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Sallie Schaaf Borrink

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Relaxed Homeschooling Curriculum Choices For Eighth Grade

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View Full Post with Embedded ContentRelaxed Homeschooling Curriculum Choices For Eighth Grade

We are now homeschooling eighth grade. I wanted to share our relaxed homeschooling curriculum choices for this year. With Caroline’s input, I’ve put together an interesting collection of materials that should make for a good year.

As a general rule, eighth grade is the time for relaxed homeschoolers to prepare their child for high school courses. This is accomplished by selecting academic and elective materials that fit with the family’s overall educational philosophy. It will include subjects such as English, math, history, science, Bible, foreign language, writing, art, and music.

If you happened across this post without any context, the short version is that we’re relaxed homeschoolers and Caroline is gifted/2e. She learns best through read alouds and video so we frequently use those options. I have written extensively about these topics so I’ll simply leave that by way of introduction.

Eighth Grade Homeschool Goals

My goals for this year are simple. I would like to fill in any significant gaps I perceive before we formally begin high school. As I’ll point out with some of the choices we’ve made below, one of the big goals is to be prepared in the overall arc of learning since we’ve had to make up lost ground due to learning challenges. I hope that make sense. It probably will as you continue reading.

I shared my overall middle school plan a few years ago in Relaxed Homeschooling in Middle School and our Relaxed Homeschooling in Seventh Grade last year. I read through the middle school plan again and realized that we’ve followed through on quite a bit of it and other things we haven’t. This is one of the reasons why we are relaxed homeschoolers. The ideas and goals in that post continue to be my guide, but I’m not a slave to them and I naturally adjust as we go based on my daughter’s needs. So what is below is an outline of what we are doing. I will be filling it in as we chase rabbit trails and find new things that interest us.

Schoolhouse Teachers Homeschool Classes

We have a membership to SchoolhouseTeachers.com that we are using this year. As I mentioned recently in another post, we receive a free membership because David is the designer of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. Up to this point, we haven’t really utilized it because what was there wasn’t a good fit for Caroline’s needs in the past.

However, I looked through what is there now and was impressed by how much they have added in the past few years. There are quite a few things I can use or adapt for our purposes. So I’ll be mentioning where I plan to utilize the site below under the appropriate subjects.

If you haven’t looked at SchoolhouseTeachers.com before or haven’t checked it out recently, it’s well worth your time to pop over and see if this is something that might be helpful for your family. You pay one price and it covers all the subjects for all of your K-12 children. If you are a relaxed homeschooler and/or not closely married to a particular homeschooling style, there is a lot there for you.

Eighth Grade Homeschool History

I love history so this is the easiest subject for me to teach. I could truly teach nothing but history and fit every subject into it with the exception of higher level mathematics and math-driven science. Ironically, Caroline took a lot of her history through our homeschool co-op so I taught very little history in her elementary years. We’ve switched to all history at home now though so I’m happy about that.

This year we’re doing a variety of things. One, we’re taking a sweeping look at the arc of history to make sure she’s been at least introduced to all the big ideas, people, and events. For this, I’m reading aloud to her the four books in The Story of the World.

We are continuing to use the Timeline Trio from Homeschool in the Woods which I reviewed in History Timeline for Relaxed Homeschoolers. We both like it and it works very well to tie together things we’re learning in History, Bible, and Read Alouds. I highly recommend it as a good investment you can use for multiple years in your homeschool.

We fill in some gaps where Caroline has not studied much. One of these is the Middle Ages so we’ll use the The Middle Ages Project Passport that I reviewed over the summer. We assembled it to write the review, but I did not dig into it with her because I wanted to do The Story of the World first.

We will spend some time looking at Greek and Roman mythology. We haven’t studied that other than mentions in passing so it will be good to read a few books about it to get a solid overview.

We have been reading aloud through books from the Pilgrim Institute the past few years. We have one book left that I would like to go through this year. I am planning to use Divine Providence – A Child’s History of the United States of America.

Divine Providence Bundle

Lastly, I’m going to pull topics from SchoolhouseTeachers.com to fill in some of the other areas depending on how much time we have left after all of these.

Eighth Grade Homeschool Science

David and Caroline do science together and they have completed the last book in our Middle School Chemistry for Relaxed Homeschoolers. They really enjoyed the books so I don’t hesitate to recommend them if you are looking for something like this. Due to budget constraints, we opted not to purchase the hands-on things I had included in that post. But they were able to find lots of interesting videos online to follow up on what they were reading. For middle school, I think Caroline has received an excellent introduction to chemistry. Even more importantly, she really enjoyed it.

We’re going to spend time on understanding creationism as a worldview. I want her to understand the creation and evolution debate so none of it takes her by surprise when she encounters it in the real world. We’re starting with videos and materials available for free online to get the conversation started. As we identify topics we want to dig into more, I’ll search out books or materials to order as needed.

We’ll do some biology. Caroline’s not too excited about biology so we’ll start with some of the less yucky stuff.  This will be a good way to use some of the resources from SchoolhouseTeachers.com. Again, this is about introducing her to ideas and concepts as preparation for high school science.

Homeschool Bible Curriculum

We’ve been very slowly making our way through The Children’s Bible in 365 Stories. Like really slowly. I’m not sure why, but we’ve read it in fits and stops. We finally finished reading aloud the Old Testament section. Now we’ll go through the New Testament, hopefully a bit more quickly so we can move on to other things.

We are reading aloud Scripture. We’re using both the KJV and the NIV. I want Caroline to be comfortable reading the KJV both silently and aloud as a way to prepare for reading other materials written in more formal language. I don’t have a specific plan for this. I am choosing passages, Psalms, etc. that fit with where we are in family life each day. I am making sure we hit a lot of the best known passages and stories.

