imagine.more Posted July 29, 2016 Share Posted July 29, 2016 I recently was hired by a hybrid school/homeschool (kind of like a university model school) and I'm really excited. I will be teaching 3 days a week and the kids will come with me....the little ones to childcare and the big ones to enroll in the school. Except Ana, because she cannot handle the curriculum (this school uses Seton). She won't be enrolled but will sit in my class (which is the grade she technically is in) and do her own work while I teach. Right now my plan is to do her MUS Delta lesson introduction Sunday evenings and then have her practice the concepts while I check her work and answer questions all week, taking the test on Friday. She does well with MUS. Still needs help with an average of 2 word problems each time but otherwise can do it fairly independently after she grasps the lesson. We'll do Barton 6+ (she's halfway through level 5 now) after school and on Tues/Thursdays when there is no school mostly. I'd like to have her practice independently so I got her a couple of the Barton chapter books and am making a series of fluency sentences for her to practice during school. She'll also independently read some Sonlight selections for ~30 minutes during her time at school. I have 4 hours of instructional time where she needs to be productively occupied. Right now I have: Math U See - 45 minutes Barton Reading Practice - 30 minutes Independent Reading (History/Literature) - 30 minutes Handwriting - 15 minutes So that's 2 hours. I need an additional 2 hours of independent but good, solid practice she can do. I might have her set a timer and do breaks every 50 minutes to get water, go to bathroom, take a walk, but again, I still have a lot of time I want to be filled with productive stuff. What ideas do you have for independent work for a special needs 14 year old working at a 2nd-4th grade level? (ideally no electronics because they're disallowed at the school AND she can't do audiobooks well because she's HOH) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted July 29, 2016 Share Posted July 29, 2016 What about the Spelling Success Barton card games? Some can be done by just one person. Is there a very quiet, non-messy art project she could work on that would tie in with her current content subjects? Are there any Science based books she could read independently? Maybe something from High Noon? Could she journal? Does she have a hobby she could pursue without disrupting the class? Is there anything the other students are doing that she could participate in, too, upon occasion? Without electronics or audio books, and trying to make it non-disruptive to the other students, as well as easily portable, I am running out of ideas. Hopefully someone else is more creative. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imagine.more Posted July 30, 2016 Author Share Posted July 30, 2016 I like the idea of art. She could bring her chalk pastels and drawing pad. Those clean up easily with baby wipes and she can work on small projects that'll transport in her backpack. Maybe I could do something on the primary/secondary colors too...like a color wheel 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imagine.more Posted July 30, 2016 Author Share Posted July 30, 2016 Sorry, I was posting on my phone earlier and couldn't type a long reply. OneStep, we do have some Spelling Success games. I think the spelling rules ones for Level 4 have a version she can play independently? I'll have to check that, thanks for reminding me! I have a bunch of "Let's Read About Science" picture books that are quite informative and colorful. I think she could mostly read them independently but I'd need to come up with some actual interaction with it so I can check for understanding. She tends to read books and then be baffled when I expect her to remember anything about it. I'm thinking maybe I could have her do vocabulary activities to go along with them? Not sure. She wouldn't understand journaling. She thinks "writing" means to actually copy down words. She copies song lyrics for fun in her journals at home. She does crochet a bit, nothing complicated yet but she does well with it and picked it up quickly. I bet she would benefit from some regular time set aside to work on crocheting. Maybe I could give her a task like to crochet a scarf and a little book of instructions. I'm hoping she can occasionally participate in some of our science stuff, but it's pretty heavily reading-and-writing based. Seton's kind of insane with its writing requirements, lol! If anyone else has ideas please keep them coming! I'd love to get a good collection of ideas so I can try things out, rotate, and try something different if a few of the ideas turn out to fall flat for her. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted July 30, 2016 Share Posted July 30, 2016 You could see if they need help in the office for an hour. There's usually something for students like copying or stapling or something. Work experience is confidence-building. :) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imagine.more Posted July 30, 2016 Author Share Posted July 30, 2016 You could see if they need help in the office for an hour. There's usually something for students like copying or stapling or something. Work experience is confidence-building. :) Ooh, that would be nice! I could ask the church secretary, but the 'school' is pretty new and just held out of the church basement. It's like a homeschool co-op as far as official status but run more like a Catholic school with uniforms and everything. