Happy Holidays

This is the time of the year the boys are very excited and distracted because of a certain jolly fellow  SANTA!  What can this Home School Parent do to keep two children in the spectrum focus on learning?  Have every craft, worksheets, books and projects wrap around Christmas and Winter.

Circle Time

Songs   Sing Christmas Carols, Songs about Snowmen, Rudolph and Santa.  Sometimes throw in the Days of the Week song or Number songs.  Super Simple Songs is one of the kids' favorite YouTube Channel!

Story  There are tons of fun books themed with Winter and The Holiday Spirit!  Books have to be chosen wisely.  These boys are easily bored if the story and illustration does not grab them.  We read so many books this December.  5 top books they LOVED:  "The Christmas Crocodile", "How Do Dinosaurs Say Merry Christmas", "I've Seen Santa" and "Who Will Help Santa This Year?"

Arts & Crafts

Crafts have to be creative, fun and easy!  Too many steps and the kids become bored and frustrated.  Some of the crafts related to the books we have read.  They made Christmas Crocodile Puppets.  Some of the crafts were just winter theme or made holiday decorations to hang around the house.  The boys and their cousin had a blast with their crafts ; )

Physical Education

Play in the snow and go for a hike when you can while the kids wear their Holiday Hats. ; ) Building a Snowman is also great exercise!

Maine Studies
This Month the boys learned facts about Maine such as Maine is known as "The Pine Tree State" and Maine's motto is "Digiro" (I lead) and identifying the state's shape.  We were trying to look for books about Maine and we ran across this book "Santa is coming to Maine".  The boys LOVE it and it fit well with our December curriculum.

*BLOG Background collaboration thanks to HarperFinch clip-art and more*

The Thankful Month

NOVEMBER

This is the month that we give thanks!  The boys said they are thankful for Family, Friends and Pizza.  Though we learned about Thanksgiving there was more to November then just the Holiday.  November is also Native American Heritage Month.  The boys learned about different tribal dances, symbols and more.

P.E.

FieldTrip

LIBRARY

ARTS & CRAFTS

October & Halloween

I apologize that my post is a little behind.  October just blew right by us ;D  Though we have exciting things happening in the Month of November, let’s rewind and share the fun Homeschool Activities the boys did in October!

October is the Boys favorite Month!  Fall leaves, perfect weather, pumpkins, apples and Halloween all their favorite things they love and enjoy.   A perfect theme to teach science, colors, math and more!

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

The boys Physical Education was mostly spent outside, walks, hikes and playing at the park.  With hiking you can also include two other subjects: Science and Maine Studies! 

MAINE STUDIES

ARTS & CRAFTS

LANGUAGE ARTS

September Beginning of Fall

Oh dear oh dear it is the School Year!  With our busy lifestyle, changes in routines, doctor appointments, babysitting, 3 happy energetic Labs and 2 Autistic children, many ask How in the world do you Home School with all these Distractions?  We just do!  We get creative and we take home school everywhere we go.  We adapt and we try our best to have fun!  We also go at the kids’ speed. 

We are having a Good “kick off” start of the Home School Year.  First I will like to say Thank You Thank You iPad!  This device has made a huge impact on these boys!  Their 2 favorite Apps so far are “Reading Raven” and “Learning with Homer”.  They are learning all sorts of amazing things and these apps keep track of their progress.  Another plus! 

One of their Favorite things about Home School is Library!  We go to Library almost every Friday.  The kids love the boys and Cedric’s Service Dog, Bear.  It is a pleasant environment and full of smiles.  There is always a different theme each week.  Have Story first, Arts & Crafts and then the boys pick out books they like to check out.  Aiden usually will grab a book and look through it during story time.  Now and then he will look up and answer the reader’s questions or ask a question independently.  Cedric tends to babble through Story.  We are teaching him to sit quietly, but that is a chore for Cedric.  Each Friday he shows a little improvement.  Sometimes he will answer questions if he is not distracted  ;D 

P.E.
We go hiking, walks, front yard play, use a dvd “YogaKids ABC’s with Marsha Wenig” and youtube videos.  2 of their favorite channels are TheLearningStation and Patty Shukla!

Story Time is every day!  Sometimes it is themed or the boys pick out a book they really would like me to read.  Some of their Favorite books Splat the Cat or those dinosaur books by Jane Yolen & Mark Teague.  We also sing songs or do a short music lesson.

Also we have Reading once a day!  This is a chance for the boys to learn sight words, also practice speech sounds and sounding out each word.  Cedric has trouble with "m", "p" and "b" and many others.  One day we were reading Ratatouille "Run, Remy, Run!"  Cedric was having a hard time with this one word: "SOUP".  On the 10th soup Cedric finally said "soup" clear as day.  He was so excited he was saying "soup" over and over around the house!