Routines & Schedules

I have been looking at this past school year and am seeing a need to make slight changes. The curriculum is great and working out so well that there is no issue there. The issue is in getting our family back on a set routine. Pookie wanders around looking “lost” unless he is actively doing something. Yes, he has free play time, but he doesn’t function well without structure. I am seeing a need for the same structure in Little Miss. She does great when there is a set routine in place. She does not get near as much done without that routine.

With that in mind, I have been working on getting us on a schedule that will allow us the time we need for getting schoolwork completed as well as having plenty of time for the kids to play. I am blessed to have kids who like to get up very early. Those who know me best are well aware that I am NOT a morning person, so the word “blessed” is said tongue in cheek. LOL Unfortunately for me, both kids take after their Daddy in that they wake up early and are very “perky” as soon as their feet hit the floor. This means, Momma is waking up a half hour or so earlier than they do so I have time for a cup (or 2 or 3) of coffee before I have the “invasion of the little people” commences.

Over the past school year, our schedule went out the window. Honestly, I am not sure how we managed to get as much done as we did. We had 2 families living under 1 roof for a period of 7 months. In a situation like that, when both families have their own way of doing things, it is very difficult to maintain a set routine. Little by little, ours went by the wayside. Now that we are back to only 1 family in our home, I am seeing just how far from routine we had become. The effect has be quite definite in the kids.

I used to have a weekly schedule that helped me to space out the bigger tasks that had to be done each week. Living off-grid, my daily chores are done without the benefit of electric appliances. This includes laundry, which I wash by hand on a scrub board to then be hung out on a clothesline. The only exception being during the rainy season or winter when I will make trips to town to use a laundromat so that I can use the dryers. With this lifestyle, a schedule is essential for me to stay on task as well as the kids!

I am reestablishing the routine that I had before, but with a few minor changes. Pookie no longer takes naps on a daily basis and there is his therapies to factor in. I am now getting up early enough in the morning to have breakfast ready before the kids wake up. As soon as breakfast is done, homeschooling is begun. We start out with Little Miss doing her morning calendar notebook while Pookie plays for a few minutes and I wash the breakfast dishes. Next, we work on the group activities that both Little Miss and Pookie can do together. This includes the daily devotional that corresponds with day’s lesson and finding Daddy on the map. If he is in a state that we have not studied yet, then I may make it the state of the week to focus on. Once the group activities are done, we go on to the individual tasks.

Individual tasks are where we are doing the workboxes. Worksheets from Little Miss’ curriculum are placed into the workboxes as well as supplemental materials. She is continuing in her Rod & Staff Mathematics. She also has geography workbooks, a lapbook, and her Little Keeper’s program activities. These assignments are mostly done independently with only minor guidance from me.

While Little Miss works on her workboxes, Pookie is doing his. I work one-on-one with him at this point. He is still learning how to use the TEACCH program’s way of doing his preschooling. I reread the book by Sue Patrick with a fresh outlook and am seeing the wisdom in why she organized the system as she did. While Little Miss may do well with slightly less structure or without the bins that Ms Patrick recommended, Pookie needs the increased structure. He needs to bins without a lid on them, yet they need to be deeper than a tray. I found that the clear box-like acrylic photo frames make a good rigid tray.

I am not needing a lot of workbox containers at this time, so am buying them just a few at a time. I am getting the clear flat containers that are large enough to hold a workbook, yet only 3 inches tall. They have a flat lid that is clipped into place. These will work for both of the kids. If Pookie is doing an activity that requires more depth to the container, it would only require that I not put on the lid. I do like the uniform appearance of the kids having the same type of bins. The greatest advantage to these style bins is that they take up far less space on shelves than the shoe boxes Ms Patrick recommends.

By autumn, we will be fully ready to the new school year with the workboxes back in place and organized much better. Little Miss is happy to be getting them back. She missed using them. It gave her a sense of accomplishment to go through the boxes independently and watch as the shelves emptied out as the morning went along.

With the reestablishment of the workboxes comes the visual schedules. Of the entire workbox system, this is both my favorite part, yet my biggest challenge. Little Miss is really easy to please when it comes to the workbox tags. Doesn’t matter if it is simply the numbers on pretty paper or a themed set of tags. She loves them. Pookie on the other hand is more of a challenge. While I plan to simply use clip art that represents a specific school subject for his workboxes, I am also including clip art for the various therapy activities, such as sensory bins, fine motor, and gross motor skills.

