Today it was just the kids and I. We spent some intense time in the books. On Fridays I like to dig into the stuff that we cant hit during the rest of the week because of all the outside classes and the tutoring students coming and going.
A couple months ago I identified the crux of Tinks learning disabilities. Yes, she has a processing disorder but I wasn't content with just knowing that. After homeschooling her for four years I began to notice a pattern in both the state testing and the daily school work. I am now convinced that the problem lies in her vocabulary.
To help in this area I once again returned to Wordly Wise for help. To be able to define a word one must be able to pronounce it and then use it in context. Tink is having trouble with pronouncing words she reads. She can get the answers correct because the word is defined in the book and she can always check it's definition, but when I have her read me the list of the vocabulary words she cannot pronounce the words that she has been writing the definitions for.
Here are a few of the words in this weeks word list: conquer, crevice, assign, impatient, thwart, terse. Tink is 13 and she cant read these words. If she sees them in context in a story she does much better than just trying to read a word list, but when she is asked to define words on her state tests they are not in context. They are in list form and she fails it every time!
On Fridays we go over the words together...over and over and over...until she gets tired of going over them. We go over these same words throughout the week but on Friday we dig into the list and drill and drill. On Monday Tink does not know the words. But there is progress. She can read about half of them but that doesn't mean she will remember the definitions.
Wordly Wise goes over the words in many different ways including putting them in context in story form. Then the student does page after page of definitions. It's the best vocabulary program I know of.
I'm not worried about Tinks struggles with vocabulary. My heart goes out to her when I watch her trying to decipher the words but I know we will get through this just like we have gotten through everything else.
That's what I like about Fridays. We move from the school room upstairs into the downstairs living room. There by the fire we tackle the subjects that my kids struggle with the most. They are allowed to eat popcorn and drink hot chocolate while they work or to have their blankets and stuffed animals cuddled up next to them.
We don't worry about how far we get in the curriculum. We don't stress about getting all the subjects in for the day. If we stay on one page the entire time that is okay. We only work about two hours instead of the normal 6 hours on the other four days of the week but the work we do goes deep, deep into the content on the page!
For Peter it was all about preparing for Oregon Battle of the Books, which is the book club competition he is trying out for. He listened for over an hour to an audio of Gregor the Overlander while following along in the book. We then wrote out 40 questions about the material he had just read. Every little detail is fair game to the judges during the Battle of the Books.
I love days like this when we go deeper into the material then the time usually allows. I wish everyone knew the joy that comes from teaching your children at home! When you teach at home their entire education is in your hands. You can expose them to things they are interested in. You can work on their problem areas and help them soar in the areas they are gifted. It's an amazing, heady, yet humbling feeling.
Showing posts with label sensory integration disorder. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sensory integration disorder. Show all posts
Friday, January 15, 2010
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Homeschooling A Child With Special Needs
The sun slants lazily through the window etching the room in gold. On the desk sits the complete works of Mark Twain, a handsome gilded set of books. A recorder lies on the footstool, carelessly tossed there by nine year old hands. The piano sits under the window it's keys dusty from lack of use.
The room appears to be a schoolroom, for children's books and pencils are everywhere along with puzzles and piles of paper. Bright colored tanagrams are lying in haphazard fashion on the table. Playdoh made by some mama's own hands sits in covered bowls at the tables edge. Rolling pins and dough cutters are tossed about like pick up sticks.
A beautiful oak bookshelf stands at the far left it's shelves loaded with books, children's magazines and crafts. A partially opened drawer in a child's chest reveals bag after bag of foam art. There are bags for every season but none of them seem to have been played with. A peek inside another drawer divulges rows upon rows of tempera paints and every size of brush a young artist could wish for.
Three different art sets sit on top of the chest. They're filled with charcoals, chalks and paints. The paints are cracked and chipped, falling out of their casings, broken by impatient hands.
In the middle of the room is a huge floor puzzle depicting long necked dinosaurs. A child's mosaic lies half finished on a side table. A big comfy leather couch lounges under a painting byMary Cassett. On the arm of the couch appears to be a biography of the artist.
The entire room is a child's dream; a room for learning and crafting, for reading and painting.
I stand in the middle of the room careful not to step on a dinosaur tail. The room is hushed in the late afternoon stillness, but I can still hear the voices of the school day within its walls. I can hear a child screaming and a mother pleading. I can hear pencils breaking and pages being torn. I can hear a little girl mumbling through her reading and shrieking when she misses a word. I can hear her cries as she labors over her sums. A chair is thrown backward as she hurriedly gets up, pounding her fists into her table and loudly declaring that she cannot study.
I see her latest art project torn to shreds in the midst of her frustration. What comes next is soft uncontrollable crying and rocking. I see myself as I hold her and let her cry over her lost art work.
The little girl who's schoolroom this is, is my little girl. The great learning I had anticipated would happen within this room has never taken place. You see my little girl does not process the world around her like other children. She was born with a sensory processing disorder that leaves her world topsy turvy.
People tell me she needs more discipline. Some say she is weird while still others tell me I need to spend more time with her. I try not to say anything. But people know something's not right. The children know. The children say she is cuckoo and stupid.
My child lives in a world where her senses are not integrated enough to tell her what the rest of her body is doing. Can you imagine how it would feel if you...
"could see obstacles in your way, but you could not make your body move the direction you wanted it to to avoid them or your clothes felt like they were made of fiberglass.
You tried to drink a cup of water from a paper cup, only you couldn't tell how hard to squeeze it to hold onto it. So, you squeezed it too hard and the water spilled all over you. The next time you didn't squeeze it hard enough and it fell right through your hands and onto the floor.
Every time you tried to write with your pencil, it broke because you pushed too hard.
The different smells in this room made you utterly nauseous.
The humming of the lights sounded louder than my voice.
You couldn't focus your eyes on me because everything and everyone in the room catches your attention and your eyes just go there instead.
