Resources for Homeschooling Children with Learning or Attention Difficulties

Resources For Planning

Sutton & Sutton, Strategies for Struggling Learners: A Guide For the Teaching Parent ISBN: 0964568411.
Out of print but available used from Amazon.com or ABEbooks.com

Joyce Herzog, Choosing and Using Curriculum ISBN 1887225226
Learning in Spite of Labels ISBN 1882514130
Joyce Herzog.com

National Home Education Network and Home School Legal Defense Association have helpful special needs sections on their websites.

Lenore Calacion Hayes, Homeschooling the Child With ADD (or Other Special Needs). I have some philosophical differences with this book, but it is helpful.

I am available for consulting by telephone or in person.
Contact me at the “learn differently” e-mail address below to arrange an appointment.

Help with Reading

McGuinness & McGuinness, Reading Reflex-—a home version of the Phono-Graphix reading method. ISBN 1882514130. Very helpful method, though the book could be clearer. See ReadAmerica.net for details and to learn about their on-campus courses.

Educators Publishing Service publishes many useful workbooks written by teachers, including:
Explode the Code series, Beyond the Code series,
Reasoning & Reading by Joanne Carlisle, Reading Comprehension in Varied Subject Matter series,
and more.

Stevenson Phonics “is an alternative approach for teaching reading, spelling and other basic language skills.”

Edward B. Fry’s Reading Drills series (for improving reading speed) and Skimming and Scanning (both available from Amazon.com)

Burton Goodman’s Reader as Detective series builds reading comprehension by using abridgements of suspenseful short stories by famous writers. Published by Amsco.

High Noon Books. Stories with 1st and 2nd grade readability for older readers who need them.

Joyce Herzog.com

Not Your Ordinary Math Programs

Semple Math is a basic skills math program “based entirely on Learning by Association.”

Moving with Math is a math program for 1-8th grade. Very hands-on. We used this for grades 5-8.

I didn’t use Math U See, but if I had to start over, I’d think hard about it. Very hands on.

Secondary Math

I like the three math books by Harold Jacobs, Elementary Algebra, Geometry: Seeing, Doing Understanding, and Mathematics: A Human Endeavor – A Book For Those Who Think They Don’t Like the Subject. Jacobs incorporates regular review, good cartoons, and creative thinking. Susan Richman’s review at PAHomeschoolers.com convinced me to try these books. I teach small homeschool classes using the first two, and I’d love to teach the third one. After years of drudgery, that book convinced my son that he didn’t hate math, but that math was cool. (He only hates arithmetic and algebra!) The book includes probability, statistics, combinatorics, topology, and other topics in advanced mathematics.

Not Your Ordinary Textbooks

Globe Fearon books from AGS Globe are high school textbooks that are easy to read.

What To Look For In a Textbook

larger print,
wider margins,
section headings,
preview and review sections,
new terms in bold face.

Language Arts

Winston Grammar is very tactile and uses workbooks and colored cards to teach language structure. You lay out one card on the table for each word in the sentence, with the different colored cards representing each part of speech. Both the basic and advanced programs are very good. Each book should take a year–follow the author’s advice and don’t rush.

Spelling Power by by Beverly L. Adams-Gordon is much more efficient than other spelling programs. It’s expensive, but one book lasts you for grades 3-12. And no, you don’t have to read all to use it! Note: I have not seen this new edition with the CR-ROM or introductory DVD.

Educators Publishing Service publishes workbooks written by teachers, including the excellent Writing Skills books by Diana Hanbury King, Story of the USA (mid to upper elementary level US history, good for struggling readers), and others in several subjects.

Bright Minds, the homeschool and family division of Critical Thinking Books and Software, has many brain-building products.
Their Editor in Chief: Grammar Disasters and Punctuation Faux Pas series gives the best practice in proofreading I have found anywhere. Most workbooks tell you, “Find all the capitalization errors on this page,” or give you a page labeled “Comma Faults,” and you only look for one type of error in all the exercises on that page. But Editor in Chief gives you a short article and says, “There are 10 errors in this activity.” You have to find them, which is much more like editing your own writing.
Note: When I use Editor in Chief, I do not make students copy the passage, unless we need handwriting practice. I have them make corrections using proofreader’s marks.

Study Skills

Learning to Learn: Strengthening Study Skills and Brain Power by Gloria Frender. Available from Amazon.com

Study Skills by Kelly Wingate Publications

Websites and Other Resources

SHARENET, a free e-newsletter, “is the information network of the Northern Virginia homeschooling community.
No meetings, no commitments, no fees. To share an activity, or to be added/removed from the mailing list, please contact” the address below:

NATHHAN, National Challenged Homeschooling Special Needs Children provides a newsletter, library, and website

Woodbine House publishes books on raising children with a variety of disabilities, included ADD.

Judith Munday, a special education consultant in Tidewater Virginia, has a very helpful website.

Seton Testing is a good place to order the California Achievement Test to give at home.

A reading teacher or special education teacher at your local school might freelance as a consultant for you or reading tutor for your child.

Paul Tripp, Age of Opportunity: A Biblical Guide to Parenting Teens. I wish I had read this when my children were 9-10 years old. Tripp writes wisely on dealing with attitudes–your child’s and your own–and other valuable topics.

Dragon Naturally Speaking software on your computer will turn your child’s spoken words (or yours) into text.

Other firms make software will read aloud to your child.

Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic provides recorded books and special tape players.

Audio books available at libraries and from Amazon and elsewhere.

Fun Stuff

Timberdoodle.com offers wonderful games, puzzles, computer programs, educational toys and kits, as well as good books for parents and some good curricula. Some of our favorites are Wrap Ups, wooden pattern blocks, the Key To… math workbooks, FischerTechniks, the games Rush Hour and Set, and the books The Young Peacemaker, The Fallacy Detective, and Sewing Machine Fun.

We like to use the Word Spin Magnetic Crossword game to practice spelling words, though you could use it the way it was intended! It’s a set of 8 interlocking magnetic wheels, each with 10 letters around the side, that you can rearrange and align to spell words. Fun to fiddle with. From Geospaceplay

Klutz Press has not-to-be-missed books, such as Juggling for the Complete Klutz by John Cassidy, Watercolor for the Artistically Undiscovered by Thacher Hurd & John Cassidy, Drawing for the Artistically Undiscovered by Quentin Blake & John Cassidy.