It is taking longer to get it all set up than I wanted, but I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Summer Reading Programs

In 2 weeks, the library that we go to is having their Summer Reading Program kick-off. Little Miss is thoroughly excited about it. We participate each year. It is a fun time. We spend many hours a week simply enjoying books.

We read a lot of books throughout the year because of homeschooling year-round. During the summer reading program, we do not count the school related reading. Any books read during free time are logged for the program however. One of Little Miss’ favorite places to go is a plaza in Oklahoma City. There is a 1/2 Price Books store. a craft supply store, and a Christian Book store all in the same plaza. At 1/2 Price Books, she always picks out a couple of books to buy. Past books that she chose were Little House series books and Charlotte’s Web. Next, we go to the craft store to pick up a project for her to work on. Since we only go to the stores about once a month, we get something that will keep her entertained and busy for as long as possible. Last time there, we bought the supplies to make a craft that she heard about in one of the Little House books. At the Christian book store, we buy some school supplies. They have a wonderful children’s section there also where we always find a book or two that the kids will enjoy.

On average, I am reading to the kids about 3 hours per day, not including any books read to them in relation to their schoolwork. Little Miss is beginning to read a bit more on her own also. We don’t have a TV or video games to distract us. Books are one of our primary forms of entertainment. Taking part in a summer reading program just adds a bit more to it.

For those wanting more activities to do in conjunction with reading, you can find many free lapbooks available to go along with individual story books at Homeschool Share. The lapbooks are fun to put together. One series of lapbooks they have is for the Little House books. The Mom who designed these did them for her own daughter. The activities pages and ideas are a great extension to the books that will enhance them greatly. When reading the book, “Little House in the Big Woods,” she was able to recreate many of the projects the book mentioned. Making butter using heavy cream was one that she loved doing. She helped me make bread that day and as the bread was baking, we made the butter. By the time the bread was done baking, we had fresh butter ready to spread onto the warm slices of bread. Little Miss enjoyed it so much that we are doing that lapbook again. This time around, we will also be making cheese like Ma did in the story. Little Miss has made a corn husk doll, sewn a “pocket” by hand, and made fleece scarves. All were inspired by the Little House story lapbook.

Whether you homeschool in the summer or not, taking part in a summer reading program will benefit your children. Adding a lapbook or another such activity to enhance the stories read will give them more dimension and meaning. It will also allow children to continue learning even while on their summer break.

Purposeful Play

It didn’t take long in preschooling my son at home to realize the important role purposeful play can be in helping him to learn. I define purposeful play as any game or toy that can be used to teach or reinforce a specific, desired skill or idea. In using the TEACCH approach at home, I am quickly finding ways to help Pookie to develop skills while doing simple tasks in an organized fashion. One of his weak areas of development has always been the fine motor skills. With that in mind, I often focus many of his tasks around that one developmental area.

Certain skills are more easily mastered than others. Teaching him to use an incentive chart is one of them. He picked the incentive, which happened to be a fruit breakfast bar, which are a favorite snack of his. Having to place sorting bears into a dish, one at a time, to earn his tokens was worth it to him. I had his breakfast bar where he could see it and he quickly got the idea of what I wanted him to do. After a few times, he now will start doing the activity without prompting.

Pookie loves cars. I have begun using them as a teaching tool. I have the alphabet letters in large “bubble letter” font that came from a preschool workbook called, “Letter of the Week.” Using paint and a small toy car, Pookie can learn to make the letters. With paint in a dish, he runs the car through the paint then draws the letter by running the car inside of the bubble letters. In his perception, he is playing with his car. Yet, in the course of the play he is also learning that letter of the alphabet.

Using the stacking pegs in a rubber mat strengthens both the fingers and well as the arms. If you doubt that, try for yourself to see just how snug those pegs fit into the mat! It takes effort to push the pegs into the mat as well as when pulling them out. Yet, to him it is a game. Add into the task the number mats which have a child place the number of pegs into the mat to correspond with the numeral on that mat and you have a math game. The pegs become a method of sorting and pattern sequencing depending on how you choose to use them.