I’d like to do an introduction to doctrine using something like the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. Obviously not in a super deep way, but as an introduction. I would like Caroline to understand the core components of the Christian faith that we adhere to as Baptists and see that there is a methodical and logical approach to the Bible and matters of faith.

Relaxed Homeschooling Math

We have been using the Learn Math Fast series for a number of months as well as supplementing it with other things. I don’t want to say much about this beyond reminding people that we’re dealing with dyscalculia here. I’m praying a lot.

Homeschool Writing Curriculum

My goal is to have Caroline writing at an appropriate level by the end of the year. As I wrote in WriteShop for Homeschool Writing and Gifted/2e Learners, I’m using WriteShop to give us some structure. Since I wrote an entire post about that, I’ll let you click over and see the details there.

I may also include some materials from 7 Sisters Homeschool. I don’t have anything specific picked out at this point, but they have some good solid materials that will work well for Caroline.

I also have access to writing materials on SchoolhouseTeachers.com so those will probably be in the mix.

Homeschool Literature

I’d like to introduce her to Shakespeare. This will be read aloud books and videos. Nothing complicated, but something to lay the foundation.

Relaxed Homeschooling Read Alouds

In addition to all the reading aloud we are doing for other subjects, we are reading aloud through a lot of books I think Caroline should be familiar with. Caroline is not a reader, but she loves it when we read aloud to her. So we’re reading through classic books this year. Right now we’re well into the Little House series. I’m not sure what we will do next. I have bookcases full of books so we’ll keep pulling off whatever seems good at the time.

Homeschool Culture & Economics Curriculum

I am looking at the books on The Tuttle Twins website. I think these would be good for us, but I haven’t ordered them yet.

Relaxed Homeschooling Art

We still have a number of units from Art History Kids so David and Caroline are using those as a jumping off point for art study. They are also mixing in videos from YouTube, Curiosity Stream, etc.

Relaxed Homeschooling Music

We haven’t started in on the piano as I had hoped. I’d like to get into that now, but I confess the pandemic lockdown has made me put this off. It’s just not the right time. Hopefully sometime this year.

So that’s a bit about what we’re doing this year. Hopefully it will be both fun and educational. Sadly, Caroline doesn’t have any outside activities going on at the moment. Hopefully that will change as we’re all feeling that loss. She had found outside activities she enjoyed the year prior to this and it’s been very disappointing to have everything she was enjoying so much taken away from her. In the meantime, we press on with our year round relaxed homeschooling.

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Meet 5 Homeschooling Moms With Special Needs Kids

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View Full Post with Embedded ContentMeet 5 Homeschooling Moms With Special Needs Kids

One of the things I am passionate about doing on this website is helping parents of differently wired children. I’ve shared many parts of my journey as I’ve tried to unlock what my daughter needed in order to thrive as a person. In the process, I’ve sought out the knowledge and wisdom of other homeschooling moms with special needs kids. Although each differently wired child is unique, there are things that we can learn from each other.

In my own case, I have dozens and dozens of posts that are focused on helping homeschooling moms with special needs kids. These are grouped according to diagnoses and individual needs such as:

I also started creating products for my shop that meet particular needs I discover in my homeschooling journey. For example, I created the Distraction Free Handwriting Practice worksheets because some kids simply cannot focus if a worksheet or printable is covered with squiggly lines and cute animal characters. (See: How a Homeschooled Dreamer Does Preschool Math)

So I created this series of products to be as simple as possible for children who need something with zero distractions as they practice their print or cursive writing.

Homeschooling Moms With Special Needs Kids

Over the past few years I’ve gotten to know a small group of homeschooling moms quite well. I wanted to introduce you to them today in case you’ve never happened across their websites. Each one is the mom of at least one child with a special learning need. Some of them have multiple children with a wide variety of special needs. The diagnoses include dyslexia, dysgraphia, giftedness, twice-exceptionality, anxiety, multiple overexcitabilities, and so on.

The bottom line is that this collection of moms has been walking the homeschool path for many years and with children who require something extra and something different in order to learn and flourish. These are moms who dearly love their children. In each case, I know they have put their own interests aside many times in order to give their child what he or she needs.

I asked each of them to share a few posts or materials they have created that will help other homeschooling moms with special needs kids. These are the posts they selected that they thought gave a glimpse into how they parent and homeschool their special needs children. I encourage you to click over and meet each of these women. I hope at least one or two of them are a good fit for you if you are parenting a different wired child. Hopefully you will find another source of information and encouragement that meets your particular parenting and homeschooling needs.

I also encourage you to take a minute and leave a comment on their site. Let them know you stopped by, especially if you find one of their posts encouraging. You will, in turn, be encouraging another mom.

And isn’t that something we all need each day?

Dianna at The Kennedy Adventures

Dianna is the mom of six children including one set of twins. She writes about her Catholic faith and has many posts and printables to help Catholic moms. She loves Memoria Press for her homeschooling and conducts workshops for them to help other moms. And in her spare time, she works part-time as a nurse.

Ginny at Not So Formulaic

Ginny is the mom of three children, all of whom are gifted/2e. Ginny has a heart especially for the moms of gifted/2e children and has a paid membership group called The Zelie Society where moms can connect. Ginny openly shares how her Catholic faith impacts her life and parenting and welcomes all women to her site and group for encouragement. She has a resource called Executive Decisions: A Practical Guide to Re-ordering Your family’s Heart, Head, and Home that many moms will find helpful.

