Our Curriculum is All Over the Place

[PandaMom]

My DD is 10 going on 11 next month. Her diagnosis is ASD, ADHD, childhood anxiety, mixed expressive/receptive language disorder, and cognitive deficits with working memory difficulties. She goes to ST/OT twice a week, CBT and social skills each once a week and she is also in language/reading skills twice a week. Needless to say, we don't always have the time to get schoolwork done like I would like. I have her officially in grade 3 although she would be in grade 5 if she were a NT child. I am working with her at whatever level she is in a specific subject. Our levels are all over the place. I have her in grade 2 level for anything language arts but with her expressive language delays she still struggles. Her math skills are much stronger because it deals with numbers. Word problems still are a challenge. Her rote memorization of math facts is impressive. She is halfway through Horizon's Math 3 and moving along nicely. I am doing Lifepac History and Geography grade 3 with her but we read and do it all together. No science currently because of time constraints with therapy. Finding a curriculum that will suite her is definitely a challenge. I can't tell you how many times we have tried something only to abandon it within a few weeks. Definitely need to have a curriculum sale soon :laugh: No pretty/shiny boxed sets for us. Tried that once back in grade K and could tell right away that it would never work. I am seeing all the planning threads for next year and it got me to thinking about what we will be using next. Choosing curriculum is so hard and not to mention expensive. DH has been unemployed since last July with the downturn in the oil field. Good news is that DD "graduated" from ABA lin December and moved on to CBT. We also finished up with Level 3 of Dancing Bears. :hurray: It took quite a while but we made it. She can read but now we just need to get her comprehension up. I don't work with her on that because she already does quite a bit with her therapists. Sorry to ramble on all over the place. Need to finish my coffee and get ready for three more therapy sessions today and then whatever schoolwork we can manage to do. 

 

Susie

DD 10( soon to be 11)

[OneStepAtATime]

:grouphug:  :grouphug:  :grouphug:

 

That is tough.  Do you have a specific question or need suggestions for something in particular?  I'm not certain what responses you are seeking.

 

FWIW, we are all over the place, too.  Just the nature of the game, I guess. 

[PandaMom]

Suggestions or comments are always appreciated. Sometimes it just feels good to get something off my chest and say it out loud :)

[frogger]

I'm sorry to hear of the unemployment but congratulations on finishing your level of dancing bears! It always feels good to have a concrete finish of something tangible when life is continually working on therapies and such.

[PeterPan]

Your experience matches ours.  This is the first year where I've approached the time to register for our state homeschool convention and wondered why I'd even go.  There's no point.  I don't typically hang on K-8 anymore either.  There's no point.  That's just no longer what we do, that whole implement curriculum rush/race.

 

We do therapy.  We do life skills.  We do academics with anything that engages him.  Even read alouds are a waste on him, because he needs to hear things over and over for retention. I give him access to good videos and lots of audiobooks.  I try to make the things I do with him very interactive.  So like instead of a picture study for art or reading about art, we'll do a can you find it book.  I try to put our time into games, puzzles, Hidden Pictures, more games.  We do kits and things he's interested in.  

 

I'm doing some fun stuff with him right now using the kindle for composition.  This morning we made an acrostic for "Groundhog" hehe, which was fun.  I want to reinforce that the technology (which he absolutely must have) is good and valid, so that has become part of our routine.  I use a card labeled "Writing" from our visual schedule kit, and we dictate things into the Kindle.  

 

I find I have to steal times and be very intentional.  If we're in the car on our trips for therapy, he's going to have his kindle with him so he can listen to audiobooks.  And I keep a variety of audiobooks in there, so he might be listening to fiction or science or history or anything.  I think that's TOTALLY valid to have her listen to some kind of science books on the way to therapy sessions.  You can use those snippets.