The whole idea is to take a look at the toys or games in your home. Look at them from a skill development or academic achievement approach. How can you alter the play to gain the most from it? Any child’s toy can be turned into a tool for teaching. Sometimes it may require that you think outside of the box. Your limits are only in your creativity.

Summer Goals

We had a major change in our household this week. My eldest daughter’s family, who had been living with us for the past 7 months, moved to another town to be closer to her husband’s new job. They had moved in with us last September after a job loss. Now, I am looking at a very empty looking front room that they had used as a bedroom.

I am turning that room back into the homeschool room as it had been before. We have always liked the idea of having a separate area just for the homeschooling. The front room, with all of its natural lighting is perfect for that. After a quick trip into town to return a library book, it is on to the task of making that room a place for homeschool and therapy again.

I have so many ideas on how to do the homeschooling area. I want it to be very efficient for both the kids and myself. Little Miss lives to be as independent as possible in her schooling. She really enjoys that part of the workbox system. We had let the workbox system sort of fizzle out while my older daughter’s family lived with us. Now, Little Miss is wanting it back. Frankly, I enjoyed it too. It means a little bit more work for me to get the workboxes filled each night, but it is worth it the next day. As she works on her independent work, I can focus more fully on Pookie’s TEACCH sessions.

At the homeschool convention, I bought My Father’s World’s Toddler package. Might seem an odd purchase for a 4 yr old, but the activities in that package work great for building up Pookie’s hand strength and his fine motor skills. He already gets a lot of gross motor exercise just through his daily play and being outdoors. While my grandsons were living here, I saw that Pookie’s fine motor skills stopped developing at about 6-8 months of age. He never naturally developed the pincer movement, for example, which is necessary to learn to feed himself finger foods. Watching my young grandson grow and develop, I was able to see the benchmarks clearly that Pookie never reached. The toddler package has puzzles and other simple activities that will address those issues. One activity is the tall stacking pegs with a rubber mat. He has 2 sets of these pegs. One has a square mat while the other is a train comprised of 5 mats. The train engine has 1 spot for a peg and the numeral “1″, the remaining cars & caboose have the numbers 2-5 on them. Through this activity, he will get the fine motor development while learning his numbers 1-5. All of the activities in the package, added to what I already have for him, will provide him a multi-sensory approach to his learning as well as being a valuable therapy for his hands. The good part is that he enjoys these types of activities.

Little Miss enjoys having the morning calendar notebook to do each day. I am making a nice morning calendar board for her and Pookie. Of course, at this point he is not doing a notebook yet, but he can sure listen to us go through it! I am finding that he learns more than people imagine just from listening. I also want him to get into the routine of the morning calendar.

Over the summer, as Little Miss goes through her current curriculum, we will be working much more intensely with using visual schedules. Not only for her but especially for Pookie. Now that we have more wall space to display the schedule, I will be focusing more on that over the next few months. Doing workboxes with Little Miss is so vastly different than with Pookie. She loves having the workbox number tags that are of a theme, such as a favorite character or pretty scrapbook paper. It makes the workboxes “pretty” to her and she enjoys it. Pookie, however, needs his tags to be more plain and utilitarian at this point. If I were to make him some with a colorful graphic or paper, the colors & design would be very distracting to him. For Pookie, his tags are very simple. Using scraps of solid color cardstock which I laminated, I cut out 1.5″ squares. I cut 2 of each color. One set is placed on his task trays and the other on his schedule. He matches them up just as Little Miss would do her numbers. Using colors instead of numbers is just a much more simplified method. Later on, I can add numbers to the tags. Until then, he is still learning the process which will in turn help him learn independence in completing his tasks.

Little Miss Meets Author, Susan K. Marlow

Today we went to the homeschool convention in Tulsa.  Little Miss got quite a fun treat.  She got to meet, Susan K. Marlow, the author of the Circle C Adventures book series.  Mrs. Marlow was very sweet with Little Miss and autographed a book for her as well as allowing us to take a picture of her with Little Miss.

 

This book series is set in the 1880′s.  On the website, there are activity & coloring pages to go with each book.  At the convention, they also had lapbooks available for purchase along with paper dolls.  Overall, the books and additional resources are perfect for homeschooling or simply extending the love of reading.

