Experiences Homeschooling a Speech Delayed Child, Part II

I am not a speech therapist or doctor, just a mom sharing her experience. It is always a good idea to consult your pediatrician if you suspect a speech delay. Part I is here.

Homeschool Speech Enrichment Ideas

The big leap in speech occurred at age six for our son. It was not a leap he would have made on his own, it was the curriculum and one-on-one teaching which got him there. He's nine years old now and doing great, with very little if any speech delay.

Here are a few things we did during the tough years, years when I worried about if he'd ever learn to talk or read, roughly between ages three and six. The time and energy worrying would have been spent more wisely in prayer, but I'm wiser now for having gone through this.

Helpful Stuff For Speech Enrichment:

We developed vocabulary with anything I could think of. I used preschool and kindergarten workbooks, like the big fat ones from K-Mart and wallyworld, and free online printables with picture identification. We went over the same concepts everyday until he got it. It took time and patience. I kept a notebook recording the concepts and words he still needed to cover, and found more sheets online which addressed these areas. I also went back and pulled worksheets which he had trouble answering, and we re-did them. We were able to do this by making reusable worksheets.

One example of a game I made up was a letter game with cut out pictures. I'd have about fifteen small cut out pictures I had collected off the net from free worksheet sites. I'd arrange them randomly on paper, and slide them into a clear plastic three ringed binder sleeve. He'd then place a penny on each thing that started with the letter I selected. I gave him the exact number of pennies that he needed to find the objects. He knew when he was done when the pennies where used up. These could be mixed up and interchanged for variety, and used again with other letters.

We used DLTK letter people which required cutting and coloring. I remember doing letter of the week. It was fun to collect free alphabet resources online each week.

We also used quite a few read along books on tape, and read along books on cd-rom. One particular read along series was very good for car learning: Let's Discover Words. A Troll Picture Dictionary. I purchased this series on ebay...I think it is out of print, but some libraries might still have them. It's worth the search. Each letter has it's own read along book and tape covering words which begin with that particular letter.

Computer learning software was helpful. There are many children's learning programs on cd-rom. Some of our favorites were Sesame Street learning, Reader Rabbit and Dr. Seuss Kindergarten. He did well with this type of visual learning.

He loved puzzles, so we got him puzzle after puzzle. I think he finally stopped at the 1000 piece puzzles. It was great for fine motor coordination, thinking and concentration, and pre-reading skills. When he began to read well around age seven, he stopped doing as many puzzles. The puzzles seemed to help him to transition to reading, so we ran with it. Solid well written literature was important for developing his vocabulary and improved language skills. Written language and spoken language are linked.

He enjoyed puppets, so we did quite a bit of learning with puppets. Sometimes the puppets taught. ;) He also seemed to be receptive to learning with flannel pieces. We used the book list from Before Five In A Row, and bought the matching hand made felt(flannel) story pieces from a few ladies on ebay who sell and auction these at reasonable prices. The visual clues of telling the story with the felt pieces helps engage a speech delayed child. He/she can also get prompts from the story pieces when narrating the story back to you.

We used felt pieces for teaching concepts like up and down, in and out, next to and below, top and bottom, etc. Just by moving felt pieces around the felt board we extended their use. I'd give directions like, put the duck next to the barn, or put the duck next to the cow, and he'd learn in an interactive visual way. This helped with speech enormously.

Here are some ideas I got from Dr. Camerata's web site. He works with late talking children at the Vanderbilt Brain Institute.

Recasting:
- Follows the child's lead
- Recasts the child's immediate verbal utterance or referent of
the child's attention.
- Does not require a verbal response from the child.

- Concentrated Play: Child led play using recasting.

- Modeling Language: Using short language to talk about what is happening now.

Other similar ideas:

- Self talk : Describe what you are doing as you do it.

- Parallel Talk : Describe what your child is doing as he does it.

- Expanding : Add sentence structure to what your child says.

- Extending : Add meaning to what your child says.