The lights are so bright you have to squint, then you get a pounding headache half way through the presentation
Every time someone touches you, it feels like they are rubbing sandpaper on your skin.
You could only sit here for 15 minutes and then you had to take a run around the building or do 20 jumping jacks so you could sit for another 10 minutes before your muscles felt like they were going to jump out of your skin.
People's whispers sounded like they were yelling.
The tag in the back of your shirt makes you feel as uncomfortable as you would if a spider was crawling on you and you couldn't get him off.
You wanted to write something down but it took you at least 5 seconds to form each letter. You can see the letter in your head, but your hand will not go in the right direction to write it.
You had to pull the car over 3 times on the way to the store because the motion makes you sick."(Through the Eyes of Disfunction)
I had dreams of my daughter becoming a great artist. But my daughter cannot paint. Instead she leaves her brushstrokes on the canvas of her mamas heart. She is painting over the dreams I had for her and in there place a beautiful picture is evolving.
I had dreams of her becoming a famous musician but instead her life is filled with discordant notes in a minor key. I take each note and carefully weave it into the music of our days trying to find a harmony we can live with.
I had dreams of my daughter reclining on the couch devouring great literature and reciting large portions of poetry. But my daughter cannot read past a first grade level. She can not memorize poetry because her short term memory circuits are broken. So although she may never write a book for worldly acclaim every day she is writing a script of love; in rhythms of uneven lines she leaves her print in our hearts and in our home.
When I began to homeschool I thought that I would teach her all I know. Instead she has taught me all that I don't know. Thank you God for this beautiful child you have entrusted to us.
This article has been submitted to The Carnival of Homeschooling.
The room appears to be a schoolroom, for children's books and pencils are everywhere along with puzzles and piles of paper. Bright colored tanagrams are lying in haphazard fashion on the table. Playdoh made by some mama's own hands sits in covered bowls at the tables edge. Rolling pins and dough cutters are tossed about like pick up sticks.
A beautiful oak bookshelf stands at the far left it's shelves loaded with books, children's magazines and crafts. A partially opened drawer in a child's chest reveals bag after bag of foam art. There are bags for every season but none of them seem to have been played with. A peek inside another drawer divulges rows upon rows of tempera paints and every size of brush a young artist could wish for.
Three different art sets sit on top of the chest. They're filled with charcoals, chalks and paints. The paints are cracked and chipped, falling out of their casings, broken by impatient hands.
In the middle of the room is a huge floor puzzle depicting long necked dinosaurs. A child's mosaic lies half finished on a side table. A big comfy leather couch lounges under a painting byMary Cassett. On the arm of the couch appears to be a biography of the artist.
The entire room is a child's dream; a room for learning and crafting, for reading and painting.
I stand in the middle of the room careful not to step on a dinosaur tail. The room is hushed in the late afternoon stillness, but I can still hear the voices of the school day within its walls. I can hear a child screaming and a mother pleading. I can hear pencils breaking and pages being torn. I can hear a little girl mumbling through her reading and shrieking when she misses a word. I can hear her cries as she labors over her sums. A chair is thrown backward as she hurriedly gets up, pounding her fists into her table and loudly declaring that she cannot study.
I see her latest art project torn to shreds in the midst of her frustration. What comes next is soft uncontrollable crying and rocking. I see myself as I hold her and let her cry over her lost art work.
The little girl who's schoolroom this is, is my little girl. The great learning I had anticipated would happen within this room has never taken place. You see my little girl does not process the world around her like other children. She was born with a sensory processing disorder that leaves her world topsy turvy.
People tell me she needs more discipline. Some say she is weird while still others tell me I need to spend more time with her. I try not to say anything. But people know something's not right. The children know. The children say she is cuckoo and stupid.
My child lives in a world where her senses are not integrated enough to tell her what the rest of her body is doing. Can you imagine how it would feel if you...
"could see obstacles in your way, but you could not make your body move the direction you wanted it to to avoid them or your clothes felt like they were made of fiberglass.
You tried to drink a cup of water from a paper cup, only you couldn't tell how hard to squeeze it to hold onto it. So, you squeezed it too hard and the water spilled all over you. The next time you didn't squeeze it hard enough and it fell right through your hands and onto the floor.
Every time you tried to write with your pencil, it broke because you pushed too hard.
The different smells in this room made you utterly nauseous.
The humming of the lights sounded louder than my voice.
You couldn't focus your eyes on me because everything and everyone in the room catches your attention and your eyes just go there instead.
The lights are so bright you have to squint, then you get a pounding headache half way through the presentation
Every time someone touches you, it feels like they are rubbing sandpaper on your skin.
You could only sit here for 15 minutes and then you had to take a run around the building or do 20 jumping jacks so you could sit for another 10 minutes before your muscles felt like they were going to jump out of your skin.
People's whispers sounded like they were yelling.
The tag in the back of your shirt makes you feel as uncomfortable as you would if a spider was crawling on you and you couldn't get him off.
You wanted to write something down but it took you at least 5 seconds to form each letter. You can see the letter in your head, but your hand will not go in the right direction to write it.
You had to pull the car over 3 times on the way to the store because the motion makes you sick."(Through the Eyes of Disfunction)
I had dreams of my daughter becoming a great artist. But my daughter cannot paint. Instead she leaves her brushstrokes on the canvas of her mamas heart. She is painting over the dreams I had for her and in there place a beautiful picture is evolving.
I had dreams of her becoming a famous musician but instead her life is filled with discordant notes in a minor key. I take each note and carefully weave it into the music of our days trying to find a harmony we can live with.
I had dreams of my daughter reclining on the couch devouring great literature and reciting large portions of poetry. But my daughter cannot read past a first grade level. She can not memorize poetry because her short term memory circuits are broken. So although she may never write a book for worldly acclaim every day she is writing a script of love; in rhythms of uneven lines she leaves her print in our hearts and in our home.
When I began to homeschool I thought that I would teach her all I know. Instead she has taught me all that I don't know. Thank you God for this beautiful child you have entrusted to us.
