Learning to Live with Math

If you have read past posts here, it is no surprise to hear that math has been our most challenging subject. With dyslexia, you may guess that reading would fit that bill. But, no, once we knew what we were dealing with, we got over that hurdle relatively easily (although not quickly - slow and steady wins the race). Accommodation is key. But, dyslexia can affect more than just reading.

In the same way that learning to read is contingent on readiness, I believe a certain level of maturity is required to move into the more abstract concepts of math. And, as with anything, this is not necessarily associated with reaching a certain age. This is why one size education does not fit all. Some kids take longer to reach that ability. This year we seem to have finally reached a point where we can truly move forward.

This year we have seen a huge growth in maturity and a huge improvement in his ability to work with numbers. When we got stuck with Math-U-See, I decided to hop over to Easy Peasy's Middle School Math, Step 1, and work through that for a while. I had the intention of going back to Math-U-See when we got to fractions again, but he is doing pretty well with Easy Peasy. So, we're just going to keep trucking along.

We are in the "Fractions" Section of the page linked above and need to get all the way through the list (Fractions, Decimals and Percents; Ratios and Proportions; and Exponents) before we can start Algebra. So we'll be plugging away at that through the summer, and maybe into next year. But when we get through all that, we do not need to delay algebra any longer. We can dive right into VideoText Interactive's Algebra, A Complete Course, which begins with pre-algebra.

I do not expect the young man to love this program. I really don't expect him to love any program since he'd rather just not do the math. But, I do expect that he will be able to understand the math. The visual aspects of this program are a huge benefit. Another key aspect for us was the lessons being taught one small bite at a time. And the main focus is not just to learn the formulas - but to understand why you are using them.

One thing I've learned this year is the need to tackle a concept from different angles or perspectives when we get stuck. In addition to Easy Peasy, I also have a subscription to Math Antics. When we get stuck, I have him pop over there and view how Rob and Jeremy teach the concept and work through the printable worksheets. Then we pop back over to Kahn Academy and do the lesson there again. It has also been very helpful to have our math tutor friend go over concepts his way from time to time. 

I intend to continue to use this strategy once we move into algebra. We will work through VideoText and utilize Math Antics and other resources (Kahn Academy, YouTube) when we get stuck. And hopefully, our math tutor friend will continue to be available. He has been a Godsend. 

I hope sharing some of our math stories is encouraging to others that have similar struggles. Mainly, be patient. Your struggling student may just need to grow and mature. Continue to provide opportunities to work with numbers in real life and try lots of different strategies for figuring things out. Even if you find you are dealing with dyscalculia, I believe your student can, in time, learn how to live in a world of numbers.

Getting Ready for Year 8

On the one hand, I am so behind where I would normally be at this point in planning for the young man's school year. On the other hand, plans are starting to shape up, so I'm not going to sweat it. I should start by saying we wrapped up the past year nicely. He did a science project on whether dogs can see color with mixed results. One of our dogs was more cooperative than the other. He played a season of baseball and was selected for the all stars team. That was rough on the schedule, to say the least. He has had a whirlwind summer. His hockey coaches had selected him for a scholarship to attend a three week sports camp where he majored in hockey, and minored in several other sports. It was pretty intense. He is now heading in to a training camp for his new Bantam team and looking forward to starting another season of hockey.

We'll take one more week off after the training camp before we dive back in to another year of studies. The plans are not changed all that much from the last post. I am still having him use The Thinking Tree journals for growing in independent study. But instead of the 10-Subject Portfolio, I have decided to continue using the regular journals, similar to those we used the second half of last year. I will list with links to the ones I plan to use. I don't have them yet, but will order the first one this week. He will record his sports science and ancient history studies in those journals, along with some home economics, health, and literature. However, he will start the day with Dyslexia Games, series C, for some brain exercise before embarking on the rest of the studies.

For Language Arts, he will continue to work through the Apples and Pears spelling books and read from the McGuffey's Fifth Reader, and other selections. He'll continue word study using a teacher-created book called Get to the Root of It. I found this on the Teachers Pay Teachers website. I have decided to set aside the Writing Skills, Book 2, for now, and try out a unit from Brave Writer to go along with the first book we'll be reading for literature: A Christmas Carol. It combines some grammar along with literature study and writing. We will see how that goes.

