Getting Creative or Chaotic?

[tammyinar]

My husband was home this week on vacation for the first time in ages. He hadn't seen me do school work with our 8yo dd whom we suspect has Asperger Syndrome (her older brother has been diagnosed) and memory issues. He kept telling me things were too chaotic and we needed to spend more time sitting at the table. He didn't see how she could learn with us doing so many 'crazy things'. Yesterday we were doing First Language Lessons working on verbs. Her younger brother was also taking the same lesson. I had her repeat the definition of a verb and then asked her to give me an example while we were sitting at the table. She could of course repeat the definition verbatim, but didn't really understand it. We worked for about 15 minutes with no progress while my husband watched. Then I took my kiddos to the living room and we acted out the different kinds of verbs. We did it once all together, jumping for the action verb, being happy for the state of being, holding hands for the linking verbs, and helping an old lady (me!) cross the street for the helping verbs, giving examples of appropriate examples of each. Then each child made up their own version and they understood the concepts. My husband just shook his head and laughed, then asked me how I planned to teach Algebra. Ha! I told him I'd know when we got there!

[Stacy in NJ]

Good job! Sometimes a little bit of chaos is necessary.

[jensway]

That is really great, examples along with action/doing the verbs! I bet it held their attention. :001_smile:

[Unicorn]

What a great activity! I have a very kinesthetic learner, and this would help her tremendously! Two yrs ago when we were learning nouns- I sent them off w/ brown paper lunch sacks and told them to find 10 things to put inside, and that's how we learned nouns. I think I'll steal your verb lesson if that's ok!

[Momto2Ns]

My autistic spectrum guy needs lots of structure, but I would have used that lesson in a heartbeat! You can have structure and still be very creative in the lessons. Don't stop finding creative ways to help your children not just learn, but understand and remember!

You might take the time to help you dh know that you cover x subjects each day or that you do them in x order or spend x amount of time or whatever things that DO lend more order and structure to your day (if there are any). Aspies do thrive on structure, but very few children do their best learning sitting at a table for extended periods. Great job mom! :hurray: