Hard to believe I've been "homeschooling" the boys since March 2020!
Something I thought I would never do. Not because I don't agree with homeschooling. I do think it can be a very valuable and worthwhile experience. We home schooled our 3 older kids during their middle school years, and we loved it. However, with the boys both having special needs, I just figured home schooling them would be way above my pay grade. And not beneficial to them because school offers them access to so much specialized and adaptive learning.
Well, COVID had different ideas than me so that is why the boys are home with me.
So over the past months, I have found some really cool resources that have helped us in our home school experience.
1. The following math manipulative is incredible! I think it really has helped the boys learn the concept of counting on when doing addition.
Click HERE for Amazon link to this MATH MANIPULATIVE
2. This 100's board has been very helpful for the boys in learning how to rote count by 1's and 10's. Instead of just looking at a paper 100's chart, this board lets them feel, touch, and actually place the numbers as they count. Just sensory/tactile way to reinforce what we are learning.
Click HERE for Amazon link to this HUNDREDS BOARD
3. IXL is an website that we use daily. We use the free version which means we only get 10 questions a day. However, that works perfectly for us. Currently we are doing Preschool Language Arts: Reading Strategies and Vocabulary. We bring the website up on our Ipad so the boys can use the touchscreen to select their answers.
Click HERE to visit IXL website
4. Boom Cards- our speech therapist has provided us with a link to her cards, but you can also access quite a few of the resources for free. A great interactive tool we use to work on speech. We do this on our Ipad.
Click HERE for link to Boom Card website
5. TouchMath App- one of the math curriculums our boys use is Touch Math. This app offers great practice and reinforcement of this method for counting and addition. The basic level is free. I can't remember if I paid a minimal amount for the upgrade.
Click HERE for more info on the TouchMath app
Finally, I use Ipad time as an incentive/reward for the boys doing their work with me. These are the apps I like to offer them- they are both fun but also educational. I also like these apps because they boys can explore them on their own without me having to be right there next to them. We do sometimes do an activity together from the apps, but it's always nice to find a way to keep them occupied so I can get something done around the house for a few minutes here and there throughout the day.
1. StarFall- we do pay the annual fee for this one. SOOO worth it! We use for math and reading.
2. PBS Kids Games
3. Khan Academy for Kids: Math, Reading, Logic
4. Kindergarten Math by Alligator Apps
5. Writing Wizard: Handwriting numbers, and upper and lower case letters
6. ABC Keyboard: beginning keyboarding
One more thing. Our boys LOVE to play with large blocks. They build things with them, but they also use them to throw around and hit to reenact action scenes from shows they watch.
We have had 2 sets of these blocks from Melissa and Doug which I love, but they do not hold up very long with the boys' rough play.
Click HERE for Amazon link to LARGE FOAM BLOCKS
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