Soundsory Multi-Sensory Program (Homeschool Review Crew)

Sound for Life Ltd. is a company familiar to us -- a few years ago, we reviewed their Forebrain headset device.  We were intrigued by their new Soundsory multi-sensory program. While this program also uses a headset for its user interface, Soundsory is a multi-sensory program for ages three and up (adults included!).  By combining sound with physical activity, the program stimulates the integration of the vestibular and auditory systems and help better integrate body position, balance, and movement information with the brain. This reminded me of an occupational therapy program that Luke had completed several years ago. While that also added visual stimulus/exercises, it was a big help in increasing his proprioceptive awareness. It is something I have been considering repeating for Jude because if you combine his already-present hypotonia and physical delays with typical tween gangliness, you get a kid who has zero concept of where his body is in space.  However, it was a fairly large commitment for our family; the 8-week program required twice-weekly trips to the therapist (over an hour each way).  The 20-hour Soundstory was forty days (so slightly shorter overall) and lacking the visual input, but it could be done at home.  I figured it was worth a try.

The program is divided into 30-minute sessions (20 hour total), with the individual sessions containing two parts. The first section is a mainly auditory, 25-minute rhythmic music listening session. The sound is delivered in two ways through the dual-interface earphones; they contain both traditional auditory speakers and bone-conduction transmitters. Throughout the session, the user will be exposed to a variety of musical genres. At the start of each half-hour session, the music begins quietly, builds to a crescendo, and then tapers back to quiet, cueing the user to the impending movement session.   At the end of the second section, the headphone will automatically shut off, indicating the end of the day's activity.

Note: the package includes a USB charging cable, and suggests charging through a computer. Though you can use one if you have it, a wall adapter is not included.  We charged ours through the USB plug of an APC surge adapter. A display bar on the side of the headphones shows the remaining battery life, so we knew when to recharge so they did not die mid-session.  Though the headphones also have a Bluetooth function and can be used as "regular" headphones, we did not use this feature.

After the initial novelty wore off, Jude found the listening sessions boring.  There was nothing to do during them -- just sit and listen.  For a kiddo who is fidgety to begin with, asking him to sit and focus for almost half an hour was almost impossible.  Soundsory suggests combining it with quiet free play time.  Jude usually opted for playing with his Power Rangers or Legos. It was enough to keep his hands occupied, but low-stimulation so he could still benefit from the listening.  (You don't want to be reading or watching a screen -- that's too much stimulation, and listening while eating or drinking is discouraged because that will interfere as well.) 

Because the headphone is wireless, it meant he could also take it to his room to work with it. I think this was a big help in getting him to use the program. As he has gotten older, he has become more attuned to when he needs to "stim" (running around in circles is his usual activity), but also more sensitive to others watching him. Despite the fact that the entire house can hear him thumping about, he prefers the illusion that if he is in his room with the door shut, nobody can see him, and therefore his stimming is done "privately." (I've suggested he go outside in the yard, where the is a much larger area to run, and promised to keep his siblings inside until he comes back in, but there are windows and that means the potential to be seen.) After making him do the first few sessions where I could observe him to ensure the headphones remained properly positioned (with the bone conductors on the head, and the right and left sides on the proper side), I let him do the sessions in his room -- I knew when he had begun the movement section by the thumping.  (With autism, you learn to celebrate the hidden victories -- apparently, the newest one is an unanticipated added benefit to hardwood flooring!)

When I asked him what he thought of it, he said it was "Ok."  Thanks, kid...that's incredibly stellar input. I asked him about the music, and he said, "It was strange." Again...thanks, kid. So I put the headphones on myself and listened.  I can see (hear?) where he is coming from. I think it's a big disconcerting, because of the jumpiness and volume changes. Individual rhythms and tempos are relatively short, so the brain doesn't become overly fixated on one piece. While I did not complete the program (I did about a week's worth of listening), I found that some days, this was not an issue for me, and other days, it was incredibly over-stimulating.

The videos were short, and are accessed through the Soundsory website (an access code is provided upon purchase of the headset). The videos can be accessed via laptop, tablet, or mobile device.  Again, this helped with buy-in from Jude because it meant he could control where he did a session. Each day, the user combines seated and standing exercises.  Some are fairly simple -- one called "Sky Earth Stretches" is akin to yoga's forward fold -- while others, like the "Open Close", can be a challenge.  (These photos are from the program; Jude did not wish to have his picture taken during the exercises.)