This article has been submitted to The Carnival of Homeschooling.
Friday, February 24, 2006
A Child with sensory integration disorder reads
In an never ending quest to find new ways to teach Tink things I have ran into this website; Grammar Zone. You see, it was all over grammar that she had her huge meltdown Friday. Anything that has to do with words is anathema to her. This site has pages on making words plural- the very thing she was screaming about. It also has pages on past tense verbs-another thing we have been working on lately. I'm excited because Tink loves using the computer. There are over 300 grammar pages on that site. So after this she will be doing her grammar online. Hopefully it will save us from another meltdown.
When kids have a sensory disorder, especially when accompanied by ODD, the written rule is to avoid confrontation whenever possible. To this end I had begun letting Tink listen to her reading stories on tape. I would read the story twice and then she would do the workbook. In this manner she never had to come in contact with a direct command from me. But I was also afraid that I would not be able to keep abreast of her reading as well. What if I no longer was able to accurately predict what words she needed to work on? Soooo..I came up with another idea. Now she listens to the taped story then reads it back to me on another tape. She loves recording her reading.
What I didnt expect was the added benefit of listening to her read without promptings from me. This method has given me a much clearer picture of how she reads and where the problem lies. I was amazed at all the power sounds she produces when she reads. Power sounds are a common occurrence in these kids. Before Tinks diagnosis and before being told what it was I truly was beginning to think Tink had Tourettes syndrome.
Here is an example. This is the paragraph Tink is trying to read in her reading book:
Help! Jan called. No one heard. Jan did not dare leave. The hole would grow. The seawater would flood all the land for miles. He could never run quickly enough to get help. He leaned against the dike and waited. The sun set. Above him the stars came out and the moon lit up the fields. Hours passed. But no one came near. Jan nibbbled on Omas bread. He remembered the stories she had told about strong men. They had carried huge rocks to make the dikes strong. They had built them to protect the land. They had battled with the sea. Now Jan would fight too. His finger felt as cold as ice, but he would not let the sea win the battle.
Now here is Tink reading this. I am transcribing from the tape exactly how she reads.
Help! Jan cried. whats he gonna do? I dont know. Actually I do. I do. (smacking noises are heard) hahahahaha (said with short vowel a)
No one heard Jan did not dare leave the hole. Would grow the seawater. Would flood all the land. For miles he could never run quickly through instead to get help, instead to get help, sorry, I need to repeat thaaaat sssssssssssss if your'e thinking I'm reading too slow I'm going to read fast. Five four three two one.
He lend against the dick. And water the sun, w w w watched the sun set. Below him the stars came out and the moon lit. The fields hours passed but no one came near. Jan nibbled on Opas. I'm just going to call it, bread. He remembered the stories she had told about. Strong man they had carried huge rocks to make the dick strong.
They had cuddles bottles they put they, they, took, took, too tootootoo I dont want [sic] read. It's so hard mommy. Page 64 the last line the one two three four five six, 6th word the land. I dont know it so I just skipped it. They had, oh yeah mama, and if um if i skip a word, I'm gonna be skipping, skipped actually I'm going to go like skipping and then keep on reading oKay? So yeah. They had bottled with.
The sea now Jan would fit too hu hu hu hu (these are breathing, grunting, sounds) His finger felt as cold as ice but he would not let the sea win the battle. There's a battle going on? I had nooooo idea. At last the long night..sniff sniff sniff(loud prolonged sniffing noises) the night ended.
So thats the way my daughter reads and that is how she tries to process information coming into her distorted senses. You have just had a peek inside the mind of a child with a sensory disorder. I didnt even pick out the worst parts of the tape. I just started from where I had left off listening to her. Some parts she makes chugging noises like a train. Other parts she adds turkey sounds. It goes beyond anything imaginable. Ive been listening to her read for years now but theres something about hearing it on tape that is so enlightning. I'm going to let the therapist hear this story.
And to think this was a child that the public school system was just going to push on into 4th grade. It makes me angry when I think about it. And imagine the poor kids who have this disorder and are still there.
Yes, the days are long and trying but I have to find the stregth to keep going. My daughter needs me so badly!
When kids have a sensory disorder, especially when accompanied by ODD, the written rule is to avoid confrontation whenever possible. To this end I had begun letting Tink listen to her reading stories on tape. I would read the story twice and then she would do the workbook. In this manner she never had to come in contact with a direct command from me. But I was also afraid that I would not be able to keep abreast of her reading as well. What if I no longer was able to accurately predict what words she needed to work on? Soooo..I came up with another idea. Now she listens to the taped story then reads it back to me on another tape. She loves recording her reading.
What I didnt expect was the added benefit of listening to her read without promptings from me. This method has given me a much clearer picture of how she reads and where the problem lies. I was amazed at all the power sounds she produces when she reads. Power sounds are a common occurrence in these kids. Before Tinks diagnosis and before being told what it was I truly was beginning to think Tink had Tourettes syndrome.
Here is an example. This is the paragraph Tink is trying to read in her reading book:
Help! Jan called. No one heard. Jan did not dare leave. The hole would grow. The seawater would flood all the land for miles. He could never run quickly enough to get help. He leaned against the dike and waited. The sun set. Above him the stars came out and the moon lit up the fields. Hours passed. But no one came near. Jan nibbbled on Omas bread. He remembered the stories she had told about strong men. They had carried huge rocks to make the dikes strong. They had built them to protect the land. They had battled with the sea. Now Jan would fight too. His finger felt as cold as ice, but he would not let the sea win the battle.
Now here is Tink reading this. I am transcribing from the tape exactly how she reads.
Help! Jan cried. whats he gonna do? I dont know. Actually I do. I do. (smacking noises are heard) hahahahaha (said with short vowel a)
No one heard Jan did not dare leave the hole. Would grow the seawater. Would flood all the land. For miles he could never run quickly through instead to get help, instead to get help, sorry, I need to repeat thaaaat sssssssssssss if your'e thinking I'm reading too slow I'm going to read fast. Five four three two one.
