Overcoming Dyslexia through Homeschooling: Our Third Year
My oldest child’s reading level jumped 3+ grade levels, from a 10th grade equivalent to a 13+ grade equivalent (college level) during our third year of overcoming dyslexia through homeschooling. Here are the programs and instruction we used during our third year of homeschooling:
OUR THIRD YEAR Overcoming Dyslexia through Homeschooling:
We used Earobics daily throughout our summer following the second year as part of our “Power Hour”. Unfortunately, this software program has been discontinued, but sometimes you can still find an availabble CD on Amazon.
*Power Hour* is a means for us to spend one hour on academics each day of the summer. Having a “Power Hour” keeps the children’s skills from regressing, and helps them maintain or move forward a bit. The children were expected to work one page in a math book, read one chapter in any book of their choice, write one journal paragraph about what they read, and complete one lesson in Earobics. (The first year, Lexia’s S.O.S. was used as part of our Power Hour.)
For our third year of overcoming dyslexia through homeschooling, we engaged in a LOT of independent reading practice, and worked through the entirety of Earobics (started again at the beginning) and continued with the Megawords series. For our independent reading practice, we used Sonlight’s “World History” readers, which held my child’s attention quite well.
Summary of Overcoming Dyslexia Through Homeschooling:
If you’ve visited our program pages for each of our three years, it sounds like our program was a lot of work. It was, but it has paid off handsomely. My children are now reading well above grade-level and doing excellently in their college-level studies.
For my child with significant dyslexia, reading is now one of his strongest subjects. He scored a 24 on the ACT when he was in the seventh grade, where the average for a high school graduate scores a 21. I couldn’t be more pleased! Mastering spelling to above grade-level was more difficult and I explain the best spelling methods elsewhere on this site (I need to find that link and post it here for you!) As a cautionary side note: Spelling often remains as a significant weakness.
This program I designed for my children won’t work for everyone, and your child’s needs may be quite different. My child was diagnosed with “true dyslexia”, which is a lack of phonemic awareness and short-term memory deficits. He also has executive functioning disorder, as well as with Ocular Motor deficiencies.
At this point, although I continue to see some ‘short circuits’ from time-to-time, my son’s dyslexia has been eliminated as a factor in reading! By carefully considering your child’s individual diagnosis and needs, you can find success for your child too!
From years of experience, I can say with certainty that if your child struggles significantly with one or more areas of learning, having your child evaluated by a neuropsychologist is tremendously important for figuring out exactly what YOUR child need. Every child is different. One of a Kind! When you know all of the underlying learning issues your child is struggling with, THEN you can design a great program for your child so they can have great success in learning! The First Step? Get a comprehensive evaluation! Then, build a program step-by-step for your child by meeting their individual needs through their learning strengths, and by strengthening the deficit areas too.
Best Wishes,
Sandy
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