Homeschooling

Archive for March, 2008

Question: How do you organize your homeschool environment?

Do you have a special school room or just use the kitchen table? Do you have separate school supplies, or does the whole family share scissors, pencils, markers, etc.?
Are the school supplies (books, math manipulatives, art supplies, etc.) mixed in the same room as the toys?

Please help!

Answer: When all four of my children were smaller, we had a school room just to contain the mess. It was FULL of things from manipulatives and book shelves, a table and chairs, science projects, microscope, globe, Art supplies, etc. Now with them all grown and just one left in highschool, I just have a bookshelf for books in the corner of the dining room. I have one of those "pencil boxes" to keep her supplies in now.

If you have younger children, it is much nicer to have a full room for supplies though. We even painted the walls with artwork, made a school banner, created a model of the Solar System on the wall, had up a chalkboard, etc. We used a spare bedroom for the schoolroom. We had four computers crammed in there along the wall in one area, a table with chairs for a work area, a couple of bookshelves, everything necessary for school.

Question: Any "do it yourself" curriculum for speech therapy ?

My son is almost 4 (in Oct.) and he has a little expressive speech delay. He was tested by our school district and he gets speech therapy at school 2 times/week but only during school time. However the speech therapist at school seems disinterested to work with kids , she does not seem she loves her job . I would like to homeschool my son and do it myself all the work .He is above average academically (math , phonics) , has 4-5 words sentence right now . but has some language comprehension (doesn't seem to "get" stories from books , is unable to give elaborate answers ex . "what is the boy doing" --he says "I don't know" ) and his speech is unclear .
I would like to purchase some material that will teach me how to teach him and how to improve his speech. I cannot afford private speech but would buy any expensive books or curriculums I need.
Any advice about how to improve his speech highly appreciated .
I live too far from an University, unable to go there for therapy

Answer: You do need to read up on this yourself; speech therapy works better anyway if the parent works with the kid at home in between sessions, so if you could do it all yourself, you'd be saving yourself the drive.

Is it possible to talk to the speech therapist your son is seeing and get some suggestions? You don't have to say you are going to hs him. Is it possible to sit in on a session to see what she does?

You might also be able to contact a college that has this type of speech therapy course and ask the head of the dept what books you could read to work with your son.

You might also be able to spend money for just a FEW sessions with a different therapist, and explain to this person that you cannot continue the sessions but would like to know exactly how to work with him at home.

I can't help you with the expressive speech delay, but I can offer some advice on how to work with the unclear speech, and believe me you can do better with him at home than any speech therapist on this. Here is what you do: Pay attention to his speech for awhile and determine EXACTLY what sounds he cannot say. There are probably only 2 or 3. Then make 3 lists of words for each sound; one list should contain words beginning with that sound, then a list of words ending with that sound, then a list with that sound in the middle. Don't spend more than 3-5 minutes each day working on this, and make it FUN and be really positive. You work on one sound at a time, and don't progress to the next sound till he is almost done with the first sound; 'r' sounds are the hardest. Start with the first list, of the words that start with the sound. Say them and have your son repeat them correctly. If he can do this, great; your speech therapy is going to be eaaasssy! If he can't, then say the word/sound sloooowly and see if that helps. If this doesn't help, then notice EXACTLY how your tongue and lips are when you say the sound correctly; say the sound incorrectly as your son does, and tell him to make the sound, and point out that his tongue is next to his bottom teeth and his lips are making an 'o' [or whatever], then tell him to make the sound correctly he needs to put his tongue by his top teeth and make his lips skinny and straight. If he can't do this, then don't overwork it on one day - just try a little bit every day and he WILL be able to get it. When he can, progress through your 3 lists. After awhile start making sentences with the words, and make sure it is about stuff he likes. When he can make the sound well in therapy, then you can have him just talk to you in therapy, and you can correct that sound if he misspeaks. After that you continue with the sound in therapy, and correct that sound in everyday life. When he is consistently saying that sound correctly, taper off the therapy on it. If he is really quick at relearning how to speak, don't quit therapy too soon, or he will relapse. He might relapse anyway, in which case you just work on the sound/s in the car here and there and he will get it.

Good luck! Hope this helps.

Foreign Language Homeschool Options: Spanish II Midterm