He lend against the dick. And water the sun, w w w watched the sun set. Below him the stars came out and the moon lit. The fields hours passed but no one came near. Jan nibbled on Opas. I'm just going to call it, bread. He remembered the stories she had told about. Strong man they had carried huge rocks to make the dick strong.
They had cuddles bottles they put they, they, took, took, too tootootoo I dont want [sic] read. It's so hard mommy. Page 64 the last line the one two three four five six, 6th word the land. I dont know it so I just skipped it. They had, oh yeah mama, and if um if i skip a word, I'm gonna be skipping, skipped actually I'm going to go like skipping and then keep on reading oKay? So yeah. They had bottled with.
The sea now Jan would fit too hu hu hu hu (these are breathing, grunting, sounds) His finger felt as cold as ice but he would not let the sea win the battle. There's a battle going on? I had nooooo idea. At last the long night..sniff sniff sniff(loud prolonged sniffing noises) the night ended.
So thats the way my daughter reads and that is how she tries to process information coming into her distorted senses. You have just had a peek inside the mind of a child with a sensory disorder. I didnt even pick out the worst parts of the tape. I just started from where I had left off listening to her. Some parts she makes chugging noises like a train. Other parts she adds turkey sounds. It goes beyond anything imaginable. Ive been listening to her read for years now but theres something about hearing it on tape that is so enlightning. I'm going to let the therapist hear this story.
And to think this was a child that the public school system was just going to push on into 4th grade. It makes me angry when I think about it. And imagine the poor kids who have this disorder and are still there.
Yes, the days are long and trying but I have to find the stregth to keep going. My daughter needs me so badly!
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Reading for the child with a processing disorder
Ive been lying awake trying to figure out how to cut down on Tinks tantrums during school. We waste so much time handling meltdowns instead of doing schoolwork. It finally hit me that most of her meltdowns could be isolated to one thing. Then this slow thinking mother had a light dawn in her thick skull. Seventy five percent of Tinks meltdowns come when she has to read aloud to me.
Okay, now common sense says that she will have to read out loud at some point so I can tell where she's at in reading. But...I can sneak those read alouds in through other subjects and she wont be quite as aware of whats happening.
I read every story into her tape recorder and have her follow along in the book word for word. I was having her stop and rewind the tape and read again. That proved to be the wrong thing. In the stopping and rewinding Tink could find every reason under the sun to never get back to the second reading; she fiddle with the cord, then mess around with the mic and whine that she'd accidently pushed fast forward and that she needed a drink.
This called for intervention. So instead of having her read and rewind I now just read the story twice giving her time to get back to the begininning page. Every time I turn a page in the story I give her the page number so she never loses the spot.
Yes, I spend a lot of time reading into a tape recorder. But it seems to be working. I then let her go directly to her workbook without reading the story to me. This has totally cut out the reading tantrums.
The poor girl. We go to the library and she brings me all these books she wants to read and I tell her that they're way too hard and she wont be able to read them. It's interesting to note that she's in fourth garde and those are the kinds of books she wants to read. When she brings me a book it's not a first or second grade book at her reading level. It's a fourth to sixth grade book, bless her heart. It shows that her brain is interested in that level of story but the ability to read it is that of a 7 year olds. It breaks my heart.
I finally decided that I cant keep telling her no on these books. She needs to be able to read books at her age level. So now I am letting her bring home the books and I read all of those into a tape too. You may be wondering why I dont just read them to her instead of into a recorder. The reason is twofold; our times dont match up and when she follows a cassette she actually feels like she's doing the reading. In this manner she has done more reading in the last three weeks than she has done in the last three months.
Working with Tink takes continual evaluation of the process. How I would love to just hand her the assigned pages for the day and have her go at it. But no, I spend all day in the shcoolroom with her. Peter's work is done while Tink is listening to her tapes. When I begin school at 9:00 am I know that I wont have a minute to myself until 2:00 pm every day. It's something Ive reconciled myself to.
On top of all the taped readings I'm doing I'm also doing tons of read aloud stuff in the school day. We're still reading The Princess and The Goblin. Oh my, I could go into the disaster on that too but you're probably all bored. Suffice it to say that I learned that Tink needs to have her hands busy duing readings or fights with Peter and general rowdiness follow. So every time we read a book Tink works on something; beads, tanagrams, velvet art, anything that will make her sit still and listen.
I discovered a couple of days ago that Tink doesnt know the majority of the words that end in "le".Whats funny is that by careful listening I can isolate her reading problems. At first it all seems random. But its not! It's the most amazing thing. Last spring I figured out that she was stumbling over every word that had a short vowel followed by a double consonant: happy, bunny, fuzzy. You may recall how I wrote stories to include these words in abundance. Well, now she knows those words and rarely stumbles over that letter pattern.
But now I've found another pattern that she has not grasped. So now we're going over words that end in le. You'd be amazed at how many words that is; terrible, ladle, candle, cuddle, (which by the way has the short vowel double consonant pattern too and one of the few words that she cant read with that pattern, now I know why)struggle (again those two patterns) able, stable, table, kettle,simple, tangle, noodle, battle, beetle, whistle, trouble, ripple, scramble, tentacle, dazzle (again both patterns)...I mean can you see how this would make reading hard? And can you see how the public school could never catch these things?
If any of you are interested in seeing if your child has reading patterns that are tripping him up it's not hard to discover what they are. Just listen to him read a couple of times and write down every word he misses. The patterns become perfectly clear! It's amazing and also exciting.
Now I cant just tell Tink that those words make such and such a sound. I literally have to expose her to every word that ends in le and practice that word. It's a long and ardous process but it works and thats the main thing!
Today we're going on a Field trip with the church academy. We're going to Safarri Sams, a big jungle gym, and letting the kids play. The school asked me to go as a chaperon so that means my kids will get in free. They are so excited!!! So now I msut go make breakfast and get the kids dressed and combed. We have to be out of here in a little over an hour.
