As some of you know my daughter has pain in her hand and it is hard for her to write for prolonged periods of time.

I have a friend that is an occupational therapist. She told me to buy a styrofoam ball (like crafters use) and poke a pencil through it for my daughter to grip.

It doesn't hurt to use it like it does when she grips a pencil, so I guess that is progress. It just takes some getting used to, holding a 3" diameter ball in your hand to write.

She will probably do her handwriting curriculum this way to prevent hand cramps.

We are thinking of going with Switched on Schoolhouse Core Curriculum for everything else.

I was wondering if there are others out there and what curriculum you use for your children?

Any Switched on Schoolhouse users out there? Reviews of any curriculum would be appreciated.

How old is your daughter?

My son has handwriting problems. He had low muscle tone before lyme and now it is worse because of muscle and joint pain. He was 7 when he got it and now he's 11.

We have worked with teachers, special ed teachers and OTs and the concensus there was to move him on to the computer and an Alphamart. Have you seen one of these? It is a portable keyboard for kids who have trouble with handwriting. It has been a lifesaver for him as her can do work then connect it to the computer and print.

His grip is not the greatest. It has improved a lot. It was torture to get it to improve...It was a huge relief to hear from professionals that it wasn't worth pushing it anymore. He used to get so overwhelmed with schoolwork, either at school or at home if he had to write.
His hand got so tired. He kept telling us it hurt-I feel bad that I didn't realize it was really bad. But he survived and does a good job finishing his assignments with the keyboard.
Incidentally, I have noticed numerous pharmacy cashiers with horrific grips...They seem to be doing fine.
His hands are doing better strength and painwise. He's going to do a 1/2 day of Junior High this fall.

Well,this response is long
ng but handwriting has been a huge issue for us. I feel for your daughter and you--if you haven't been through this you couldn't imagine how difficult and stressful it can be. Your daughter is lucky to have such an
involved mom!

Did you get my email last night? My hard drive is on it's last leg and I am not sure I am getting my email. I wrote you, because you are about to come to our town Wednesday, right?

Anyway would you please respond via this post to let me know if you got that email last night? Did I have the right email?

I am interested to hear about your son's Alphamart whenever we talk.

Thanks for your interest and post. No, you are right, nobody seems to understand the rock and hard place I am between with my daughter's education.

Of course, I want her to get a good education. I just don't want her to be in pain to do it. It is hard trying to figure out what will work for a kid with these problems.

BTW, I have heard that Switched on Schoolhouse was able to get rid of some of their glitches that they have had in the past and they have a "new improved" version.

I looked up reviews today at:
http://homeschoolreviews.com/reviews/sos.html

It really helped me see some of the tweeking that is still necessary to successfully use the program.

For instance, the program gave t/f questions and allowed students to cheat and change their answers on quizzes and tests upon finding that they had answered incorrectly.

There is a way to disable this and take only one answer, arriving at an accurate grade.

Please feel free to email me. I hope I get it. I think I used your daughter's email address last night. It was the one that you had written me from before, I think. I am guessing that her name starts with an A?

Therefore, we have used a very loose, eclectic approach to education - utilizing some texts from our school district, lots of videos from the library and books on tape. He loves history and I have taught him that and read to him extensively. He reads a lot of self-selected materials and we have had a tutor for math.

In the beginning I worried that he would somehow fail if we didn't follow the school's curriculum, but as his illness extended and his fatigue and pain persisted, we realized that it would be impossible for him to cover all the same material. And now we realize that this is not necessary. He is very bright and most importantly has learned to think critically.

Every child with Lyme is different and so are their needs and abilities. A recent thread had some interesting discussion of one homeschooled student with Lyme who is beginning college -
http://flash.lymenet.org/ubb/Forum1/HTML/035901.html

Also, I have found Home Education Magazine to be infinitely helpful and supportive no matter which approach you choose to use for homeschooling. It's well worth the subscription fee. Check out their website -
http://www.homeedmag.com/HEM/info.html

Best of luck with your daughter's health and education.

