Category: Homeschooling
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Teaching Word Families with Movable Letters
This year, we made progress in reading and writing. We are learning the “ock” word family these days —words like rock, sock, and block. These small steps seem easy, but they are big wins for us. In this post, I will talk about teaching my child with Down syndrome to read and write word families.…
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How I Taught Sight Words to My 6-Year-Old with Down Syndrome
We started our reading journey with phonics. When my daughter turned 6, I introduced sight words to enhance our reading experience. However, what didn’t work for her might be due to shuffled flashcards, vision issues, or simply she doesn’t enjoy this kind of learning. So, I followed some methods to make learning sight words simple…
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Epic Road Trip to Baralacha La Pass (16,000+ ft) – A Homeschooling Family on the Road.
This year, we planned a road trip to Lahaul Spiti, and it turned out adventurous, especially for our daughter V, who had never been at an altitude above 6000 ft. As a homeschooling family, we wanted to experience the slow life and culture of offbeat places like Lahaul and Old Manali in Himachal Pradesh. On…
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A Hands-On Way to Teach Indian States to My Child with Special Needs
Few years ago, we started using geography puzzles with pegs to improve fine motor skills and then moved to foam puzzles to challenge those tiny finger muscles. At the same time, we were exploring and learning about the continents, countries, and now states of India. For our geography curriculum, I wasn’t quite prepared to introduce…
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How I Teach My Child with Down Syndrome Word Building with Movable Alphabets
Our journey of learning letter sounds started when my child was about 4 or 5. I have been getting many questions on the videos/posts where I shared how we are practicing writing words (CVC). Once your child knows the letter sounds well, using the movable alphabet can help them in building words. I’ve found movable…
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Fun Games to Learn Number Recognition.
Teaching math and helping kids understand math can be hard if you’re a homeschooling parent. I always prefer hands-on activities, play-based learning, or games. These methods are better instead of using charts, books, and worksheets. The understanding and use of numbers are important for learning math. Number identification is the first step in this learning…
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Hands-On Learning: Addition Skills for Kids With Down Syndrome
This year, I started teaching the concept of addition to V. As a homeschooling mom, I still feel scared when it comes to teaching math, so I always choose hands-on learning for my subjects. One of the best way to learn math is to use manipulative during activities or lessons. Manipulative are physical objects that…
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How We Developed Writing Skills in Our Homeschool: Tips and Techniques.
In our homeschooling journey this year, we focused a lot on tracing. This practice resulted in letter formation. It also led to writing words and numbers. I realised that I’m not yet ready to use a pencil and paper for writing. Instead, we used chalk, markers, and our fingers to practice writing and tracing. This…
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A Big Milestone: My Child with Down Syndrome Learns to Write Words.
Her love for letters and their sounds is growing day by day. A few days ago, she amazed me by writing some of her favourite words with the help of their sounds. I was speaking the words out loud, focusing on the sounds, and V tried to write the words. In case you don’t know,…
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How My Child with Down Syndrome Learned Jigsaw Puzzles: Tips and Skills That Helped Her.
Recently we moved to a 108 pieces puzzle. Looking back, it has been a challenging journey. There were lots of tears, failures, surprises, excitement, and learning. Puzzles demand a lot of attention, focus, and thinking skills. So before introducing jigsaw puzzles, offer chunky puzzles as they are easy to grasp. Then, move on to knob…