curriculum. I learned that it doesn’t exist.

Anything that was hands-on was a winner. Short lessons were also a plus. We had a lot of success using the Workbox System.

History

My son loved Story of the World and reading a lot of fact books (like Usborne).

Time Travelers history

 

Story of US

Science

Science—Real Science for Kids and Apologia

TOPS Science

Supercharged Science

Language Arts

Writing Trails.

Math

Teaching Textbooks

Time 4 Learning

We didn’t like

Saxon Math – too much repetition

Rod & Staff English- I liked the thoroughness of the program, but my son didn’t care for it.

Switched on Schoolhouse – in high school

We tried a lot of Abeka and Bob Jones, but it didn’t work out

[Misty]

No two Aspies are alike so what works for one may not work for your child.. What are your child's talents and what are his weaknesses? Does he have any learning disabilities or do you suspect any?

[scrapbookbuzz]

Here is what I use successfully (after some trial and error!) with my 12yo dd who has Asperger's Syndrome:

 

Sonlight for History/Geography/Reading/Read Alouds (do LOTS of Read Alouds with your Aspie kiddo. They love it and will retain the information!)

 

IEW (Institute of Excellence in Writing) for composition.

 

Science: whatever she's interested in! You might look at http://www.free-ed.net

 

Handwriting: Italic Handwriting and learning to type!

 

Spelling: AVKO (aka Sequential Spelling), but I have her do it with Scrabble tiles, instead of handwriting it.

 

HTH!

 

You can PM me with questions at any time! :)

[SweetMissMagnolia]

my son hates repeating exercises (especially with handwriting) LOL we don't use anything that any other 8 yr old wouldn't study (if that makes sense)-I didn't know there was curriculum for "special needs learners" (going to look into that now-I'm curious) :001_huh: --we use 2nd grade spectrum (language-phonics-reading comprehension-math), handwriting without tears,and some things that TWTM suggests. We typicaly have to take lots of breaks inbetween studies on our homework days.

[hmschooling]

My ADD, super impulsive, SPD, DD currently being evaluated for Asperger's THRIVES on Heart of Dakota. She is also 9. We are using the level for 8-10 year olds.

[tlshive]

We are looking at HOD for next year. It seems more gentle for my nearly seven year old, but will still cover all of what we are looking for.

[Joyofsixreboot]

No two Aspies are alike so what works for one may not work for your child.. What are your child's talents and what are his weaknesses? Does he have any learning disabilities or do you suspect any?

True this. I have not HS my Aspie but for him everything must be concrete. Gray areas are a problem for him. He can tell you what an adjective is, he doesn't care to create a colorful sentence. Fact based reading and documentaries are a favorite with him.

[b2b@home]

I am new as well and had a question much like yours. I wish I had seen this post prior to my post. The responses you are getting are phenomenal. Thanks to all that have responded here! You have answered many of my questions in regard to curriculum for my 12 yr old Aspie.

MUS was recommended to me in my post, but I haven’t tried it yet. I was leaning towards Systematic math for both my special needs boys. I thought about Saxon but after trying the spiral method with my aspie for the last couple of weeks, I think I will go with something like Systematic Math or MUS. If he doesn’t understand something and moves on to something else, he retains very little. Plus, the visual (sans the textbook) and auditory lessons are more his style.

Luckily I found some curriculum listed in my local classifieds. I was able to try a couple of styles without spending a lot. Now I just need to find the best fit for math.

Scrapbookbuzz, what do you use for math? Thanks for the link to free-ed.net!

[huntchaos]

Anything that was hands-on was a winner. Short lessons were also a plus. We had a lot of success using the Workbox System.

 

 

:iagree:

 

Workboxes are a life saver for me and my aspie!

[Guest simonkin]

One of my teacher uses Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). He found this program great for child. It is easy and anyone can do it.

[Angela13]

I am really enjoying reading the responses to your post as I am always on the lookout for new options for my HFA/Aspie kids. It is embarrassing when I think about the amount of stuff ive bought and could not use because it didnt suit my son. I could never seem to find the right maths - which is a struggle for my eldest. This year i photocopied a few pages from mcp to TRY BEFORE I BUY - from a friend, it was a great fit for him and I bought it and he is doing better then ever at maths! It only goes till grade 6 though, so im thinking of reading textbooks??? Not sure how this will work out.

It seems he does better with things that are orderly and not jumbled up, he likes to really get into topics rather then touch on them. We use usborne geography and science and he loves reading a section , using the internet links and other sights for more info, and related projects, and apologia flying creatures for zoology. Story of the world was my best ever investment - including the activity book and cd's. He does not enjoy second language texts( afrikaans) and although we do use workbooks he prefers working through readers as he gets into the story that way.

It is all trial and error unfortunately! Good luck - its not just our Aspies that have to be flexible! :lol:

[JessicaLady]

I've recently met a mom whose Aspie son now goes to a private school speciffically for ASD kids. They use the Switched on Schoolhouse Program and he's really doing well. Probably combination of environement and accodmodating classes. She says he's doing well b/c most of the class is via computer programs. He has low muscle tone, poor fine motor skills making writing difficult. Typing in or moving the cursor to the correct answer is so much simpler for him.

[mom4peace]

I'm glad to see this thread! I've been homeschooling my Aspie son (now nine) since first grade. At that point, he'd yet to be diagnosed, but the writing was on the wall. He's way on the bright side yet really, um, challenging when he feels work is too hard. It's a balancing act. Here's what we did this year:

 

Math: Singapore 5B and 6A, T. Pappas books

 

Science: RS4K Chem I and Middle School Chemistry from the American Chemical Society

 

Lang. Arts: Michael Clay Thompson (Caesar's English I and II, Grammar Town, Grammar Voyage, and some of Paragraph Town). Literary Lessons from Lord of the Rings. Steck Vauhn Spelling 4

 

History: History 2B (Online G3) with Joy Hakim's History of US, books 8, 9, 10. History of Science (some of the first book -- we lost our way and switched gears at some point) History is his domain, and he reads on his own often on the ancients.

 

Music: Piano Lessons

 

PE: Karate. That was our ticket out of PT some 4 years ago, and he's about a year from a black belt.

 

I've reviewed several of those above curricula on my blog Quarks and Quirks. My (newer) Asperger's blog is Asperger's at Home.