But does it work? At the risk of sounding insipid, the short answer is maybe. Did I see any gains? Nothing impressive that couldn't be coincidental. 

Is his focus better because of the program, or was it the psychiatrist adjusted his ADHD medication? Was the little physical awareness increase I saw from the Soundsory or was it from our daily exercise program? He still needed a lot of physical/auditory cueing during our workouts but were the two-out-of-ten-with-proper-form reps from him gaining better awareness in general, or marginally increased muscle memory, or because he put his dumbbells down so he had one less thing to keep track of, or because of just luck?

Soundsory is something that I think we will keep working with -- for half an hour a day, I don't think it's a huge commitment. I think efficacy is going to depend on an absurd number of variables. Jude has a number of deficits, so while I was hoping for noticeable gains, I also had modest expectations. While it will not replace a good occupational/physical therapy program, I think it falls under the "might help, can't hurt" category of augmentative therapies.


If you'd like to learn more about our experience with the Forbrain program, click the headset image.

To read other Crew experiences with Soundsory, click on the Crew banner below!

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©2012- 2018 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com

Forbrain (A Schoolhouse Crew Review)

We've done years of speech therapy for Jude. He began as a toddler with our county's early intervention program. Initially, we decided to teach sign language, because his speech was so poor. (We decided it was better to focus on giving him communication skills, even if they weren't necessarily oral speech skills.) Jude has had countless hours of verbal speech therapy with hospital-based therapists as well, and yet continued to struggle. Learning to read has made a big difference for him because now he can see some of the sounds; words like "toaster" has a /t/ sound in the middle, and "box" has an ending /ks/ rather than being pronounced "bah." We still do a lot of modeling, but it is frustrating for him because if you say to him, "Say it like this, 'BAKS.'" he will protest, "I am saying it! BAH!" He just doesn't hear the sounds. We jumped at the opportunity to try the Forbrain bone-conduction headset  from Forbrain - Sound for Life Ltd.

Have you ever listened to your voicemail greeting and said, "Wow, that doesn't sound like me at all?" That's because you're used to hearing yourself through the combination of the vibration of your voice in your head as well as the sound in the air. When you play back recorded voices, everyone else sounds the same as they always do - because those sounds are transmitted through the air. Even traditional earphones and earbuds involve air that is trapped in the ear canal under the speaker. Forbrain headphones are different because they don't go in your ears, but rest on the top of the jawbones instead, using the bone to conduct the sound. The concept is very similar to that of a Bone Anchored Hearing Aid (BAHA), used for patients who have functioning cochleae but are not candidates for traditional hearing aids. In this population, the BAHA transmits sound along the bones to the nerve.

Forbrain - Sound for Life Ltd. has done extensive research and found that combining a microphone with a bone-conduction headset creates a sound loop that allows a person to eliminate sound transmission via air. The headset enhances vibration to help the wearer process sound, and then be able to adjust what he says. The vibrations also enhance sounds, allowing sounds that might otherwise be missed to be heard. Forbrain is not necessarily a medical device; it is geared to helping people with speech modeling and memorization by providing an increased multisensory situation. They recommend teens and adults use the headset for about twenty minutes a day and younger students for fifteen minutes daily for six to ten weeks. Suggested activities are reading aloud, short passage memorization, and reading together (parent and child voices simultaneously).

Jude used this headset for reading aloud, but his favorite activity was singing the memory song from his current Bible study program. Jude has amazed me with how well he memorized the events in the first level of the program. He could easily recite the events in the correct order when the song was turned off. However, when he sang along with the program, the memory song was garbled. Jude was doing well with the parts that had more of a crescendo, but diminuendos or between parts were rough. We decided to try the Forbrain headset when it was time to sing the memory song.

To my surprise, it really did make a difference in what he was singing. I'm not going to say he was as articulate as the program's singer, but I would say what HE sang could be understood far more easily. He thought the headset and how he felt the sound was unusual, but he was excited to be able to keep up with the song.

Next, we did some reading aloud with it. I can't say that using the headset made a huge difference in his oral reading skills. His cadence hasn't significantly changed, and his volume certainly hasn't. It may have helped his recall, but given how rapidly he has progressed with reading comprehension in the past few months, it's very possible that that was simply an organic change.