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanin Posted July 30, 2016 Share Posted July 30, 2016 What about... Color by number (but the kind where it's math problems) Word searches (or she could make word searches for other kids using whatever they're learning in class) She could help you prepare things for the other kids (work on following directions, sequencing, etc) Tangrams? The soft foam ones wouldn't be distracting to the other kids Puzzles Short reading passages/comprehension questions from Teachers Pay Teachers Illustrate something from a book/reading passage A kind of observation journal where she writes down X number of things she notices in the classroom You could make a different kind of journal - I've seen the kind that have a page for each day, with questions like: I'm feeling _____ today because _______. For lunch, I'm having ______. After school, I'm going to ________. I feel _______ about this because_______ :) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted July 30, 2016 Share Posted July 30, 2016 Is she learning cursive? Maybe she could trace then copy cursive pages? Maybe some of the more basic workbooks from Critical Thinking Company for targeting specific areas of basic logic and basic geometry and vocabulary ? There are a ton of different types at many levels and some are quite good. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imagine.more Posted July 30, 2016 Author Share Posted July 30, 2016 I like the idea of color-by-numbers with math problems. My 8 year old LOVES those pages when they come up in his Singapore curriculum. Cracks me up but it's like the funnest thing :P I could find/make some with multiplication problems to keep those fresh while she is learning division with MUS Delta. The fill-in-the-blank journal might work. That could even help her with creating complete, sensible sentences. We're currently working on that with Lindamood Bell's Visualizing and Verbalizing but any extra practice could help. I forgot I had a thought a bit ago to make up comprehension questions to go along with the Barton stories. I could even pull from Level 4 so they're review and add in some basic questions. (I know there's a comprehension add-on, but finances are tight right now...hence the job). ...off to check out the Critical Thinking company's workbooks! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted July 30, 2016 Share Posted July 30, 2016 (edited) Listography would be a preprinted list-making journal. There are some pretty cute versions. Hidden Pictures will let her practice reading too. My ds is CRAZY for Hidden Pictures, but I have to contain him to just one page or he gets stuck! I like the suggestions for the crosswords, coloring, etc. too. Really, my ds isn't ready for crosswords. They're pretty HARD!! Word searches might be an easier step. You could probably use an online generator and crank them out with her Barton words. Or use Barton words or sight words for the crosswords and make them with a generator. Thing is that takes time, sigh. KatW, in another thread, suggested having them *trace* the Draw Write Now writing and pictures. I think I'm going to try that with my ds. Did you say they have a nursery? Maybe she could have a job there, like wash toys at the end of a session or something. It would be a way to kill 1/2 hour and be real good skills. And if they're not washing toys, well growl and get that started! My ds got SICK, like wicked sick, at a co-op where they didn't wash toys. I was taking dd and they required youngers not in classes to go in the nursery. The crummy place had no toy-washing policy, and he was mouthing because of his speech development, putting things in his mouth. He got a 104 fever!!! So I wouldn't put any child in a nursery that doesn't wash, and if they're washing they might like the help. :D Ok, now I'm trying to remember. Rainbow Resource sells Addition Adventures and some other books in the series (subtraction, etc.). They're from Mindware, and they have problems and steps you follow as you solve. Might be intriguing to her. I had my eye on them for our independent work and then we got sidetracked with ABA mess. GeoPuzzles. Does she do puzzles? Puzzles are a lifelong skill, and one puzzle might take 20-30 min if it's challenging for her. Puzzles are challenging for my ds. Actually, he melts down if he has to do them alone, sigh. Don't want meltdowns! But if there are puzzles that are doable independently for her (say the 35 piece kitten puzzles, whatever), they wouldn't take up much room and could go in her bag. Does she do handicrafts? Spool knitting, knitting looms, rag loop looms, craft kits, that kind of thing. Edited July 30, 2016 by OhElizabeth 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terabith Posted July 30, 2016 Share Posted July 30, 2016 Is it going to be difficult socially for her to be in a group of age mates but not participating? