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Monday, February 28, 2011

A Visual Homeschool Curriculum

Chaz on computer
On a previous post I was thinking about having my son Chaz try K12 at home.  He's used a different  program before but once he hit 3rd grade, that program mirrored K12 in something I don't like.  I did some research on K12 and something HUGE stood out to me. There is LOT of reading.  At least this how the complaints I have got from many other parents that have used it. I'm still researching it and looking at sample lessons.  I research everything to death so it might take me a bit before I decide. :)



Here is something BIG that I was excited about.  My friend and her family lived in South Africa for a few years and her kids attended a British school.  There they use lots of visuals for teaching.  Here in the USA its mostly lots of reading and worksheets. Her boys excelled in the British school and are now failing in the schools here in the states.  Boys do learn well with visuals. Can you imagine even more so with Aspergers kids?  That HUGE!  Well, they tried K12 but she got the same results.  Lots and lots of reading.

She found this website at www.freeworldu.org
The curriculum is taught via flashcards that break subjects down into small, easily assimilated fact units. The flashcards are presented through a program that remembers what each student has learned and what they need to keep working on.


Since using this free program for her son, his grades are improving drastically.  Get this.  She is having to catch him up 3 grades.  Our schools just kept passing him on to the next even though he was failing.  Now he is in 6th grade but having to go back and learn from 3rd grade on.  Because he does well with visuals, he is quickly getting caught up through the FreeWorldU program.

My daughters Ashley and Ivy

Here is the reason I love being a part of Asperger Moms on Facebook.   A friend posted this article called:


A family who has an autistic child will realize quickly that the public school system rarely benefits the autistic child. Some parents feel they have no other choice but to send their autistic child to public school and just hope for the best. However, the best is to simply homeschool your autistic child. There are so many reasons why you should do this, but the following three reasons are incredibly important and will allow you to see amazing progress in your child..... click HERE to read more.


If you are homeschooling your Aspergers child at home I would love your thoughts on what programs worked and which ones not so well.  Please leave a comment here.  :) 
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3 comments:

  1. kylie sidneyMarch 3, 2011 at 3:29 PM

    thanks so much for sharing - fellow AS mum who also home schools xxx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Visual Unit Study HomeschoolAugust 29, 2011 at 10:44 AM

    Hi I am Terri Murdoch I am homeschooling my daughter.She was diagnosed with Aspergers at three. We are in our fourth year of homeschooling . She is a visual learner I was a preschool teacher and a aid in the public school system. I have designed my own Visual Curriculum using Video and premade subject books. You are welcome to try it out . God Bless

    ReplyDelete
  3. ElleJuly 24, 2012 at 6:38 AM

    This post is over a year old, but thought I'd add a comment anyway. I have homeschooled my daughter since 1st grade. In 4th grade, we had her tested through the public schools where they said she had "autism". We then took her and had her medically diagnosed and she was diagnosed ADHD, Aspergers, with sensory issues. I have used My Fathers World with her for the last 4 years, but there are certain things I had to change up like Math (we use Math U See), Writing (We use IEW but now have backtracked and are using "Verbalizing and Visualing" by Bell-Mood), and have supplemented using lots of visual things like Dianne Craft's flashcards (not her manual -- I think that does nothing to help Aspergers) or the Times Tales DVD. I am now trying to find more visuals for the higher science stuff (like atoms and geology and things like that). It's a lot of work trying to figure out what will work best for our kids, but using the visual approach is always good. I think "visual spacial" is the correct term as they see things in pictures. There is so much available on the internet for people who learn this way and it can be used throughout their lives.

    ReplyDelete

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