And Ginny didn’t put this in her list, but I’m adding it anyway because I think this is such an important post of hers that I’ve shared before: I Don’t Love Homeschooling, But I Love My Children – So I Do It Anyway.

Sara at Classically Homeschooling

Sara is the mom of six children, including two who have graduated and gone on to college. Sara’s areas of expertise are classical education and organizing your homeschool. She has many posts about scheduling, prioritizing, and making the most of your day. In her free time, Sara also works outside the home. Sara has also written Building Your Perfect Homeschool In Just 13 Weeks and You Can Do This: 21 Day of Encouragement for the Weary Homeschool Mom.

Lauren at Mama’s Learning Corner

Lauren is the mom of five and has a gift for creating fun printables for younger learners. She shared just one post here, but it is full of information for parents who are homeschooling gifted children including a Google Hangout she did with three other moms of gifted/2e children.

I hope you enjoy meeting these women!

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Physics & Chemistry for Homeschoolers Who Struggle with Math

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View Full Post with Embedded ContentPhysics & Chemistry for Homeschoolers Who Struggle with Math

As I wrote in Middle School Chemistry for Relaxed Homeschoolers, we’ve been taking Caroline through a study of the elements, molecules, and reactions using books I knew would appeal to her and fit her learning style. My goal is to introduce her to the vocabulary and also gain an understanding of elements and how they fit into the bigger scheme of science. I see this as preparing her for high school science, specifically chemistry. She already has a strong interest in astronomy and is gifted in the visual-spatial realm. Knowing this, I believe she will probably also find physics interesting when we get to it. However, the dyscalculia is a big challenge when it comes to science. This is something I’ve been trying to figure out as I think about getting to high school level learning.

I received these materials for free to write this review and am being compensated for my time to do so. All content is my own except for clear quotes from curriculum publisher’s materials. I was not required to provide a positive review.

An opportunity to do a review of a new-to-me high school science curriculum came up and I almost didn’t look at the details. This was partially due to the fact that I was busy and partially because I assumed it wouldn’t work because it’s challenging to find curriculum that is a good fit for my learner. I am so glad I took a look at this and have the opportunity to review Integrated Physics & Chemistry from Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum (PAC).

Why?

This two year high school science curriculum is specifically written for learners who struggle with math. It allows them to enjoy and embrace all of the fascinating concepts without getting bogged down by complex mathematical formulas and processes.

PAC describes it this way:

The author and editors have deliberately avoided complex mathematical equations in order to entice students into high school level science. This course introduces students to the people, places and principles of conceptual physics and basic chemistry without focus on complicated mathematical equations, which often discourage students.

In other words, it’s fantastic for a student who enjoys science topics but might find it challenging to keep up with traditional science courses that are heavily math dependent.

So I’m writing this review without having actually used the curriculum with Caroline at this point. We’ve looked through it and I’m planning on using it as part of her high school science requirements.

With that caveat, my goal today is to introduce you to this curriculum and explain how it might be the answer for many of you who have a gifted/2e child, a child with dyscalculia, a child with a language based learning disability (LBLD), etc. There are several aspects to this curriculum that I think can make it a solid fit for these kinds of bright kids who need adaptations to make something work.

Four Features I Like In Integrated Physics & Chemistry

First, the course “introduces students to the people, places and principles of conceptual physics and basic chemistry without focus on complicated mathematical equations, which often discourage students.” This one line was what made me sign up to do this review. If you have a child with dyscalculia or who otherwise struggles with math, you know how much this can spill over into science subjects. I was thrilled to find a high school science curriculum that didn’t require advanced math skills.

Two, the curriculum is put together in letter-sized saddle-stitched booklets of approximately 60-65 pages. Each chapter has both a Text booklet and an Activity booklet. There are twelve chapters for a total of 180 lessons.

The books are simply designed which, again, is great for students who are easily overwhelmed by too much “stuff” on a page or too big of a book due to processing issues, etc. I learned that very simple page design is the best way to go for my highly creative child to learn academic subjects such as math and science. It seems counter-intuitive. You would think a child who is all about color and design would work best in books full of such things. For academic subjects, it’s just the opposite. The colorful elements books work well for that kind of learning. For this kind of learning, simple is best.

These booklets are black and white inside. They do have some illustrations and design elements.

In all honesty, the booklet design is a bit dated on the inside. They were published in 2005 and so they look like they were designed at that time. I mention this because I often discuss design whether it is in other products I review, picture books I write about, or my own products that I create with David (my graphic designer husband). Design matters a lot to our creative family and it comes up frequently when I write here. So I wanted to mention that the design is a bit dated, but it isn’t enough to put me (or Caroline) off from the booklets. I do think, however, they could be updated and made even better.

Three, the courses require minimal writing. For students with dysgraphia, this is also a bonus feature. The activities, quizzes, and tests are primarily multiple choice and fill in the blank. They are straightforward which is great for students who benefit from simple and easy to follow.

Four, there is an emphasis on character development throughout. It comes through in various stories, quotes, etc. throughout the materials. I appreciate this addition without it feeling forced or preachy.

Overview Of Integrated Physics & Chemistry From PAC

PAC explains the course this way:

IPC focuses on research by the people who contributed to development of the Periodic Table of the Elements. Students learn to read and apply the Periodic Table, while gaining insight into basic chemistry and physics. This is one of our most popular courses among high school students, especially those who aspire to matriculate to college, but are challenged by science courses based on complex mathematical and technical skills. IPC is also an excellent course for pre-high school students who aspire to take conventional chemistry and physics courses permeated with mathematical equations.

