Homeschooling Autism: Week in Review, January 2 – 6 #LakeshoreLearning
Hey everyone! I hope you all had a good week, with the kids returning to school, whether public or homeschooled. I have one of each, so as my daughter returned to Kindergarten in the public school setting, my son and I returned to his lessons in the homeschool setting.
My son is a tactile learner, so almost everything we do has to be hands on, which is why I absolutely love what we did this week…I guess you could say we had a Lakeshore Learning kind of week, because nearly everything we did, included some kind of game, or learning kit from Lakeshore Learning!
Before I get to the things we did this week, let me give you a little background. When we first started this school year, I had set a schedule for my son, that somewhat mimicked a public school schedule…I had him doing a little of every subject, every day. It didn’t take long to figure out that is wasn’t going to work out well that way. So, after much soul searching, some observation, and a few tweaks to my lesson plan, I decided that we would focus on one subject a day.
My son attends Speech Therapy at the public school, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so we do reading, phonics, and handwriting on those days.
On the other days we tackle math, science, and social studies. We also make sure that we do art daily, as it is a good outlet for him. Ok, so now that you know a bit of the background, lets get into what we actually did!
For our reading and phonics lessons, we used the word family flip books from Lakeshore Learning. I love these books, because they are easy to use, and teach my son a variety of words, and assist him in some of the combination sounds that he has trouble with.
This set comes with 30 books, for a total of 300 words. It is a great set, and something that my son enjoys. It also doubles as extra lessons for my daughter, who is in Kindergarten! Unfortunately, this is also an item that has been discontinued, however, they do have a similar set of Phonics Books!
For Math, we used the addition and subtraction regrouping kits. These are the easiest way to help my son with math. Being that the kits are a hands on, my son can really visualize math problems. We can go through the provided cards, and do the math problems, then make up our own.
There is a tray that has three sections, labeled for hundreds, tens, and ones. You get a bag full of hundreds, tens, and ones “coins”, a dry erase board and marker for working problems in the traditional way, and a case of math problems. My son is able to work problems in more than one way, which reinforces the skill for him.
It comes with different set ups that you can copy, each with a different degree of difficulty, or you can do like my son does, and create your own. I am highly impressed with this set, and love that it is part of the STEM curriculum, which is very beneficial to all students, but is something that my son can excel in.
This last item isn’t something that I use for my son, but it is a Lakeshore Learning item, so I wanted to include it in this post. This is something that I use with my daughter, who is in Kindergarten. These are alphabet learning locks, and they help her with letter recognition.
Each lock has an uppercase letter on one side, and a picture of something starting with that letter on the other side. Each key has a lowercase letter on it. I spread them out on the table and mix up the keys, then let my daughter find the matches.
At school, she does something called iStation, which scores her based on her reading ability. One area she is tested on, is letter knowledge. Since starting these lock and keys with her, her letter knowledge score, has started to go up, with each new report! They are lots of fun, and clearly working!!
So, there you have it…our week in a nutshell, or blog post! What did you all do this week? I would love to hear about your week, and the curriculum that you used. Sound off below!
Hi, I’m a grandmother. Where can I buy Alphabet Key Lock game in Australia. Thank you
HI! I am so glad you stopped by! For Lakeshore Learning orders in Australia please contact :
Australia
Modern Teaching Aids
Contact: Len Optland
Ph# 61-2-9938-0402
Fax# 61-2-9938-0495
e-mail: loptland@teaching.com.au
I am sure they will be able to get you set up with the Alphabet Key Lock Game. Please let me know if you are successful!
That math set looks so cool! We have a Lakeshore near Seattle… I always just assumed they were an independent store, but I guess not!
The Alphabet key lock game sounds like a great learning tool. Kudos to you for going the homeschool route with your son. We are brushing up on our hand grip over here!
The key locks are awesome! Yes, homeschooling him ended up being the best option for him, and he is making great progress! Every once in a while he regresses and we have to go over hand grip again, so I know what you are going through!
These are some really great options, I have one child who’s very hands-on and this will be great for her. Its great that there are options for all different types of learners.