Okay, now common sense says that she will have to read out loud at some point so I can tell where she's at in reading. But...I can sneak those read alouds in through other subjects and she wont be quite as aware of whats happening.
I read every story into her tape recorder and have her follow along in the book word for word. I was having her stop and rewind the tape and read again. That proved to be the wrong thing. In the stopping and rewinding Tink could find every reason under the sun to never get back to the second reading; she fiddle with the cord, then mess around with the mic and whine that she'd accidently pushed fast forward and that she needed a drink.
This called for intervention. So instead of having her read and rewind I now just read the story twice giving her time to get back to the begininning page. Every time I turn a page in the story I give her the page number so she never loses the spot.
Yes, I spend a lot of time reading into a tape recorder. But it seems to be working. I then let her go directly to her workbook without reading the story to me. This has totally cut out the reading tantrums.
The poor girl. We go to the library and she brings me all these books she wants to read and I tell her that they're way too hard and she wont be able to read them. It's interesting to note that she's in fourth garde and those are the kinds of books she wants to read. When she brings me a book it's not a first or second grade book at her reading level. It's a fourth to sixth grade book, bless her heart. It shows that her brain is interested in that level of story but the ability to read it is that of a 7 year olds. It breaks my heart.
I finally decided that I cant keep telling her no on these books. She needs to be able to read books at her age level. So now I am letting her bring home the books and I read all of those into a tape too. You may be wondering why I dont just read them to her instead of into a recorder. The reason is twofold; our times dont match up and when she follows a cassette she actually feels like she's doing the reading. In this manner she has done more reading in the last three weeks than she has done in the last three months.
Working with Tink takes continual evaluation of the process. How I would love to just hand her the assigned pages for the day and have her go at it. But no, I spend all day in the shcoolroom with her. Peter's work is done while Tink is listening to her tapes. When I begin school at 9:00 am I know that I wont have a minute to myself until 2:00 pm every day. It's something Ive reconciled myself to.
On top of all the taped readings I'm doing I'm also doing tons of read aloud stuff in the school day. We're still reading The Princess and The Goblin. Oh my, I could go into the disaster on that too but you're probably all bored. Suffice it to say that I learned that Tink needs to have her hands busy duing readings or fights with Peter and general rowdiness follow. So every time we read a book Tink works on something; beads, tanagrams, velvet art, anything that will make her sit still and listen.
I discovered a couple of days ago that Tink doesnt know the majority of the words that end in "le".Whats funny is that by careful listening I can isolate her reading problems. At first it all seems random. But its not! It's the most amazing thing. Last spring I figured out that she was stumbling over every word that had a short vowel followed by a double consonant: happy, bunny, fuzzy. You may recall how I wrote stories to include these words in abundance. Well, now she knows those words and rarely stumbles over that letter pattern.
But now I've found another pattern that she has not grasped. So now we're going over words that end in le. You'd be amazed at how many words that is; terrible, ladle, candle, cuddle, (which by the way has the short vowel double consonant pattern too and one of the few words that she cant read with that pattern, now I know why)struggle (again those two patterns) able, stable, table, kettle,simple, tangle, noodle, battle, beetle, whistle, trouble, ripple, scramble, tentacle, dazzle (again both patterns)...I mean can you see how this would make reading hard? And can you see how the public school could never catch these things?
If any of you are interested in seeing if your child has reading patterns that are tripping him up it's not hard to discover what they are. Just listen to him read a couple of times and write down every word he misses. The patterns become perfectly clear! It's amazing and also exciting.
Now I cant just tell Tink that those words make such and such a sound. I literally have to expose her to every word that ends in le and practice that word. It's a long and ardous process but it works and thats the main thing!
Today we're going on a Field trip with the church academy. We're going to Safarri Sams, a big jungle gym, and letting the kids play. The school asked me to go as a chaperon so that means my kids will get in free. They are so excited!!! So now I msut go make breakfast and get the kids dressed and combed. We have to be out of here in a little over an hour.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Charlotte Mason for Children with Special Needs
I have had to quit using many of the recommended books for the Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling. I know Charlotte Mason diehards say that even children with special learning needs can read the recommended books or have them read to them but I am here to say that it's not so in every case.
My daughter is nine and would be in the 4th grade at the public school. She has a sensory integration disorder that prevents her from processing information like other children her age. I started her in Level 3 at Ambleside, an online resource for homeschoolers wanting suggestions for scheduling a CM year. After two weeks of Level 3 I now have to drop her to Level 1 on some things and on other things we are switching books altogether.
Here is why:
My daughter cannot comprehend stories with more than two or three characters. Imagine now the trouble she has when all the characters have funny names and the sentence structure is so different she cant recognize the story at all. This means she cannot narrate or understand a word that is being read. I knew I had to come up with something different when we began reading Heroes by Kingsly. You have to read this sentence outloud to hear how it might sound to a child with an auditory processing disorder. Here's a line from that book; "Their names were Acrisius and Proetus and they lived in the pleasant vale of Argos, far away in Hellas." Do you hear all the strange s's? And there's still another problem. By the time Tink gets to to the word Hellas she has no idea of its a person, place or a thing because in that one sentence there are too many proper nouns.
Now look at this line from Secrets of The Woods. "Several times, however, when casting from the shore at the inlet for small fish, I had seen swirls in a great eddy near the farthest shore, which told me plainly of big fish beneath; and one day when a huge trout rolled half his length out of water behind my fly, small fry lost all their interest and I promised myself the joy of feeling my rod bend and tingle beneath the rush of that big trout if it took all summer." Yes that's all one sentence and by the time I was done Tink had no idea what the sentence was all about.