Integrated Physics & Chemistry is written to be a two year program and worth two high school credits. It can also be utilized this way as outlined in the book:

  • Chapters 2, 4, 6, 9, 10, and 12 can be counted as Conceptual Physics for one high school transcript credit
  • Chapters 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, and 11 can be counted as Basic Chemistry for one high school transcript credit

The Teacher Resource Kit (TRK) contains the quizzes, chapter tests, and answers to activity questions in the Activities booklet.

The contents of the TRK are designed to be stored in a three ring binder.

The course is designed in such a way that a motivated student could move through it quickly. It lends itself well to fairly independent work that would require very little preparation by mom. This could work well for many families who need a curriculum that encourages more independent studying at the high school level.

I encourage you to click over and see all of the interesting courses they have for science, history, government, math, English, and more. If you know someone who is looking for curriculum for a child with specific learning needs, feel free to share this post with her!

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Relaxed Homeschooling In Seventh Grade

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View Full Post with Embedded ContentRelaxed Homeschooling In Seventh Grade

Last year I wrote about relaxed homeschooling in middle school. I shared our plans for not just last year but the middle school years in general. It was interesting to go back and read it just now to see what worked out and what didn’t. We’re still relaxed homeschoolers in seventh grade. I would still describe our approach as: parent-influenced, interest-led, collaborative relaxed homeschooling. With lots of art supplies.

I always feel a bit hesitant when I write these kinds of posts about our curriculum choices because we live somewhere in the netherland of too much parental control to be unschoolers and not nearly enough structure to satisfy the purists who adhere to a particular homeschooling philosophy. But we do what works for us (and if you care about standardized testing results, it appears to be working).

The truth of the matter is that I simply find something that works that is usually already in the house. I’ve never had the luxury of choosing and buying curriculum (although God has provided in other ways). Almost everything I will discuss below I received one of two ways. It was either to do a review through the iHomeschool Network or the publisher was a client and so we received copies of the things we worked on for them. I basically look at what is on our bookshelves, I order books from the library, I find things online, and I supplement with small and carefully purchased items.

I also hesitate because some of the things we’re doing might seem odd for a middle schooler in that people will think we should have done them sooner and we’re not challenging our daughter enough. But because of some of the 2e challenges we’ve dealt with, there are things that simply weren’t clicking or resonating before now. I’m a big believer that when a learner is ready, things will click along with reasonable effort. So we’re all over the place in terms of doing things that might seem too advanced or too easy. But we’re right where we need to be for our daughter.

In this post I’ll be linking to many other posts that explain what we are doing in much greater detail so I encourage you to click over and see the full explanations. If you aren’t familiar with how we do our homeschooling, David handles the Art and Science that I organize, Gym is done at co-op, and I do everything else. We do our formal homeschool work in the afternoon and evening. We almost never homeschool in the morning.

We also do a lot of additional reading and rabbit trail following that I’m not writing about here. But we’re always learning about something based on conversations, current events, YouTube videos, or whatever. This post simply gives a big picture look at what we are “formally” doing as homeschoolers.

Relaxed Homeschooling Record Keeping

I organize my records using one of my editable homeschool planners (Lavender and Teal this year) and SeeSaw. I wrote a few paragraphs about how we’re using SeeSaw here.

I am still keeping Caroline’s work in acid-free page protectors as I outlined in Organizing Homeschool Paperwork in Binders.

Year Round Homeschooling

I wrote this summer that we moved to year around homeschooling in Living By the Seasons and Homeschooling in the Summer. This was a good choice and one that will continue. Because we are homeschooling year round, it takes so much pressure off me to make sure we “do school” every day. I don’t like that kind of pressure and Caroline really doesn’t like doing school five days a week. We both have too many other interests.

So by doing school year round, we can do school three to five times a week, Monday through Saturday, skip some weeks completely, and get in enough days. We also never stop our momentum by taking off months at a time. I think that’s important for us.

Science

In Middle School Chemistry for Relaxed Homeschoolers, I wrote about our decision to do chemistry this year since it is one area that Caroline had not really explored at all. David and Caroline are still working their way through the Elements book and are watching the relevant TED-Ed periodic table videos. They are truly enjoying it. They do two or three elements each time, depending on the length of the videos.

This has opened up a whole new world for both of them which has been fun. We’re still planning on moving ahead as I outlined in that post when they finish what they are doing at the moment.

Art

We’re continuing to use Art History for Kids. So far this year Caroline and David have completed units on Secret Messages in Italian Renaissance Art, Grandma Moses, The Lascaux Cave Paintings in France, and Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (including The Great Wave).

They are taking a break from those kinds of units to read aloud through The Brilliant History of Color in Art. This book is a great tie in with everything they are learning in chemistry.

I’m also mixing in things like this video about The Library of Rare Colors. These are such great ways to pull the topics together and show how relevant chemistry is to art.

So, yes, Art for us incorporates history, science, math and any other subjects that fit with our daughter’s love of and gift for art since we are homeschooling a highly creative child. But bringing the chemistry and art together has been especially fun.

History

I wrote in History Timeline for Relaxed Homeschoolers that we are using the Timeline Trio from Homeschool in the Woods. This is working well and we continue to add to it.

We are reading aloud through the series The Mighty Works of God from the Pilgrim Institute. We started with Self Government – A Child’s History of the United States of America. My goal with this book was twofold. One, to introduce the important idea of self-government and begin to discuss that concept in a deeper way. Second, to practice reading aloud. Reading aloud was a skill we needed to practice due to some of the challenges Caroline has faced. I truly believed she just needed lots of no-pressure practice at this point since we had overcome some of the issues.