More ideas and explanations of these techniques here. There is also a beginning vocabulary list you and your child can work on, and links to verb and nouns phrases, and other developing elements of speech.

These ideas are not just good for speech delayed children, it's wonderful for any young children because you are expanding their language and communication skills in a one-on-one child led situation. You are spending special time with your child, bonding in love. What better way to learn!

Update: Some of the speech enrichment links above are not working as the site has moved, or is in the process of moving. Here is the main link. 

More Resources:

Helpful resource for home-based speech therapy. This is a homeschool deaf education link, but the therapies could be useful for hearing children with communication issues.

Support for homeschooling children with special needs: NATHAN, National Challenged Homeschoolers Associated Network.

Straight Talk - Speech and Language Program to use at home by Marisa Lapish, M.A. Home based speech therapy guides.

Plain & Simple Phonics: Created for children with delays that need to move very slowly. According to the website, there is a lot of repetition and no hand printing.

Homemade Dye and Ink

Today the family went to a local museum and ds went through an interactive Jamestown exhibit. This was our second time through, and it's loosely themed on the television show Survivor. You get a bead board and make life choices about 17th century living(first landing). It was fun, and the children learn quite a bit about what was needed to survive in the New World. At the end you add up your beds, and based on your score, you find out if you survived or not. Some of the questions were based on what was needed for making everyday objects.

Easy Fun School had some interesting links for homemade dyes and inks made in Colonial times(and before).

Coffee Dye

Cranberry Dye

Homemade Ink from Berries

Homemade Ink from Nuts

Marigold Dye

Mustard Dye

Purple Cabbage Dye

Spinach Dye

Tea Dye

Walnut Shell Dye

Fun and frugal.

Printable Grocery Price Book

Here is a nice printable page for creating a price book to track grocery prices. My husband made something similar himself with excel, and we use it every time we shop. This has helped us keep a lid on expenses, and ensure we are finding bargains.

In addition, we shop with this list that has many of the ingredients needed for cooking with the More-With-Less Cookbook. It keeps our grocery store trips short, and inexpensive. We are less likely to impulse shop with a list. As an added benefit, it has helped with waste. We are able to take an inventory before we shop, and use things up before buying more.

I've mentioned this before, but we are still using the Allrecipes.com ingredients search when trying to find recipes to use up specific ingredients. What a budget saver this has been! It also helps with meal boredom...sometimes we get tired of the same meals. Allrecipes.com has helped us mix it up, as well as use it up.

See more tips at Frugal Fridays.

Make a Quilt From Your Old Clothes

Debbie over at Homemaking Dreams made a quilt from her son's jeans and other clothing items. Do click on the picture(on her blog) and take a closer look, it's so nicely done.

She has linked the free pattern and tutorial. The pattern is called Gentleman's Quarters. My grandmother had handmade quilts on all the guest beds at her home, and they were very similar to this pattern. It brings back pleasant memories seeing this particular pattern.

Frugal Wardrobes: Keeping Clothing Costs Down

(Me in the dark ages) ;0

When I worked outside the home, I was required to wear dresses or skirts most of the time. I had to wear a suit jacket when I appeared in court. Even so, I was on a budget. My salary was not huge, nor would it ever be as an adult community corrections counselor. I had to learn to dress professionally on a dime.

I learned to mix and match in order to stretch my wardrobe, and I went for washable fabrics to cut down on dry cleaning. Some suits, particularly winter suits needed dry cleaning. I used washable sweat shields which you pin into the underarms to stretch the time between cleanings. I hand washed and ironed my silk blouses(shells).

