Dyslexia Part 3 - Keeping up with State Standards/Testing

Homeschooling is legal in all 50 states, but each state has different regulations governing homeschoolers. NYS, where we live, is one of the stricter states. 

We file an annual IHIP or Individualized Home Instruction Plan.
We file quarterly progress reports throughout the year.
We turn in an end of year assessment. 

The annual assessment from grades 4-8 must be an approved test at least biannually. And in high school the annual assessment must always be a test.

This puts some pressure on folks to keep their kids in a more average learning pattern and can be stressful for people who don't believe in catering to the average but rather to the individual child. 

But I believe that you can easily cater to your child AND meet NYS guidelines - even excel at them. 

When Helena was in 3rd grade we did the California Achievement Test, or CAT test, just out of curiosity to see what it was like. She scored far ahead of grade level in all ELA - English Language Arts - areas, and scored on average for math. On both she scored far above the level needed to "pass" which is only the 33rd percentile.

So how do you expose your child to ELA without doing worksheets, curriculum, and tests and so on? 

I read to her a LOT. I try to read quality literature with well constructed sentences and above level vocabulary. I point out if the grammar is incorrect. 

We do MadLibs together. Great way to learn basic parts of speech such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, plural nouns, adverbs.... 

We read funny library books on grammar and punctuation such as Greedy Apostrophe. Honestly, there are so many funny and free library books that appeal to kids that I don't see why anyone would prefer what to us is dry, boring curriculum! 

We talk about grammar in real life "Well actually you'd say, 'He is coming with Sarah and me' not 'He is coming with Sarah and I' because you'd say 'He is coming with me' not say 'He is coming with I.' If you just take out the other person then you know the correct pronoun to use."

We find math everywhere. Or at least I try REALLY hard to. Since math is not my strong suit this is trickier!

But we weigh the produce and bulk items together and estimate cost based on the per pound price.

We play math games in the car where we spot 2 numbers and then either add or subtract them mentally. We do things together until she begs to do it herself. It's a game. Not forced.

We add up items on the grocery receipt and figure out the mean, median, and mode and talk about what these statistics mean to our shopping habits. 

We get out funny library books on math topics for me to read to her.

There are so many ways to learn if you are curious and keep it casual and game-like rather than forced!! We also read Life of Fred and watch Math Antics online. Helena has chosen these. I don't do forced learning, preferring child-led learning. ((See other blog posts on that if curious)). But she knows she needs to learn fractions, for example, for the NYS testing, and she doesn't want to be way behind her peers - even though she is able to explore many subjects and topics that they don't get to learn in school.

Truthfully, you only have to score above the 33rd percentile on the annual NYS assessment. That's super low! That means that you scored higher than 33% of other kids - or that 77% of kids scored higher than you. We easily scored much, much higher than this without any formal curriculum or forced learning. Why? Because children not forced to learn LOVE to learn. Helena is curious about everything. It's like kids don't outgrow the two year old "why" stage or their wonder at the world around them! 

So if your child has dyslexia, don't despair, and don't feel you need for torture both yourself and the kiddo in order to meet requirements or keep up with standards or not raise a child who will only work at McD's. Find their strengths and cater to them. And then.... gently... patiently.... help them to strengthen their weak reading. That way only the reading itself will be "behind" and you'll still meet and exceed state standards required to keep homeschooling. 

Anyway, that's what's worked for us! What have you found helpful?

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