We started out on Friday night at the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. I had never been there before, but scouting reports made the area sound promising and we wanted to try something different than our usual haunts. We arrived about an hour before the start of the competition to try and scope out the terrain, but after bathroom breaks, and figuring out how to pay for parking, getting scopes together, etc. we didn’t have much time to spare before it was time to begin.

The evening was beautiful and the walk along the river was very pleasant, but the birds were harder to come by than we had hoped. There were plenty of people walking and jogging, pushing babies or being pulled along by large dogs. We tried to get off the beaten path when we could but it wasn’t easy to avoid people, so birding by ear was almost impossible. They managed to pick up about 20 species during the 2 1/2 hours we spent there. Highlights included seeing 3 Great Blue Herons on their nests in a tall tree. After the kids identified them they enjoyed watching them in the scope.

CHATTAHOOCHEE RIVER NATIONAL RECREATION AREA:
(in order of the checklist, not in order of when we saw them)

1. Canada Goose

2. Mallard (one swam up very close to the overlook where we stood and the kids watched it for a long time)

3. Great Blue Heron (there were 3 of them, flying back and forth from the water and then up to a tall tree to perch in their nests. It was fun to see so many).

4. Double-crested Cormorant (seen perching in the water at the same spot where we viewed the GB Heron nest, the Mallard, and many Northern Rough Winged Swallows, and watched for a long time through the scope before the kids could ID it.) We have seen them so many times at our favorite birding spot but out of that regular context they struggled. A boy on our team (“I”) finally remembered after looking carefully through his guide and then everyone was surprised that they hadn’t recognized it sooner.

5. Northern Rough-winged Swallows (So many were flitting around near the overlook where we stood watching the GB Herons).

6. Black Vulture (seen flying, Identified by the white wingtips in flight)

7. Rusty Blackbird (a rarity but several had been seen at Ch.R. earlier in the week, identified with a field guide)

8. Blue Jay (seen up close in the tree overhead)

9. Tree Swallows (seen flitting over the water)

10. Hairy Woodpecker (identified by the call)

11.Northern Mockingbird

12. Eastern Bluebird

13. Tufted Titmouse

14. Northern Cardinal

15. Red-headed woodpecker (heard calling, also seen the next day at Kennesaw Mountain)

16. Brown-headed Cowbird

17. Eastern Towhee (heard and seen)

18. Fish Crow (heard and seen near the Mallards at the overlook, perching on small rock islands in the water)

19. Bank Swallow (seen among the other swallows, differentiated from the N. Rough Winged by their necks)

CHEATHAM HILL (NEAR THE BASE OF KENNESAW MOUNTAIN NATIONAL BATTLEFIELD)

After Chattahoochee River NRA we headed to the base of Kennesaw Mountain, and walked around at Cheatham Hill for a bit. We didn’t see too much there that we hadn’t already seen but added another 7 species to bring their total for the night to 26.

20. Mourning doves, spotted on the wire as we were driving

21. Turkey Vultures, we pulled over to a parking lot to see them, they were identified in flight by the white underneath their wings

22. Red-bellied Woodpecker (heard calling)

23. Brown-Headed Nuthatch seen on the side of a tall tree in the woods, also heard calling

24. Great Horned Owl heard calling in the distance

25. Chipping Sparrow found on the edge of the field in the grass. We saw another one under the tree near the parking lot.

We also saw another Eastern Bluebird on the fence post as we were leaving.

The next day we were up bright and early, having arranged to meet at 5:30-ish at the mall parking lot). We arrived at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield shortly after dawn and began birding the parking lot and lower field before heading up the mountain. We got some birds in the lower level but the most spectacular sightings of the day happened while hiking up the mountain. The kids were chilly and needed to grab breakfast snacks after we got out of the car, but quickly began birding as we were seeing and hearing birds everywhere. Birding by ear was tricky because there were SO MANY birds calling, so they really had to concentrate in order to isolate one from another.

KENNESAW MOUNTAIN NATIONAL BATTLEFIELD

26. Brown Thrasher (seen and heard many times)

27. American Robin (these were everywhere near the visitors center)

28. Eastern Phoebe (spotted in a tree above the parking lot)

29. Song Sparrow (seen in the grass, first identified as a tree sparrow but then they changed their mind after more carefully looking at their bird guides)

30. Carolina Chickadee

31. White Eyed Virio (identified by sound in the woods near the lower picnic area below the parking lot)

32. Yellow Warbler (sound)

33. Chestnut sided warbler (sound)

34. Red-tailed Hawk (this was one of the day’s highlights, as it swooped down right in front of us to catch a chipmunk in the woods right by where we were standing. The kids were so excited!!

35. Pine Warbler (sound)

36. Ovenbird (sound)

37. Black-throated Blue (sound)

38. Rose-breasted Grosbeak (we had a very clear view of it in the tree above us. I tried to scope it after the kids had identified it with binoculars, but we were too close to focus the scope)

39. Scarlet Tanager (a yellow female, in the same tree as the Rose-breasted Grosbeak)

40. Baltimore Oriole (seen perching and flitting around in the tree beside the Rose-breasted Grosbeak’s tree. There were two, a male and a female). By the time we had seen these 3 birds within about 3 minutes of each other, the kids were getting very excited and I felt that Kennesaw Mountain would be a successful location for them to see several new birds. We were flying high at that point and excited to keep moving!

41. Carolina Wren (seen in a tree overhead)

42. Black-throated Green (heard)

43. Hooded Warbler (heard and seen through binoculars)

The kids saw the red-headed Woodpecker which they had identified by call yesterday

44. Indigo Bunting (we saw a few, perching in some dead trees on the left side of the road near the top. This was another highlight)

We took the bus down as we needed to get to EL Huie in time to see what we could before they closed at 1:00. We got to EL Huie about 11:15, and I feared it wasn’t enough time. In retrospect I wish we had climbed the rest of the way to the top of Kennesaw Mountain and looked at the parking lot at the top, as I think that would have yielded more birds and we had more than enough time at EL Huie to see what was there.

E.L. HUIE WATER TREATMENT FACILITY IN HAMPTON, GA

45. Rock Pigeon

46. European Starling

47. Barn Swallow (the swallows were everywhere, and so close we almost felt we could reach out and touch them. There were so many beautiful Tree Swallows perching everywhere here)

48. Red-winged Blackbird (heard and seen)

49. Solitary Sandpiper (seen through binoculars and scope, there were several)

50. Lesser Yellowlegs (kids could easily have confused it with the Sandpiper as they have a similar back but the yellow legs gave it away)

51. Cliff Swallow (seen near one of the short bridge overlooks)

52. Wood Duck

53. Purple Martin clearly seen on the wires and on top of their houses

We left EL Huie and headed to Newman Wetlands, just a few minutes away. As we were driving two wild turkeys ran across the road right in front of us. There’s a bird! The kids were so thrilled and excited.