I think the first thing I did before buying a wardrobe was to find some basic colors which suited my hair color and skin tone. Back in the early 1980's I had my colors done with Color Me Beautiful. My colors are Autumn tones: not true colors, but any color which has a warm brownish cast. They give you a little swatch booklet which recommends favorable wardrobe anchor and accessory colors for your season type. With this information, I picked skirts and jackets in solid or mostly solid colors in my anchor colors. Then I paired these with matching plain and patterned shells/blouses and dresses which would match the jackets. I used the accessory color pallet for selecting my dresses and tops. This meant that I had more than one outfit, they were all interchangeable. Some days I wore the dress with a jacket, others a skirt with the jacket, switching up the tops from day to day. Each day I could mix and match the skirts, jackets and dresses. Accessories helped as well. Changing out jewelry or adding a scarf can really stretch your wardrobe.

Because I had a few basic signature colors for my wardrobe, I was able to keep my shoe collection to a minimum. I had basic pumps in black, taupe, creme and blue. I bought bags of discounted pantyhose from the Leggs outlet by mail. I always had a few bags of misty taupe, mushroom , sheer black ribbed tight-like hose for winter, and the ivory or off-white for summer.

My wardrobe was not trendy or high fashion, but classic and professional. It was frugal and efficient. It never took me much time to choose an outfit and get dressed, everything worked together.

After I left my job in 2001 to stay home with the children, I had to get even more thrifty. I began to shop the thrift stores and found that I could get name brand items in excellent condition for a few dollars a piece. I've been doing this ever since, and it has really helped us keep expenses down. If I never mentioned it, no one would know we purchase used clothes.

Knowing color theory, I did my family's colors, and I shop for them off their color pallets. I also use what I learned from my working wardrobe, and try to find clothing and shoes which mix and match. This really cuts down on waste with mistakes. I get it right the first time.

Two helpful links for determining your colors:

Color Me Beautiful Quiz

Colours & Scents

I was looking around the house last night thinking about this post, and noticed that without even realizing it, I had decorated my home in my color pallet. So it carries over to other areas of your life, and makes for a relaxing and pleasing environment. I pieced the home together with thrifted items over a long period of time, so it really was unconscious decorating, but perfectly pulled together for my tastes.

Frugal Upstate's post from last week inspired me to write about my frugal clothing experiences after reading: Compiling a Frugal Work Wardrobe-A Guest Post. She has some excellent advice for keeping down clothing expenses, and lists the Tightwad Gazette's nine piece clothing formula.

And Sometimes Tea asks her readers some questions about wardrobe systems. She is searching for versatility in an area that has a mild climate most of the year.

She writes, "I'd love to have a System when it comes to clothes, and many of the moms I know feel the same way. I'd love to have three-quarters of my wardrobe be as appropriate for teaching in my living room as for going shopping, going out to dinner at a casual restaurant, and even, with moderate accessorization, for going to Mass on Sunday. I would also love to have three-quarters of my wardrobe reflect the fact that I live in a state where three-quarters of the year has approximately the same climate. Then, the remaining fourth of my clothing would also be divided: a couple of extreme climate options like a corduroy dress or fleece sweater for the small amount of winter we have would make up one half, and those dressier options for special Masses (like Christmas or Easter) or family occasions would make up the other."


She asks:

1. Do you have a wardrobe "System"? If you could, what would it be?

Continuing my train of thought with color theory(beginning of post), now that I work at home, instead of buying solid colored skirts and jackets in my anchor colors, I tend toward using my tops and jackets as anchors, and buy skirts and dresses in colorful patterns. I buy patterned dresses for Mass with interchangeable solid colored suit jackets or sweaters for chilly weather. This way I stretch a short sleeved dress into the fall, or even into winter. Suit jackets also dress up a skirt and top combo. If you buy a semi-casual longer jacket, it looks well with a dress. Short jackets with dresses look a bit awkward.

I try to choose clothing that is not overly dressy, casual or trendy. This makes a wardrobe more versatile. A simple black medium weight machine washable Old Navy polyester dress is one of my favorite pieces. I wear it to church and during the week. It is short sleeved, but I have a longish dressy sweater which lets me wear it in colder weather. I have some black ribbed tight-like Leggs pantyhose and some cute slightly trendy black leather shoes that I wear with it during the colder months. I've avoided the goth look(giggle) with my sweater which has a beaded edge. You can't go wrong with a little black dress.