And here's a sentence from The Discovery of New Worlds by M.B. Synge. "And the crews worked with fresh vigor when they saw such pluck and perseverance, until after some days they again made land, the seas grew calmer, the winds hushed ,and they all knew that the Cape had been doubled at last". This book is used in Level 2 with Charlotte Mason and Tink is in 4th grade but that sentence made no sense to her at all.
Intervention was in order and it had to be made quickly before Tink rebelled at any reading. She crys at the sight of books anyway. So in keeping with Charlotte Masons theme I supplemented her books for easier ones. Here is what I am now doing for Tink. Bear in mind we are still using CM we just switched to books written in modern day English and books that were all around easier to understand.
I write this in hopes that anybody who has a child with a learning difference will find this helpful. Hopefully I will have saved you hours of research on your own.
Science: Instead of Story of Inventions, which I cant find a picture of, I have supplemented:
My daughter is nine and would be in the 4th grade at the public school. She has a sensory integration disorder that prevents her from processing information like other children her age. I started her in Level 3 at Ambleside, an online resource for homeschoolers wanting suggestions for scheduling a CM year. After two weeks of Level 3 I now have to drop her to Level 1 on some things and on other things we are switching books altogether.
Here is why:
My daughter cannot comprehend stories with more than two or three characters. Imagine now the trouble she has when all the characters have funny names and the sentence structure is so different she cant recognize the story at all. This means she cannot narrate or understand a word that is being read. I knew I had to come up with something different when we began reading Heroes by Kingsly. You have to read this sentence outloud to hear how it might sound to a child with an auditory processing disorder. Here's a line from that book; "Their names were Acrisius and Proetus and they lived in the pleasant vale of Argos, far away in Hellas." Do you hear all the strange s's? And there's still another problem. By the time Tink gets to to the word Hellas she has no idea of its a person, place or a thing because in that one sentence there are too many proper nouns.
Now look at this line from Secrets of The Woods. "Several times, however, when casting from the shore at the inlet for small fish, I had seen swirls in a great eddy near the farthest shore, which told me plainly of big fish beneath; and one day when a huge trout rolled half his length out of water behind my fly, small fry lost all their interest and I promised myself the joy of feeling my rod bend and tingle beneath the rush of that big trout if it took all summer." Yes that's all one sentence and by the time I was done Tink had no idea what the sentence was all about.
And here's a sentence from The Discovery of New Worlds by M.B. Synge. "And the crews worked with fresh vigor when they saw such pluck and perseverance, until after some days they again made land, the seas grew calmer, the winds hushed ,and they all knew that the Cape had been doubled at last". This book is used in Level 2 with Charlotte Mason and Tink is in 4th grade but that sentence made no sense to her at all.
Intervention was in order and it had to be made quickly before Tink rebelled at any reading. She crys at the sight of books anyway. So in keeping with Charlotte Masons theme I supplemented her books for easier ones. Here is what I am now doing for Tink. Bear in mind we are still using CM we just switched to books written in modern day English and books that were all around easier to understand.
I write this in hopes that anybody who has a child with a learning difference will find this helpful. Hopefully I will have saved you hours of research on your own.
Science: Instead of Story of Inventions, which I cant find a picture of, I have supplemented:
Natural History
Instead of the recommendations for Level 3, Secrets of the Woods, I use Level 1, The Burgess Animal Book:
World History:
Instead of:
I use these two books:
Instead of the History Tales and Legends in this book:
I use this:
Geography:
Instead of this recommended book:
I have now switched to this:
For Literature we are still reading The Princess and the Goblin and the kids love it. It's a Charlotte Mason recommendation that we're keeping. We're also still doing dictation and copywork.
For Math we use Making Math Meaningful.
For Grammar I use worksheets.
Phonics is this book:
For Reading I use Bob Jones University Level 2b.
For Supplemental Reading we are reading Hiedi.
Our artist we are studying is Mary Cassett. We study her paintings for 6 weeks and read an autobiography of her life.
We are not studying a composer this term.
Poetry is by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Pilgrims Progress is read in the morning 
along with Precious Moments Bedtime Stories.
And of course we are making our Science and Nature notebooks as well.
I know this looks like a lot of books but remember not every subject is done every day.
Disclaimer: These books have not been endorsed by Charlotte Mason. They are only my substitions.
Friday, February 17, 2006
Teaching Reading to a Child with a Processing Disorder
Sometimes I could just scream while trying to teach my daughter how to read. Do you see this pic of a bear? It's a bear. Right? Not a beaver; a bear. Anybody can see it's a bear. 
But Tink insists in reading the word beaver for bear. Even when she has the picture in front of her she says beaver instead of bear. It's so frustrating. Today after the umpteenth time of saying beaver she finally comes to the word and says, bea..no BEAR, so loudly I about jumped out of my chair. I gave a little smile and thought we would continue reading. But no. Tink dissolved into tears crying that I had laughed at her "just like all the public school kids had done"! She cried and she cried. It's amazing what one little misstep can do! It took us a half an hour to start reading again.
She consistently replaces the word when withthen. I mean every time she reads it! And every time I correct it and she reads it like that again. It never ends. Other words she reads entirely backwards. The following sentence took her five trys to get right; When bear woke up he felt something holding his tail. Heres how she read it. I kid you not because I purposely took note: Then beaver woke up and ..left..he left..then beaver woke..beaver woke up he left some thing..then beaver woke up he left something..under..
At this point it takes every bit of self control to not jump out of my chair and go screaming for my room. Quietly I say, "Tink lets start over."
"Then beaver.."
"Tink its WHEN BEAR..."
"Waaaaaa! you told me the word. Now Im not reading anymore because you told me the word. I knew that word...I cant do this..I'm so tired...then she growls like a bear and spits. I reprimand her for the spitting, pull her back up on her chair for by now she is sliding off almost to the floor, and we try again.
And to think that people think I should put her in 4th grade. I want to scream when people tell me that. Hey people, 4th graders are reading major books by now and writing book reports. They know the difference between a bear and a beaver. A two year old can tell you the story is about a bear if there's a big bear on the page. Oh Lord, give me patience and unlimited amounts of tongue-holding forbearance!
