I cannot beleive this has been only the 2nd post i have written this year about our homeschooling journey.Wow. It has been a long year. But its been a good one.We made it through 5th grade.But I have decided to do another year of "5th" grade. I am doing this because if she were in "normal" school, this is what grade i would put her in...........or maybe I just dont waNT HER TO GROW UP.....LOL.
So, over the past several years,I have noticed that my daughter has had some learning diffuculties. I often blamed myself for this,maybe it was something I was doing, or something I wasnt doing. This year, i was finally able to pinpoint what was wrong. I beleive she has CAPD, also known as Central Auditory Processing Disorder.These kids can't process the information they hear in the same way as others because their ears and brain don't fully coordinate. Something adversely affects the way the brain recognizes and interprets sounds, most notably the sounds composing speech. So yeah, its been difficult, but we are working our way through it. I tried to get her tested at various places, but to no avail,which was uber frustrating. Interestingly enough though, this was a really good year for her. Remember the kid that hated to read? Well, thats changed. She actually enjoys it now.
This coming year is going to be different for us, and most of her lessons will be on the computer I have decided to stick with sonlight for history and geography, Teaching textbooks for math, and the rest will be Switched on Schoolhouse, which will be new for us this year
Other new things happening this year(or this coming semester I guess I should say),are that we wont be attending co-op for the first time in like 6 years I am really sad about that, but I felt that with all of the changes going on, that it was time. It was a very hard decision for me, and I am still trying to work up the strength to tell my daughter I think she will be ok with it.I think we will reserve this day for field trips,and may even plan a fall vacation.We usually dont do anything in the fall because it is soo extremely busy, but hopefully this will free up some time.
and the last change, which isnt really homeschool related is that I am going back to school I havent decided on a major just yet, although I am leaning towards biblical studies,music , or counseling. So this year we will both be doing school together The whole idea of us both being in school together sounds like fun,but I am sure it will present itself with challenges.hence the new computer curriculum.The only things i will be instructing her on , and actually teaching are history and geography.
So, that about sums it up, school starts in 2 weeks(for me), and i will give you an update then.
Kids with APD often do not recognize subtle differences between sounds in words, even when the sounds are loud and clear enough to be heard. These kinds of problems usually occur in background noise, which is a natural listening environment. So kids with APD have the basic difficulty of understanding any speech signal presented under less than optimal conditions.
After much research, I decided to try to go through the system and have her tested.This didnt turn out soo well,and we were denied time after time. Talk about frustration.............I finally decided to give up, after all, there is nothing anyone can really do about it, other than diagnose her.The rest would be left up to me(the exercises,etc).Sometimes it is good to get things validated, other times it isnt, and i really felt like this was one of those times.................the good news is now that I know what it actually is we are dealing with her quality of learning has changed immensely.
So this year, as I mentioned previously we used the Sonlight program. I went with a condensed US History(which is like 2 years in one). That was a big mistake, and I wont be doing that again. I have noticed a huge improvement since we started sonlight, however, so we will be using it again for History/ Grammar
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