2. What is the biggest problem area in your wardrobe: shirts, shoes, skirts/dresses, slacks, etc.? Do you have too many, not enough, a really hard time finding some that you like, or...?

I was having some trouble with tops, and I finally had to break down and buy retail. I look best in a V-neck, and I found some really nice semi-dressy cotton tops on sale at Wallyworld for a few dollars a piece. I bought three in different colors, and now I'm set.


3. If you woke up one morning to discover that all of your clothing items except the pajamas you were wearing and your "necessary unmentionables" had mysteriously vanished, what one item would you miss most?

Clean socks. I wear them around the house.

4. If your insurance covered mysteriously vanishing wardrobes, and you were handed a blank check to replace everything, where would you shop first, and what item would you buy?

J.C. Penny's...I like their semi-casual skirts. I like a modified A-line which has a little tailored flippiness to it.

5. What is your favorite type of accessory?

Fragrance and for dressy occasions, a string of pearls. I don't have time for a lot of accessories, but if make-up counts, I always put a little on if I leave the house.

In a nutshell - pick your main color pallet, and use this to mix and match by pairing solids with patterns. Purchase solids first, and then search for patterned pieces which match. Dresses are easiest because they are one piece. Buy short sleeved dresses to wear year round with a longish suit jacket, or dressy long sweater in colder weather.

See more tips at Works for Me Wednesday.

Fourth Grade Reading Lessons with Comprehension Questions/Free Printables

Week IV:

Click and print.

Young Benjamin Franklin

Excerpt from above story: "My son," said Mr. Franklin solemnly, "so far as it was in your
power, you have done a greater harm to the public than to the
owner of the stones. I do verily believe, Benjamin, that almost
all the public and private misery of mankind arises from a
neglect of this great truth,--that evil can produce only evil,
that good ends must be wrought out by good means."

Benjamin Franklin from The Beginner's Book of American History by D.H. Montgomery.

Waste Not Want Not

The Lion

Week IV Vocabulary List

Weeks I - III

Unless otherwise mentioned, selections are from the Revised Fourth Grade McGuffey's Reader(1920 edit.), free and in public domain.

Free Printable Vintage Readers

Grades One through Six at my homeschool library blog. These have come in handy for extra study work. I don't print out the entire book, just excerpts which I edit, save, publish(optional) and print with Google Documents.

I found a few short stories with comprehension questions that fit nicely with a fourth grade reader story about Benjamin Franklin. I'll share these soon. I found the short stories in books by searching my homeschool library's Elementary School Social Studies label. I've been adding, and adding to it, and am just now finding the library useful.

The vintage readers are worth a look, and convenient if you need something short and well written. Ds wanted to see a picture of Benjamin Franklin on his story page, so I pieced together something for him. We'll eventually borrow a biography at the library, but this was a good introduction which sparked further conversation with ds, who is still a young child.

If you are looking for a high moral tone, these vintage readers fit the bill. They are wonderful for teaching Christian values. Almost every story teaches a moral, especially in the lower grades.

Fourth Grade Reading and Penmanship Lesson/Free Printables

Week III

Click and Print:

Where There Is a Will There Is a Way.

True Manliness.

Ship in a Storm.

Week III Vocabulary List

Selections from Revised Fourth Grade McGuffey's Reader(1920 edit.), free and in public domain. I'll post other weeks as we complete these lessons. We are also using these penmanship lessons this week: Free printables for Proverbs and George Washington's Rules of Civility.

Week II here.

How to Make a Sweater Purse/Bag - Sewing Machine Optional

Click on the title.

Finding Your Fragrance

"Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart..." Prov 27:9

I have always loved fragrance. It's my one indulgence, and my skin chemistry is very particular, and so is my nose. Over the years of sampling fragrances I've found that Chypre(sheep-ra) is what works best for me. Unfortunately Chypre, an ancient and old-fashioned scent is now used mostly in men's cologne.