We took an extra long lunch break wherein Tink took a nap, did her therapeutic exercises, had her skin brushed by me and ate a peanut butter and banana sandwich. By then it had begun to rain so I put a fire in the stove and the kids made beds in front of it and there in the warmth of the fire we had literature and geography. Tink did her Math after that and we called it a day. These are the reasons I love to homeschool!
The kids took this picture of me reading to them. My chair is right at the bottom of their pink blanket to give you an idea of the room lay out. And hey, do you see my new floor in these pics? We finally got it in and we love it although it's much colder than the carpet was!
This article has been submitted to the Carnival of Homeschooling.
But Tink insists in reading the word beaver for bear. Even when she has the picture in front of her she says beaver instead of bear. It's so frustrating. Today after the umpteenth time of saying beaver she finally comes to the word and says, bea..no BEAR, so loudly I about jumped out of my chair. I gave a little smile and thought we would continue reading. But no. Tink dissolved into tears crying that I had laughed at her "just like all the public school kids had done"! She cried and she cried. It's amazing what one little misstep can do! It took us a half an hour to start reading again. She consistently replaces the word when withthen. I mean every time she reads it! And every time I correct it and she reads it like that again. It never ends. Other words she reads entirely backwards. The following sentence took her five trys to get right; When bear woke up he felt something holding his tail. Heres how she read it. I kid you not because I purposely took note: Then beaver woke up and ..left..he left..then beaver woke..beaver woke up he left some thing..then beaver woke up he left something..under..
At this point it takes every bit of self control to not jump out of my chair and go screaming for my room. Quietly I say, "Tink lets start over."
"Then beaver.."
"Tink its WHEN BEAR..."
"Waaaaaa! you told me the word. Now Im not reading anymore because you told me the word. I knew that word...I cant do this..I'm so tired...then she growls like a bear and spits. I reprimand her for the spitting, pull her back up on her chair for by now she is sliding off almost to the floor, and we try again.
And to think that people think I should put her in 4th grade. I want to scream when people tell me that. Hey people, 4th graders are reading major books by now and writing book reports. They know the difference between a bear and a beaver. A two year old can tell you the story is about a bear if there's a big bear on the page. Oh Lord, give me patience and unlimited amounts of tongue-holding forbearance!
We took an extra long lunch break wherein Tink took a nap, did her therapeutic exercises, had her skin brushed by me and ate a peanut butter and banana sandwich. By then it had begun to rain so I put a fire in the stove and the kids made beds in front of it and there in the warmth of the fire we had literature and geography. Tink did her Math after that and we called it a day. These are the reasons I love to homeschool!
The kids took this picture of me reading to them. My chair is right at the bottom of their pink blanket to give you an idea of the room lay out. And hey, do you see my new floor in these pics? We finally got it in and we love it although it's much colder than the carpet was!This article has been submitted to the Carnival of Homeschooling.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
The Purple Cow
Home educating Tink is a continual battle. Tink has been diagnosed with a sensory integration disorder. She is 9 years old and in the 4th grade. Life is not easy for these children. Tink is reading at a beginning 2nd grade level and is highly resistant to schooling in any form. I started homeschooling her this past March when nothing else seemed to be working. Some days I think she's coming along nicely then for no reason known to man she loses it. I'm learning a lot through the nuero therapeutics and the methods have helped tremendously. But the battle still goes on.
The most amazing thing is how swiftly a class can deteriorate. So we're reading along and Tink comes to a word she doesn't know. I help her with the word and all seems well. She reads two more words and suddenly without warning her head is on the table and she's crying her eyes out. "I didn't want you to help me with that word. Waaaa!"
She slides out of her chair to her own surprise and quickly rights herself. She' s growing hysterical,"I hate reading. I never will like reading. You told me the word. I don't want help. She bangs her book on the table. Don't talk to me. I don't want to listen. My head hurts. Just let me read my own way."
I try to explain to her that her way makes it unable for her to understand the story.
You can only mix up the words of and for and when and then and that and what a few times and skip every other word in between before the story makes no sense whatsoever. Tink so consistently mixes the examples above that I know for a fact she has totally learned them this way at the public school and nobody has caught it.
So she screams and whimpers and screams and slides under the table and plugs her ears refusing to listen and hums to herself while she rocks until my patience about wears thin.
I dare not let her know I'm frustrated or she will feed off of it and we'll get nowhere. The best thing I can do is leave the room with the order for her to finish the page while I do a five minute chore. When I come back she's usually got it done. She calms down and we move to the next thing .
Some times I can go through five or six different things until she shows an interest. Today it was a paper on punctuation. She saw it and started squirrming in her chair and chewing on her chewy as fast as she could. I quickly replaced the paper with one on nouns. She leaned forward earnestly looking at it while chewing. Suddenly she jumps back as if she's been bitten and starts to scream.
I calmly tell her to set her chair upright while at the same time reaching for a book of poems. She wiggles and wiggles and slides around on her chair but never quits eyeing the book. The poems are actually old nursery rhymes and they're one of the ways that children are taught reading fluency.
I ignore the wiggling and read the poem aloud to myself. At the end the author of the book writes the origins to the poem. I read Humpty Dumpty. Tink chews and wiggles but doesn't scream. "Hmm, I say, now isn't this interesting. Humpty dumpty was actually a cannon place on a wall during the war. It fell off and the kings men tried to fix it but never could. Isn't that funny? I really thought all these years it was an egg."
"Who cares about the stupid cannon! I hate this poem. I hate all poems," she shouts. "Poems are stupid. Words are stupid." She plugs her ears and screams.
"Oh, here's a good one," I say ignoring the fact that she's again about to disappear under the table. "Hey diddle diddle the cat and the fiddle, the cow...."
"Stop," she screams you read that one to me last week. "I never want to hear it again."
I had to think for a minute. Indeed I had read it to her last week but she was under the table screaming. I didn't think she had even heard it.