54. Wild Turkey

NEWMAN WETLANDS

55. Ruby-throated Hummingbird

56. Eastern Kingbird (at first identified as Eastern Phoebe but later they were looking through the field guide and realized their mistake. They already had an Eastern Phoebe and I didn’t say anything but the other chaperone and I had both seen the Kingbird and knew they had gotten it wrong the first time. I was glad they figured it out later when looking at their guide, all on their own).

57. Pileated Woodpecker (heard calling)

58. Great-crested Flycatcher

59. Red eyed Vireo (identified by call)

60. Blue headed Vireo (identified by call)

SHAMROCK BLACKLOCK LAKE

61. Summer Tanager (seen in a tree)

62. Red-shouldered Hawk seen over the lake

63. Bald Eagle (seen soaring over the lake). All our teams were regrouping when the Eagle appeared, having been separated the entire day. They all started whooping and hollering and it was such an incredible moment–we were at our last stop of the competition and they all saw a Bald Eagle at the same time. It was very momentous and I got goosebumps and felt so much gratitude to God for such a wonderful weekend with amazing kids.

64. American Crow (identified on the trip back to Charlie Elliott finish line)

At the awards banquet the kids won a book about drawing birds for their fundraising and new binoculars for winning their division. Our daughter was also overwhelmed and deeply moved to find out that she had won first prize for her painting of an Indigo Bunting in the birder-artist category (the participants in this competition had to submit bird artwork and be on a birding team).

Coney Island, Galesburg, Illinois

We rolled into Galesburg, Illinois (my hometown) in time for chili dogs at Coney Island. I remember going to this local establishment as a child, and it was fun to talk to the owners. Our family had not been back to Galesburg for 6 years but they remembered our boys, and even asked about my oldest son who was not with us on this trip. I was amazed. This place is so nostalgic for me. The decor is amazing, and it looks like nothing has changed since it opened in  1921. The kids had fun drinking soda out of glass bottles, and the girls were allowed to keep several bottle caps. The chili dog with onions is my favorite, and it instantly brought me back to my childhood. After Coney Island we headed to another one of my childhood haunts: Kastle Kreme, home of the Krunch Kone. The kids thought it was funny that all of those words SHOULD start with a C, but they had modified everything to start with a K…but why? Some questions will never be answered.

My kids remembered Krunch Kones from our previous trip in 2011, and they did not disappoint. I recommend the chocolate, it is amazing. I have never found a cone (or is it Kone?) like this one anywhere else. It is like a mixture of peanuts and jimmies…the flavor combination is amazing. I don’t have a whole lot to say about Galesburg that isn’t about food…this ended up being one of our favorite stops of the whole trip, and the amazing food was a big part of it. What can I say…our family are all foodies. As long as liking coney dogs and soft serve ice cream cones can qualify one as a foodie. I’m not sure if it does. But hey, this stuff is incredible. Trust me.

We also took time to visit Linwood cemetery (twice, actually) and place flowers on my dad’s grave. Our 2011 trip was for his funeral and I hadn’t been back since. It was a bittersweet time. I went into HyVee grocery store to pick up flowers to put on his grave. When I walked in, I immediately saw their coffee shop, where he used to go a few times a week to chew the fat with friends. I had completely forgotten about that, and burst into tears. I wasn’t prepared for it. We met my aunt at the cemetery and had time to talk about dad and pray as a family at his grave, thanking the Lord for giving us such a wonderful man in our life. We know we will see him again one day! We didn’t have enough time to locate my grandma and grandpa’s graves, so we went back another day and did that, too. I couldn’t remember the exact location but I was so thankful that one of the kids found them under a grove of trees after all of us had been searching for a long time.

Landmark cafe and creperie in Galesburg, Illinois

Dad always loved to go to Uncle Billy’s Bakery also, and their thumbprint cookies are one of my favorite things ever, so I stopped in and bought a few so everyone could try them. The thumbprints got a big thumbs up from all the big kids, tho the little ones didn’t like the nuts they were rolled in. More for me, lol. Some of these food memories were really nostalgic for me. We had Uncle Billy’s thumbprint cookies after my grandma’s funeral. I went to school across the street from Kastle Kreme and we used to bring coins to school so we could stop there on the way home sometimes. Another absolutely favorite of mine is the Landmark Cafe and Creperie on Seminary Street. I spent so much time there as a teenager. Their very very very best thing is the ice cream crepe. We literally ate all the top rated food network establishments we could find on this trip and at the end of the day everyone agreed that the Black Forest Ice Cream Crepe at the Landmark was THE BEST food we ate. Anywhere. They also have a spinach bisque soup that I crave, and it is so good with whole wheat crackers. I stopped drinking flavored coffee years ago, and so did my husband, but we gladly ordered the flavor of the day for old time’s sake just like we used to do back in the day.

There was truly too much good food to cram in to just a couple brief days, but we did our best. We left the kids at the hotel one night and celebrated our anniversary (a bit early) at one of our favorite old haunts, The Packinghouse, also in downtown Galesburg. The salad bar, homemade cinnamon rolls, french onion soup, and steak were all just as amazing as they had been 25 years ago. That place is so yumulous (yummy and fabulous). The atmosphere is awesome, too, as it is in an old meat packing plant (thus the name). We didn’t eat at Arby’s (as if) but it was fun to see that the old sign was still there. Some things never change. We drove by the mall and that was pretty sad. I remember spending tons of time there playing Ms. Pac Man at Aladdin’s Castle and listening to 45s at the music shop. Now it is a ghost town and slated to be demolished from what I hear. I saw a creepy video on Facebook recently, in which someone wandered through the mall. There were only two stores still open (a Bergner’s that is about to close and a GNC–so weird). The rest is all dark and encased behind bars, with occasional buckets scattered throughout to catch dripping rain. Really sad. We stayed at a hotel near the edge of town and the parking lot backed onto a corn field. I love being back in Illinois and seeing all the red barns and the rolling corn fields. I didn’t grow up on a farm but that ag culture was part of life there, and intertwined with the landscape. I miss that. 

Anyway, when we weren’t busy eating we took time to visit Knox College. I have a son named Knox, so we wanted to get some college swag from the bookstore. The store on campus had good sales on Knox gear, so we came away happy. Also, Knox College was the site of the October 7, 1858 Lincoln Douglas debate. My older sons have been in the Classical Conversations Challenge Program, where they have gained experience in the Lincoln-Douglas debate style, and it is neat that my hometown was the site of such a historic event. It was fun to visit Knox College and learn a bit more about the debate. We also did a driving tour and saw where I used to live and the schools I went to. Everything looked so much smaller than I remember. When I was home in 2011 for dad’s funeral my sister and I went to visit our old home. The woman who bought the house from our parents over 20 years ago was out in the yard and we stopped to speak to her. She invited us in to look around and literally nothing had changed. Things our dad had built were still there (the garage, the playhouse, the deck, the kitchen remodel) and even the pink bathroom remained untouched. It was really amazing to walk through our childhood home and relive those memories.