It was a fun time for Little Miss.  She is already talking about wanting the book read to her tonight.  I am certain we will be ordering more of the books in the series very soon!

 

Organizing the Homeschool Reading Lists

If you have been homeschooling for very long, you quickly realize just how many books your family will go through. Trips to the library and book stores will quickly add to the list. While reading is very critical to your child’s education, it can be daunting to keep track of it all.

My Father’s World, and many other homeschool curricula, typically will include a suggested reading list to correlate with their curricula. On the My Father’s World facebook group pages, parents using the curriculum share more titles which they have found enjoyable. If you search your library system’s online catalog, there is even more titles to glean through.

I wanted a way to organize the book lists that would be easy to maintain and use. I found a reading log form online and made a lot of copies of it. I began by writing down the suggested reading list for the first several units in the curriculum. Each unit has it’s own page. I then added an extra page or two of the reading log form for each unit. On the extra forms, I write the titles that other parents have used, ones that I have found, and the titles that we already own.

When I get a chance, I look up the library call numbers for the titles and write it in. I include which library system has the book. This is helpful to me since we live 10 miles from a small city library and are also using a larger library 40 miles from home. The larger library is part of a regional library system that has access to a larger number of books. If the book is one that we own, I highlight the title. This makes it easy if I end up purchasing a library book that we enjoyed.

The system works well, but does take time to set up. Once set up, it is a great resource.

Geography Idea

I am so glad that we chose to homeschool year round. Little Miss is enjoying the curriculum so much that I would not want to take too long of a break over summer. Being that my husband is a truck driver, we plan our homeschooling around his schedule. During the weeks he is gone, we homeschool nearly every day. Sunday is the only guaranteed day that we don’t homeschool. When Daddy is home for his days off, we take a break from homeschool for the entire time he is home. The only exception being if we go to a museum or other educational location that becomes a field trip.

We got Little Miss a couple of books for the states. One is a children’s USA atlas book. It has maps of each state with a little information about them. She also has an activity workbook with a 2-page spread of activities and maps for each of the states. As Daddy travels with his trucking job, we choose a state he is driving in to be our state of the week. Whenever possible, he mails the kids postcards from the places he goes to. Cards with state maps, historical places, or the state’s vital statistics are among the most common ones he sends.

I received an Oriental Trading catalog recently that inspired me. The specific catalog that I received was their religious one that has Vacation Bible School supplies in it. One product that they have are passport books that the kids can use with stickers. It gave me an idea. Why not alter the idea of a passport book to be a “Passport Around the USA” book? Instead of having pages for foreign countries, designate one page for each state in the USA. The passport booklets that Oriental Trading sells come in a pack of 12. If I remove the staples and carefully cut the booklets down the center binding fold, I can add extra pages to a book. Using my comb binder, I can bind the book with the extra pages included. Using graphics from online, I can gather state flags, seals, state bird, flower, and map to make into small stamp-size pictures. These can be cut out and adhered onto the page for each state as we learn about it.

Hands-on Math

Pookie is learning to use the incentive chart that I made very well. While he isn’t always keen on the idea at first, he is learning quickly that if he does the activity, the reward is given to him right away. Now that he is catching on to this concept, we can gently begin to make a bit of adjustments.

I found a picture of a cute Pom-Pom Numbers book that is a free download at Childcare Land. The pages are full size for each number. Printed on cardstock, then laminated, these can be used as play dough mats. I am taking it another step. After laminating, I will add a soft Velcro dot to each “dot” on the number pages. The rough Velcro dot can be placed onto buttons, pom poms or any other small items that you may have to use as the game pieces. At first, I can ask Pookie to place 1 game piece on a single dot and give him a token for his incentive chart. Gradually, I can have him complete one number page for each token.

In using these printables, an option that I am choosing to use is to scale down the page size for printing. When you go to print out the pages, which are in pdf format, find the “Page Sizing” option and click on “multiple”. Allow 4 pages per page and print in landscape orientation. You will end up with 4 pages per sheet that are postcard size. Use something rather flat as your game pieces, such as buttons or a laminated cardstock circle cut out with a circle punch. Stack the pages in order and bind with a comb binder along the top edge. An envelope made to look like a seed packet can be laminated and bound to the booklet also. Use Velcro dots as the envelope closure and you have a game piece pocket. The entire booklet can be stored in a 6×9 manila envelope or a quart size baggie.