 

For us the visual schedule is a really strong tool for communicating what the plan is and what has to be done.  However, when he gets back from stuff, he usually needs time to decompress.  It's not like he's going to just come back and work at seat work, sigh.  So I have to be kind of careful and plan for that.  So if it's something mid-morning, then I can try to steal in an hour before, plan on him needing lunch and time to decompress afterward, and then get in another hour or two later.  And some days we just acknowledge it's a lost day and don't have formal sit down work.  If that's happening to you, then I go back to thinking about how you can redeem bits of time like the time in the car.  I think it's ok to ask her to listen to audiobooks or say oh play your math app or whatever.

 

I also think we can UP PRIORITY on life skills.  Right now I'm teaching my ds to cook his own lunch.  He can use hotpads and operate a toaster oven, allowing him to warm up something simple like a hot dog or corn dog (don't die) and then open a can of beans (fiber!!) with a crank can opener.  So he might be watching Paw Patrol right now (yeah, fess up), but he's working on life skills.  This is the kid who used to sit at a counter and BANG and couldn't say what he needed and couldn't initiate or make things happen for himself.  So to me, because able to say I'm ready for lunch, these are the steps, I can do this, that's HUGE.  And that's how detailed we actually had to be when we started.  Like what do we do first?  We turn it on.  Then what do we do?  Go to the freezer to pull out the item.  Then what?  and so on...  These are good life skills!  Putting away laundry is a life skill.  Cleaning a bathroom or loading/unloading the dishwasher would be life skills.  We don't need curriculum for these things, and they are VALUABLE.  They give our kids success and independence, which makes for good vibes that carry over to other things.  And I'm not saying add more to your list.  I'm just saying it's smaller, worthwhile things that you can tuck into your day and know you're accomplishing your goals.  If it's happening later in the day because you had sessions, you're still working on your goals.

Edited February 3, 2016 by OhElizabeth

[mymommy1]

To play-off what OhElizabeth said, I'd ditch the History/Geography and play SOTW (or similar) while in the car or while she plays.  Then just talk some about each chapter to help her comprehension, not specific questions, just discussion or you telling your favorite part.  My son listened to the same audios over and over at that age.

 

My boys love Stack the States and the Geopuzzles and learn for more from it than workbooks.  We do have them do Stack the State or Countries with maps at their side and help them answer some.  You could even play that in waiting rooms.

 

If you have a kindle or such, TowerMath is great for kids who are quick with numbers.  Well, at least boys, so check it first. 

 

Is she your only child to homeschool?  I sold good curriculum because they didn't work for my oldest non-NT child.  Now my second and third could really use those things.  If she is your only, sell it and get what she needs.

 

[mymommy1]

I'm doing some fun stuff with him right now using the kindle for composition.  This morning we made an acrostic for "Groundhog" hehe, which was fun.  I want to reinforce that the technology (which he absolutely must have) is good and valid, so that has become part of our routine.  I use a card labeled "Writing" from our visual schedule kit, and we dictate things into the Kindle. 

 

Will you share how you do this? 

[PeterPan]

Make an acrostic or do dictation?  Honestly, I had to google it.  I was so not up on it.  The kindle is kind of ornery too, because you have to get apps for the word processor, make the keyboard pop up, blah blah.  But even I figured it out, lol.  There was a video.  We're using WPS, and I honestly can't remember if I paid or got it free.  Ok, I *think* what happened was I dug around amazon and there's this thing called Amazon Underground.  So you snoop around and if you get the app with amazon underground, it will be free.  I *think* that's what happened.  

 

So once you have that WPS app (which costs money and has a limited paid version that I didn't think I could print with, blah blah), then you just basically open it and start a word processor file and hit the mic button when the keyboard pops up.  It has been fine for us.  Then there are save and print buttons or whatever.  My worst fear is that the 7 yo goes in and deletes our files in a rage, sigh.  But just for getting it done, yeah that's what we're doing.

[PeterPan]

Amazon.com: WPS Office + PDF: Appstore for Android

 

I have no clue if this is the full one or not.  It's one of the versions of this.  If this is the full one, good.  If not, find it.  But this is what we're using.  It's fine.  

[mymommy1]

Thanks!