I wish we would have had time to get on the restored old train car. Also, I had planned to visit Carl Sandburg’s Birth Place but it was closed while we were there. I have read some of his poetry and stories to my kids over the years. The Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle and Who Was In It is a favorite. And I would have loved to show them the inside of the old restored Orpheum theater. I have happy memories of going there as a kid, and of watching the movie West Side Story there with my dad when I was celebrating a birthday in my 30s.

Orpheum theater in Galesburg, Illinois

Carl Sandburg birthplace

I sure do love my home town.

Our six week epic road trip began with a journey to Belhaven University in Jackson, MS for our oldest son’s college graduation. We were in Jackson from May 11-14 and the time was filled with an honor society induction, baccalaureate, graduation, and moving our son and his wife out of their apartment as they headed to another state for new jobs and their post-college life.  We did have time to enjoy some of our (and their) favorite restaurants, as well as a trip to the Mississippi Children’s Museum.

We always have to make sure to stop at San Marco’s in Meridian, Mississippi for shrimp nachos, and Bop’s Frozen Custard in Jackson for a brownie sundae or a Snappy Turtle. Priorities, right? We also celebrated the big graduation at a couple of really nice places: Shapley’s steakhouse for dinner after baccalaureate, and brunch at Amerigo Italian–wow, that was some yummy food.

My girls had a great time at the Mississippi Children’s Museum.   We try to spend a few hours there every time we are in Jackson, as it is really a highlight for our girls. They love spelling their names on the giant scrabble board, climbing through the digestion themed play structure, fishing water play, making spin art, the music room, and dressing up in costumes and putting on a show. This museum is kind of pricey, but they sure do love it.

We usually stay in a hotel when we are in Jackson, but we have a big family and we planned to spend a few days in Jackson. It seemed easiest to rent a house this time, and I found a great place on VRBO. It was really relaxing to be in a home, and it gave us so much more flexibility. We had one child graduating and another trying to fit in a college visit and a variety of formal celebrations and ceremonies that not everyone planned to attend (read: there were too many quiet, structured events for 2 busy little girls). Staying in a home allowed us to stretch out, and if some of us had to be gone, others could be at the house playing games or watching a DVD, playing in the backyard, etc. It was really ideal.

After graduation our trip began in earnest. Seven of us piled into our Toyota Sienna, which seemed WAY too small for such a trip. Everyone had luggage at their feet and behind their head and on their lap. It was kinda stressful, to be honest. We put the pedal to the metal and headed to St. Louis, Missouri, stopping only to purchase a DVD player for the car. It had become clear by day 3 that we were gonna need one if we hoped to spend another 6 weeks on the road. We slept at a Drury Inn that night, which was really nice. We had never stayed at one before. They had free popcorn and sodas in the lobby, and serve a free dinner and breakfast every day. They had some suites, so we only had to book one room, which was also great. The food was kind of meh, but it was FREE. And it was on site, which was awesome. No one wanted to get back in the car that night to find dinner.

The next morning was hot, and very bright. There was some construction going on so we had to park a few blocks away from the arch. The parking garage was right by Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals. I have many fond memories of attending Cardinals games there as a girl, so it was nostalgic for me. My dad was a big Cards fan. I am glad I did some research BEFORE going to the arch. I had not realized it was such. a. big. deal. There are days that it is sold out, y’all. Admissions are timed. You have to get tickets in advance. Thankfully, it was under control and we had timed it perfectly so we could go up in the arch, watch the movie (which I recommend highly–it was really informative and made this trip actually educational as well as fun), and visit the gift shop. There is supposed to be a great museum, too, but due to the construction it had been moved off site, a few blocks away, so we skipped it due to time constraints. We had only budgeted a half day for the arch before heading to Galesburg, Illinois, my home town.

Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor by William Halsall, 1882

Our family recently completed a 6 week long cross country road trip. We traveled from Atlanta, GA to Jackson, Mississippi and from there to Chicago, IL. After a week in Chicago my husband flew home and I traveled on with 5 of our kids (ages 4, 6, 12, 15, and 17) all the way to  Maine and back to Atlanta. I had big goals for keeping a journal on our trip, but I was too busy having fun with the kids (and driving 6,000 miles) SO….it didn’t happen. Now I am in a rush to record some of these precious memories before I forget the details.

I’ll start with posting my goals at the beginning of the trip, and the rest of the posts in this series will cover where we went, what we did, and where we ate!

Goals for the trip

To rejuvenate and be refreshed–to REST.

This year marked the half way point of my homeschooling career–16 years down, 15 to go. Adopting a child with some significant special needs almost 4 years ago have made the last several years extremely busy. I spend a lot of time driving, doing therapy, teaching school, keeping house, and trying to keep all the plates spinning.

I was tired. Really tired. And I have not had much time to really enjoy just being with my kids for quite awhile–many of our interactions had become focused on getting school done, rushing to get out of the house for an activity, and me correcting their behavior or telling them the bullet points on their to do lists. My husband offered me this priceless gift–the chance to go away for SIX WEEKS, to step back from my many responsibilities and put all of our kids activities and therapy on hold so we could spend time just relaxing and reconnecting. He referred to it as “the summer of Molly”. He sacrificed not only money but time with me and the kids so that we could have this opportunity. I can never fully express how valuable and precious this time was for me and for the kids.

To have fun with the kids, make fun memories and break out of the rut of having most of our one on one time devoted to school.

I wanted to spend extra time alone with each child, as well as enjoy doing fun things together as a group. I have one “easy” kid who doesn’t get a lot of time and attention from me because he always does everything “right” and just floats under the radar. I have other kids that need a lot of help with school or therapy, or a lot of correction, and many of our interactions focus on their particular needs. All of that is important but I wanted a chance to just enjoy being with them, appreciating their individual personalities, and loving on them in ways that are meaningful to them. My 6 year old had been expressing a great desire for me to take an entire day off to just play with her and spend time together and I was having to look at my calendar and see when I could pencil her in….um, how is two weeks from Saturday? This was a chance to set cooking, cleaning, school, activities, and all the other pressures aside.

Rest, by William Adolphe Bouguereau

To change our family culture to one that is supportive and cooperative.

We are under a lot of pressure and many of our interactions with one another had become rushed, and over time, even rude. I felt like my kids were often not speaking respectfully to one another, and we had all grown very impatient with one another–a symptom of the many days when we seem to have more things on our schedule than what we really have time for. I have always believed that when people aren’t getting along or treating each other as kindly that it is good for them to spend MORE time together, rather than less. It gives an opportunity to really work on the issues and confront them head on. By the end of Day 1 we had dubbed this trip our “Family Sanctification Journey”. Being crammed together in the car with too much luggage showed us just how far things had digressed. One major focus needed to be improving the way we treat one another, and growing in patience was another area we wanted to change. To help achieve this goal we listened to various Christian audio messages, prayed together about these issues, and worked hard to change our thinking and our habits. Some people say it takes 40 days to change a habit, so we set out to do just that.

To play games and have down time to relax together, to laugh, and to have some times with NO agenda.

