Planning for next year

I may be the only person that doesn't already have a solid idea of what we are doing for sure in our homeschool in the fall. We really haven't stopped for the summer. Sure, we take some days off but A~man is working on reading and Z~girl never stops reading. I was an avid reader as a child but I think she has me beat for the amount of books she has read at almost 11 years old. She has more opportunity all year long, as when I was in school, we had a lot of busy work that was required. We do not do a whole lot of busy work...unless it appears they need some. ;)

Here is what I do have planned for this year. We will still be doing our online curriculum and we do this about an hour a day. We will be doing these unit studies for science in addition to some nature notebooking. For Z~girls Reading/Language Arts we will be using this curriculum. I also want her to take an online writing course this fall. I'm still trying to figure out what to use for history that doesn't take a lot of planning...and this is also a subject that I love, but that I need help with. (it was definitely lacking in my education growing up) Math? I have no idea what to use.

For A~man right now I am concentrating on him relearning all of the dolch sight words. So this summer I have really been concentrating on him learning to read better. We are slowly going back through the sight word list and I have been making some worksheets I found online for the words. (we do not normally do a lot of worksheets so he is enjoying them!) With his special needs it always seems like it is two steps forward, one step back...with everything. But seeing that he is progressing really does make it awesomely rewarding!

It continues to be HOT here and I'm hoping to do my first tutorial in my blog this week! (it's a fun, easy, inside project) Z~girl had a birthday party to go to yesterday so we made the birthday girl a backpack. I have made many of them and hope to share how incredibly easy it is to make...and the best part is you can find what you need to make it around the house. If you do not have a sewing machine it can also be sewn by hand. 

Learning to read with developmental delays using sight words

My son who has developmental delays that go along with his special needs is now 12. We first started on this "learning to read journey"six years ago. It has been a journey full of mountains and curves.  I have used everything and anything to help him learn to read. One of the most useful things we did early on is teach him sight words. Sight words are the most frequently used words in the English language. Learning to recognize and read sight words will help your child read more fluently and help them be more confident about their reading. Many of the words on the Dolch list are not words you can sound out phonetically. If you think about it we all use memorization of words as adults to read. We do not sound each word out anymore, (unless it is an unfamiliar word) but instead, just know the words from seeing them repeatedly.

Don't get me wrong I still put a lot of value on learning to read phonetically, but especially with a child who has delays, it is invaluable to initially teach them some key words with flashcards, sight word books (my kids liked the Bob books especially!) and also with games.

 Here is a site that has the complete list of the dolch sight words. This site also lets you make flash cards for your child and plugs the words into the games at the site. Another thing you can do with kids that have mastered the basic list of sight words is to make a list of the words they consistently have problems with when they are reading you a book. Spelling City lets you make your own list of such words. Recently I scheduled our annual homeschool testing  (eeeeek! ) to take place in June. We are taking spring break this next week but the two months we will have before testing I am going to take A~man's "trouble words" from his books and make a list to practice with. We may even review the basic words although he pretty much knows all of them.

Reading is one of the most important things (scholastically speaking) you can teach your child. It creates the opportunity for a life long of learning plus the pure joy of reading for pleasure.