Finally, we tested it out doing some traditional speech work. For us, this is where we found Forbrain to have the biggest influence. At first, he still struggled, because he was listening to me say a word, and then he would repeat what he heard. What he heard ME saying was coming from air conduction, and it was as garbled as usual. What I then tried was to speak into the microphone, so that he was hearing my voice being conducted. To my amazement, he could hear a difference, and his articulation was much better. After a session with the headset, the constant carryover is about 20-30 minutes. That doesn't seem like much, but considering traditional speaking/listening doesn't even get him success within the session, this was incredible. As time has gone on and we've continued using the headset, he's been able to carry over high-frequency words.

I don't think it has made a huge statistical difference in his day-to-day speech - I'd say he's consistently saying about ten more words correctly compared to before. However, for him, this is a huge gain. When he last received speech therapy, he had hour-long sessions twice a week for twelve months; at the end, he had a 200% increase in skills when comparing his post-therapy evaluation against his entry eval. However, if you compared him to the norms for his age, he went from being in the first percentile to the third. Ten clearer words in six weeks is pretty impressive for Jude. I'm glad we had the chance to try this because he is being referred for another speech evaluation. I will definitely be speaking to his therapist about integrating Forbrain to his therapy (either in sessions with her or for home practice).

I can't say how beneficial this would be for a neurotypical child. I think that the feedback it provides would help a child be able to do higher-level processing (i.e., adjusting cadence, etc.), but Jude's not quite at that point yet. Jude has always been a very visual learner, because of his inability to process sounds. However, I think Forbrain is going to be something that will work for us to help him become less dependent on visual input and more able to recognize words and their component phonemes correctly.

For more about Forbrain, follow them on social media or click the banner below to read more reviews.

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©2012- 2016 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com

MaxScholar (A Schoolhouse Crew Review)

I had a science teacher in high school who every day I wished would retire before noon. "Sister Chemistry" had earned her nickname - she was a science genius long before it was cool to be a girl in the STEM field. Unless there was a test the next day, every night's homework was to read and outline the next section of the textbook. At the time, I thought it was a waste of time to outline the book -- I read it, wasn't that enough? Two years later, when I was in college with an apathetic professor, I was grateful for those notebooks. Twenty-some years later, as a teacher, I realize there was a method to what I once called madness.

I'm tempted to think that the founders of MaxScholar were sitting in the back of my chemistry classes. Their program was created to help special needs students (dyslexia, ADHD, general learning issues, etc.) who have Dyslexia, learning disabilities, ADHD, processing problems, and uses the Orton-Gillingham approach and the Lindamood-Bell Process as its base. (Note: MaxScholar's program is not specifically one of these programs; it combines other reading/comprehension techniques with these as well.) There are two individual programs within MaxScholar Reading Intervention Programs: MaxPhonics, a phonics-only program for students in Kindergarten through 2nd grade, and MaxGuru, a program that combines reading and writing for students in grades K through 12. Both Jude and Matthew worked with the MaxGuru program.

After taking a placement test, each was assigned to their reading level. When they began working within the program, the process looked like this:

1. Read a passage twice. The first time, clickable highlighted vocabulary words are shown.  The second time, it was plain reading.

2. Highlight important points of the passage.

3. Create an outline based on what you highlighted.

 4. Use that outline to re-write what your read "in your own words."

5. Take a short review quiz.

As a comprehension program, I think it worked fairly well for Jude. Re-reading and highlighting made him focus on the content, outlining helped him put the thoughts together, and then he had enough working knowledge of the idea to re-formulate it in his sentences.

The first three steps were pretty good for Matthew, but his writing was not as great. At first, I thought it was because of an "I just want to be done" attitude, which did not necessarily include thoughts of "I want to do a good job." (He's the kind of kid where I have to specify "a 'short essay' answer is three to five sentences, not a four-word phrase.") However, I also think part of it was because got overwhelmed by the outlining process.

I went to Catholic school for twelve years. Unless it was a consumable workbook and a student was given explicit permission to write in it, you wrote nothing in a textbook except your name. (Well, unless you didn't have a healthy sense of self-preservation and wanted to become good friends with the principal.) Even that high school chemistry outlining got completed by reading the text and parsing the information in my head. When I got to college, I continued to do this, but it got harder and harder (those high school books had nothing on these). My advisor asked me why I wasn't using highlighters with my books and marking the critical information that would help me create good study notes. I looked at her and said, "Because they're textbooks, and you don't write in textbooks!" She gently reminded me that since I paid for them, they were mine to do as I wished and if highlighting helped, then highlight away! She pointed out that if I highlighted what I thought were the main ideas, it would be easier to recall them (the idea of reading and touching/highlighting would involve at least two senses), but I could also highlight the words that made sense to me.