I went on as if I hadn't been interrupted."Oh, look Tink, I loved this one when I was a kid. I still do actually. This guy wrote about a purple cow and later he hated is so badly that..."
"Cows aren't purple. What a stupid, STUPID poem." She was sliding back up in her chair. She bent over and looked at the poem.
"Yeh," I said, "He knew it was a silly poem. Later he got so mad at hearing everyone quoting it that he said he'd kill them if he heard it again."
Tinks leans over the book like a little old lady with poor eyesight. She's vigorously chewing her chewy. I let her silently read the poem. She doesn't get far before she says, "What did he say? Why did he want to kill them?"
"Well lets see what it says," I say matter of factly. " Read it with me." She begins reading the poem with me. She stays with me all the way to the end then laughs."That is a stupid poem."
Score one for ole mom. I made it through that hurdle. Math is next but I'll spare you. It goes the exact same way as reading. It's really all a very intricate dance. By the way if you're wondering about her use of the word stupid it's just a battle I'm not going to face right now. Eventually we're going to deal with it in behavorial therapy.
Later that day I overheard Tink telling her dad in animated tones. "Daddy did you know humpty dumpty was actually a gun. It fell off a wall and broke. And you know what? I read a really silly poem about a purple cow." Mr. Darling discusses it all with her and they actually have an "intellectual" talk. Sure it only lasted five minutes. But it was initiated by Tink! What a huge milestone. AND...Tink truly did enjoy the poetry. I was walking on air!
Tink not only heard the poem she understood it! This had to be one of my best homeschooling moments.
This is my entry to win a camera in the "Capture the Educational Moment" Contest sponsored by Spunky and Academic Superstore.
The most amazing thing is how swiftly a class can deteriorate. So we're reading along and Tink comes to a word she doesn't know. I help her with the word and all seems well. She reads two more words and suddenly without warning her head is on the table and she's crying her eyes out. "I didn't want you to help me with that word. Waaaa!"
She slides out of her chair to her own surprise and quickly rights herself. She' s growing hysterical,"I hate reading. I never will like reading. You told me the word. I don't want help. She bangs her book on the table. Don't talk to me. I don't want to listen. My head hurts. Just let me read my own way."
I try to explain to her that her way makes it unable for her to understand the story.
You can only mix up the words of and for and when and then and that and what a few times and skip every other word in between before the story makes no sense whatsoever. Tink so consistently mixes the examples above that I know for a fact she has totally learned them this way at the public school and nobody has caught it.
So she screams and whimpers and screams and slides under the table and plugs her ears refusing to listen and hums to herself while she rocks until my patience about wears thin.
I dare not let her know I'm frustrated or she will feed off of it and we'll get nowhere. The best thing I can do is leave the room with the order for her to finish the page while I do a five minute chore. When I come back she's usually got it done. She calms down and we move to the next thing .
Some times I can go through five or six different things until she shows an interest. Today it was a paper on punctuation. She saw it and started squirrming in her chair and chewing on her chewy as fast as she could. I quickly replaced the paper with one on nouns. She leaned forward earnestly looking at it while chewing. Suddenly she jumps back as if she's been bitten and starts to scream.
I calmly tell her to set her chair upright while at the same time reaching for a book of poems. She wiggles and wiggles and slides around on her chair but never quits eyeing the book. The poems are actually old nursery rhymes and they're one of the ways that children are taught reading fluency.
I ignore the wiggling and read the poem aloud to myself. At the end the author of the book writes the origins to the poem. I read Humpty Dumpty. Tink chews and wiggles but doesn't scream. "Hmm, I say, now isn't this interesting. Humpty dumpty was actually a cannon place on a wall during the war. It fell off and the kings men tried to fix it but never could. Isn't that funny? I really thought all these years it was an egg."
"Who cares about the stupid cannon! I hate this poem. I hate all poems," she shouts. "Poems are stupid. Words are stupid." She plugs her ears and screams.
"Oh, here's a good one," I say ignoring the fact that she's again about to disappear under the table. "Hey diddle diddle the cat and the fiddle, the cow...."
"Stop," she screams you read that one to me last week. "I never want to hear it again."
I had to think for a minute. Indeed I had read it to her last week but she was under the table screaming. I didn't think she had even heard it.
I went on as if I hadn't been interrupted."Oh, look Tink, I loved this one when I was a kid. I still do actually. This guy wrote about a purple cow and later he hated is so badly that..."
"Cows aren't purple. What a stupid, STUPID poem." She was sliding back up in her chair. She bent over and looked at the poem.
"Yeh," I said, "He knew it was a silly poem. Later he got so mad at hearing everyone quoting it that he said he'd kill them if he heard it again."
Tinks leans over the book like a little old lady with poor eyesight. She's vigorously chewing her chewy. I let her silently read the poem. She doesn't get far before she says, "What did he say? Why did he want to kill them?"
"Well lets see what it says," I say matter of factly. " Read it with me." She begins reading the poem with me. She stays with me all the way to the end then laughs."That is a stupid poem."
Score one for ole mom. I made it through that hurdle. Math is next but I'll spare you. It goes the exact same way as reading. It's really all a very intricate dance. By the way if you're wondering about her use of the word stupid it's just a battle I'm not going to face right now. Eventually we're going to deal with it in behavorial therapy.
Later that day I overheard Tink telling her dad in animated tones. "Daddy did you know humpty dumpty was actually a gun. It fell off a wall and broke. And you know what? I read a really silly poem about a purple cow." Mr. Darling discusses it all with her and they actually have an "intellectual" talk. Sure it only lasted five minutes. But it was initiated by Tink! What a huge milestone. AND...Tink truly did enjoy the poetry. I was walking on air!
Tink not only heard the poem she understood it! This had to be one of my best homeschooling moments.
This is my entry to win a camera in the "Capture the Educational Moment" Contest sponsored by Spunky and Academic Superstore.
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