Search Results for: blog what your sixth grader needs to learn

Students Get to Know Adults with Special Needs

This month, students from St. Francis Xavier School in LaGrange, IL took part in a school-wide focus on being of service to others. While each grade focused on a different area of need including visiting retirees, illiteracy, hunger, and respect for animals, the sixth graders spent a day bowling with adults with special needs. Together, the children and adults celebrated spares and laughed through gutter balls. The interaction between the two groups proved to have the outcome that Anne Cosentino, coordinator of SEASPAR (South East Association for Special Parks and Recreation) had hoped for. She wants to help people overcome … Continue reading →

2006 in Review: Homeschooling Blog at a Glance

As a new homeschooling blogger at Families.com, I wanted to know everything that has been discussed to date. In response to my own curiosity, and in an effort to make perusing our articles easier for you, our readers, I have compiled all of the blogs for the year 2006. Deciding to Homeschool Why homeschool Am I qualified for this? Reasons that Homeschooling Works! My Most Important Advice for Homeschoolers. The Cost of Homeschooling Instead of standing up for their own kids, why not stand up for all kids? Disclaimer: I am hardly an expert in education. Did You Know? ‘Empirical … Continue reading →

Help Your Learning Disabled Child With Letters and Words

When most children are initially introduced to the alphabet, they see each letter as a picture. The letter “T” might look like one stick balancing on top of the other. An “O” might look like a ring. Yet soon a child’s perception begins to change, and the concept of letters transfers from the right hemisphere of the brain to the left–the auditory-linguistic hemisphere. That’s when a “T” becomes an actual symbol that can be associated with a sound. Children with learning disabilities often have great difficulty with this transition in thinking. They are simply “stuck” in the spatial intelligence frame … Continue reading →

Teach Your Child to LOVE Reading in One Easy Step

There’s a simple way that you can encourage, promote and improve your child’s reading skills. It’s enjoyable, it’s a little selfish, and it really works. It requires just a bit of skill and some self-indulgence. Huh? What could it be? Simply this: Do it yourself. That’s right, read. Read, and let your child see you reading. And if you’re ready to strangle me, thinking, “Yeah, right…when do I have time?” I’ll make a suggestion: Read while your child does her homework. Children in the public school system are supposed to be reading for certain periods of time each day. My … Continue reading →

Homeschool Glossary (Books Parents Should Read) Th-W

As I mentioned in the introduction, new homeschooling parents should learn as much about homeschooling as possible by reading many different sources. Here continues my Homeschool Glossary of books parents should read. The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling (3rd Edition) by Debra Bell (Paperback – April 5, 2005) This book is written from a Conservative Christian viewpoint, which has bothered some readers. Still, it is an awesome guide for new homeschoolers. Even those who hate the viewpoint of the book love the information it supplies. The Unprocessed Child: Living Without School by Valerie Fitzenreiter (Paperback – Jul 2003) This book is … Continue reading →

Should “Perfectionist” Kids Get Special Accommodations?

Sometimes it seems like my life is a long, continuous string of parent-teacher conferences, one right after the other. Today I had three, and the last one was for my sixth grader, Riley, who, for the purposes of this blog, we might just call “Mr. Perfectionist.” His teacher sat across from us at a long table, where she pushed several papers over toward me. “Any questions about his grades?” she asked. “Yes… well… they don’t seem indicative of his abilities,” I said. “I’m wondering what you think is going on.” This was becoming a trend for Riley. Although his grades … Continue reading →