Yes, I agree! I have yet to be disappointed by what Lakeshore has to offer!
Lakeshore Learning seems like a great company with quality products to assist children. I am glad that it is working for your son.
I love their products, they have so many great options to choose from. The products last a long time as well, many of these items came from a classroom and are secondhand for me!
It looks like a great stuffs to have if you have an autism home schooler and it looks like a great way to help them to learn at home.
They definitely are a big help, and homeschooling my son is the best options for him!
These are perfect for kids to learn more in easy way. Thank you for this great recommendations.
My pleasure! I am a firm believer in learning through play, so Lakeshore Learning is right up my alley!
You have you great tools here. I’m a teacher and can definitely see some of these helping!
Thank you! My son really responds well to them, I am impressed with the variety of learning tools that Lakeshore has!
These look like awesome games/ learning tools for kinesthetic learners! The typical school curriculum is very unforgiving for students that learn by doing these are great alternatives!
yes! that was one of the reasons why we chose to homeschool my son. The way in which he learns wasn’t an approach that the school district would take.
Great educational ideas! As a fellow homeschooling Mom, I love these games you are using with your kiddos.
Thank you! Learning, at any age, happens best through play…so that’s what we do!
These are some great products! 2/3 of the autism kids I work with are homeschooled. These sound awesome, love Lakeshore.
That’s awesome! Do mind me asking what you do? I love Lakeshore, they have such a vast assortment of learning tools for all ages!
These are amazing, I am actually looking for something that I could buy for my kids. I love the alphabet learning block, my kids will enjoy playing this at the same time they can learn a lot.
These would be a great way to learn those letters…sometimes, I have my kids spell words with the locks and keys. We can work on Capital letters and lowercase!
Great blogs keep up the good work.
Thank you!
My grandkids go to public school but my daughter likes to do extra work at home and during the summer. Will have to share this with her
I hope she finds some of these options useful!
These look great! I wish we would have had these when I had littles. Putting them on my list for future grand babies!
They are lots of fun, and incredibly useful!
This is wonderful that there are so many learning games and tools available. Even though I am a bit older, and I don’t have any children of my own – don’t tell anyone, but sometimes I like doing this games myself just to keep my brain and mind active.
Yes, Lakeshore really does have some amazing games and tools for all learners. Don’t worry, I play these by myself sometimes, too! 😉
My sister got my son the Create-a-chain-reaction STEM starter kit and he absolutely loves it. He keeps creating all kinds of chains and imaginary animals with the pieces and he adores them. Loved the various other options too especially the regrouping kits.
That’s fantastic! I love watching my son create new chains! The regrouping kits have really put a face to math for him, they are a great learning tool!
My kids loved the Alphabet locks! They were great for having something tactile to associate with a letter.
Yes, they are fantastic…not only are we learning letters, but we can learn the difference between capital and lowercase letters. Additionally, we are learning the names of different objects because of the pictures on the locks. I use them with my soon to be 2 year old, and she is recognizing more and more of the objects!
I love this so much! Thanks for sharing, you are such an inspiration.
This is a great post. It seems like there are a lot of great tools for homeschooling out there that are really helpful.
This is my first time visiting your blog. I just wanted to let you know that I love the graphics that you use for your site’s header and the title of your post. Those learning blocks are super cool too. I might have to check them out for my grandson.
I don’t home school but my son struggled early on as a student. We used all the Lakeshore books/games as a recommendation from his OT. They are terrific learning aids.
I don’t homeschool but my son had OT issues early on. We used all the LakeShore books and games as recommended by our OT. They are great.
As a former special education teacher … I always loved Lakeshore Learning!
Awesome recommendations! I have been thinking of what to give to kids for Christmas and these are good ideas.
Oh my gosh, you are one awesome mom! I love all the ideas/recommendations that you have presented. This is just super! Way to super! Thanks for posting.
Thanks for sharing your ideas. Its a perfect timing coz am looking for a gift idea for my bestie’s daughter.
Those are great options. Look like things that can be used together. Much better than all the electronics everybody uses now.