The idea of highlighting "what helps me remember the points" was a huge struggle here. When I highlight, I generally tend to highlight nouns and verbs, skipping over articles, linking verbs, etc. (Note: This passage is from Matthew's history text, not MaxScholar.)

Matthew is still in the "but what if I forget about..." stage and highlights more.

I'm not concerned about the early over-zealousness because it wasn't until someone said to me "Hey, you don't always need to highlight the word 'the,'" and I got more practice that I learned what "keywords for me" were. I think this was a major sticking point for both boys. When highlighting, you were given a specific number of "points" to highlight: one topic, one main idea, and a pre-determined number of details. Each would try to highlight what made sense for him, and it didn't always agree with the program. Jude found what he wanted didn't match -- and was despondent over getting only an 84 on this exercise. Matthew was annoyed that he was constantly going back and un/re-marking things, because either he had leftover points, or he ran out too soon.

Here, Jude highlighted what he felt was important.  He's nearly done marking the text, but still has a third of his alloted marks to go.

Matthew got frustrated by how many times "Seoul" was marked.  The topic of the passage was "Seoul" so he was thinking "I don't need to mark that it's Seoul over and over!"

By the time they got done highlighting, they couldn't remember what they were working on in the first place. It became less "highlight the information I need" and more "highlight the information the program wants me to." They got back on track with the outlining -- that is relatively free-form, and ungraded, so they could arrange that as they wished to help them write their paragraphs. Given the information to work with, Jude did well at writing.  This was a summary of the people who lived in an apartment building.

 This source passage was about a bakery, and asked Jude if he had a favorite bakery.

Despite doing well with reading passages and writing, by Day 5 the boys were both ready to throw in the towel over the highlighting. Honestly, if we hadn't been committed to using this for a bit over a month, we would have quit there. I let Jude stop, but required Matthew to continue.

Matthew liked that there were a wide variety of themes. For his level, the standard MaxReading had three topics: Cool Places, Media, and Technology. MaxBios had a broad range of people from both the past and present and all some of the best people in their categories. (Yes, I will argue that Bob Hope was not just a great comedian to civilians, but deserves recognition for his commitment to the USO.) There was also MaxPlaces, with passages on different cities in the world. Jude's options were the same for MaxBios and MaxPlaces, but level-appropriate. His basic reading choices were: Ethnic Foods, Useful Facts, Travels, Household Chores, and My Neighborhood. There certainly is plenty to work with!

Ultimately, we just couldn't get past the struggle with the outlining. Matthew got to where he'd just highlight whatever to get past the exercise, but then it didn't help him with writing the outline, and in turn, his paragraphs suffered. Jude tried his best, and did what I felt were appropriate attempts, but couldn't get past having so much "wrong" when he was graded. MaxScholar Reading Intervention Programs has a brilliant idea, but just couldn't be equaled with the execution.

For more about MaxScholar and their programs, follow them on social media, or click the banner below to read more reviews.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaxScholarLLC

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LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/2884620

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©2012- 2016 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com

Trigger Memory Co.: Times Tales (A Schoolhouse Crew Review)

The Trigger Memory Co. has blended together math facts with simple stories, creating Times Tales. The program claims to help children to quickly recall the upper level multiplication facts.   I've seen numerous advertisements on homeschool pages and Facebook for it, and was intrigued but skeptical.  When Jude was really struggling with grasping his times tables and we were chosen to receive a digital download of the program, I figured it was worth a chance and an open mind.

 Jude had the idea of multiplying down, with no problems. He just struggled to memorize the facts.We had been working on a daily multiplication drill, and he was averaging 6 and 7 problems out of 25 wrong. He was utterly dejected after this drill, and I knew something had to change.

 I have to admit, I never realized how many times tables facts there were - if you count the zero times table, one times table, etc. - until I was cutting out flashcards. Despite being the basis for just about every kind of math used from third grade forward, they're not exciting in the least and just straight up memorizing. Thirty-some years later, I can remember sitting in the pews of my childhood parish church with my third grade teacher, drilling times tables with flashcards. (I was struggling and had to stay after school for help, and music - the last class of that day - happened to be in the church.) After finally making it through the entire deck of flashcards without a mistake, I headed home to study some more. Obviously, I learned my times tables well enough to pass to fourth grade and beyond, but I thought there had to be a better way than just drilling them over and over and over. After using this program, I'm convinced that Times Tales is that way.

