Planning Curriculum - Math

Math is a most important subject, though not my personal favorite. However, I can say that for the most part it has been a joy to teach Peter math.

Everyone's situation is different, and I share with you from ours, but I will also share resources that may help with your own special circumstances, however different they may be from my own.

My own experience is with a child who has low vision, who laughed when he first saw large print, and got mad when pushed to use hand-held magnifiers, but who can read print using a CCTV (video magnifier). So I chose to teach him math over the years using his CCTV. Only more recently have we been working on learning Nemeth code, the Braille for math, with the help of his Teacher of the Visually Impaired. The math text that has worked well for us for elementary school is Skills, Concepts and Problem Solving, published by Continental Press. http://www.continentalpress.com/series_detail.asp?intSeriesID=983&intSubjectID=21 One beauty of this series for someone who is visually impaired is that it has a simple layout and uses one page per day. I was already using this book before Peter lost his vision in the fourth grade. The only thing I would probably do differently, if I had it to do over again, is to replace this book with a Pre-Algebra book for the eighth grade (the grade he is now completing).

To learn Nemeth code, and to get charts to help you with it, as well as lots of other ideas about teaching math to a student who is blind or visually impaired, you can visit the website of the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI). http://www.tsbvi.edu/math/index.htm

For high school, we have chosen to use a series that worked well for my fully-sighted son this year, which was designed specifically for homeschoolers. Peter has liked that he hears his brother's math being explained orally on CD Roms. So we will be trying this for Peter for Algebra 1 this coming fall. I will keep you posted on how well this works out for him. The series is called Teaching Textbooks. Since Peter can use computer enlargement software (ZoomText), he will be able to watch each lesson being worked, as well as hear the lecture. This is not, by the way, a cumbersome video watching a teacher at the chalkboard teaching a classroom. Only the actual problems being worked are shown on your monitor. Teaching Textbooks has books for grades 5-7, Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1 and 2, Geometry and Pre-Calculus. This company can be found here: http://www.teachingtextbooks.com/

If you would like to share anything, please feel free to add it in the comments.

Planning Curriculum

Some parents who are just starting out on their homeschooling journey prefer to use a correspondence course or a packaged curriculum. This, of course, can be a bit more difficult if your child is blind or visually impaired. You might need to get the materials put into Braille or into electronic format (such as cassette or CD), or you might need to read them to your student.

If you are looking for materials in an accessible medium, you might try finding out if someone else has already done this and no longer needs their books. A couple places you might ask include the following Yahoo groups: Sight Exchange or Blindhomeschooler. The only drawback with Sight Exchange - probably only a drawback if you are just starting out - is that you need to donate something before you can receive something. The friendly folks at Blindhomeschooler can sometimes steer you in the right direction to find what you need.

You can also join Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, where they have many books in electronic format or will make those that you need. There is a fee to join, but you can then get access to lots of audible books and textbooks.

To find out more about various curriculum options, you can visit my website or you can visit the very comprehensive A to Z Home's Cool Website. (We both have a webpage specifically devoted to blindness resources as well.)

If you do decide to use a correspondence school for your child, you will want to communicate with the school beforehand about your child's needs. Only public schools are required by law to accept a child who is visually impaired, and some schools might feel it isn't something they can handle. However, you can probably make a difference in their attitude by reassuring them that you will get the work to the child in a form he can use, and get the child's work back to the school in a form that the school personnel can evaluate.

For me, it was easier to just leave the packaged curriculums behind. We pick and choose whatever materials work best for us for any given subject. I will share more about this in a coming post.

Planning for Fall

It's that time of year: time for graduations and picnics, wrapping up the schoolyear, and looking forward to enjoying the summer. Yet it's also time to think about the fall. Maybe we don't want to think about crisp autumn air and falling leaves right now. But we can still start planning what we're going to do about school when that time comes.

Yesterday I placed my orders for my two high schoolers for the coming school year. If you're interested, you can read that post at my personal blog:
http://margmary.blogspot.com/2007/05/were-committed.html

But maybe you don't have high schoolers and consequently aren't remotely interested in what I'm doing for high school. Whatever the age of your child, I would like to share some thoughts with you...some questions, perhaps, that you can ask yourself, whether you're new to homeschool or whether you're a veteran like me.

What method of homeschooling appeals to you for your child? Do you picture your homeschool as being like a school in the home? Do you prefer to have pre-packaged lessons plans and textbooks? Or does a more creative or flexible approach appeal to you? If you tried a more creative approach, would you take the initiative to provide plenty of learning opportunities and to make sure your child learns basic skills?