I am learning to adapt the printables. Pookie has major texture issues and simply refuses to touch certain things on some days. Pom poms are a great example. On rare occasions, he will play with a bin of them that we have here at home. Other days he has a fearful response to them. The key is to know your child and work within their boundaries while gently easing them past their comfort zone. Look at worksheets and activities and think outside of the box. Be creative. Is there an alternative method to what the worksheet is designed for?

Little Miss has worksheets that involve cutting and pasting. Pookie doesn’t have the fine motor skills yet to be able to cut with scissors. To make a worksheet such as this more at Pookie’s ability level, I would laminate the worksheet and cut off the portion containing the cut outs. Next, cut out all of the pieces and add Velcro to the backs of the pieces and their positions on the worksheet. This turns it into a reusable hands-on activity that he can do multiple times. It takes much more preparation on my part, but the outcome is worth it.

I have realized that Pookie needs a LOT of repetition to learn new things. Once learned, he needs review on a regular basis to retain what he has learned. Having the manipulatives are critical, in my opinion. They not only are helping to teach him but are also working on his fine motor skills as well. They are multi-sensory in nature which aids his learning.

Button, Button, Who’s Got the Button?

Pookie found a new obsession this week. He loves buttons. I was making a little incentive chart for him, using large flat buttons as the tokens. Luckily, the buttons are kept in a baggie. After pulling out the buttons that I needed, I closed the baggie and set it aside on the table. Pookie spent the next little while playing with the buttons through the baggie. He would push and poke at them through the baggie, looking at various ones as he moved them around. It turned into a very sensory driven activity for him. I am going to start keeping a look out for unique buttons of as many different textures that I can find. I would like to put together a small sensory bin of buttons for him. My current stash of buttons are recycled ones that I bought at a yard sale years ago. An elderly lady had removed buttons from worn out clothing to be used on other clothing.

We began the Sun unit this week. It is great timing as we are getting things ready for our garden. It will be a raised bed garden this year. One really neat idea that we found on YouTube was recycling old wooden pallets to make the raised beds. I love the idea! One slight change I want to make in the design however is to cut the upright pallets in half for 2 of the raised beds. This will make 2 raised beds that are just the right height for the children to plant a few veggies in. I bought the kids some cherry tomato plants this week which they will be transplanting into their own garden boxes. Both Little Miss and Tank love to snack on tomatoes, so that was an easy choice to make. Little Miss is planning to grow Strawberry popcorn which has red kernels on a 3″ long strawberry shaped ear. Tank is planning to grow some Sweet Corn in his garden. They will be planting their corn/popcorn in separate boxes since you have to plant a square of it to get good pollination. In regards to the Sun unit, the kids are learning how important the sun and light are to growing a garden. One fun experiment is to take 2 identical small plants and place one in a dark cabinet and the other in a location where it gets plenty of light. After a couple of weeks, the kids should see a good change by then.

Unlocking the Visual Schedule

One of the foundational skills needed when teaching a child with autism is a visual schedule. At first I was resistant to the idea. Not due to the idea itself, but because no one I asked (including therapists with the Early Intervention program) would explain to me how to begin using one with Pookie. Their reply was consistently “Just make one and use it.” What I needed to know was how to implement the use of a visual schedule with a child who had no understanding of what was being asked of him. When reading Sue Patrick’s book about her workbox system, it was evident that the TEACCH method utilizes the visual schedules as an important component in working with an autistic child. The schedule not only helps to prepare them for what is expected of them that day, but it can be used as an incentive program to get the child to complete their schoolwork or other tasks. It is no different than having a chores chart for a typical child. The difference is only in that a special needs child uses the schedule much as we may use a daily planner to keep ourselves on track with our day. It requires even more effort to train an autistic child to use the schedule. Unlike a typical child who catches on very quickly to the concept, an autistic child has to be slowly trained. They not only have to be trained in how to use the schedule, but what the little picture cards represent. One example being that a picture of a place setting means it is time to eat.