 For centuries, stories have been the way for information to be taught and passed down. Study upon study has shown a link to better learning when information is placed into a story. Times Tales takes the information - one number times another - and places it in the context of a story. In addition, the numbers are embellished into visual characters. Jude didn't realize at first that he was learning times tables -- he just was watching a story.After working on this, I'd ask Jude a math question, and he'd stop, close his eyes to visualize the problem, and then retell the story aloud, murmuring, "sixth grade class...chairs...six...four...TWENTY FOUR!!"

He was not only recalling the arithmetic but also the story! He was stunned the first time he got a problem right....and the second time, when he got a different one right. By the third correct answer, he was BEAMING.

We took a break for the day he watched the videos, and then one each day for the rest of the week, we worked on the worksheets for the program.   During the second week, we did the same, but this time he did all of the worksheets on one day!  He was so excited and confident.  Day 3 after watching the second video -- a perfect score on the drill page! His face lit up like a Christmas Tree, and he said to me, "I'm smart after all! I DO know this...and I can still keep all my old memories. I love this Math!!"

The program is divided into two parts, and focuses on the "upper" times tables - multipliers 6, 7, 8, and 9. These are the harder ones; in my experience, even skip counting - 3, 6, 9, 12, etc. - peters out when you get that high up. Jude seemed to manage up through "times 5", but just lost his way when we got past those "easy" ones. Part One focuses on multiplicands 3 and 4, while Part Two introduces 6, 7, 8, and 9 as the multiplicands. The program recommends you do Part One, and then practice with it, and not start Part Two for at least a week. Each section of the program consists of a "character meet and greet", story, quiz, and worksheets. There is also a final test at the end of Part Two. The video portion of the program is about 30 minutes long, and then there are worksheets for during the rest of the week.  When Jude first started, they took him about 10 minutes because he had to stop and think about the story.  By the end, he was finished a worksheet before I realized he even had a sharp pencil.

In addition to the video presentation, each part has printable flashcards.  I laminated the set with pictures, but skipped the ones without, as I had just finished laminating and cutting out a set with "regular" numbers.  (If you ever think it would be easier and faster to print and laminate flashcards instead of picking them up on your next trip to Target, learn from my mistake.  It's not.)

That said, it is definitely worth printing out the picture flashcards from this program, even if you use your own flashcards for the regular ones.  They have the pictures from the stories on them, allowing your  child to practice recalling the story.

There are also crossword puzzles to test story recall, practice tests, tests, and a cube game to work on between videos.

I have to admit, I was skeptical.  We've been burned badly on curriculum that was practically universally promoted, and it seemed like Times Tales was everywhere.  Since using Times Tales, not only has he solidified his times tables, but has moved on to multiple digit in both the  multiplicand and multiplier places, and consistently has every answer correct.  It may not be a traditional way of learning times tables, but then again, Jude isn't traditional, either!  I'm so glad we had the chance to use this program -- it has made such a difference for Jude, both for academics and his self esteem.  No wonder it's becoming such a popular program, and one well-deserving of its accolades.

To discover more about Times Tales, follow the Trigger Memory Co. on Facebook, or click the banner below to read more reviews!

©2012- 2016 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com

Alpha Omega Publications: Horizons PK-2 Physical Education (A Schoolhouse Crew Review)

I have never worried about doing a formal physical education class for any of the boys.  After all, when you're in Physical Therapy one or two days a week for months on end, that pretty much covers learning new skills, and the home program to work on those new skills provides plenty of activity for the rest of the week.  However, this year, we'll be working on different plan for their therapy.  Since they all are cared for by the same physical therapist, we've decided to do one boy + 12 weeks of intensive therapy, and then switch to a different brother.  This makes scheduling my life a little easier because it will be only one, maybe two trips to the hospital a week for therapy instead of daily.  However, it means that while one boy has Miss Nicole all to himself, the others are at a loose end.  She will give the big boys "off time" assignments to build on their skills, but prefers the little boys to have less structured yet developmentally suitable play programs.  We recently tried using the  Horizons PreK-2nd Physical Education program from Alpha Omega Publications, and found that it is an excellent play-style program not only for them, but also high schooler Luke.