It’s gone really well. We take turns reading aloud and she has come amazingly far in just a few months. We’re now in the second book, Liberty and Justice for All. At some point I might use the next books in the series for more in-depth study, but for now they are great content to read aloud and informally discuss.

Mighty Works of God - Not Memorizing Facts

Bible

I’m reading aloud through The Children’s Bible in 365 Stories. My goal with this is to give Caroline the big overview of the major themes and stories in the Bible. Because of all the church stuff we’ve gone through, she never went through Sunday School, Junior Church, and AWANA type programs so she missed out on having that naturally built into her childhood experience.

We’ve read through many different story Bibles through the years, but haven’t done one that hits all the major stories like this that includes some of the judges, prophets, etc. So we’ll go through this one and then I’ll decide what we should do next.

We’re also studying how the Bible is organized and the various types of books. Memorization is challenging for someone like Caroline whether it is the books of the Bible or math facts so we’re using lots of visuals to make it easier to remember.

Cursive Handwriting

We’ve tried cursive numerous times in the past and it was never the right time. (Caroline has dysgraphia.) I am thrilled to say that it’s finally the right time and she enjoys it. We’re using the handwriting worksheets in my shop.

Writing

This is the first year we’ve used a formal writing program. We’re using WriteShop Junior Book D right now. I’m picking and choosing what to do with it. We’re definitely not doing the entire program step by step. We’re especially going through the Fold-n-Go Grammar Pack to review the big concepts that we’ve never formally studied. Once we do what we need in Book D, we’ll move on to Book E and Book F (which we already own) and use the parts we need.

I wrote more about how we’re using WriteShop in WriteShop for Homeschool Writing and Gifted/2e Learners.

Reading and Read Alouds

We’re not doing a formal reading program. We’ve never done a spelling program and she’s an excellent speller. We do read alouds as a family and we do tons of reading and discussing in every other subject.

In fact, you’ll notice that we do a LOT of reading aloud. That’s because reading aloud and videos are the best way for Caroline to learn. I anticipate this will continue for some time.

I am considering having her go through The Chronicles of Narnia again with us as read alouds and using the 7 Sisters C.S. Lewis Literature Series Guides with her. Not in a high school kind of way, but as an informal way of getting her to start thinking more deeply about literature with a series she already knows and loves. (David read it aloud to her a couple of years ago and we’ve talked about reading it again.) So that’s in the back of my mind for the winter.

Math

Ah, math. We keep moving along. We’re seeing progress, but this dyscalculia thing makes it complicated.

Music

We haven’t been doing anything formally with this lately. Now that we have SiriusXM in the car, we listen to Symphony Hall all the time. We discuss composers and styles of music and such. It’s interesting that Caroline’s love of the Star Wars movies has led her to enjoying classical music. She really likes the John Williams soundtracks and they moved her naturally into an interest in classical music. Amazing.

The Other Stuff

Caroline is involved with other things outside the home including volunteering, free classes, etc. I’m not going to get into those details except to say that they all meet specific needs in her life and provide lots of fun outlets.

So that’s what we’re doing right now. I might do an update mid-year or share again if things change substantially. We really love relaxed homeschooling and it’s the right fit for our child and our family. I’m so grateful we can do this. I truly shudder to think what life would be like for Caroline if she were forced to attend a traditional school where everything is done in the worst possible way for her particular gifts and struggles. It’s truly worth all the sacrifices to see her happy and engaged with real and meaningful learning.

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Homeschooling a Child with Language-Based Learning Disabilities (LBLD)

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View Full Post with Embedded ContentHomeschooling a Child with Language-Based Learning Disabilities (LBLD)

When I submitted my name to review Helping Your Child with Language-Based Learning Disabilities, I thought it would be worth checking out as something to maybe refer to from time to time. I thought it would be worth knowing about the book in case it might be helpful for some of my readers either now or in the future.

I had no idea it was going to become one of those pivotal books in my life.

I received this book for free. I am being paid for my time to write this review and was not required to post a positive review.

Helping Your Child with Language-Based Learning Disabilities: Strategies to Succeed in School and Life with Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Dyscalculia, ADHD, and Processing Disorders by Daniel Franklin, PhD is so valuable I know I will be recommending it over and over again on my site.

Why?

Because it explains in-depth and from a professional viewpoint so much of what I’ve come to believe and understand. My own journey as the mother of a child with multiple LBLD has been long. I’ve questioned my choices because they didn’t fit with conventional wisdom. They didn’t fit with what it looks like to be a “good” Christian parent. We weren’t supported by people who should have believed in us enough to support our choices. It’s been a long and sometimes very lonely road. Large portions of this website document my journey as I’ve been open as to how I’ve made decisions, the things I’ve learned, and what I’ve tried to do for my daughter when things just didn’t make sense.

But over and over again Dr. Franklin confirmed that I’ve been on the right path. That I am still on the right path. More than a few times when I was reading the book, tears welled up in my eyes because he wrote something that confirmed beyond any doubt that I was right in the choices I made. Many times I only had my mother’s intuition and some reading I’d done online to go with, but I was right.

Children with LBLD Need Loving Relationships

This isn’t a Christian book, but it is full of what should be guiding principles for Christian parents as they work with their child with LBLD, especially if they homeschool. Dr. Franklin emphasizes that what children with LBLD need more than anything in order to succeed is loving relationships that include what I would call:

  • grace
  • compassion
  • understanding
  • longsuffering
  • patience
  • peace
  • laughter
  • joy

You know how I constantly talk about creating a cozy life of peace, understanding, and joy for you and your loved ones in your home, your homeschool, and for your differently-wired child? Guess what? Peace, understanding, and joy are exactly what children with LBLD need in their life.