This may seem like a silly goal, since it should go without saying. Since I am a “maximizer” it was important for me to write this down and articulate it to our family. I don’t enjoy playing games much and I HATE having no agenda. And when I have an agenda, I want it to be full–even overly full, if possible, because I like to “maximize” my time and get as much done as possible.

I sure do get a lot done, but Maximizing can also be stressful. And when faced with the opportunity of planning a long journey, with very few specifications (other than budget and a couple of locations which were “must do”) the temptations to maximize were many. Planning such a long trip with  many interesting field trips along the way was, for me, a homeschooler’s dream! But during my planning and even more so once we were underway, I maintained a commitment to keep the kids involved in the decisions about what we would do on any given day (giving up control and compromising when their goals were not the same as mine). I was also committed to letting plans go when they interfered with our broader goals of relaxing, having fun, changing our culture, and having some unstructured time. I could have easily filled the time with “must do’s” and “must sees”, but we had to let some important sites remain unseen to accomplish our bigger goals.

Also, life happened. If we were having fun one day and decided to spend extra time at one place, it meant another place may have gotten squeezed out of the schedule. Case in point: Boston. We went to Boston Burger Company (thanks, Guy Fieri and Food Network–it really was a highlight). But we didn’t do (gasp) anything else there. We skipped it all saved it for another time because we were having too much fun relaxing at Cape Cod to leave for a day of planned field trips.

Ekvall Knut The Reading Lesson

To read together, about the places we were visiting.

I am a homeschool mom, after all. I brought a ridiculous amount of books along on this trip so we could read most nights about something we had done that day or something we would be doing the next day. We didn’t finish all the books I took as there wasn’t always time or energy to read…but we got through a lot of the books I took, and we will be working through the others this summer. I LOVE that kind of synergy–it was one of the truly exciting parts of this trip for me to be able to plan neat field trips and then read books to enhance and enrich them. When my bigger kids were young we read a TON and that was my favorite part of home schooling. In the past few years I have been pulled in SO many different directions that I haven’t spent nearly as much time reading to my younger set as I wanted to, and this was an opportunity to seize time for reading and set another new pattern that we can, with the Lord’s help, carry forward from here. It was SO GOOD to stop feeling guilty for not reading and instead to start doing it!

To redeem the time in the car

My kids have tablets and ipods and, of course, they like to play games on them. And we bought a DVD player for the car before we started our 6,000 mile journey. But I did not want ALL of our time to be consumed by things that separate us from one another and which don’t engage our brain or imagination. I had a goal of redeeming the time in the car. My kids were not too excited about it, I admit, but thankfully they are compliant and go along with my ideas without much fuss. I took some school work along (which we didn’t do much with, I admit) and some great audio resources (which we thoroughly enjoyed!) We listened to R. C. Sproul’s series Chosen by God together, and the Lord used it to really encourage us. We are also reading Sproul’s book Everyone’s a Theologian and we had some opportunities to read that aloud, too. We began a series on church history (by Robert Godfrey), which I am hoping to finish with my older teen boys in the fall. I also wanted to listen to one book our rising Challenge A (Classical Conversations) student needs to read in the fall (we chose The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe). I had hoped to listen to more audio books and sermons, and I had envisioned some serious License Plate spotting games, but that didn’t materialize. Instead, we filled the time with conversation and that turned out to be even better than what I had planned.

To attend church somewhere every week that we were gone

We managed this all but one Sunday when circumstances arose that prevented us (ahem Acadia, Maine…you are large and kinda remote). We were truly blessed through visiting several different local congregations from Mississippi to Virginia and points in between.

Here is the July update of what I have read to date for the Tim Challies 2016 Reading Challenge.

My reading:

A book someone tells you “changed my life”: (Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler’s Guide to Unshakeable Peace by Sarah Mackenzie)

A book by or about a pastor’s wife: (Treasuring Christ When Your Hands Are Full by Gloria Furman)

A book more than 100 years old: (In Freedom’s Cause: A Story of Wallace and Bruce by G. A. Henty)

A book by a woman conference speaker: (The Question by Leigh Bortins)

A self-improvement book: Do More Better

Here is an update of what I have read to date for the Tim Challies 2016 Reading Challenge, and what my 5 year old daughter and I have read together for the CounterCultural School Reading Challenge.

We are a little late to the party, as we just discovered and started the Reading Challenge in late May. Notice I have chosen some titles that overlap my categories and hers, so I can kill two birds with one stone! If I am reading something to her or listening to it with her, it is great if it can count for my list, too. For example, my “book for children” was The Wizard of Oz, and it was her “movie tie-in” book. We did the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe together, which let us both check off a C.S. Lewis title.

After about 6 weeks of reading I am averaging a book a week, placing me solidly in the “obsessed reader” category! Sadly, once school starts back in a few weeks I will have to really curtail my reading and may only prove to be a “light reader” or at best an “avid reader”.

My reading for May/June:

A book your pastor recommends: (Fair Sunshine)

A book for children: (The Wizard of Oz)

A book by C.S. Lewis or J.R. R. Tolkien: (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe)

A book written by Jane Austen: (Pride and Prejudice)

A memoir: Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: (The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson)

A novel longer than 400 pages: (Jane Eyre)

My daughter’s reading:

A book about God–theology for kids: (Everything a child should know about God)

A children’s classic: (My Father’s Dragon)

A chapter book: (Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle)—done as an audio book

A C. S. Lewis or George MacDonald title: (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe)—audio book in the car

A movie or TV tie-in book: (The Wizard of Oz)—narrated on Audible by Anne Hathaway

I recently found Tim Challies’ 2016 Reading Challenge post. Since I am trying to make a conscious effort to do more reading, I decided to jump in with both feet, even though 2016 is half gone. In his challenge he lists 104 categories of books to choose from and the idea is to read one book from each category, from as many categories as you decide to (13 categories is considered a “light reader” while the full 104 makes you “obsessed”). Some of the categories include things like a biography, a classic novel, a book more than 100 years old, or a title recommended by a family member.

As I was working through the list it occurred to me that I would LOVE to have this type of goal for my kids, as well.

Often they focus their pleasure reading on one particular category (animal books, or books in a series, for example) and this seems like a great way to help them diversify a bit.

With that in mind, I made my own list of 50 categories for kids. Today is July 4th so we have about 25 weeks left until Christmas. My kids can work their way through the whole list reading just 2 books a week. If that seems too aggressive, maybe your goal would be one book a week and get half way through the list. It doesn’t matter, as YOU can tailor the goal for your own schedule and whatever you feel would work for your child. I am printing out a list for each of my kids–the younger ones may get through all 50 categories and the older ones might only get through 10 (since their books are much longer). I hope to post updates periodically about some of their selections (and mine!) and I would love to hear from you if you decide to take the Reading Challenge. Happy Reading!

CounterCultural School Kids 2016 Reading Challenge

My 10th grade son started the Classical Conversations Challenge program last year–in Challenge III. This is a pretty rigorous program for any student, and it was a bit daunting for him to start there, with no previous challenge background (we have a new challenge program on our campus). Also, he has dyslexia, dysgraphia, and slow processing speed. We knew we would need to have some plans in place to make Challenge III work for him.

