Kiddos with Special Needs

 Just like yours, our Co-op has kiddos with special needs.  We make accommodations for them in our high school Co-op class.  In one case, I assigned a kiddo who’s 15 to the middle school class.  It’s been a good fit.  Every class a different child sits next to C so everyone gets to know each other.  In reality, all of the students have had a turn helping C with activities.  

The Brit Lit class has two kids who struggle with literature.  I just made the executive decision to use easy to read versions of most of the literature.  I’m assigning paragraphs instead of essays.  The boys will still be exposed to all of the books, novels, poems, etc.  The assignments will just be easier to understand.  I’ve done this for individual students in a Brit Lit class before.  

In Chemistry, there are thirteen teens.  Two of the kiddos are actually middle-schoolers.  Three others have learning differences.  How do we cope?  First, everyone works in teams of two.  Secondly, Rob and I team-teach.  Each of us spends time coaching the kids struggling the most.  We limit the number of problem sets for one teen.  In a few cases, we let siblings work together on spreadsheets.  In other words, we push all the students a bit out of their comfort zones, without overwhelming them.  We already know one or two teens just won’t be able to do the harder concepts.  So what.  Everyone is still learning some Chemistry.

Here is my challenge to you.  Do you have teens with special needs or learning differences?  Are they in your Co-op classes?  Could you ask a mom to stay and work with him or her individually?  In other words, can your Co-op make the extra effort to see that this child gets exposed to harder subjects?  It is much easier to exclude the teen from hard subjects.  We don’t.  Even if the child doesn’t get as much out of the class as some of the others, he or she is still learning.

Take advantage of themes!

 It’s fall!  Go ahead and plan lessons around pumpkins and apples.  Today is Mole Day!  My Chem class makes moles.  We give away tootsie mole pops to the best mole toy pattern.  I baked mole hole cookies (Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies.)  Take full advantage of a fun theme!  After all, isn’t this why you home-school?

How to punt!

 Wednesday’s class was typical.  Everyone was in the basement because the cleaners come once a month.  Rhys has PSAT tomorrow and will miss Chem class.  He missed three classes to visit his sister in California.  Happily, he can spend Wednesday mornings catching up because his mom has errands in Stafford.  Wednesdays are Brit Lit.  Rob covered my class.  Meanwhile I went over the Chem lesson with Rhys.  One of the Brit Lit kiddos, Jacob, needed help writing a résumé.  Rob was in business management.  After Brit Lit he helped Jacob with the résumé.  Sofia, Jacob’s sister, is in the Tuesday Middle School Chem class.  I decided to see if she could do the same ionic compound activity as the high schoolers do.  Yeah, she can!  In between, Sofia ran upstairs to make copies.  Co-op classes are like that.  Moms pitch in to help herd kiddos.  Families swap lessons based on ability and experience.  (Rob is growsing about reading The Green Knight. ) Hey!  This is how we punt!  We join Co-ops and home-school for a reason; our goal is to educate, which means we have to make adjustments as we roll.

A little more heresy…

 Is it okay to skip a concept or even a module?  What about an entire lab?  The Chemistry class I teach for Co-op is struggling through specific heat.  The most recent edition of Apologia’s Chemistey textbook has moved the module from 2 to 12, which should tell you something.  Most of the module is straight forward.  Let me tell you, the calorimetry lab is NOT!  The calculations in particular are hard because you have to set two equations equal to each other.  (Experiment 5.1 in the textbook is another challenge.)

So what if you encounter a problem you don’t know how to solve or a complicated lab?  Did you give it a good try?  I don’t mean just read it and weep.  Did you even Google the topic to see if there was a video?  Was the video just as confusing?  Have you even resorted to AI?  At this point you probably enlisted your husband and made it a group project.  Are you at the point where you feel defeated?  Stop.  Skip the problem.  Move on.  Just because you cannot understand one lab or one algebraic problem doesn’t mean you should abandon the subject and admit defeat.  Continue with the subject.  By all means ask your friends if they have encountered the issue and can help.  (They might know a tutor.)  Look, you can only do what you can do.  Stop beating yourself up.  Even my husband, Rob, who teaches math and is extremely smart, has encountered problems he couldn’t solve.  Yes, as a matter of fact, I did resort to AI, Google, and videos.  Yes, it did become a family project.  Yes, I did suggest just to skip it.

Does your Co-op hold book exchanges?

 Every September, our Co-op has a back-to-Co-op Mass followed by a picnic in the park.  Families bring books, supplies, and bins of anything related to Co-op they aren’t using—workbooks, flash cards, manipulatives, etc. Families with older kiddos share textbooks they’ve outgrown.  Sometimes, one math program just doesn’t work. My friend, Ann, volunteers at the local library.  She sorts donations for the monthly books sale.  Ann saves materials she thinks are suitable for home-schoolers.  These donations are part of the book swap.   In fact, we do informal swaps all the time.  My friend, Helena, gave me a large bag of craft materials.  I took a few yards of fabric and gave the bag to my friend, Jen, to share with another Co-op in Woodbridge.  Does your Co-op have an exchange?  Anytime the Co-op meets to plan members bring any extra curriculum materials to share.  Leftover supplies go to the church’s thrift store—making supplies available to an even larger audience.  While September is a great time to share, anytime is fine to swap textbooks—say in the spring, when you’re planning.  Then next September, everyone can make a second swap after all of those plans change.  BTW no one objects to a bin of clothes appearing at the book swap!

Buy used presents.

 I like to bid on lots.  I just bought five LEGO Klutz sets to use as presents.  (We have several,  young friends.  I sew doll clothes for the little girls.  I like to have $5 presents for the little boys. I have a stack of LEGO Klutz sets and puzzles.)  My target price is $5 for each piece—the same as for lots I bid on for science camp. 

As long as the set is complete, most kiddos don’t mind that it’s used.  Our family buys used books as presents, too.  Who doesn’t love a large stack of books?  (Of course I read on my Kindle; I still like sets of books!)  I keep a stack of used puzzles on hand for gifts, too.  Sometimes the used puzzles are still sealed.  If I want to give a small present, I’m ready!

Join the Apologia Facebook Group!

Do you use Apologia’s materials?  If you do, consider joining the Apologia Group on Facebook.

Yes, many of the posts are people selling books, etc.  However, members ask questions.  Guess what?  Jeannie Fulbright has posted answers to questions about the Young Explorers series.  It’s one of those groups you can check out weekly and stay on top of posts.  Give it a try