Over and over again those concepts are expressed in various ways in the book. Not in those exact terms, but those are the concepts that Dr. Franklin emphasizes again and again when describing how to live and work with your child. The start of Chapter 3 states:

The kind of help I advocate for children with language-based learning difficulties requires a profound lifestyle shift for the whole family–not a set of quick fixes. Mine is a collaborative method that builds the foundation a child needs to transition to independence as soon as he or she is ready, in part by setting clear goals for the child and family and by emphasizing the need for family collaboration and teamwork. To succeed at this approach, parents must be willing to commit significant amounts of time, energy, and yes, kindness, to improving their child’s learning experience.

Can I get an amen?

Homeschooling a Child with LBLD

The book is written with a school paradigm in mind so the frame of reference Dr. Franklin uses is how to help your child succeed in school in terms of giving her the academic support she needs at home. But the principles and practical advice are still the same if you are homeschooling your child.

In some ways, they are even more applicable because you are your child’s teacher. Reading this book affirmed for me again and again that homeschooling a child with LBLD makes so much more sense because you can avoid all the effort needed to get on the same page with your child’s teachers and simply do it yourself. Educating a child with LBLD is a long journey that takes a great deal of effort, but I can’t help but think that it’s better to put that effort into your child than dealing with bureaucracy.

Dr. Franklin’s book also confirmed for me that homeschooling a child with LBLD is one that really is for the long haul. This chart in the book was like gold.

It’s a visual explanation of the skill development discrepancy that LBLD children face. See that big arrow? That’s where children with LBLD generally are the most “off” from their peers in terms of academic abilities. But do you see what happens as time passes if they get the support they need? They can end up right back with their peers.

I recently wrote at length about why our family enjoyed the tween years so much. Why did we? Because we emphasized relationship over pretty much everything else. If the relationship is there, the academic results can come in time. The important thing is to support the child with LBLD during those years when the skill development discrepancy can be soul-crushing if they don’t understand themselves and what you are working toward in the long-run.

A Book of Encouragement and Realistic Advice

This is such a practical book with realistic advice. It’s also incredibly encouraging. I’ve read so many articles and books about topics related to dysgraphia, dyscalculia, 2e, processing disorders, etc. and they are all about how to fix your child. They are all about seeing your child as a problem to be solved. This book is about how to first love your child as she needs it and then how by loving your child you can also help your child find the tools she needs to succeed academically, socially, etc.

Who should buy and read this book?

First of all, if you have a child with an LBLD or if you even suspect that your child has an LBLD (dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, ADHD, or processing disorder), you need this book. Please buy it. On behalf of your child who needs your love and understanding, I’m asking you to buy it and take it to heart.

If you have a child like this and you struggle with frustration, anger, or being even-keeled with your child due to his/her struggles and how they impact your home life, homeschooling, etc. then you need to buy this book. Not only does your child need you to have it, you need it. Understanding the principles in this book could save you years or even a lifetime of regret.

Who else needs to read it?

Everyone who comes into contact with children and genuinely cares about children who don’t always fit in. Even if you don’t have a child with LBLD, you will benefit from this book because chances are you interact regularly with such children in:

  • homeschool co-op
  • sports teams
  • 4-H
  • church
  • VBS
  • AWANA
  • GEMS/Cadets
  • Girl Scouts/Boy Scouts
  • volunteer places
  • grandchildren
  • nieces and nephews
  • neighbors

Children with LBLD are so often misunderstood and on the receiving end of people’s frustration, exasperation, and other short-tempered reactions to their inability to function as quickly and readily as their peers. If you can understand and identify these children when you work with them, you can be a significant adult in their life who demonstrates care and understanding of them as a person.

You can buy the book on Amazon, on Dr. Franklin’s site, or on the Franklin Educational Service Company site. If you would like to reach out to Dr. Franklin directly, you can contact him here. 

I encourage you to take eleven minutes and watch this video. This is the author’s own story. It’s an amazing story of a boy who didn’t learn to read until he was eleven due to LBLD who went on to receive a Masters from Harvard and a PhD from UCLA. He is now a Board Certified Educational Therapist who helps children with the same issues that made his early years so difficult.

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Live Online High School Classes For Homeschoolers – Big River Academy

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View Full Post with Embedded ContentLive Online High School Classes For Homeschoolers – Big River Academy

Live online high school classes is something the early homeschoolers could have only dreamed of. It’s amazing the opportunities we can bring to our homeschooled children right from the comfort of our own home. It’s equally amazing how these kinds of classes can free up homeschool moms from the weight of preparing, teaching, and grading high school classes.

Big River Academy offers live online learning for Christian homeschoolers. These high school (and middle school) classes include a wide variety of courses that provide homeschooled students the opportunity to study in-depth with well-qualified instructors and engage with other homeschoolers around the country.

I had access to a class for free. I am being compensated for my time to write this review post. All opinions are my own and I was not required to provide a positive review.

Big River Academy Overview

Big River Academy offers a large selection of high school classes as well as a few select middle school classes taught within a Christian framework. You can read their Statement of Faith to learn more about their theological views.

The comprehensive classes involve live learning interaction, independent reading, written assignments, and more. If your child has never taken an online class before, you can see the way it all works here.

Of particular interest to some of my readers, Big River Academy recognizes that some children have special learning needs. If this is your student, you can see their guidelines regarding Special Need Accommodations for learners with Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Nonverbal Learning Disability, and ADD/ADHD. They do not specifically mention Dyscalculia, but there is a phone number on that web page for questions so that would be one to ask one-on-one if that is your child’s learning need.

