Many Catholics homeschool and many dyslexics homeschool, but this weird combination of Catholic, homeschooling, and dyslexic seems pretty rare.
I've decided to help fill this gap with a series of posts about what we've found that works for us here at St. Jude's School for Kids Who Want To Read Good and Do Other Things Good Too.
Here's what we have found success with for religion/theology.
Online Catholic Learning or My Catholic Faith Delivered is a great website for religion courses. For $25 a year, you can enroll in the Ignatius Press Faith and Life course.
This year we are using Following Christ, Book 6 (Faith and Life Series). I buy the Faith and Life texts and workbooks in addition to the online course.
Monday: I read the chapter of the week aloud to Edmund. He reads the blue box (questions and answers from the Catechism of the Catholic Church) at the end of each chapter aloud to me and we discuss. The chapters are short, three to four pages max. He does the first of the four corresponding workbook pages. I aid him in highlighting relevant texts.
Tuesday through Thursday: He does another workbook page each day for a total of four pages.
Friday: He does the online lesson which includes a pre-test, a review game perhaps, listening to an audio version of the same chapter again, and the chapter test.
Every three or four chapters, there is a Unit Test, so every three or four weeks, he takes that test on a Friday as well.
My involvement in this subject is pretty minimal. I spend some time reading on Mondays. Tuesdays through Thursday I review his workbook pages and we discuss additions or corrections. Once last week, I had to clear up a little heresy. No big deal.
I've had a few hiccups with the online courses, but the service at Online Catholic Learning is superb. The folks there have been very kind (and patient) and helpful. We completed the fifth grade course over the summer are off and running with the sixth grade one.
We are also going to supplement these courses from time to time to do some saint studies (We like the audio biographies from Glory Stories.) and lapbooks. Edmund is getting confirmed next year, so I hope to add some Confirmation studies in the spring.
Following Christ, Book 6 (Faith and Life Series) has a special lesson for Christmas that I've managed to incorporate into our lesson plan. Go me! Normally, I would not have discovered it until too late. Holy Spirit for the win!
For another look at How We Homeschool, check out this interview I did with Micaela at California to Korea.
I never heard of that Online Catholic Learning website! That looks interesting and like a great find..thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI love that you are filling this need. We do Faith and Life for my 2nd grader, and I'm thinking I need to supplement with the workbook and/or the online class. My 3rd grader is doing something different, a free hand-me-down workbook we got and I'm... Underwhelmed.
ReplyDeleteAs far as dyslexia, we just began All About Spelling, which is based on Orton-Gillingham methods. Isn't that the go-to method for dyslexia?
Yes! That's what we use too. I'm definitely doing a spelling post. Spoilers!
DeleteI find that My Catholic Faith no longer has the read aloud option for the pre test and post test with the higher grades. Do you have to read the tests to E?
ReplyDeleteI didn't know there was an audio version for the tests. I give assistance as needed during the test.
DeleteLast year, without the text and workbooks, he bombed a lot of the tests and I had him re-take them or let him take them "open book". This year seems much better with daily reinforcement.
Just read this post, then happened to come across a recommendation from Like Mother, Like Daughter and though I'd share! Tho maybe you've seen it?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2014/11/10/christian_boer_s_dyslexie_is_a_typeface_for_dyslexics.html?wpsrc=fol_fb
I have seen it. I even got the only library book in our system printed in the "dyslexic" typeface. Unfortunately, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein isn't really age-appropriate for my son, so I didn't have him read it. Oddly enough, that book didn't have a lot of whitespace on the page, so I am suspicious that the font alone would aid his reading.
DeleteHey jessica~
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tips....I've Following Christ, as well and use it along with Bible study, liturgical year activities/crafts/reading and rdg aloud from the Balt Cat. My 11yo/almost 12 yo son is dyslexic too and you;re right. It is a rare combo...Cath/HS/dyslexic. In fact, I find that having a child who is "just" dyslexic, w/o other issues, such as add/adhd/autism is pretty rare. It;s very hard to find a group of moms who Hs and who have a child who's "just" dyslexic I( and dysgraphia and dyscalculic too)
I, too, need to modify pretty much everything for him, but thank God he is a perseverant learner. The kid has more stamina than me.
Also, God knew what He was doing when he led to to get my master's in Reading Disabilities in the late 80s.....! At least I'm not floundering as much as I would be given my nervous-crazy-am-I-doing-the-right-thing=personality, tho I'm constantly looking for better/newer ways to strategize our lessons. He is finally making progress over the past 6 mos or so after stagnating for years...
Good to know that there is someone else out there who is juggling the same sort of learning issues ...thanks for the insight. I've been sub to your blog for a while and yet
never knew your son is dys as well....missed those posts :)
God bless :)
Xoxoxo
~Chris
I'm excited to read this series, as I'm in your minority. My son is much younger though--3rd grade--and I'm encouraged to hear that we may eventually get to content subjects! Right now all the time I have for schooling him is devoted to painstakingly working through All About Spelling, math, and penmanship. It's hard to much else when you still can't read fluently. :( But we are making progress!
ReplyDeleteAll about spelling is not for all dyslexics. We had some special circumstances, tried a lot of programs, and found Preventing Academic Failure to be the best for us. Ie also read good things about Barton.
ReplyDelete