In making modifications, it was important to us that he would not cut things that would negatively affect the class. In Challenge 3, students have a lot of responsibility for leading some of the classes, as well as presenting and debating in several classes throughout the year. I chose to shorten the length of some of his assignments (papers or recitations) or to make accommodations on classes that don’t affect anyone else (such as chemistry) so that he and his fellow students get the most possible out of their classroom experience. I would rather see him memorize 15 lines of Shakespeare (as opposed to the 30 assigned lines) than to just skip that assignment altogether. In this way, he was able to participate with the class and gain some of the benefit of the assignment while still taking off some of the pressure.

My son plays football for a local Christian school during the fall, so he has less time for lengthy homework assignments during those months. Also, he was a little on the young side for Challenge 3, being in 10th grade (this class is for 10th-12th graders). With that in mind, I made more accommodations in the fall, with the goal of increasing his workload during the spring when he had more time and experience.

Proactive accommodations

I sent his teacher a list of the accommodations I was planning to make at the beginning of each semester, and if  my son was able to do  more work than expected, he did–but I tried to set realistic goals up front. This took some of the pressure off, and it also helped him to know exactly what he was supposed to get done. I did not want to get into a situation where we were routinely shortening or removing assignments because he was behind or couldn’t meet the deadline. It was much better to accommodate PRO-actively rather than RE-actively.

Here is a list of the types of things we did last year:

• I gave shorter assignments at times instead of removing assignments altogether. It affects the class negatively when students do not bring something to the discussion. If I felt he could not complete a writing assignment in time, I would shorten the length of it. Some of these modifications varied from week to week, depending on how many things were due at one time. In the Challenge program there are weekly assignments due every week, as well as many larger assignments due where the student has to budget their time and do a little bit each week toward accomplishing a goal. Some weeks there were so many assignments converging at once that we chose the most important ones to prioritize and shortened the length on some of the others.
• I made more accommodation in subjects that were done at primarily home, rather than in class. For example, since the science portion is primarily labs rather than discussion, if he was going to fall behind in a subject we make sure it was science. Because of his slow processing speed, it was inevitable that he would need to fall behind somewhere, so he caught up on science over the Christmas break and again during the summer break. With that said, we were careful to make sure he did some science every week so that he didn’t fall more than 2 or 3 chapters behind. I didn’t want him to get into a situation where it was impossible to catch up, so this was a balancing act.
• We did some of the reading for first semester during the summer prior to starting Challenge, and some of the reading for 2nd semester during Christmas break. By getting a jump start on the reading, it was one less thing to do during the busy school year.
• Virtually all of the challenge literature for every level is available in audio format, through the public domain (check My Audio School, which is the website our family created for classical and Charlotte Mason educators who want access to audio books in an organized, child-friendly format. Click on the Curriculum tab, then click on the appropriate Challenge level. There are more titles when you subscribe but I have put a few unblocked titles in each category that are accessible to anyone so you can get a sense of how it works). We also use Audible for some titles. We found that several of the needed textbooks for challenge 3 were available on audible. I am finding the same to be true of the other challenge levels as I am currently gathering books for my sons who will be in Challenge 2 and Challenge 4 in the fall. My Audio School only has public domain titles (classic books as well as radio theater) whereas Audible has some of the newer titles (textbooks) that we needed–as well as the classics, if you prefer to spend more to get the professional narration. We use a mix of both in our homeschool.
• My son typically dictates his papers onto his phone and emails them to himself, then copies and pastes them into Word and does his editing on the computer, which is a big help because of his dysgraphia.
• Some assigned tasks were difficult for him, such as creating his own study guides, so we worked through it together side-by-side. He and I worked through Brightest Heaven of Invention together, starting with the review questions at the end of the chapter before reading and discussing the chapter, with a highlighter in hand. The book progresses in a very orderly fashion, answering most of the review and thought questions in order as you progress through the chapter. We would read the first question at the end of the chapter, then page back and read through the chapter to look for the answer.
• Instead of writing out notes by hand he learned how to take notes with a highlighter directly in the textbook. When he found the answer, it would be highlighted and a note was made beside that paragraph such as RQ1 (for Review Question 1), or the page number in the Shakespeare play where the answer could be located, in the case of the Thought Questions. In this way, he found all of the answers fairly easily and highlighted them in the book rather than writing them out on paper.
• For his history notebook and timeline, he used a timeline app, which would allow him to type or voice dictate the relevant dates and information into his phone, then the timeline could be displayed in a variety of ways. The history book for Challenge 3 has a timeline at the beginning of each chapter, and I allowed him to look at that timeline and select the dates he felt were most important after reading the chapter, rather than trying to extrapolate the dates from the chapter paragraphs. I wanted him to do the timeline exercise, but I didn’t want him to spend too much time on it. Selecting dates from the book’s timeline allowed him to do this fairly easily.
• Set a time budget for each strand, or for the work as a whole. CC suggests students spend about 1 hour per day per strand on the work. We decided to spend about 8 hours per day on school work this year (6 just felt like it wasn’t nearly enough to get most of the work done for my slow, methodical student). If he spent a little less time on one class that freed up some time for another class, and by sticking to our time budget he maintained a good work/life balance.
• Students took turns reading Meno aloud in class at the end of the year. My son is able to read aloud, but he can’t understand what he is reading while doing so–he has to either read out loud OR process the content, not both. If he is reading aloud, he is focusing on pronouncing the words and not losing his place, rather than on understanding what is being read. He has been open with his teacher and class about his learning disabilities, and that was (I believe) one key to his success. He has learned to own it and not be ashamed of it, and to advocate for himself. We simply explained the situation to his teacher and asked that he be allowed to follow along in the book in class but not be required to read out loud. Problem solved!

Here are some more specific ways we accommodated within each strand:

Latin: My son had already taken two years of high school Latin with another online program before he started CC. He did not get any accommodation for Latin, and got an A in it all 4 semesters. I remember worrying about how he could possibly tackle Latin when he began studying it in 8th grade, but he did just fine. I have since heard several other parents say that their dyslexic students did well with Latin!

If you choose to make accommodations in Latin, however, you could allow open book quizzes, not count off for spelling, or reduce the workload to only what could reasonably be accomplished in one hour per day, allowing your student to fall behind the class if more time is needed. The year my son took Latin 2 he was also taking an English grammar class, and that ended up being a LOT of homework for him. He didn’t get any accommodations in Latin but I ended up pulling him out of the grammar class 2nd semester, deciding to prioritize Latin and reduce his workload in that way. He had already had several years of English grammar and while it would have been great for him to finish the course, I decided he would do better to just focus on the Latin grammar and vocabulary. If Latin is a priority, you could cut the workload elsewhere to make more time for Latin, or you could set a time budget for Latin (CC suggests one hour per day, per strand) and adjust the workload until it fits within that time budget. 