Once you find a favorite fragrance, find out which scent family it belongs to, and locating other fragrances you like will be much easier. I Googled my favorite scent family of Chryre, and was able to find a few fragrances I could wear.

Here are the traditional categories of scents:

Single Floral: Fragrances that are dominated by a scent from one particular flower; in French called a soliflore. (e.g. Serge Lutens' Sa Majeste La Rose, which is dominated by rose.)

Floral Bouquet: Containing the combination of several flowers in a scent.

Ambery: A large fragrance class featuring the scents of vanilla and animal scents together with flowers and woods. Can be enhanced by camphorous oils and incense resins, which bring to mind Victorian era imagery of the Middle East and Far East.

Woody: Fragrances that are dominated by woody scents, typically of sandalwood and cedar. Patchouli, with its camphoraceous smell, is commonly found in these perfumes.

Leather: A family of fragrances which features the scents of honey, tobacco, wood and wood tars in its middle or base notes and a scent that alludes to leather.

Chypre: Meaning Cyprus in French, this includes fragrances built on a similar accord consisting of bergamot, oakmoss, patchouli, and labdanum. This family of fragrances is named after a perfume by François Coty. A notable example is Mitsouko (meaning mystery in Japanese) by Guerlain.

Fougère: Meaning Fern in French, built on a base of lavender, coumarin and oakmoss. Houbigant's Fougère Royale pioneered the use of this base. Many men's fragrances belong to this family of fragrances, which is characterized by its sharp herbaceous and woody scent.

~ Scent categories extracted from Wikipedia, read more


"How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much more pleasing is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume than any spice." Song of Solomon

Perfume.com had the least expensive price(with shipping) for both my favorite scents: Byzance(1987) and Mitsouko(1919). Shipping was fast and inexpensive. Byzance is a woody white floral, one of the very few florals I can wear successfully without it "turning" on my skin.

I found another Chypre fragrance with a Google search, Caron's Tabac Blonde(1919). Notes:

Top: Leather, Linden, Carnation
Heart: Iris, Vetiver, Ylang Ylang
Base: Cedar, Patchouli, Vanilla, Amber, Musk

It sounded divine, so I found a place, The Perfumed Court which sells sample sizes for testing. I ordered a few days ago, and received my 1.5 ml sample of Tabac Blond today. The company is owned by women who have also sold hand decanted fragrances on ebay. This is a thrifty way to sample before you buy a full sized bottle. They were quick, the item was authentic, and they are highly recommended. I'll order again if I am looking for a sample size of a scent which can not be found locally.

If you want to get a little money back, try Bigcrumbs.com. I saw a few fragrance companies listed there, and they give you cash back for ebay purchases as well. I always shop around first for the lowest price with a Google search, then for additional savings, check Bigcrumbs.com to see if they happen to have the company listed.

Sometimes you can find coupon codes for free shipping. Google the store you choose, and check for coupon codes for additional savings.

What's your favorite scent family?

Homeschool Budget Helper: Worksheet Savers

When ds was in kindergarten and first grade, we used homemade worksheet savers. His curriculum was much more worksheet oriented than it is now. I purchased an inexpensive pack of three ring binder transparent plastic sleeves. I took the pages out of the workbooks and slipped them into the plastic sleeve, one at a time. Then we worked the sheets writing on the plastic, wiping them off with a damp sponge when we were done.

At first we used dry-erase pens, but they dried out quickly and were relatively expensive. With a little experimenting, I found a large pack of children's multi-colored felt tip pens which wrote well on the plastic sleeves. The large pack of felt tip pens was a no-name brand purchased at Family Dollar for about $2.00, and they lasted a very long time.

Using the sleeve has made it possible for me to reuse these sheets with my next child.