For math, I only plan to have him work through Mastering Essential Math Skills, book 1. If he wants to also continue reading where we left off with Life of Fred, I will leave that to his discretion. He will also be taking a Personal Finance class through our co-op, so I don't feel the need to add anything to our math work at home. His other co-op classes include Judo, and a Career Exploration class. It should be a fun year at co-op.

Extra subjects, like geography and social studies, will come up naturally in the journals, rather than assigning specific days for them. That seemed a bit overwhelming when we did it that way before. It flowed much more naturally with the mixed subject journals. In addition, we still plan for him to work in the Dad Time journal with Dad once or twice/week. And he'll also have opportunity to work on some hobby projects on diy.org. He is currently interested in film making and photography. All of this along with chores, hockey practice, youth group, drum lessons, and so on will make for some pretty full days.

Now, here are the Thinking Tree journals I plan to use:
Fun-Schooling with Minecraft (available soon)
Fun-Schooling for Boys - Winter Homeschooling Handbook
Homeschooling Boys - Library Based Journal

Rough Outline for Next Year

I had first seen The Thinking Tree materials back when I was just beginning to research what we should use for helping our dyslexic student. I believe at that time there were just the series of Dyslexia Games and, while I liked the idea of some of the books, I didn't think the sets as a whole would be a good fit. Then one day several months ago I discovered the homeschool journals that Sarah Janisse Brown was starting to publish. Hmmm. Those really intrigued me. I had an opportunity to ask the author herself how we could go about trying out the journals while continuing our other studies. It was her recommendation that we start out using a journal once/week as a fun-school day. After only two or three weeks, we decided to go all in and are using the Hyper-Active Homeschool Journal every day, as I outlined in the previous post. That journal will be complete in a couple of weeks, and I have the Do-it-Yourself Homeschool Journal & Eclectic Learning Handbook ready to finish out the year.

After hanging out with the author and many other enthusiastic homeschool moms in a Facebook group, I have begun to reconsider my initial impression of Dyslexia Games, as well. There are so many other benefits to these exercises. Many of the parents have shared how much their kiddos have improved in reading, writing, attention, thinking, and much more. They are just good brain exercises, really. So I decided that we'll both do Series B this summer. Series C will be part of his language arts and math for year 8. And I'll probably work through that one, too. Mom has to keep the old brain sharp, too, you know. While I am still thinking through what next year will look like, I have a rough outline of what I think we'll do.

The journals I have for the student so far

• Bible study/devotion at breakfast – Easy Peasy Old Testament
• Language Arts – Dyslexia Games series C, continue Apples& Pears Spelling, Writing Skills 2 (after Dyslexia Games), McGuffey's 5th Reader, and audio literature with the 10-Subject Portfolio.
• Math – Mastering Essential Math Skills 1, Life of Fred, Dyslexia Games C book 6, and Comic Book Math.
• Daily History and Science work - Streams of Civilization 1 for history along with Easy Peasy Ancient History, and his own interest led study of the science of sports, using the 10-Subject Portfolio and the Reading Time and Film Study journals.
• Daily subjects (each 1 day/week) – Geography, business, the arts (Easy Peasy Ancient Art & Music), social studies, and Home Ec. (Vintage Remedies for Tweens, Facing the Facts) using the portfolio.
• Dad Time Journal – they should be able to get that in a couple of times each week with Dad working from home.
• Hobby - he has shown interest in photography and making videos, so I thought I'd sign him up for a subscription at DIY.org. They have some film making courses among other things that look pretty interesting.
• Chores - to be done immediately following school work. Free time comes after all work is completed.

In addition to the  journals for the students, Sarah has also published several journals for us moms. The idea is for us to be an example of how learning is a part of life and we continue learning even when we've grown up. I love that she also made one for the kiddos to do with dad. Learning can truly be a family affair. I'll have more about those in the future, but should mention that I am currently enjoying the Mom's Homeschooling Handbook and it is helping me tackle my ever growing pile of books I'm always meaning to read. Thankfully, The Thinking Tree books aren't just for kids. :)

So What ARE We Doing Now?

