My friend, Anisha, has had a very unique experience educating her dyslexic son! I am inspired by her journey. These are her favorite resources. To read her complete story, CLICK HERE.
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Anisha’s Favorite Resources
All About Reading and All About Spelling: AAR/AAS are Orton-Gillingham based programs. This is a well-researched method used to teach dyslexic students in a systematic, explicitly clear, multi-sensory way. AAR/AAS make OG accessible to homeschooling parents by scripting the program. You can go as fast or as slowly through the program as you need to, following along in the teacher guide, and using the extra activities listed in the appendix. Compared with other OG programs, AAR is extremely affordable and very well supported. Anytime I’m stuck I just shoot off an e-mail explaining the issue and someone will quickly respond with suggestions for how to move forward.
Story of the World: With Story of the World the text book provides an intro into a part of history, with related literature making up the bulk of your lessons. You only dive in where interested. Not really excited reading about Henry VIII, but fascinated by the Mayans? Then read on past Henry and camp out for a week or two with the Mayans. The activity book contains narration questions, optional projects, note booking pages, and suggestions for further reading. An audio version of the textbook is also available.
Apologia Science: Apologia provides unit studies, allowing students to really spend time learning about and understanding a certain subject. Accompanying notebooks are available, including a junior version which cuts out a lot of the writing demand. An audio version of the textbook is also available.
Life of Fred: A completely different approach to teaching math, Life of Fred teaches math concepts in story form. The short “your turn to play” at the end of each chapter allows students to practice the concepts learned.
Other Modifications:
Even with great curriculum, you still have to know how to use it with a dyslexic student. This is where accommodations come in. We worked with a learning disabilities specialist to create a plan for the accommodations we would use. These may change year to year depending on my son’s needs.
Audio books: Many curriculum providers include audio versions of textbooks.
Audible.com is a subscription service through amazon for purchasing audio books.
The Libby App provides access to libraries across the US, including many audio books and read-along ebooks.
Narration: Narration is a great way to check for comprehension. We discuss text read and then ask for a narration back, which I write down. This way I know my son has a thorough understanding of the lesson and I also have a record of learning.
Testing: We limit tests, but when given I will read questions aloud and write the answers given. The point is to evaluate knowledge of a subject, not overburden my son with the task of putting what he knows into written form.
Non-academic school days: My son is very interesting in building projects and raising animals so we’ve incorporated these into our school week on Wednesday mornings. We’ve worked together to remodel the chicken pen, build a quail run, plant and maintain vegetable gardens, incubate eggs, and even butcher chickens. Wednesday afternoons are for Art and PE co-ops.
Typing: It is typical for a dyslexic student to find touch typing much easier than writing by hand as the burden of remembering how to form letters is removed. We are currently using the KAZ touch typing program with the intention of gradually moving towards including more type written work in our school routine.
Copy Work: Even though difficult, letter practice is important. This is where copy work comes in. One short sentence is enough at the moment as tracking words as he writes them is quite challenging. Still, copy work gives an opportunity for a short period of independent written work, which is also very important.
Other Resources:
Homeschooling with Dyslexia – You can teach your kids with dyslexia
About Anisha:
Born to Chilean and Texan parents, Anisha first tasted missions in Mexico, fell in love with an Englishman in Africa, and now lives in Indonesia. She writes monthly for www.alifeoverseas.com, and keeps a sporadic journal of life in Indonesia on www.namasayamommy.com. She is contactable via facebook at BenAnishaHopkinson or you can e-mail her directly at anisha@benhop.co.uk.