Another way to use the plastic sleeves is to cut two sides and slide it onto a workbook page. This way you don't have to rip the sheets out, or cut the spine away. We secured the sleeve on top with a paper clip, and when ds was done, we had a clean unworked workbook. A few of these unworked books we were able to sell, and some I kept for my daughter.

It's a good way to sample curriculum, and still be able to sell it if it doesn't work out. It's also a good way to stretch your budget if you want to use the curriculum for more than one child.

It was fun looking back over all the sheets we did four years ago, and I even saved our free online printables, and there were quite a few. It's nice to know I don't have to reprint all these, or do the research over again once my daughter begins school.

Free Music Sheets and Songs for Early Childhood

Click here.







To see sample, click on image to enlarge.

Freezer Biscuits

My freezer biscuits - recipe from fellow frugal blogger, Retrofoods. These are going to be frozen on this rack before I put them in a food saver. It keeps them from sticking together.

Tips for the perfect biscuit. Mine were just a wee bit heavy, and I found out why at this link. Don't mix or knead the biscuit dough too much. The more you knead, the heavier the biscuit.

BTW, Retrofood's Chicken with Sherry recipe was good as well.

Free Printables: Worksheets for Math Word Problems

"Put not your trust in money, but put your money in trust." ~ Oliver W. Holmes

We used these sheets for fourth grade word problems. They also have worksheets for other grades and subjects. This site in particular had more than others, and some of them were fun.

This site has seasonal word problems which were not as challenging, but still a good review.

ABC Teach had a few as well.

I'll add more as we work through these. If I have time, I'll make some of my own sheets, referencing his fourth grade math book. He's finished with it; we begin fifth grade math in October. We are brushing up on word problems before he launches into fifth grade math.

And if you have an older child or math whiz, here is a very tricky math problems book from the turn of the century. It also involves converting British currency. The transcriber has kindly added a conversion chart to the beginning of this public domain text. The quote and picture above is from this text.

Hint: An easy way to use the text is to copy, paste and print select problems, along with the conversion chart, into a word processor. That way you don't have to print out the entire book.

Free Math worksheets with some word problems.

More here.

Fourth Grade Reading and Penmanship Lessons/Free Printables

Week II




Click and print:

Smiles

The Good Son

Tomorrow

Week II Vocabulary List

Selections from Revised Fourth Grade McGuffey's Reader(1920 edit.), free and in public domain.

I'll post other weeks as we complete these lessons.

We are also using these penmanship lessons this week:

Free printables for Proverbs and George Washington's Rules of Civility.

See Week I here.

19th Century Cut-Out Dolls: Busy Sheets

Boy's playground, higher resolution for printing here.



Girl's playground, higher resolution for printing here.

Printing hint: Click on the pictures at the link in order to enlarge.

Images are from the Library of Congress and are in public domain.

Easy No-Fail Roast Beef Recipe

Using this recipe at Allrecipes.com: Restaurant-Style Prime Rib Roast , I made a really delicious Sunday roast. I made it from a roast I had in the freezer, that was probably not a prime rib roast as I usually buy whatever is reduced in price. It still came out well.

I think the trick is making sure you cook it at the correct temperature for the correct amount of time, 20 minutes per pound at 425 degrees for medium rare. The recipe has other directions for medium and well done. Also leaving it covered for a while after you take it out of the oven makes it more juicy. I used a oval casserole dish for my three pound roast, and instead of foil, I covered the casserole with the lid after I took it out of the oven. I let it sit on top of the stove for about 45 minutes, and it was still warm when we cut into it.

Such a simple recipe, and yet it made all the difference between a dry roast and a really juicy one. I did tweak the recipe a little by adding steak seasoning instead of pepper.

I served this roast with some rice, peas and carrots. One cup of rice, two cups water, bring to a boil with a little oil and salt, add half a bag of frozen mixed peas and cubed carrots. Cover and cook on low for about 30 minutes. Easy! Instead of salt I use Adobo seasoning that is basically garlic salt with tumeric.

See more tips at Shannon's.