Turning Lemons into Lemon Aid

This board is an example of how a person can turn lemons into lemonade. When we first added on this room we were completely finished (we thought) so we called the building inspector for our final inspection. He was very surprised that we had called him because we had no railings on our stairs. No one had told us that we needed railings so we figured we were done. I was quite upset as the cost of railings on both sides would take care of a few hundred bucks which we didn't want to spend. The building inspector told us that we could put a short wall up which would be a lot cheaper than railings. After checking, we decided that he was right the wall would be cheaper. So here it is.
Now I have just found out about magnetic paint (my daughter just mentioned it in conversation) I had never heard of such a thing. Right away I could see a use for that on this "wall" My husband did a great job of painting this for me and it works great for decoding phonics words. As I used it this morning I sometimes wished that I could write on it as well....my husband had gone to the hardware store to buy white board paint to paint on top of my magnetic paint! Wow, what a benefit this wall has become to me.

The evolution of a chair

I have gone from having 4 to 5 children at a time. I have known that I would need another chair for some time but I kept putting it off. I wanted a chair to match and at $50.00 per chair I was delaying.
Now all of the sudden I needed a chair this afternoon. I walked around the house looking for a stool or anything that might be about the right height. I spotted a filing box, measured it and if it wasn't the perfect height. I remembered that I had an empty file box in storage under the house that was the same size, so I got that out, turned it over and put a pillow on. I now had a chair but the wheels were turning; all this space inside that I could use for filing if it was the right side up. My husband and I talked over different ideas, like slats held on with velcro, a piece of plywood with hinges. We just kept stalling, nothing seemed quite right.
Last Saturday I got some more shelving. I had 2 extra pieces, well you can see from the picture how it turned out when we put wire ties on one edge. I can now lift up the lid and do filing, put the pillow on and it is the favourite chair that I have now. I have to keep the kids from fighting to sit on it.

Gentle Care Books

I am ready for something new to do by about this time of the year. I came up with the idea of this little book. I had to use my sewing machine to attach the pages as my stapler wasn't big enough. On the left side of each page I typed the words from each section. e.g. ce: face, space, dance. gy: gym
The right side I left blank. The children read the words, decide what to draw and then when they have finished their drawing they print the corresponding word.
I must say it has been a huge hit. They are very pound of their "Gentle Care Books"

A new Year

Life has finally settled down so that I can make some entries in my blog. I have 11 students who are starting the first year program and 6 completing the second year.
I now have so many games made and filed that it is very easy to prepare a lesson.
I find with some students I really need more worksheets. If a child is having private lessons and reading is not their favorite thing to do repetition is essential. I have decided to start writing a workbook for each area of the fair. Word searches, mazes, crosswords etc. just to give them more usage of the words they are learning.

Table Game

I have further embellished an alphabet table game from earlier lessons. I now started with a plain piece of paper and drew a game board. I then wrote words around a star shape and had it laminated. The children use game pieces and dice to move around the board, reading the words that they land on.

Table game

For previoues lessons I adapted a purchased "chinese checker" game by printing the alphabet in thespaces. The children would take turns moving around the spaces and then reading the letter on the space they had landed on.
I have a boy that is now on lesson 12 and he noticed this game on the shelf. He kept asking me if he could play it. I told him "no, you are way past that level now." I then got the idea to make my own game from scratch with words on it. I used brown butcher paper, drew a game board and had it laminated. It has worked so well that have made games for each area of the fair.

Down Syndrome update

J. is a delight to have as one of my students. He is 8 years old, in grade one at the local Christian School. As far as I can see, he is at his grade level for reading. I have some grade one students who can't read as well as he can and some that are way ahead of him.
He loves to play games and attempt to sing songs. He loves to move to music. One of his strengths is to memorize things, but the weakness being he may not necessarily understand them. J. is very good at understanding the rules of the games so that makes it very easy to work with him.
J. does not like to print or work in his book but I have found that stickers and candy are a great motivator. We are working on printing his alphabet, there are 3 pages of letters. We do one line on each page and he gets to pick a sticker for each page.
J. quite often say "I'm done" when he has had enough of an activity or game, especially if he doesn't quite understand what we are doing. For example, identifying a 'sitting' or 'standing' clown in a word. I usually try to get him to finish the project or activity that we are working on so that he can accomplish the goals that he is working on without quitting. If I give him a word such as "kit" or "Kite" and ask him to identify sitting or standing he would get about 50% right. At that level I am really not sure if he is just getting half right by guessing.
We are near the end of his first year in Fun Family Phonics and he has mastered the blends completely. I am confident that he not only can read them but he understands the concept as well. He also has a good grasp of Hairy Humphries Carosel. We are still working on that, he can read most of words but with a sound like "gh" having so many different sounds it is difficult for him. As we use the words in many different games he ends up memorizing them. For example "cough" with "gh" sounding like "f".
J. plans to return in Sept. and we will begin by reviewing the blends, clowns, and Hairy Humphrey. I have been spending 3 or 4 tutoring session on each lesson sheet. I may have to shorten the time spent on each lesson or he will spend 3 years here instead of 2. I have spoken to his mother about this and we will assess the situation before Christmas and decide if I should move faster and just complete the course.
I try to read a short story to him at each tutoring session and ask him some questions to see if he understands the story. This is not a favorite activity for him but I feel that it will be beneficial in the long run.
J. is still quite negative and very often will say "no" when I suggest an activity, if I say "yes" this is what we are doing he is also very quick to co-operate. Sometimes J. needs a very "firm" suggestion but I have never had a problem teaching him.