SOME GREAT RESOURCES

Here are some great resources if you are looking to reinforce at home what your kiddos are doing in school.  Our boys are in 1st grade, but I am doing PreK or Kindergarten level for these various math and reading programs.

Starfall
This website has amazing online activities and games.  I do some activities with the boys, and sometimes I let them navigate on their own using their ipod touches- yes, we still have ipod touches, and they still work!  One year home membership costs $35 which is soooo worth it!  This is a great website!

ABCya
This website has fun number and letter games.  It offers a paid membership, but I don't remember paying anything, and it seems like I can access most of the games.

IXL
This website is more like a testing or evaluation to see where you child is academically.  There is a paid membership, but I didn't join.  Instead, each day I get 8-10 free questions so that is how I use this website.  We are currently working thru the PreK Language Arts lessons, just doing 8-10 questions in a lesson each day.

Free Reading Program
I can't believe I just stumbled upon this website.  It's FREE!  We are doing the kindergarten level reading program.  There is also a phonics program we will be working through next.

Splash Math
I splurged on this online math website.  It cost $89 for 1 yr membership- I used some of Jonah's birthday money towards it- more valuable than another toy I thought :)  I was having a hard time finding a good FREE math website that had what I needed for the boys.  This website is awesome and so far worth the money.

Fun with Spot
This website has some cute FREE educational games and activities.


Here are some favorite YouTube songs we use to review ABC phonics, numbers 1-20, colors, and shapes:

Alphabet Phonics Song by Have Fun Teaching
Alphabet Sounds Speech Therapy
Phonics Song
Fundations ABCs-this is the program our school uses
Fun Numbers Chant 1-10
Fun Numbers Chants 10-20
Let's Count to 20
Counting 1-20
Learn Colors
Sing Along Shapes Song

Finally here are some great handwriting worksheet PDFs:

Upper Case Letter Tracing
Lower Case Letter Tracing
Number Tracing
Make Your Own Worksheet- used for boys' names


We are trying to work through some of these above activities every day.  We don't want to overwork or over stress the boys so we try to make it just 15 minutes a day with each boy.  Of course, this is our goal not always our reality- some days, life happens...

The reason we are doing this above and beyond what they are doing in school is because research shows that kids "with Down syndrome generally take longer to learn and to consolidate new skills. They may need greater levels of repetition and opportunities to rehearse and practice new skills and learning."  

This quote came from this very interesting article about how children with Down syndrome learn best:

Typical Learning Profile of a Child with Down Syndrome