I've got a grade 3 child with some developmental disabilities... the child has really poor motor skills so writing is a challenge. The child is also a kinesthetic learner. Any ideas for how to make writing easier? What about kinesthetic ideas for science? I'll probably be using ACSI Purposeful Design science curriculum. I'm just looking for little activities that aren't expensive and don't take up too muchs space.
The beauty of homeschooling is that you don't have to do things inside the school box. So his motor skills are not up to par for writing, no problem! Can he type? Or can he do the work orally with you, while you record the answers, and only ask him to write one or two assignments a day instead of all of them? Meanwhile, you can do activities that will give him better motor skills and strengthen those hand muscles. Science is really easy for activities and such, just google elementary science activities and you'll get hundreds of great ideas!
Check out the site littlegiantsteps.com. If you go to their 'store' at the link at the top of their site, you'll find a list of categories for all kinds of learning issues. In addition to selling things that help improve motor skills, they list curriculum that tend to work best with kids who have learning differences, including stuff that works well for kinesthetic learners. My daughter has horrible fine motor control. Her handwriting is horrible, and it takes her a while to handwrite anything. I let her type more and just verbally respond to things. However, we're striving more this year to write things out. My main issue is getting her to write smaller. I can't discern if it's her motor skills that are at play in that problem or her challenged vision. Either way...yikes! Her writing is pretty horrid.
My son has had delayed motor skills since birth, and has been in therapy since birth. It hasn't slowed him down at all. He's way ahead academically, but with modified work loads. He doesn't have to WRITE a story if he can tell it or type it. For things that just have to be written, I'll either write for him, or I'll modify it so that he's only writing the part that is age/skill appropriate (like, filling in a worksheet is easier than writing out all the sentences from an English book). For things that don't have to be written, he'll either do it on the computer or do it orally. I can't really give you any kinesthetic ideas, because my kids don't learn that way. They're visual/spatial learners. You can google for ideas, though. Think outside the box. "Home schooling" doesn't have to look like "schooling at home". If you learn to subtract on paper, or if you learn to subtract by eating M&M's, it doesn't matter... as long as you learn to subtract, your future boss won't ask what method your elementary teacher used.