Shakespeare and Poetry: Shakespeare actually took MORE time than required, not less, especially at the beginning of the year. This was mainly because we had to do a bit more to understand it well. First we read a children’s version of the play (CC sells the Charles and Mary Lamb children’s compilation and I also really like the Edith Nesbit book Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare for Children).

Then we watched a DVD version, and then he listened to the original version on audio. Audible had the exact same Folger edition audios that his class was reading. After reading the play, students read Brightest Heaven of Invention and have many questions to “consider” each week. I read BHI aloud with him and we discussed the questions orally. Each question is answered directly and specifically, either in BHI or in the play itself. He highlighted the answer and marked it “RQ1” or “TQ3”, etc. for Review question 1 or Thought Question 3, as I explained above. In class he could go back to the text and find the highlighted answer if he needed to during the classroom discussion.

After the first couple of plays he no longer needed to listen to the children’s version, and we started saving the videos until the end, as he preferred to listen to the unabridged play first. It became much easier to understand once he got used to Shakespeare’s language and writing style, and the ability to get all the exact versions he needed through Audible was wonderful! We still had physical copies of the books, as well, so he could follow along, highlight them, and refer to them as needed in class and for the oral recitations.

Oral recitations: In the Shakespeare strand, students are asked to memorize 30 lines from each of the 5 plays they read. For the fall I shortened that assignment and he memorized 10 to 15 lines per play for the first two plays. This enabled him to participate in the assignment without the huge investment of time to memorize 30 lines. Our goal was for him to memorize longer portions as the year progressed. He thought this would be IMPOSSIBLE for him, but he surprised himself and did very well with it! We tried to find passages that were also available as You Tube videos (excerpts from movies) so he could watch those repeatedly as he worked to memorize the lines.

He also had to memorize a speech during spring semester (he chose Churchill’s “We Shall Fight on the Beaches” speech) and he did it! We did a google search of “Great speeches from history in audio” and found many audio and video links to choose from. I especially liked this list of great speeches for men from The Art of Manliness. I am so glad I encouraged (required) him to try to do the assignments, even when we had to shorten them from time to time. There were many assignments (like the memorizations) that he wanted me to remove altogether, as he didn’t think he could do it. He was stretched and he grew in confidence as he realized that he actually could do it, and although he occasionally stumbled over some of the words he recited his lines with a lot of drama and expression.

There was another student in his class who substituted some of the Shakespeare recitations with historical speeches or documents (I think one of them was the Declaration of Independence, for example). A friend of mine in another state said she would prefer her child to memorize a lengthy passage of scripture rather than a Shakespeare play. I thought there was value in memorizing the Shakespeare, but any kind of memory work has value so this would be another possible way to accommodate (by memorizing something different and presenting that instead). My son has rattled off many of the lines he memorized on various occasions in conversation where they were unexpected yet appropriate, so for him it provided a kind of cultural literacy that I am really glad he acquired.

Students are also asked to write a literary analysis paper about each play. I had my son keep the length of his first Lit paper about 5 paragraphs to keep this assignment from taking an inordinate amount of time. In the spring he was striving to write 1,000 words for each of his papers, but the 5 paragraphs seemed like a good place to start for a young 10th grader who works very slowly. Once again, I would rather have him write a short paper than no paper at all, and we worked to increase the length of the papers and their complexity as the year progressed.

There was also a poetry journal component in Challenge 3, where students wrote original poetry (sometimes following strict rhyming or metrical regulations). My son did not think he would be good at this and was resistant to trying it, but I made him do it anyway and he found out that he is pretty good at it! That was a pleasant surprise, and he was no longer resistant to writing the poems. I purchased a nice bound journal for him to write his poems in, so it would be a keepsake.

American History: I was able to get the (incredibly thick) Patriot’s History book on audio through Audible, so that was an important factor in even knowing that we could participate in CC. This book is 50 hours long in audio format, so it is a lot of reading each week. My son was capable of reading it, but the time required to do so may have become overwhelming pretty quick. A Challenge 3 director told me that some kids who aren’t ready for a book like this choose to substitute with another book covering similar topics, but I felt my son could handle it since it is available in audio, and that ended up being one of his favorite strands.

Students are to keep up a timeline and history facts notebook, choosing important dates and events from their text. It is virtually impossible for him to scan a text and pick out important names and dates while still grasping the sense of what he is reading, so he took the dates from the timeline that is conveniently placed near the beginning of each chapter, as I described above. He read the chapter first and then looked at the dates on the provided timeline and decided which ones were important enough to add to his timeline.

He made his timeline in the Beedocs app on his phone.  This app allowed him to add a lengthy note to any of the dates if he choose to, so he consolidated his timeline and history facts notebook on the app. After he decided what the significant dates were I helped him look through the text to find a few important sentences about the date and he dictated those into his phone right in the app. This was a very straightforward way for him to complete this assignment. The timeline and history facts notes are meant to help the student prepare for the end of semester Blue Book exams.

This app also allows you to put a photo with each date for a more visually pleasing timeline. He did that the first week but gave that part up as it takes a lot of time to find good images, and doesn’t add much to his understanding or memory of the actual events. It just looks nice.

He was assigned several research papers and some debates for this strand. The papers were meant to be 1,000 words and he had to abbreviate some of them, especially during the fall. For his first paper he aimed for 5 paragraphs to 2 pages, though by the end of the year (when football was over and he was a better writer) he was able to hit the 1,000 word target. For the debates he often had the accommodation of using note cards rather than memorizing his material. Once again, it just takes him so long to get his work done that I decided I wanted him to participate in the debates but not dedicate a lot of time to memorizing that part. Some of the other students in his class used notes for the debates,  so he was not alone in that.

Math:My son continued taking his math through a different local co op that I have used for many years with all my older kids. He does not receive accommodations for that. At CC the students can bring problems they are struggling with and discuss math and mathematical concepts together. Some students are at a lower (or higher) level than others but it works. Everyone can review or preview material, depending on what they are discussing. My son is great at math, but slow. His teacher does allow the class to solve problems using a graphing calculator. Without this accommodation I cannot imagine how long it would take him to do the work.

Logic: My son watched the  Logic (Memoria Press) material on DVD before looking at it in the book and answering the daily homework. One thing I am loving about CC Challenge is that a lot of the required resources are available on DVD or in audio book format. He was able to answer the logic questions in the book, using pencil.

He could, however, have used an app like One Note or Snap Type to take a photograph of the questions and then edit it on the computer to input his answers. He didn’t need to use this type of accommodation much last year, but I would like him to learn how to use some of the technology tools that are out there before he heads to college, so he has more options should the need arise. I love the Whiteboard feature on One Note and I use it a lot myself. It allows you to take a photo of a whiteboard, and it converts the photo so look just like a whiteboard, plus you can search within One Note and it will pull up words that are on the photos (whether they are white board photos or business cards!), as well as any notes you have typed in.

