Homeschooling with SPD

Because it's been a while since I posted...

Merry Christmas!

Happy New Year!

新年快樂!

Now that it's out of the way... On to the topic at hand.

R and I have been homeschooling now for at least 18 weeks, not counting the weeks he had for Christmas and New Year breaks.  Over time we've done a few projects, some activities, and a lot of learning, mostly on my part.

So here's what I've learned during this time of homeschooling my little guy, who has SPD (and CAS):

1. Don't be too stressed about what they're learning academically.
• This is the age where they're exploratory, and it looks like as if they're just mucking about and messing around.  But play is really important, because play is how young children learn about the world.  The AAP even went as far as to issue a publication on the importance of play in developing a healthy child.
• That said, make it a point to learn how your child learns best.  There are many theories out there on the different learning styles.  I particularly subscribe to the theory on Multiple Intelligence by Howard Gardner, but that's for older kids and quite complicated,  To simplify things for young children, we have the VAK learning styles.  VAK stands for:
• Visual - learn through seeing
• Auditory - learn through hearing
• Kinesthetic - learn through doing
• Your child can fall into just one, or two, and sometimes even all three.  Find out what is your child's learning style and cater your lessons to that learning style.
• This does not mean you just do lessons in one style.  For instance, R is a visual-kinesthetic learner.  So there are a lot of pictures and physical activities when we do his homeschooling.  But there are worksheets that I make that have instructions that require him to stop and listen so as to properly follow what is asked of him to do.


2. Go at your child's pace.
• Do slow down as required if you feel that your child is either too bored with the lesson or is having a hard time keeping up.  As an example, R likes letters and numbers, but seem to struggle with word recognition.  There have been quite a few times I have postponed the next week's lesson to yet another week just to focus on him getting a bit more exposure to the current topic.  Again, it's not that we want him to learn academically, but it's more on going at his pace.
• There have also been times I had to speed up.  I've seen R get really bored with numbers 0-10, because he knows them so well already.  By the time we're at number 8, he was looking everywhere else instead of the blocks and cards I had prepared.  So, I skipped to 11 after 8, and it was a rather good move because he got interested again.


3. Try not to look at the clock.
• Take it from me, teaching just one is vastly a whole lot different from teaching a group of 15 of that age.  You'll find that you end up breezing through the materials you put up so quickly it's ridiculous.  That said, try not to look at the clock.  That's the beauty of homeschooling, because you can pick it up again anytime, anywhere.
• TMA Homeschool recommends at least 2 hours a day of sessions for preschoolers, but I find that in the case of R, best is a 45 minute to 1 hour session, otherwise he gets really bored.  Again, try not to look and be pressured by the clock.  You can pick it up another time of the day, when you're both ready.


4. Have fun with your child!
• No, really!  Make it as fun for you as it is for him!  Be creative.  If your topic is, for instance, about the beach, then go to the beach!  Explore the sand, play in the water, make sand castle and collect sea shells.  Then when you get home, you can make a little artwork about your wonderful beach getaway!

Because I'm homeschooling, there are so many things I use to help me in my preparation and teaching.  Here is my list of things I cannot live without while homeschooling:

• Crayons
• Markers
• Glue
• Glitter powder
• Paint
• Personally I prefer acrylic over watercolors as they are so much brighter.  Make sure that you get whatever clothes that are stained by paint in water immediately as it's nearly impossible to get off once it dries.
• However, my number one choice is tempera, as it is washable from kids' clothes.
• Also, if you are painting, please invest in an art smock for your child!  If you can't afford one, ask your husband or any adult male in your family for one of their old, unused shirts.  It works just as well!
• Paintbrushes (obviously)
• Yarn
• Cotton wool
• Scissors
• Colored Paper (lots of them!)
• Also get some metallic paper, good for a shiny effect!
• Computer with word processing programs such as Microsoft Office or OpenOffice
• A colored printer
• Rolls and rolls of laminating film




• Getting a roll is much cheaper than buying them in pre-cut sizes, trust me!
• Laminating machine
• This.  A million times this.
• Sticky Tape
• Magnets

• I stick these guys at the back of my flashcards with tape, and it works well to use them on whiteboards.  A trick I learned when I was still teaching.
• You can get them pretty cheap from various stores in Divisoria.

Round plain magnets

And there we go!  Some of my little lessons from homeschooling and the tools I can't live without!  We still have half a year to go, and looking forward to what more we can get from this amazing experience.