 Luke has long wanted to do something in the pediatric physical therapy field.  One career path he has been considering is becoming "bridge" caregiver.  The problem with many therapy programs is patients are only allowed a specific number of visits with a Physical Therapist, but the patients often aren't quite ready to be out on their own just because their insurance company thinks they have had enough.  He has been in that situation himself, and found himself frustrated because he's not sure he's doing things "correctly," but there really isn't anyone to ask.  Since he's wondering if he could make a career of filling this gap, he became our gym teacher for the year.  He has developed a credit-worthy "Practicum in Pediatric/Elementary Sports Medicine" elective course, putting this curriculum into action as the program's core.

First, the curriculum outlines its goals.  As the parent who has sat in on more PT evals than I can count, the sign of a great therapist is one who realizes skills do not exist in a vacuum.  This program looks to layer intellectual goals with physical goals; it's not just about being able to acquire skills but understanding what they lead to.   A child who is frustrated from inability often makes poor decisions; a child who has the proficiency to throw a ball can then engage in a game with another child.  The goal of this program is to provide a physical education for the whole child, not just provide an outlet for a wiggly kindergartener.

This is a Christian-based program, so it integrates not just individual physical skills to the activities, but also development of the core Christian values of each student taking care of himself and others in a manner that honors God.  However, this book focuses more on scientific principles than Biblical ones, so I think it could be used by anyone, regardless of religious background.  A non-Christian family may feel differently in how these character skills are presented, but "play fair," "make healthy choices," "don't break the equipment," "listen to the teacher," "try your hardest," etc. are all core standards that all children should be held accountable to, regardless of faith.

Luke found that seeing the expected skills for a child's age helped him devise programs for the boys.  Evaluation tests in the back of the book allowed him to pre-test all skills to see where strengths and weaknesses were; having all the skills allowed him test Jude across multiple levels.  At his last formal evaluations, Jude had test scores that placed him in the average range for a PK/K, with a bit of variation, which held true for this checklist as well.  It was good for Luke to see skills that he "should have" based on chronologic age, as compared to his actual skill. For example, dodging someone chasing you is a skill most 2nd/3rd graders should have mastered, but Jude is way back at just trying to run and not land on his face.   Being able to see the big picture of Jude's (and Damien's) skills gave Luke some concrete long-term goals to work toward, while also providing a direction for what to work on now to help get to those larger-scale plans.

Luke really liked that there are lots of suggestions for age-appropriate activities for the actual PE instruction.   I love our physical therapist, because she's been incredibly supportive of Luke.  She's been working with him for about six years now, so she's become a mentor to him.  She's also a bit sneaky -- she knows that by Luke working with the younger boys, he's going to work on skills he needs as well.  Often, his "homework" is to do activities with the younger ones.  She knows if she says "Work on core strength with them," he's working his own core as he demonstrates exercises.  However, to say to Luke, "Work on core stuff," he looks at her and says "Now what?"  In the book, there are suggested activities to work on specific muscle groups.  Activities are also presented sequentially, with the basics of building gross motor awareness, control, and dexterity being the focus of the PK/K level student, and then throwing/catching a ball is not introduced until first grade, by which time that first fundamental skill should be solid.  They are also well described and illustrated, so that he is able to understand what is being recommended and implement them in a home program.

In addition, there were sample lesson plans for instructors.  While he is working on developing his own plans, they have been helpful for him to understand how much should be included in a session.  The biggest challenge he has had has been scaling it down to having only one or two students.  While some things can be easily adapted, especially activities that focus solely on individual skills (running, jumping, muscle building, etc.), or can be played with a very small group (1-on-1 soccer, basketball, etc.), some things are a little more difficult, like relays and circuits.  Luke's first panic attack was when he saw the "equipment and supplies" calling for 30 playground balls, 15 basketballs, 15 soccer balls, 100 tennis balls, etc.  This program is certainly excellent for a homeschool PE class, but some activities may be better suited to use with a co-op or play group.