I thought maybe I should give a little more detail of how we've changed things up for the remainder of this year. The main thing is that he is deciding what order to do things, usually preferring to do his journal work first. He is currently working through The Hyper-Active Homeschool Journal, from The Thinking Tree. He'll start with a date page, then flip to a "Reading Time" page and do his zoology reading. There is a "Nature Study" page where he'll draw something from zoology, as well. He has just finished up a couple of books about ants, and will begin on spiders next. Zoology goes on the top half of the reading page, and Texas History notes go on the bottom half.

There are various other pages he usually works on next: spelling word hunt, logic games, copywork, World News Today!, and screen time, to name just a few. You can see more samples by clicking "Look inside" on the Amazon link above. I did have to insist that the screen time page be saved for last - ALL other work must be done before turning on the TV or iPad. He would spend a couple of hours watching multiple episodes of something or other, or choose something long. That did not bode well for getting anything else done afterwards. But other than that, he has been deciding what order to do things. For example, he seems to prefer breaking the English studies up rather than working through it all at once.

So every day we do some Bible reading at breakfast, he takes care of his morning chores, then works through: English, Math, zoology, TX history, Latin, and literature, in whatever order he chooses. It is amazing how much of a difference that one little change has made. We add health on Thursdays.

English books: Language Mechanic (grammar),  Apples and Pears (spelling), Writing Skills, alternated with word study, using ABeCeDarian Level D, and finally reading practice from McGuffey's 4th reader.

Math: various Life of Fred books along with Multiplication Games.

We're reading various books (his favorite is A Cartoon History of Texas) and watching various videos for TX history.

For health we just finished the book, How to Eat as a Young Athlete. We'll use a selection of videos for the next few weeks from the WellCast YouTube channel on various topics from the importance of sleep to how to have a conversation. Then we'll read another short book called What's the Big Deal? 

There will be an end of year project for both history and science, which may be combined with an end of year paper from his Writing Skills book. History will probably work well for that. For science, I think probably a PowerPoint presentation would be good. And may we finish strong!

Middle School: A Work in Progress

As we're growing and learning more together, I've been working and re-working the middle school and high school years. Here I'll just post the revised plan for these middle school years. Even though year 6 is nearly done, I'll include it since it changed a bit. I'm not sure when I'll post high school plans (really just ideas at this point).  I'd like to get ds' input on what he'd like to study and how for those years and he just isn't ready to really think about that yet.

	Year 6	Year 7	Year 8
Reading	ABCD B,C, McGuffey3	ABCD D, McGuffey4	McGuffey5
Writing	LoE Composition	Writing Skills 1	Writing Skills 2
Grammar	LoE Grammar	LanguageMechanic	GetSmartGrammar
Spelling	ABCD Spelling Patterns (LvlC)	Apples&Pears	Apples&Pears
Math	LoF Elementary	LoF Fract. Dec.	LoF PreAlgebra
Science	EP Biology	EP Zoology	EP Earth Science
History	EP Geo-Cultures	Civics/TX History	EPAncient
Computer	Khan Beg. Program	EP Graphic Design	EP Spread Sheets
For.Lang.	N/A	Latin 1	Latin 2 or Greek?
Character	Practical Happiness	Boyhood&Beyond	Do Hard Things
Economics	ToothpasteMillionare	Bus. for Kids Capitalism Kids	Young Economist
Thinking	UsingLogicWkbk	Fallacy Dective	ThinkingToolbox
Bible	EP Year 3 Poetry	EP Year 2 NT	EP Year 1 OT

As I mentioned in the previous post, we wound up using The Logic of English Essentials only for grammar and composition. For Reading we switched to ABeCeDarian Level B, short version, and then moved into Level C. At Level C, Mr. Bend suggests beginning a spelling program, and has a Spelling Patterns book to go with Level C. We did begin that with Level C, but progress has been - well, we haven't really been able to progress past Unit 2. So I have set that aside and am using a really old Orton-Gillingham based spelling book that had been given to me to review phonograms and go over syllable types. It will do for now, to finish out the year. I must say, though, that he is doing very well with the Level C book. He is also doing very well reading through McGuffey's Third Reader, so I plan to continue with those for reading practice through the sixth reader in year 9. If all goes well with the Writing Skills books, we'll finish off with the third book in year 9, and review grammar with Stay Smart Grammar, as well. We'll probably still be in Apples and Pears for spelling, too. I suppose I should have included Year 9 in the chart above, at least for English. :)

