New Beginnings, 2010

On this last day of the year and decade we are looking forward to 2010! Thank God for getting our family through another year together.

DS was able to get through several of his readers today; as well we worked on a Lego project and tried to play pretend with the little Lego boy that came in the set.

Review

DS woke up before the rest of the household. He is now crashed out on the sofa. Before he wound down we were able to get a few things accomplished.

• He did complete his mathfactscafe.com worksheet. DH reminded me to add more of those to his regiment.
• We got through the lower case g in HWT
• copy words with g
• lower case u
• the red page from the pre-K HWT book because in the area of border perception, DS still struggles. He does not seem to perceive line borders on a paper page
• Science-a Read and Learn book on jumping animals and a book from the Bookworm series on turtles
• Reading-read aloud of 5 of the rebus reader series on various subjects

Juggling Act (cliche, but true!)

This morning there were lots of calls to make so we had to start our hs at the top of the afternoon. Public school is out this week, but my little guy tends to lose ground from extended breaks (regression) so we are trying to plow through this week until Thursday.

We used corn chips as reinforcers today as well as yesterday.

Despite the stimming (humming and getting up to run) we were able to get some things accomplished:

Today DS was able to get through his

• ETC workbook pages which included the sk, sl and pl blends
• ETC online where he does struggle with the yes or no questions
• Handwriting Without Tears First Grade Upper Case A
• HWT lower case a
• HWT copy words containing a
• Math worksheet from mathfactscafe.com

Side note: it's really cute when I ask him to write a letter over because it's way too big. He might say, "that's not right," or "let's try again." It's sweet and makes me chuckle sometimes :-).

Later this afternoon we will go over the readers from the library for some read aloud time.

My DD was able to do ETC book 1 short A materials as well as HWT upper case H, T and the rectangle page. She then entertained herself with us at the table using the Lego set she received for Christmas.

Today was pretty good for DS. He was able to focus on his ETC lessons after several attempts by me to redirect. I did not want to push him too much because if I do he will lose interest. He worked harder for a reinforcer of corn chips.

He has also been plowing through readers from our local library. These have been a valuable tool over the fall and now going into winter.

His handwriting is coming along with the help of practice and handwriting without tears. This program is reasonable and visually stimulating for him.

Math is a hodgepodge of worksheets, workbooks and homemade manipulatives.

Summer Learning Fun

Today we worked with a fun manipulative from Valentine's day. We used a box of candy hearts, the ones with the little messages to follow instructions on four different types of game boards. The boards were simple but fun. One requires the student to graph each heart by color. I then asked him to count each heart in each color group for an added challenge. The second board requires the child to follow the different types of patterns. The third instructs the student to group the hearts by color in a heart labelled by color. The fourth board was simple addition having the child place a certain color in one box and then place a certain color in the second box and then add them together to get the sum. This is a great way to engage a child who is not responding well to route learning. This was fun for both of us and a nice change of pace from a typical worksheet.

The IEP

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 2004), requires that a child who needs specialized education services must have an Individualized Education Program. The Individualized Education Plan (IEP) is the key document that lays out what a student receiving specialized education services will learn. A well-crafted IEP should include broad, long term goals as well as discrete benchmarks that the teacher plans to help the child attain. The teacher is the key person responsible in making sure the goals which are set forth in the IEP are mastered. It is a good idea to therefore get to know each student’s strengths and challenges before drafting and then finalizing the IEP. The teacher is a key member of the committee that formulates the IEP.

Knowledge of general issues concerning the child’s particular disability can be insightful in formulating realistic expectations for the child. Assuming the child is verbal, it is a good idea to speak to the child concerning what he or she would like to learn while in the classroom and somehow cater the student’s desires to the standard grade level benchmarks as best you can. The system allows for flexibility because the IEP is based on the individual student’s needs. Pay attention to where the child’s interests lie. If you can pick up on what interests the child you will be able to capitalize on that in formulating the IEP, lesson plans and ways to reward the child for a job well done.