Online High School Classes

There is an excellent selection of classes that you’ll see listed below, especially in English, Foreign Language, and the Social Sciences. You can see the entire course catalog that includes greater details about each class offering.

English

  • Advanced Composition
  • American Literature
  • Banned and Burned
  • British Literature
  • English I, II, III, and IV
  • Intermediate Composition
  • Into to Literature Analysis
  • Movies as Literature
  • World Literature
  • WriteShop
  • Writer ER
  • Writing the Research Paper

Mathematics

  • Comprehensive Math with Pre-Algebra
  • Algebra I

Foreign Language

  • German I, II, and III
  • Italian I, II, III, and IV
  • Latin I, II, and III
  • Latin 1A and 1B
  • Spanish I, II, and III

Science

  • Biology
  • Chemistry
  • Bridge to Biology (middle school)
  • Psychology

​Social Sciences

  • The American Criminal Justice System and Homeland Security
  • American Government
  • Criminological Crime Scene Investigation <<<<< Caroline wants this one when she’s old enough. LOL! >>>>>>
  • Exploring US History (middle school)
  • US History (high school)
  • Geography Around the World (middle school)
  • World Geography: Physical and Cultural (high school)
  • World History (high school)

Test Preparatory

  • SAT/ACT Preparatory
  • SAT Preparatory
  • ACT Preparatory

​Electives

  • Music Theory & Composition I and II
  • Personal Finance I and II
  • Public Speaking
  • Technology Essentials

Banned and Burned English Class

I had the opportunity to access the materials for one class in order to write this review. I requested the Banned and Burned class for high schoolers. This class reads:

  • Brave New World
  • 1984
  • Things Fall Apart
  • The Grapes of Wrath
  • A Passage to India

The class experience includes reading comprehension, vocabulary, discussion, and comprehension. It’s definitely for more mature students as it involves mature subject matter and the course requirements are higher level. But I really appreciate that a Christian homeschooling online academy is offering classes such as one that studies banned books.

Students engage in literary analysis, writing arguments, and examining why books such as these are banned. One of the purposes of the class is to prepare for college-level learning so it is a demanding and thorough high school class.

Sample Online Classes

You can check out multiple sample classes. Here are a few more samples.

This one is for German I.

Black River Academy Discount Code

If you are ready to try a class (or a few!) from Black River Academy, be sure to use the code BLOG100. You will receive 10% off your entire course purchase.

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Standardized Testing With a Homeschooled Gifted/2e Child

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View Full Post with Embedded ContentStandardized Testing With a Homeschooled Gifted/2e Child

We recently completed our first standardized testing. This is not required in our state, but I did want to get a snapshot of where Caroline is at this point in our relaxed homeschooling journey with a gifted/2e child. I had the opportunity to do a Stanford Achievement Test with her as part of doing a review of Homeschool Testing Services so I decided it was a good time to do this. I highly recommend you click over and read Stanford Achievement Test for Homeschoolers first so you have the background and then read this post about our experience with standardized testing as homeschoolers.

Homeschool Standardized Testing Goals

When I decided to do a standardized test, I had a few goals in mind including:

  • Confirm that I was still perceiving Caroline’s strengths and weaknesses accurately
  • Provide her with experience taking a standardized test
  • Be successful in taking a standardized test for the first time and avoid creating test anxiety of any kind
  • Get a glimpse of how our relaxed homeschooling approach has worked overall

I know what Caroline’s strengths and weaknesses are since she has been formally diagnosed with both dysgraphia and dyscalculia. I wrote earlier this year about my relaxed homeschooling goals for middle school if you want to see in more detail my thinking about where she was last summer/early fall and where I want to get her over the next three years. I wanted to confirm I was still on the right track.

At some point, Caroline will probably need to participate in some kind of standardized testing for a real reason. I did not want her first experience to be something like the ACT or even preparing for the ACT. I thought this was a good way to get her experience in this aspect of education when there is virtually no long-term downside to doing this.

I purposely ordered a test one grade below the grade she is currently in. I wanted her to be successful. I knew because of her dyscalculia that the math portion was going to be a challenge, but I didn’t want it to be devastatingly difficult.

It was very important to me that she not be stressed out about the test. I did not want to create test anxiety in her. This test was a good fit in that it is not timed and there is zero writing. Everything is fill in a bubble. She could take as much time as she needed and didn’t need to worry about writing. It was win-win to set her up for success with no need to worry about accommodations.

By way of comparison, there are now lots of online standardized tests that will adapt during the testing process in order to create a more personalized testing experience. That sounds good, but I learned when we did a review of CTC Math that Caroline becomes frustrated when she is working on something online, realizes she made a mistake she wants to correct, and isn’t allowed by the program to go back and change her answer. She really liked that math program at first, but grew to dislike it because it left her so frustrated. And I can see her point. I would also find that frustrating and it would eat at me to know that I realized my mistake and could not correct it.

So I don’t think I would do an online standardized test with her unless it gave her the trade-off of being able to type her answers rather than needing to write long answers by hand. Then we’d have to weigh the pros and cons of both and make a decision. I’m guessing she would choose skipping the writing by hand and putting up with the inability to go back to fix answers but we’ll cross that bridge in/when we get there.

Preparing For Standardized Testing

Caroline went into this test basically cold. I had printed off a few practice tests I found online, but we only did a bit of them before she got sick. When the test came, it didn’t look anything like the practice tests so they wouldn’t have helped all that much in retrospect.