Philosophy: For Philosophy, the students read and discussed The Consequence of Ideas by R. C. Sproul. This book is also available in audio format from Audible, so my son was able to listen to it. We started the year by watching a video of R. C. Sproul by the same title, which covered some of the same material. The video was not identical to the book (they are designed to go together, as companions). The video is “extra” so it is not required. When we were able to get to it, I think it gave my son more thoughts to contribute to the discussions and a greater understanding of a very difficult subject, but eventually we let that go rather than add more work/time.

Sproul has a free study guide to accompany the Consequences of Ideas videos, so we discussed Sproul’s study guide as we worked together on creating a study guide he could take to class, including some questions he could contribute to keep the discussion going and help elucidate the material. I had originally thought he could USE Sproul’s study guide instead of creating his own, but the material on the videos is too different from the book for that to be useful. He could pull about 1/3 of the material from Sproul’s outline but had to add the rest directly from the reading.

LEARNING HOW TO STUDY:

The Challenge program is helping him learn HOW to study and prepare for a class, and the Philosophy study guide is one example. I wanted him to learn the Philosophy–but I also wanted him to learn HOW to make a study guide, how to prepare for a class discussion, how to outline a chapter, etc. This is a challenging skill area for him which took a lot of work. It was a balancing act, as I didn’t want him putting too much time into any one strand but this particular skill will serve him well in college if he can learn how to do it. So for most of the first semester, we worked through it together (preserving his time) with the goal of him learning how to eventually do it on his own (spending some extra time in order to gain a new skill). Also, the Philosophy material was some of the most challenging for him, so he listened to each chapter twice before working on the study guide with me.

Chemistry: Completing experiments together was the main focus on Community day, and kids could ask any questions they have about the text or assignments. For the daily work, my son used an audio book version of the Apologia Chemistry text (also from Audible) as well as the CD Rom version of the text (it is easier for my son to work on the computer than from a physical book, when possible). In some ways he wished he would have had the physical book, however, as he couldn’t take the CD Rom book to class since he didn’t have a laptop.

Another chemistry accommodation I made relates to the lab reports. Students are asked to turn in one formal lab report per module (16 modules altogether). I had my son write one formal lab report per semester (2 total). In addition, he wrote some informal lab reports, and for some labs he did not write a report at all. My son is not planning to go into a science field, and this was another area where we could accommodate to buy him some extra time without affecting the class.

Since community day was primarily for doing labs together, it did not affect anyone else if my son fell behind in his chemistry work. Therefore, this was the strand where I gave him the most leeway to fall behind if he had a busy week with a lot of deadlines. In return he had to sacrifice some of his Christmas/summer break to catch up again, but he took care not to fall too far behind so it wasn’t too burdensome for him.

Now we are starting to get ready for Challenge IV. I am planning to do many of the same kinds of things to enable him to succeed. He will be in 11th grade next year and we are beginning to look toward college. Therefore, as we plan accommodations we will be trying to prioritize two things: learning to use tech tools and learning to work in the way he is most likely to be able to work at college. We will be looking for a college that offers good accommodations to students with diagnosed learning disabilities, but we also recognize that some kinds of help may be hard to come by.

Do you have suggestions that have helped your child succeed in CC Challenge or another high school program? Can you suggest any tech tools we should investigate? If you have a child with learning disabilities in college I would love to hear what accommodations have been available and how your child has been able to survive and thrive in college!

After a year of Classical Conversations with my younger set we decided to take the plunge and enroll two of our older boys in the Challenge Program, which was new on our campus last fall. Our 10th grader was in Challenge III and our 8th grader was in Challenge A. Challenge A and B are for 7th-9th graders and there are 4 senior high levels (Challenge I-IV).

Why I was drawn to Classical Conversations for my older kids

I was drawn to Classical Conversations Challenge program because of the academic rigor and the opportunity for my children to interact with other teens and another adult (besides myself and my husband) on a weekly basis. In our busy home school (with 5 kids still at home) I haven’t had the time to discuss history and literature and worldview and philosophy with my teens as much as I did with their oldest brother (now in college).

Surviving–or thriving–in High School with learning disabilities?

I wasn’t sure how my older son would handle the Challenge Program in light of his learning disabilities. He has dyslexia, dysgraphia, and a slow processing speed, which means that completing all his schoolwork takes quite a bit of time. We have used some accommodations over the years, primarily audio books and various technical helps…but we struggled with other co-op style classes because I didn’t have any control over his workload and many times he felt completely under water trying to get everything done.

Last year (9th grade)  we were definitely in survival mode. He took two local co op classes and 3 online co op classes, plus two classes with me (6 credits). I ended up putting my two classes on hold and doing the majority of the work with him over the summer, after all his local and online co op classes ended. Even so, he was often the first one up during the school year, in order to hit the ground running, and frequently he was the last one in bed at night, just trying to get everything done. We didn’t have much in the way of Christmas, fall, spring, or summer break as he had to spend his breaks trying to catch up where he had fallen behind or doing the work for my two classes (Government and American Literature), which had been put on hold.

The Classical Conversations model keeps the parent as the primary teacher. On community day the kids go to class and their tutor leads them through their six strands (subjects), facilitating discussions and checking on their assigned work, helping with math and chemistry questions, listening to their speeches and debates and critiquing their recitations and papers. But the standards by which the student will be graded and the scope of the workload–as well as the final grade–rest with the parent. This gave me a lot of freedom to tweak my child’s workload and assignments to fit his needs. It was a huge relief to know that I am in control, yet he still has the benefit of the classroom environment and the great discussions and opportunity to learn from others. Even with the modifications we made this past year he benefitted from a rigorous, college-preparatory, stimulating course of study, and  even with some modifications it was no walk in the park–believe me. The Challenge courses are just that–extremely challenging, especially at the higher levels.

After 4 weeks in the program, I had not yet had to change any of the standards and he had done everything his classmates had done, yet the sense of panic was gone. He knew that I was in control and he was able to rest in that. We already had a sense of peace that things were not going to get crazy like last year. We put a plan in place and we committed to work the plan as needed.

As the year progressed, we did have to make some modifications, as we knew we would. I will write more about that in the next post. Although we modified some of the CC work, he ended up accomplishing an incredible amount of rigorous, college preparatory work, and he felt more in control of his schedule and his life. And that was so freeing.

Work/Life Balance

Classical Conversations suggests that kids in the Challenge program spend 1 hour per day on each of the 6 strands. My son had spent about 10 to 12 hours per day the previous year (in 9th grade) on homework (or about 2 hours per subject), because he works so slowly and his workload was quite heavy with a college preparatory classical curriculum. This past year in CC the curriculum was even more rigorous–yet we had some freedom to treat it like a buffet and glean from it as much as we could without feeling like we had to stuff ourselves with every dish.

We generally tried to use the “1 hour per strand per day” as a guideline and go from there. He still had to work more than 6 hours on some days–and sometimes he had to do some work on Saturdays–but he definitely did not work 12 hour days. Once the workload started creeping beyond the guideline, we had a plan in place to start making some accommodations. Our goal was not–and will never be–working just 6 hours per day. That is not realistic for him, sadly, if he wants to pursue this type of an academic load. And he does! But even an 8 hour day was so much better than what my son did the previous year, and he seemed to have more “work/life balance”.