We have just begun Jelly Beans, the last book in the Elementary series of Life of Fred. DS has done well with this way of doing math. However he does seem to need more practice doing the multi-step multiplication and division problems. He won't like it, but I will need to have him do some worksheets in order to work on those more, probably on some graph paper. Otherwise, we will continue to work through the Intermediate series during the summer and then see how he does with the Fractions book this fall. While he still doesn't have them all down, he is doing much better with the basic math facts - to the point they don't hold him back as much. I've decided to have him continue to review the multiplication facts in game formats and use a multiplication chart for working problems.

DS has grown leaps and bounds in his ability to use text to speech to independently work on history and science with Easy Peasy All in One Homeschool. He still needs lots of guidance when it comes to writing assignments and projects, but he is handling the rest pretty independently. Any print books we are reading I am still reading aloud and am only having him read from the McGuffey Readers aloud to me; and he still reads on his tablet books of his choosing with Bookshare.

As I expected, programming is way too tedious and detail oriented for ds' liking. But I am very thankful for the opportunity he had to explore it through Khan Academy. If he had wanted to continue I would have been more than willing to pay for some other courses. But I don't think there will be any more programming courses in the future, unless his goals change. At the moment his goals center on improving hockey skills and getting on a team in the fall. He still enjoys the guitar, but that seems to be just for fun, with no real focus on improving his skills at reading music. So my goals for him (and my husband's) are improving his academic skills, building his work ethic, and helping him get where he needs to go to work on those hockey skills. 

Year 6 - Moving Right Along

So, a couple posts ago I mentioned discovering that ds is dyslexic. We have made great strides in the reading department. But, as usual, not in the way I initially thought. The Logic of English Essentials program turned out to be too painful for both of us to use in full. The phonogram and spelling lessons are not laid out in a way he can get his head around; and memorizing spelling rules was not at all compatible with his working memory. I'm very thankful that I decided to start it during our summer term so I figured this out before beginning year 6 in September. I was seriously considering purchasing the first level of Barton Reading - the gold standard of homeschool-ready Orton-Gillingham programs. But my husband was not on board with the idea of switching programs, so I had to compromise. Ultimately, that has turned out to be a good thing as we seem to have found something that works well for him.

ABeCeDarian is not an Orton-Gillingham program. It is phono-graphix. While Orton-Gillingham methods have been found to work well for teaching dyslexics to read, it seems some kids do better with phono-graphix - which is still explicit, multisensory reading instruction. This article briefly introduces this method. The main thing for us was not having to memorize those rules. We recently completed ABeCeDarian Level B (short version) and have seen improvement not only in his reading, but also in his attitude and willingness to read. When we resume after the new year we'll begin Level C, along with the Spelling Patterns book. In addition, we have continued to use the grammar lessons from Logic of English, and their game cards to play phonogram 'Uno.' Roughly once a week we read a selection from McGuffey's Third Reader.

For reading outside of school work, I signed ds up for Bookshare. This is a wonderful thing. It is a free (in the US) service for students with print disabilities, so does require an official diagnosis to subscribe. They have well over 300,000 books available as e-text that can be read with text-to-speech, and the text is highlighted as it is read. Many of those are text books, scout books, and lots of great literature. We have set it up on an Android tablet that he uses strictly for reading, which we are requiring daily outside of 'school.' He also uses the tablet's voice reader for the reading he is assigned online for history and science. We are embracing technology in this house.

Aside from the reading, We are still using Easy Peasy for Bible, History, Science, Art, and Music, which works very well with the tts accommodations. In addition I supplement science reading with videos we find on YouTube. We are loving Life of Fred Math, and ds plays Math Blaster and other math oriented video games. I read aloud from books we are using for health, character study, and economics. He's learning to cook some meals. We try to get moving for PE most days. And we're listening to some wonderful literature on Librivox.org. Beginning in February, we will begin participating in a co-op, where he will take classes like jujitsu and chess. He's learning to play the guitar, and also learning to play hockey. I can barely keep up. But so far, we're having a great year.