Luke honed in on the Special Needs section of the book.  After all, his students have special needs, so he wanted to make sure that he could understand their perspective.  It discusses the IDEA categories for special needs students, and Jude probably officially qualifies best under "multiple disabilities" since he could tick off 9 of the 13 individual classifications.   I wish there had been more support/direction beyond the obvious "Students with learning disabilities may find it hard to process instruction."  Luke looked at me and said, "Um...ya think?"  He found that while there wasn't a whole lot addressing implementation with a SN student, it was easy enough to ignore "what grade Jude is in" (3rd, technically) and page back to meet Jude's skill level where it is.  There are resources listed to help direct activity modification, but the book itself doesn't have a whole lot of information.  Luke has found himself both teacher and student, because he is beginning to understand that while Jude may want to throw the ball, just tossing the ball back and forth isn't going to really make anything connect if Jude hasn't worked on strengthening his muscles so he can better control his body. However, one thing he has discovered is that it is far easier to skip group activities and work 1:1 with a student who may be uneven with skills; he's leaning away from being an official PE teacher and working more in an ultra-small group setting (2-3 children).

Overall, I'm impressed with this program.  If you're new to a formal PE program, it's a balanced integration of real-life activities with developmental expectations.  I think for most families, PE is often something that doesn't need "teaching" - kids generally play and gain physical and social skills independent of formal instruction.  However, I can see two specific types of families who would benefit from this program.  First is the family of a developmentally delayed student.  It allowed us to look at the skills Jude had, and work progressively toward increasing them in a developmentally appropriate sequence.  The second family type that this could be a great program for is one that has a high school student who also needs a health/PE credit.  While we have chosen to add additional subject matter to help Luke advance toward his career goals, the pre-printed lesson plans and clear activity descriptions make this something that an older sibling could work on with a younger one.

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©2012- 2015 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com

Cursive Logic (A Schoolhouse Crew Review)

Many people have suggested that we try cursive writing with Jude.  Studies have shown that it often makes more sense for students than manuscript printing does, but Jude has been struggling enough with just reading manuscript letters.  The bigger boys have reverted to manuscript printing because for them it is easier and faster than cursive, so given our experience, I am more inclined to say, "Studies are nice, but reality is, we don't seem to follow rules around here." Teaching Jude cursive got put onto my "someday" list because I think cursive is important, but it wasn't a priority.  We were given the opportunity to test-drive the CursiveLogic Workbook from CursiveLogic, so "teach Jude cursive" suddenly went higher up on the list.

CursiveLogic is a unique way of teaching and learning cursive lettering.  I learned Palmer Method writing, and I have vivid memories of making pages and pages of "push-pulls" and circle strokes, and then finally getting to write letters after what seemed like forever.  (Frankly, this tedium is what pushed cursive writing down the to-do list.)  However, CursiveLogic is purposely not like traditional methods.  The creator of the program, Linda Shrewsbury, was a literacy program tutor, helping a particular adult special-needs student.  This young man desperately wanted to learn but didn't have the ability or patience to spend six months learning to sign his name. She devised a way to speed the process along:  grouping letters by shape and diving in.

There is no boring preparation, just learn and practice, making it ideal for both adults and children as young as seven.  Like that first CursiveLogic student, within a few minutes, Jude was writing simple words. It only took him about four lessons for Jude to write the nickname of his favorite baseball player.   (Note: The workbook is a consumable workbook, and we did work in that for "learning." Our practice writing was in a notebook.)

What really helped him was the program includes simple, rhythmical chants that describe the path of his pencil. He had not just the visual of "what my letter should look like" but also an auditory how-to.  The more senses you use to learn something, the better you usually remember it, so using sight, sound, and touch only helps.

I was shocked how quickly he moved through the book.  He was very excited to see that it took learning only a few letters, and then chaining them together they made words.  The more he learned, the more words he could write.

By the end of the second week, he was writing all lower case letters.  We're going to hold with these for a little bit - while he's gotten the mechanics of writing down, we need to spend some time working on "m has only three bumps, not four" and tidying up letters so that "b" looks like "b" and not "l + r." I'm ok with this, because frankly, I thought it was going to take much longer to learn the initial letters.  It took him a full 6 months to learn to print the alphabet, so I certainly wasn't expecting him to learn cursive in less than 10 days!

I've noticed that while his skills have grown quickly, his confidence has grown even faster.  When we began, he was very afraid of even trying to write in cursive, for fear it would be too hard.  He also could not read cursive letters, either.   By now, he is reading cursive script.  He surprised himself when he was able to read this box on our field trip!

CursiveLogic is my new favorite cursive program.  It's straightforward and logical, making it perfect for a student who wants to know how to do something "now." 


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©2012- 2015 Adventures with Jude. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://adventureswithjude.com