*NOTE: I have seen it recommended (from CC) to offer as much accommodation as necessary to try and keep that “1 hour of work per day, per strand” model, so that is definitely a valid choice. We have chosen to use that as a guideline, while stretching it some to enable my son to get more of the assigned work done. This is a personal choice that he and I made together, and we felt it gave us the best of both worlds–he got the majority of the work completed but without the intense stress he felt his freshman year.

Accommodating for age as well as disability:

My son was a young student for Challenge 3. He was a sophomore, not a junior or senior as some of his classmates were. Some of the curriculum requirements would have been a jump for him even without a learning disability. So we modified some of the standards for the fall (shortened the required length of research papers and memorized recitations, for example) with the goal of being able to increase the length during the spring when he would have more experience.

In my next post I talk about the specific modifications we made last year for Classical Conversations Challenge III.

I have written many posts about homeschooling my dyslexic child through elementary school, but very little about high school. We adopted a child with special needs two years ago and I stopped blogging, due to time constraints. I have fielded several questions recently about homeschooling my dyslexic child in high school, so I am going to post a series on that topic. This first one is an update.

Our son was diagnosed with dyslexia and slow processing speed in 2nd grade. He is in 10th grade now.

Over the years we have tried to do everything possible with audio or video so that he can keep up with his workload in subjects like history, literature, and science.

For example, we use Apologia science since all of their high school books and most of their elementary books are available in audio format. They also have CD Rom versions of their texts, so he can access his book on the computer, which is easier for him than holding and reading a physical text book.

For spelling this year I am doing Touch Type Read and Spell which is an online program that teaches typing and spelling skills using an Orton Gillingham model (which is designed for dyslexics). I wish we could be done with spelling but we are still trying to get him to a better spelling level. Sometimes it feels like beating a dead horse but I am not ready to give up. He does type all his papers so that he has spell check on the computer, but I still have to edit for spelling because of homophones. Last year we focused on the 1,000 most frequently used words in the English language for our spelling, as those words represent 95% of the words people typically write. That was a helpful exercise, but time consuming for me. This year we are trying something he can do all by himself. TTRS (Touch Type Read and Spell) is extremely expensive if you buy it retail. I purchased the subscription through the Homeschool Buyers Co-op, which is a free online co op that allows homeschoolers to band together to get volume discounts. It was WAY cheaper than their retail price.

My son uses a lot of tech, such as Dragon dictation (he dictates all his papers), and types almost everything on the computer so he has spell check. He is using One Note this year which allows him to take a photo of a whiteboard or power point presentation and it converts it to a searchable or even editable PDF on his phone, tablet or computer. One Note also allows you to photograph a document and then write or type on it, so it can be used to fill out worksheets. Someone just told me about Snap Type, which looks like a great app! It is on my to do list to check that out and see if it would be helpful for him. I believe it has some of the same capabilities as One Note, but may be more useful in certain applications. My favorite thing about One Note is that it makes outlining very easy, as it has a built in outlining application. Also, it is free! One Note is robust, so it takes some time to learn how to use it. Thankfully, there are many video tutorials on the internet to help you get the most out of One Note.

My son is able to keep up fine in math, but it just takes an inordinately long time for him to get all the work done. His teacher allows the students to use a graphing calculator and I can’t imagine how long it would take him without that accommodation! Because of the calculator, the upper level math has actually been easier for him in many ways than when he was younger and tried to do everything on paper.

He is doing great, he got all A’s last year in 9th grade, and most of his teachers were other people through online and local co ops.

My biggest surprise has been that he excelled in Latin I and II, which he took online through Latin in the Christian Trivium. I have since heard that others have reported their dyslexic kids did well in Latin. These were high school level Latin classes that he took in 8th and 9th grade, and he got an A in both. That is just amazing to me. He did not seem to struggle with writing or reading Latin the way he has with English! The human brain is pretty incredible, isn’t it?! He took these classes live online, but they also offer an AYOP option.

This year we are doing the Classical Conversations Challenge program. I expect he will do very well in Classical Conversations this year, also, but he will have to work very hard and I will be making some accommodations for him, which I will cover in my next post in this series. Although it will be a CC specific post, I think there is plenty of application there for anyone homeschooling a dyslexic in high school.

The accommodations I am making for him are mainly because of time…he plays football for a local Christian school and that takes up a considerable chunk of time each day, and last year he didn’t get enough sleep because he was staying up too late trying to get his work done. That is what prompted us to switch to Classical Conversations as I had very little control over his workload last year since he had 5 different teachers besides myself.  With CC I have control over his workload, yet he still benefits from that co op setting which he loves–so I believe it will be the best of both worlds for him.

CC is a Christian classical program with chapters nationwide. Over the years our watchwords have been “remediation and accommodation”–remediating things like spelling, handwriting, and reading speed and fluency/comprehension while using tech and audio books to help him work up to his potential in other areas. He excels when the eye/hand pathway is removed and he uses the ear/mouth pathway. This has been a great combination for him, as he is passable in his weak areas now yet can really soar when utilizing his strengths.

He gets his audio books from our own website, My Audio School, which we established when he was first diagnosed and from Audible. We have tried Learning Ally in the past but the quality wasn’t that good and it got too expensive for the quality, we felt. To be eligible for Learning Ally you have to have an official diagnosis. Last time I checked the price was over $100 per year. I pay $15 per month for Audible which gives us one book per month, and access to member sales. The books on our website are all in the public domain, and since we follow a Classical Model, many of the books we need are available there. A friend of mine recommended that we look into BookShare, which is an online audio library program. That is on my to do list. So many apps and programs for these amazing kids–so little time! I would love it if you left me a comment about what programs and apps you find useful for your struggling learners!

I also build a lot of his classes around what is available in audio, or choose programs (like Classical Conversations and Apologia science) which use resources we can get in audio. I will have to read a few things aloud to him this year, to save time–he could do it, but it takes so long. Another example of accommodation and remediation working together is that he has to read 5 Shakespeare plays this year for CC, so first he listens to an audio version for kids, then we watch a video version of each play, then he listens to the original version in Audio, and then he and I discuss the play using the book Brightest Heaven of Invention and a physical copy of the play, referencing the scene and line numbers. It takes more time than just reading the play one time, but he is really understanding it, and he is able to participate in the discussions of the play with his class at Classical Conversations, which is the goal. Since he gains so much through discussion I can already see after just one month that CC is going to be a great thing for him. Students meet once a week for a full day and discuss 6 different subject areas. It is a lot of work during the week, but the classroom format is ideally suited to someone who thrives in an auditory/discussion oriented environment.

We are ready to apply for accommodations for the SAT/ACT so he was just tested again so that we would have a fresh diagnosis. I hope to start applying for those accommodations within the next month, and I will certainly post about what we did and the results.