ETA: I forgot to mention programming. Twice a week he works through the Khan Academy Intro JS course. He does not love it, but is able to complete the lessons and projects. It has given him a good taste of what it takes to write programs to create games - something he thought he wanted to do. :)

Middle School Years!

I almost can't believe we are here already. The years are flying by so quickly. Following is an overview of plans I've been working on for the next three years of ds' education. We will still be using Easy Peasy for most subjects. He has stated that he liked it well enough and did not want to change that. I am looking forward to our studies. Yes, 'our.' I learn as much, if not more, as he does as we go along this road - and I love it.

	Year 6	Year 7	Year 8
Bible	EP Poetry	EP New Testament	EP Old Testament
English	The Logic of English	Repeat LoE?	MaxScholar + EP?
Math	Life of Fred/EPstep1	Life of Fred/EPstep2	Life of Fred/EPstep3
Science	EP Biology	EP Zoology	EP Earth Science
History	EP World-Geography	Texas History	EP Ancient History
Economics	Toothpaste Millionare	Common Sense Bus. & Capitalism for Kids	Young Economist
Art/Music	EP Cultures	EP Early American	EP Ancient
Computer	Programing for Kids	Graphic Design	Using Spreadsheets
Thinking	Using Logic	Art of Logic Course	EP Foundations
Pers. Dev.	Practical Happiness	Boyhood and Beyond	Do Hard Things
For. Lang.	None	Visual Latin 1	Visual Latin 2

Of course this is not all written in stone. And, as you see, I'm really not sure what we'll do for English, spelling, & grammar after this next year. The Logic of English can be done a second round with a more advanced spelling list - we will probably do that. But ultimately it depends on how it goes the first time around and what he is ready for after that. I also have no idea at this point what we'll do for Texas history, or even whether we'll spend a whole year on it.

But I'm thankful to have an overall plan - some direction as we do work out those details. I am also thankful we now have a better understanding of his learning strengths and weaknesses. That also helps in choosing materials and knowing what accommodations to make. We have used and enjoyed audio books in the past, and will continue to do so in the future. I will continue to do much of the reading this year, but will be transitioning in the following years to having him utilize those accommodations more independently. And, hopefully, he will also do more reading on his own. I realize these next three years will involve many leaps and bounds as he grows in so many ways towards that young man he is becoming.

Just When You Think You Have it All Figured Out

Back at the end of January I had written about how we were taking a pause from Teaching Textbooks and doing things differently than we had planned, with every intention of returning to Teaching Textbooks. Well, that did not happen as ds was quite adamant that he did not want to use that program ever again. So much for that experiment of letting him pick the program. We will not do that again - for a while anyway.

Since that time I also began to realize that we had hit a wall with reading and he was not improving and was struggling with comprehension when he read things himself. So I asked a simple question on my favorite homeschool forum about how to help with reading comprehension, one thing led to another, and next thing I knew I was researching dyslexia and how to have him tested for it. Thankfully Texas does recognize dyslexia (many states do not) and our school district does test specifically for that. He did a great job at the assessment and the tester was very complimentary (proud parent moment, there). But yes, he does have dyslexia.

Needless to say, those plans for middle school I thought I had all nailed down have changed a bit. But not too much, really. We are just doing something different for English and math. Thankfully the reading I've done about dyslexia has given me a better idea of what may work for him with math. We will be trying something completely different this next year. Which is such a relief, as math has really been almost torture for us. I have also learned that there is a specific type of program that works well for dyslexic students to learn/improve their reading, spelling, grammar and writing (Orton-Gillingham), and we have several options available as homeschoolers.

I will do a middle school overview and year 6 specifics in separate posts. Before I leave this one, though, I want to give a link that I found very helpful in understanding better what, exactly, dyslexia is. I really didn't have a clue. But this website helped to improved my understanding: http://www.dys-add.com/.

There are also several books on the subject that are on my list to read. I am currently reading The Dyslexic Advantage: Unlocking the Hidden Potential of the Dyslexic Brain, by Brock L. Eide, M.D., M.A. and Fernette F. Eide, M.D. Its an easy read and quite fascinating. Next up (both from my local library) is Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems at Any Level, by Sally Shaywitz, M.D. Definitely a good start on my personal learning adventure.