I am learning that one of the major challenges that we have as parents of an autistic child is that of teaching them to interact on demand. By nature, an autistic child prefers to be in their own little world, “Pookie Land” as we call it. It is understandable. When you see how the stimuli around them will often frighten them or trigger a meltdown, why wouldn’t they prefer that safe place within themselves. that is where the challenge lies. We have to find a way to pull them out of that place and get them to respond to us in a way that shows they understand what we are asking of them. But how do you accomplish this? With Pookie it is easier than I first believed. I learned from observing him and taking my own mental notes of what captures his attention the most consistently. There are 3 things that are nearly always able to draw him out: favorite snacks, his I-pod, his V-Tech Reader, or watching episodes of Tarzan (his favorite TV show) on my netbook. Once I knew that, the next step is in training him to follow instructions as given.

In the beginning of the process, I only wanted to use a simple incentive chart. I had a piece of colored cardstock that was already laminated. I placed 5 soft Velcro coins across the bottom. These would be used for his incentive tokens. For tokens, I used large flat buttons. I placed a rough Velcro coin on the back of each. The reward he was working towards was placed on the table within his sight, but out of his reach. Eventually, I will use laminated pictures instead of having the item on the table. This will come when he is working more independently.

I read in Sue Patrick’s book about workboxes that she has her children “clock in and clock out” of homeschool each day. The thought being that it set the child into the “it is time to do homeschool” mode. For Little Miss, I haven’t done this….yet. For Pookie, I am seeing it as a positive. It goes right along with the idea of activities having a clear beginning and end. By “clocking in” he is establishing the beginning of his time to work on his tasks. “Clocking out” will establish an end. TEACCH tasks are all about a child seeing a definite beginning and end to their individual activities. Having him clock in and out will establish this also on a larger scale. I have some library card envelopes that will easily make the pockets for his card. The card itself can be something very simple. A card with his name or picture on it works. Later when he is used to the system, we could change it out into something more personalized. The “clock in” pocket says “Time for Preschool” on it and is made in a colorful paper. The “clock out” pocket says “All Done” and is also made of a colorful paper.

The first step was taking him to the clock in/clock out card. Using the hand-over-hand method, I helped him pull the card out of the “clock out” pocket and move it to the “clock in” pocket. As we do this, I am telling him, “It is time to start preschool. Let’s move your card to show me you are ready.”

We sit at the table with his clipboard to his left and the reward in the center of the table out of his reach. I set up his activity. It was a really easy one that he knows how to do. I took 5 of his plastic sorting bears and had them setting next to an small empty dish. I asked him to put 1 bear in the dish. Hand over hand method was required to show him what I wanted him to do on the first couple of tries. When he placed the bear into the dish, I handed him a token and helped him put it on his incentive chart. We repeated this same activity until he had all 5 tokens. I then guided him into handing me the incentive chart to exchange for his reward. After he plays with his reward for a little while, I give him back the incentive chart with tokens removed in exchange for the reward. We repeat the bears activity again to earn more play time with his reward. If he is working for a favorite snack, such as M&Ms, then I only give him 1 for each token earned. If he wants more, then he has to earn them again. I never repeated the activity more than 3 times per session. This kept him from getting bored or frustrated. When the session is finished, he “clocked out” which signaled to him that he could go play.

Each child is different in how quickly they will pick up on the system. When deciding a reward, I pre-plan a choice of 3 items. He picks out one and I set it aside for him while the others are put away out of his sight. By planning ahead his choices, I can avoid the M&Ms being his choice every time. He does have a sweet tooth and so that was used initially because it was guaranteed incentive that would work.

One note that I would like to make is that I am finding that if I work with Pookie 3 sessions a day on our regular homeschool days, he does really well. Eventually, you work in more activities instead of repeating the same one throughout the session. As the child becomes more adept at it, you can increase the tasks completed per session. Use your child as a guide. They will let you know how much they can do without reaching a frustration point causing a meltdown. For Pookie, some days he can handle 3 different activities per session. Other days, you are lucky to get him to do 1. It depends on the difficulty level of the activity and more importantly what stimuli issues he may be having that day. The main thing is to do a little each day to get them into the routine.