Tag: homeschool
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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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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 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…
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Fun DIY Activity to Teach Kids Big and Small Concepts
Planning to make your child learn about big and small concepts in a fun way? Then try this DIY activity I found online and made a few years ago for Veda. My daughter loved pompoms and DIY activities when she was a toddler. I tried to incorporate pompoms into every activity. This made it more…
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My Child with Down Syndrome Can Read a Book Now!
After learning phonics and sight words, this girl has begun reading phonics books. Her love for reading is growing every day, so I bought her some books from a local bookstore. We started with a simple phonics book that has clear pictures. This makes reading fun and easy. Each page has fewer words, which is…
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Learning Letters & their sounds.
Investing in magnetic letters was the best thing I ever did. Veda started spending 90% of her day in front of the fridge, playing with magnetic letters and matching them with letter flashcards. Soon, she started practicing letter sounds, matching or finding letters in a book, and different labels. After that, we began to focus…