What religious convictions do you want to pass on to your child? What books, materials or methods will best support your family values? What personal talents and interests do you have that you can you share with your child?

Now, you will want to find what materials are compatible with your preferred methods, beliefs and values. And how you can get those materials in the best accessible medium for your student. There isn't one right answer to these questions and challenges. There is no easy answer for some of them.

In subsequent posts, I will try to explore some of the various options.

American History

Each family and each child is different, so there are many different ways to homeschool. Some like to homeschool using traditional textbooks. Some of us like to use a variety of "regular" books. The latter has been my choice for most subjects for my visually impaired son. So, where do we get the books? For literature and history we use the Library of Congress books.
See post about the Library of Congress books at: http://viphs.blogspot.com/2007/03/treasurehouse.html

Once your child is signed up for the Library of Congress tapes, you can go to the kids search page to choose books to request. Here is the link for the Library of Congress:
http://www.loc.gov/nls/

You can put in the search box such terms as: American History, American Explorers, U.S. History, American Revolution, Civil War, and American Inventors. Each book is described, along with the grade levels for which it is recommended.

We don't always get all our requests, so I request more books than I necessarily need. I have my son read a variety of books on various aspects of the history that we are studying that year. I also help him write at least one report per quarter about, or related to, one of the books he has read.

Of course, field trips and videos can also contribute to the history studies.

More on Charlotte Mason

Yesterday I posted about using Charlotte Mason methods of education for teaching a visually impaired student. Today I wanted to give you more about it. So I went to a website. Lo and behold, one thing they were saying was that some people use Charlotte Mason methods "more or less", but they think you should you use them "more and more". Well, confession time: I myself have used Charlotte Mason methods "more or less".

In a busy quest to get on with my son's education, I picked up some of the methods that suited our needs. As I said yesterday, some of these were reading to him - and having him listen to tapes - at a higher comprehension level than he himself could read, having him do oral narrations, and having him do short passages of copywork. I think you would call my methods "eclectic" - with a generous portion of Charlotte Mason education ladled in...

If you would like to read more about Charlotte Mason education by those who think you should use it "more and more", you can do so at Ambleside Online. They have also very generously supplied lists of books to use in giving a child a Charlotte Mason education.

If you happen to be Catholic, like yours truly, you can find lists of suggested Charlotte Mason-type curriculum at Mater Amabilis.

Sell the Textbooks. Give them Away.

Sell the textbooks. Give them away. Does that sound drastic? Well, okay, maybe it is. You might want to keep them around until you're sure you aren't going to want them. They can make great reference books. And sometimes they're very helpful to make sure that nothing is slipping through the cracks.

But did you know there's another way? Beginning a few decades ago, many homeschoolers discovered that the Charlotte Mason methods of education work especially well for homeschooling. Now I've found they work well for homeschooling my child who is visually impaired, too.

What is Charlotte Mason education?

There are whole volumes of books in which Charlotte Mason herself explained her educational methods. There have been many other books written. To attempt to explain that method in a paragraph seems foolhardy and impossible. So please know that I am only giving you a few highlights:

* "Living books"
* Nature study
* Oral narration
* Copywork
* Short lessons
* Journaling
* Art Appreciation
* Book of Centuries
* Habits

You can read more about what this list means and what a Charlotte Mason education entails at this website.

Of course, a few of those things may need a little adaption for blind children, such as nature study and art appreciation. But many of the principles would apply particularly well. For example, if a child is learning Braille, he can also be listening to books that are either read to him by the mother or someone else, or played on tape. When the child is doing oral narration, it doesn't matter if his Braille writing skills or keyboarding skills are not yet equal to his thinking skills. As a matter of fact, it's a way to help him expand his thinking skills, as you can ask him questions and draw him or her out. But then there is also copywork, where you can teach the child Braille writing and keyboarding, using shorter, appropriate passages, so that as time goes on, his writing skills will catch up his thinking skills.

But wait. If a child learns with these methods, what happens when he gets to high school? Will he be able to do the work necessary to go on to college or to get a job? Since the student with whom I've tried Charlotte Mason is not quite in high school yet, I can't answer that question from person experience. However, I have watched others use Charlotte Mason methods of education with their children, and from there they go on to advanced high school programs, often studying Latin and other classical and advanced courses.