~Nancy

quote:

---

Originally posted by blackmon:
We have been homeschooling our 15 yr. old son for over three years - he has constant headache pain, fatigue and other symptoms that have made it difficult to do any schoolwork for significant periods of time.

Therefore, we have used a very loose, eclectic approach to education - utilizing some texts from our school district, lots of videos from the library and books on tape. He loves history and I have taught him that and read to him extensively. He reads a lot of self-selected materials and we have had a tutor for math.

In the beginning I worried that he would somehow fail if we didn't follow the school's curriculum, but as his illness extended and his fatigue and pain persisted, we realized that it would be impossible for him to cover all the same material. And now we realize that this is not necessary. He is very bright and most importantly has learned to think critically.

Every child with Lyme is different and so are their needs and abilities. A recent thread had some interesting discussion of one homeschooled student with Lyme who is beginning college (it begins discussing dental issues...but read on) -

http://flash.lymenet.org/ubb/Forum1/HTML/035901.html

Also, I have found Home Education Magazine to be infinitely helpful and supportive no matter which approach you choose to use for homeschooling. It's well worth the subscription fee. Check out their website -

http://www.homeedmag.com/HEM/info.html

Best of luck with your daughter's health and education.

~Nancy

---

I am sorry I missed your e-mail. I would really like to "talk"

I just got this and saw you missed my email.

I really wanted it to work too. I was trying to meet you guys after your appt. at the clinic today. I thought we might enjoy getting our kids together and talking.

I just live 20 minutes down the road and could have met you at the chick-fil-a or some other place there near the clinic. Birkdale is pretty cool and there are a lot of icecream shops there.

My computer has been flakin' lately. It is hard to say which end the email fritzed on us.

You will see my post on your solataire post. Well take care and hope to hear from you soon. Maybe next time we can meet.

Something that my son liked was Super Tutor. You might want to check it out - I think their cirriculum is for grades 6 - 12.

Their website is www.homeworkhelp.com - I think you can even use www.supertutor.com

They have cirriculum CD's, and they are very reasonably priced.

My son has lyme (so does my daughter, who was also homeschooled, and previously garduated)

He has ADHD, and writing and the typical textbook way of learning was a challenge to say the least.

He said it was too much like using a textbook - he needs things that will keep his attention, I think it was just the way that things were set up.

I just wanted to let you know that the super tutor cirriculum CD's are fun to do.

They make the learning fun - something my son desperately needed. They are very interactive.

Also - I purchased the English Resource set, I think it is called. It was around $50 - $60 - and I used it for 9 - 12 grade. They even include some college level cirriculum. So, it is very affordable.

It is very encouraging to hear it can be done. It was difficult last year just before my daughter was diagnosed. Her symptoms were at their worst. I am looking forward to helping her get on with her education, in whatever capacity that may be.

The links were helpful, thanks. I may subscribe to that magazine. It looks interesting.

I didn't use any particular curriculum but had to complete the requirements of my school system. I had a math tutor and a Spanish tutor and used the textbooks from my high school. For my last two years of high school I took a few classes at the school as I was able so I managed to have the best of both worlds.

When I was younger and homeschooled, I was technically part of a small home-based private school so I didn't have to go by the school's requirements. I used workbooks (bought through a specific company but I don't know what company it was) but they were just simple workbooks, mostly for math. The rest of the stuff I learned was pretty much because I wanted to learn it or from just doing things and learning through that. I'd do small essays on things that were interesting to me (I wrote one on Shakespeare when I was probably 10 or so). It was mostly all self-driven. So, anyway, I don't know about the other programs.

I do know that my younger sister is homeschooling now (she's going into 10th grade) is doing her work through an online program from Oak Meadow. It looks like they have programs for preschool through 12th grade so it might be worth taking a look at.

I hope you can find something that will work for both you and your daughter!

Peace and healing,
Annie

------------------

Lyme Out Retreat Website

Lyme Disease Awareness Products

Click here to join Lyme Pals.

