Implementing CM for Special Needs

Hi, Lisa, and welcome to the forum. It sounds like you’re doing the right thing with his math, breaking it into smaller chunks and taking several days. That’s a great way to make the lessons shorter, plus get in more review as he goes along. May I ask a couple of clarification questions?

I am not sure how much I should be expecting him to read by himself, but I do know that it does tire him to read too long.

How long would you say is “too long” for him right now? One thought that occurred to me is that Charlotte didn’t start transitioning the children to reading their school books for themselves until they were at about a 4th grade level. So my first thought would be not to expect him to read his school books himself yet; but of course, you want to keep nudging that direction by having him practice reading for you. How long would you say his reading lesson goes? 

I use Getty-Dubay Italics Book D – cursive, which I try to get him to do independentley, but he gets easily distracted.

Same question, I guess. About how long is an average lesson that you want him to do independently? 

Then I am also struggling to fit everything in

Are you trying to do every subject every day? Many of the arts methods are designed to be done only once a week, like picture study or music study or poetry or nature study. One thing that has helped my daughter with autism this year is that I’m trying to keep a variety in her week. That means we don’t do every subject every day; in fact, many subjects we don’t do every day. For instance, this term we’re doing math only two days a week and playing a game the third day. We’re alternating days for reading: one day a Delightful Reading lesson, the next day she reads aloud to me from More Busy Times, repeat the next two days. Obviously it will take us longer to get through the material, but she is retaining it and enjoying it — and that’s the goal. 

Now, since each family (and each child) is different, what works for me may not work well for you. But if you can give us the answers to the questions above, that may help us get started with ideas for you to ponder and try.

Over all, it looks like a good schedule, Lisa. The trick is deciding between being driven by fear that you’re not doing enough and the desire for a more relaxed experience. You can’t have it both ways, because fear will overrule relaxation every time. Two statements you made really stood out to me in this regard: “His reading over the last year has improved dramatically, a year ago, he was barely reading at a 1st grade level” vs. “I guess my biggest fear is that I am not doing enough, he just turned 11 and will soon be in his teens, so I feel he is “so far behind”.” When those fears come knocking, it may help to look at how far he has come in just one year. When the child enjoys learning and is surrounded by the right resources, there’s no telling how far and how fast he may progress. 

So if you want to veer more toward relaxing (just a little, not overboard  ) I would suggest a couple of tweaks to the schedule you have described.

1. Make sure your lessons are no longer than 30 minutes each, and that should include any narrating.
2. Back off AAS to 3 days a week. That way you can alternate one day AAS, one day Grammar, etc. You can also alternate the handwriting and typing every other day. That leaves only math and reading aloud all 5 days. Make sure math is no longer than 30 minutes and keep reading aloud short too, definitely shorter than 30 minutes. 

Just as an aside, when your son finishes the Little Bear series he might enjoy the story line in the Pathway Readers. The stories are about the same characters all through the early graded readers, so the children get to know the main people, and the stories teach great character lessons – very wholesome. My daughter (13 yo) started reading two years ago and has just begun the second book for 2nd grade, More Busy Times. (She’s progressing, and I’m very proud of her!) In your situation, I’d recommend starting with Days Go By to build confidence and meet the characters.

Oh, and regarding picture study and music study and such. Ease into those. Here’s an easy way to start. Pick a composer and play his music during lunch one day this week (or play it in the car while running errands or driving to a weekly appointment). Tell your kids which composer they’re listening to. Next week do it again. You can pick different songs, but keep the same composer. Continue that for about six weeks. Once you have that nugget in place, pick a different day of the week to do a 5-minute picture study. Do you see where this is going? Instead of trying to add all those extras at once and getting overwhelmed, try adding just one thing at a time until it feels comfortable and part of the regular routine; then add another one.

I hope some of these ideas help a little.