Written by Sandy J., Home School Educator
“We have been home schooling both of our children since kindergarten age. For our daughter, who has a rare syndrome and many delays, I have been able to tailor the course of study to work with her capabilities and interests. While our son used a more traditional curriculum, he also worked with me on meal planning, budgeting, and household responsibilities, in addition to traveling with my husband for work-related events.
Keeping a focus on daily living skills and a fairly regular routine has really helped our daughter excel. By considering where she is in her abilities and what goals are reasonable, she has made progress each year.
While working on daily activities, I have incorporated reading, spelling, math, social opportunities, and science. Using abcteach to find materials for whatever the topic may be has really helped me expand what we are learning. I can do a search for apples, winter, or frogs, and have an entire range of activities from which to choose. The extensive list of books with comprehension skills has introduced us to new titles. Because of fine motor issues, I have created my own words for fill-in the blank or short answer questions by using Avery small labels. I write the word bank on the stickers and my daughter uses them to complete the answer. Circle and Spell is one of my favorite abctools. I can create practice pages for anything we are studying, whether it is flora and fauna for a habitat unit, days of the week, items we need to purchase, or words relevant to a particular story.
Watching our daughter become more confident in her abilities has been an amazing process. Whether it is preparing her own meal, reading a new story out loud for the first time, or figuring out how to do something “by myself,” the effort on both sides is well worth it!”
Thank you for sharing your great story with the abcteach community, Sandy! As a token of our thanks, we’ll be sending you a snazzy abcteach mug.
Jump in the Spotlight! Get well-deserved kudos for hard work in class or homeschool and share your creative ideas with the abcteach community. To enter, send your story (500 word max), and accompanying photos to [email protected].