I explained to her most schools spend weeks getting ready for tests like these, coaching the students extensively on how to read the questions, understand what is being asked, doing practice tests, etc. So I do believe she could have scored even higher on some of the portions if she had been coached on how to take the tests.

The other thing I did to prepare her is I emphasized that when they create these tests they expect most of the students to get wrong answers. They do not expect students to get them all right. I emphasized that I knew there would be things she would not know how to do and that was totally fine. I made it abundantly clear that getting 100% on every part was not a reasonable goal.

Classic 2e Testing Results

Gifted kids are asynchronous in their learning and 2e kids take that to another level. So when people try to explain gifted kids, they might give an example of a child who:

  • speaks like an adult
  • reads like a ninth grader
  • plays like a fifth grader
  • does math like a fourth grader
  • discusses history like a high schooler

If the child is twice-exceptional (2e), they do all these kinds of things and then you also throw in a learning challenge (or two or three or…) So when you test these kids, you end up with scores that are ALL OVER the place because their learning levels are all over the place depending on their particular set of gifts and learning challenges.

And oh my. We clearly saw that with her test results. She had results on some sections that placed her in late high school and beyond. She had other test results that were well below grade level. She had many that were solidly above average and some in the average range. Her overall Complete Battery was way above grade level, but even that high score was pulled down by some of her scores in a few areas that were very low.

She had some results that FAR exceeded my expectations even though I knew she had strengths in certain areas.

I actually laughed out loud at some of the results. For example, she got 100% on the Political Science section. We discuss politics and government regularly in our home, take her with us when we vote, have her watch things with us, etc. However, I think what especially helped her was the fact that we let her watch the first season of Designated Survivor this winter. I started watching it and was hooked. I let her watch the episodes after I did. She loved it.

At one point while she was taking the test, she indicated she didn’t understand one of the questions. I said, “Think about what you know from watching Designated Survivor.” She looked at it again and immediately knew the answer. And she rocked the rest of it too. It just goes to show that you never know what you can find that will help kids learn something!

Overall, she crushed the entire Social Science portion. It was her highest overall score.

She also scored 100% on the Synonyms part of the Vocabulary portion which did not surprise me but also fascinated me. We knew from the gifted testing that verbal ability and vocabulary is one of her strengths. I think (like her mother) she is naturally wired for this and spending all your time with two chatty adults with rich vocabularies and a love of verbal antics will build on that even further, I think.

Related to this, she scored extremely well on the Listening portion. That fascinated me given how she struggles with auditory issues. Behind Social Science, it was her overall highest score.

She also scored well on Reading Comprehension which was interesting to me because she’s not an avid book reader at all and we’ve not done much formal work in that area. But we have read a lot to her since she was tiny and we discuss things all the time so I think it simply transferred over to that test.

Spelling was another area of strength for her which also makes me laugh a bit. We never did phonics with her (she hated phonics and was confused by it) and she’s a right brain learner so she learns whole to part. I’ve never done a formal spelling program with her. She basically taught herself to spell by playing online games (Minecraft, Roblox, Animal Jam, etc.) when she wanted to communicate with other players. I have started to spot check her a bit to see if she’s still advancing and when I see a “rule” or spelling pattern she hasn’t figured out on her own, I point it out to her.

The areas where she scored less well all made sense to me. Some of the sections were clearly designed for kids who were in a classroom where the teacher could teach to the test. This was clear in some of the science and in the writing especially.

She did very well overall in the Science portion with the exception of one part that was very low. That’s because she’s never approached science in that way. Considering we’ve been very much relaxed homeschoolers with science, I was thrilled with how well she did. She was overall way above grade level with the exception of one portion that dragged down her overall score. Otherwise she did great. If I had coached her beforehand, she would have been able to do better in that one portion.

The entire Writing section had a “vocabulary” that if you weren’t familiar with made it much more difficult to score well. Either you had been taught to the test in this area or you were going to be at an obvious disadvantage. This was especially true because they are testing writing and composing in a multiple choice format which also makes it kind of weird overall.

As soon as I saw the test when it came, I knew she would not score well in this section. So I was not at all surprised that this was one of her lower scoring areas. She had not been taught how to succeed in this section so I’m not really too concerned about this. I already had it on my radar to begin formally doing a writing program with her starting soon (probably WriteShop which I will write about at another time) and we’ll get her up to speed on this. I’m not concerned. She has great ideas, a great vocabulary etc. She simply needs to learn how to organize it for other people to read.

And that brings us to Math. Yes, math. We will press on. LOL! On the bright side, we can see it is getting easier for her so I have hope that we will be able to eventually get her to proficient levels in math.

Seeing The Big Picture

I think the most rewarding part of doing this testing is that it reinforced for Caroline that she really is a bright young lady. Being 2e with both giftedness and learning challenges is a HARD combination. So many 2e kids think they are dumb because they struggle so much in certain areas where they have legitimate challenges. It is heartbreaking because it often overwhelms or seemingly negates all of the areas where they are truly gifted.

We have come such a long way over the past few years. Seeing the test results demonstrated to her that she is very capable. She was really proud of how many above averages she had on her tests and how many areas where she obviously excelled. It also clearly showed her where she needs to put forth concentrated effort to get over the proverbial hump in certain subjects.

So I think we both came away more focused and on the same page regarding where we need to spend our time over the spring and summer.

Standardized Testing Again?

We will definitely do another test. I told her we will do another test next year. They are really not that expensive and I would like to try another one after we put more focus on her areas of weakness.

I hope people find this post helpful, especially those with gifted/2e children. Based on our experience, I believe there can be real value in utilizing a test like the Stanford Achievement Test with kids who are gifted/2e and homeschooled.

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