Home schooling...

Ty Christian is 4 1/2 with scoliosis, kyphosis and autism. We try to do the
following:

First thing we rock and talk and pray. We have to start off nice and calm. I
encourage him to work on life skills, things like brushing teeth, making our
beds together (he goes right along with me with house work even though he cant
do much right now due to surgeries and complications.)

We tend to do school work for up 20 or so minutes and then take a break.

We have a weather check, and dress our poster frog according to the weather.
That only takes a few minutes. He looks out the window and we talk about the
weather. He is non verbal but tries to sign and he makes apromimations of words
describing the weather.

Then I say the days of the week and ask him to choose what day it is. Then I
repeat "Today is ----" (what ever day it is)and encourage him to try to say it.
This only takes a few minutes too.

New on the schooling...I am going to incorporate a calendar...we are going to track dates!

Then he sits in his chair and we use any type of "draw a line" to the object for
Pre writing skills. He is not quite ready for Handwriting without Tears yet. I
use some nice ones from Kids Zone and Down Syndrome Foundation of Orange County.
There are lots in the dollar store work books. We also use sensible pencil.
I laminate these and use a dry erase or wax crayon so I can clean them and reuse
them.

We have potty time and life skills in between working.

After this he has music (and some exercise!). We have some lovely toys we got
at yard sales and goodwill. The leapfrog toys and V tech toys that have books
with pages of instruments that he can touch and hear the sound of the
instrument. I let him choose the music and we "play" marching band. I ask him
to pick one of the toy instruments (again goodwill or yard sales!) and then I
tell him which one I will play. LOL he always wants to lead! Sometimes we just
have the "sing along books" if he chooses that.

Back to the chair...

We are using a drool remediation therapy from Talk Tools. He is progressing but
the drooling has not decreased. It includes whistle blowing which we do to music
that he loves and bubble blowing. Some of the exercises he doesnt like but we
work through them. This only takes about 10 minutes at the most so we go right
on the then next item...numbers.

He just accomplished identifying the letters and numbers 1-10.
He is working on counting groups of objects 1-10. He seems to get whelmed when
it is more than 5. I count for him over 5. I am showing him how to add and
subtract up to 5. We use plastic bugs which he loves. I also draw on the wall.
I have groups of things painted on his wall, 5 turtles, 8 fish, and so on. We
practice counting the groups. I also have posters of shapes. I ask him to show
me a shape and he does.

Another break. We take some more time for life skills. Potty training,
laundry, washing up.

Then we work on words. We are just beginning sight words.
Both phonics and sounding out words and now sight words.
We use a chalk board. He loves that. I need to be more consistant in repeating
the words and building on what he knows. He is reading short sentences like "I
see a ball". Story building should be worked into this, I think.

Another break. This is around 10am so he has play time. We play with paints,
cars, books or zoo animals. I follow his lead and let him choose. He is doing
so much better with pretend play. If he wants to play alone, this is when I
also catch a minute to do bills or what ever.

At noon he naps. He doesnt hold out for a full day. I have time for house
cleaning there too.

He is up at 2 so we go back to life skills. He does not like change so we have
to be sure to stick to our routine. The therapist is working on helping us with
that.

We are using puzzles too. Some for counting, others for fine motor skills. He
loves Kasey the Kinderbot too. He likes the science module so it is so easy!

For about an hour he likes the computer...
We use Star Fall (one of his favorites!) and Time4Learning. After I guide him
on what he needs to cover on the computer I let him play with it. Star Fall
covers letters and reading and Time 4 Learning covers so much! Tools, school
supplies, shapes, numbers, playground equipment, face, animals and more. We
use his dyonvax for this. Its a touch screen. I also build some things into
the dyonvax like matching games and story lines such as "all about me" and
"consequences" in pictures. Things like "if I hit I will...If I do not hit I
will...."

We use candyland, Boggle Jr, Memory and other such games to help with turn
taking, memory exercises and learning.

We both have those days when we need a break. I use field trips to the grocery
store or walmart...nothing like counting apples!