Edit button is to lymenet, as water is to a human! HA! Pretty necessary, eh?

Artnsoul, that curriculum looks interesting, but my kiddos are going into 4th and 5th grade work. It is probably over their heads for now, but maybe next year. I will file it for later.

It will be nice to have a fall back fun curriculum plan next year if they think Switched on is too stuffy. We'll see how it goes. My kids both have their own computer, because my husband built them one really cheap.

They love the computer. I hope they love Switched on. There is not enough cheese in the house if they don't like the schoolwork they are doing. Ya know, to go with all that whine!

Wow, your daughter graduated. That must feel pretty good. I don't want to wish their years away, but it will feel good to have that accomplishment someday, however we go about getting there.

You must be flexible to get through this mess, right?

Take care and I hope your daughter is doing better now! I've been praying for her.

Thanks for chiming in. I am going to have a closer look at the curriculum you mentioned. At first glance it sounds interesting. Is there someone else at the other end of the online curriculum that holds your sister accountable, besides your mom?

I know Switched on has an online program, too, now. I had not heard of Oak Meadow. Thanks for showing it to me. I am entertaining everything right now.

I don't know all that much about the Oak Meadow stuff but I know my sister has started a class this summer. I think it's more of a self-paced thing but each semester's work has to be finished within 6 months of when it's started. That's for the high school stuff so I'm not sure if the younger grade classes are the same or have more structure. I just wanted to suggest it so you'd know your options! One of the good things about Oak Meadow is that my sister will get a diploma from them when she's done with all her high school work. They're also an in-person accredited school and my sister could go up to Vermont (where they are) for her graduation if she wants.

My sister is doing okay. We're actually working together (sort of) this summer so I see her for the 10 minutes when we drive to work and on the drive home on the days I don't have to work after (we work 3 mornings a week at an art camp - she's in the art studio helping out and I teach theater). Her moods seem to be better lately but I do still have Lyme in the back of my mind. She doesn't want to entertain the possibility and my parents don't want to go through getting her evaluated from a real LLMD and I don't feel I can force this on them. She could just be a "regular" teenager and could grow out of a lot of this so I guess time will tell.

I'm actually already a member of Lyme Teens (the online teen group that was started by people in PA) and since my sister doesn't think she has Lyme I never brought it up to her. She probably wouldn't like to be in a group with me reading her posts, anyway!

Thanks for asking. It's nice to feel like I "know" the people who post on here!

Peace and healing,
Annie

------------------

Lyme Out Retreat Website

Lyme Disease Awareness Products

Click here to join Lyme Pals.

I am glad things have calmed down for you and your sis. Glad too you have that support group. I think everyone needs someone their age to help them through this.

'Tis true that it is hard to tell the difference between lyme and teen attitude sometimes. Well, should other symptoms crop up, I am sure you can tell. I hope that it is just teen 'tude. That goes away much easier with time.

Again thanks for the info. The fact that you can graduate from the accredited school in VT makes it a real plus.

Anyway, now that my son has greatly improved it seems that the info going in all those sick years stayed with him. He had tested very poorly, so we were not sure what the retention was. At the end of last year his brain seemed to be working well and he could produce high quality work.

Continuous working at math and writing, because they build upon previous knowlegde seems to be key. History and science and electives, while important can be more flexible.

It is very scarey to be teaching and working with a child who can give very little back. I feared the worst, fortunately my son's brain is healing and I have hope for a good life for him again.

Just do your best each day. It will be more than good enough in the long run.

My 17 year old has been using American school, but I was looking into Pa Leadership charter school. How is you cyber school working for your son? Would you recommend it.
My son was in school until high school and has been doing homeschool for a couple years. I feel he needs more that he is geting, but we are very low-key here.

Thought I would send this back up for Patty to try to get Mel's response. I think Mel maybe missed Patty's questions.

Thanks again, ivebinlymed2

Lovin' that edit button!