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imagine.more Posted July 30, 2016 Author Share Posted July 30, 2016 Thanks for the ideas Elizabeth! I'm definitely going to check out the listography stuff. Oh, and they don't have a nursery actually. They have volunteers (other moms and teens) who watch the little kids at their houses nearby in town. It's just a few kids of the teachers that are watched so luckily not a big group nursery/daycare situation because I agree those can be festering pools of germs, yuck! Terabith, it might be a bit difficult in that the other kids will notice but she won't really care or register that it's odd. She usually didn't actually do the work in public school either. She just hung out with the teacher and giggled with friends at her seat and then when the special ed parapro came around they'd help her do the worksheets or tests. I am going to try to keep her in-class assignments to paper-and-pencil when possible so she looks like she's doing age-appropriate work. I'm also going to briefly explain to the class (it'll be about 10-12 homeschooled kids) that because of her hearing impairment she needs different curriculum so she's going to just work on her own stuff while they learn the typical school stuff. I find that generally people are more understanding and less judgmental when we just point out the hearing impairment....then she's not dealing with the stigma of the intellectual disability label. People can see the hearing aids and they're really good about that, though they still often don't 'get' that she can't hear them if they talk behind her :001_rolleyes: Plus homeschoolers are really chill about learning differences I find. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanin Posted July 30, 2016 Share Posted July 30, 2016 Don't the Visualizing and Verbalizing workbooks have questions in the teacher manual? I think they're questions you're supposed to use to prompt the student, but you could print those out and she could answer them.. and then maybe illustrate the scene? I could see that whole sequence taking half an hour or more. At the end of the year you could have a really nice notebook with all of the work, and she could see her improvement over the year :) I also love the idea of helping out with jobs at school. When I was a kid, I LOVED doing stuff like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluebonnetgirl Posted July 30, 2016 Share Posted July 30, 2016 What about the Wonders of Science worktexts: http://www.wiesereducational.com/preview/wonders-of-science-ld1551.htm Core Reading Skills by Remedia Publications? http://www.wiesereducational.com/products/f_reading-literature/27-f_comprehension/core-reading-skills-program-re1506.htm Bring the Classics to Life by Remedia Publications http://www.rainbowresource.com/prodlist.php?subject=6&category=1017 For Word Problems, Focus on Problem Solving: https://www.continentalpress.com/focus-on-problem-solving.html Mobymax is free and very good, and self scoring, but online, so need computer or tablet. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluebonnetgirl Posted July 30, 2016 Share Posted July 30, 2016 Manda, Where do you see her in a few years? Does she have an area of interest, a particular skill that she could be working toward in terms of a vocation? Bluebonnetgirl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imagine.more Posted July 30, 2016 Author Share Posted July 30, 2016 Bluebonnet, her only current interest is that she likes working with children. She's hoping to maybe become a preschool teacher's aide someday and I think with work she can do that. Right now she's lacking the maturity to work towards that in the logical ways (babysitting and such on her own) but she's good with kids in general and so we try to encourage those things. If she's unable to make that work, it'd likely be due to an inability to work independently enough, like making good decisions on the fly, or inconsistency with work attendance/attitude. The backup would be housekeeping sorts of jobs because with motor skills she's right on point for her age range and always has been. Fine motor lagged a tiny bit but I think that was due to lack of trying because now those have improved a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluebonnetgirl Posted July 31, 2016 Share Posted July 31, 2016 Could she read to the younger children in the school? Is there a library there where she could help with storytime or in organizing the children's books? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imagine.more Posted July 31, 2016 Author Share Posted July 31, 2016 Well it's just held in the church basement, no library, etc and only 12 hours total a week so not much down time for the classes. Luckily she has younger siblings so she reads aloud to them but mostly sticks to the 1-3 year olds because even my 5 year old has started correcting her reading accuracy/pronunciation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluebonnetgirl Posted July 31, 2016 Share Posted July 31, 2016 (edited) Ok, got it. What about considering some health/safety/first aid/ nutrition/child care/early childhood development written material? I would look at Remedia Publications and Weiser and materials for ESL students I haven't had much luck with using homeschool curricula for special needs students for a variety of reasons. Especially with her being around peers, I would seek more mature looking materials, higher interest/lower readability with no cartoons or childish themes. These hi/lo materials can be found but only from the specialized providers that cater to brick and mortar schools, not in the homeschool world. As far as social studies, this caught my eye: http://www.wiesereducational.com/products/j_social-studies/43-j_united-states-history/americas-story-ld4001.htm I like the color, the graphic organizers, and how it has an optiinal video component which could be watched at home. Edited July 31, 2016 by bluebonnetgirl 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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