Cheryl Swope's Blog, page 2

Christmas Read-Aloud Books for Children

“The Lord will give strength to His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace” (Psalm 29:11). This year may your Advent and Christmas season be an especially fortifying time of strength and peace.

To help, here is a book list I compiled of beautiful Christmas Read-Alouds, all available from Memoria Press

Age or Ability 3-5

• The Little Fir Tree by Margaret Wise Brown

• The Animals’ Christmas Eve: A Little Golden Book, Little Golden Book

• The Twelve Days of Christmas illustrated by Jan Brett 

• Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree by Robert Barry

• Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening illustrated by Susan Jeffers *

• The Little Drummer Boy by Ezra Jack Keats 

• The Friendly Beasts by Tomie dePaola

• Christmas in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls

• Winter on the Farm by Laura Ingalls

• Little House Christmas Treasury by Laura Ingalls

Age or Ability 6-9

• The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski

• Lucy’s Christmas by Donald Hall

• Why Christmas Trees Aren’t Perfect by Richard H. Schneider

• An Orange for Frankie by Patricia Polacco

• The Nutcracker with CD by Stephanie Spinner

• Twas the Night Before Christmas ill. by Matt Tavares

• Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl S. Buck

Age or Ability 7-10

• Good King Wenceslas by John M. Neale

• Papa Panov’s Special Christmas by Leo Tolstoy

• A Promise Kept: The Story of Christmas passages of Scripture from Isaiah to John

• The 12 Days of Christmas by Helen Haidle

• I Saw Three Ships by Elizabeth Goudge

• Christmas Around the World by Emily Kelley

• St. Nicholas: The Real Story of the Christmas Legend by Julie Stiegemeyer

• The Nutcracker with CD by E.T.A. Hoffmann

Age or Ability 11 and up – because you’re never too old to share a book as a family

• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

• The Story of the Other Wise Man by Henry Van Dyke 

• Journey through Advent by Dr. Carol Reynolds

• The Christmas Story From the gospels of Matthew and Luke, The Christmas Story is told with the words of Scripture and depicted by wondrous sacred art. 

 

The LORD lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace.

SimplyClassical.com

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Today’s topic: Executive Function

https://www.patreon.com/CherylSwopeCo...

My son & I have begun playing chess in the evenings to strengthen the mind and improve “executive function.” Executive function is a person’s ability to order his tasks and order his mind in all of these ways:

– managing a to-do list without being overwhelmed

– stay focused on a set of tasks

– organize one’s time

– keeping track of details without losing oneself in them

– change direction to complete the next task when one is finished

This morning on Patreon we shared our family’s tabletop charts for improving executive function. Our son’s chart at age 7 helped him attain 10-15 minutes of independence. The charts we use today aspire to 2-4 hours of sustained, supervised work. We share additional resources including assessment tools to determine whether you may be dealing with Executive Function Disorder.

Explore our growing library at Cheryl Swope Consulting LLC on Patreon . Join to gain immediate access to this and every post, presentation, and topic!

photo by Marie Sjodin of Pixabay

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Ordinary Days

Day by day our cares and tasks may seem habitual, or laden with more duty than love, but there is a miracle at work in the sacrificial diligence of the daily moments and doing what is set before us to do. G. K. Chesterton writes, “The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.”

This week a pastor requested the article I wrote containing the above words. Here it is in full: Nothing Ordinary, published in The Classical Teacher by Memoria Press.

Embark on delightful read-alouds that take you far away. Determine to teach richer set of subjects with your child or grandchild. Reclaim the teaching of manners and civility, one student at a time. Even during isolation, quarantine, and being careful to keep everyone safe, our days need never be “ordinary.”

Questions? We’re happy to answer.

cherylswopeconsultingllc@gmail.com

The post Ordinary Days first appeared on Cheryl Swope Consulting LLC.

Paranoia, Schizophrenia, & Trust

This has been a rough time. One week ago today we learned of ongoing deception devised by mental disturbance and acted upon by a bewildering mix of impulsivity and intentional deception. We all lost sleep and spent many hours over the “holiday” weekend pondering what went wrong.

But the Lord is faithful. As always, He turns our mourning into dancing (Psalm 30:11), even if we think this time surely He will not.

All of the heartache led to a profoundly beneficial conversation with my 25-year-old son about trust. Proverbs 3:5 featured prominently. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. This is especially true when one’s own understanding is clouded by delusion. (Though if all of ours were not, we would not have the proverb!)

In whom do we trust? Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. God gives us people in our lives whom we can trust when our own thinking is clouded or disturbed. Thanks be to God for these people.

Before I could speak with my son, I needed to speak to someone I trusted. A 3-hour talk in a quiet, secluded, tree-filled park with a longtime friend led to my requisite unburdening. This was supposed to be a “picnic” on Labor Day for the two of us to catch up! I took only one bite of my salad. Then she asked how I was doing. My eyes welled in spite of myself. She listened. I let everything spill forth unfiltered.

The next day, refreshed, I was then ready to speak with my son.

On Patreon I share more, including photos and several resources that might help your own situation. When you join our Patreon page (pa-treon, as in “becoming a patron”), you not only support our hard work; you unlock the full library, photos and all. Find resources for building those trusted friendships, especially with our children who have any type of special needs, mild or — as in our case — not-so-mild. (Look for the post entitled Trust.)

If you would like to speak privately, we offer private consultations with 1:1 phone conversations or private emails, if you prefer.

As all of this unfolded and as we reflected on the events leading from childhood to this moment, my husband and I realized that the message of Simply Classical is relevant now more than ever.

Update October 26, 2020

We instituted a restitution plan. Our son is earning money to repay the debt and says he feels confident he can repay in full. We’re charting this with him and grateful to be able to help him work toward restoration. Forgiveness, redemption, restoration, and healing — these words are needed now in so many realms of life!

Thanks be to God; you are never alone.

Image: Free-Photos by Pixabay

The post Paranoia, Schizophrenia, & Trust first appeared on Cheryl Swope Consulting LLC.

Paranoid Delusions, Impulsivity, Schizophrenia, & Trust

This has been a rough time. One week ago today we learned of ongoing deception devised by mental disturbance and acted upon by a bewildering mix of impulsivity and intentional deception. We all lost sleep and spent many hours over the “holiday” weekend pondering what went wrong.

But the Lord is faithful. As always, He turns our mourning into dancing (Psalm 30:11), even if we think this time surely He will not.

All of the heartache led to a profoundly beneficial conversation with my 25-year-old son about trust. Proverbs 3:5 featured prominently. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. This is especially true when one’s own understanding is clouded by delusion. (Though if all of ours were not, we would not have the proverb!)

In whom do we trust? Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. God gives us people in our lives whom we can trust when our own thinking is clouded or disturbed. Thanks be to God for these people.

Before I could speak with my son, I needed to speak to someone I trusted. A 3-hour talk in a quiet, secluded, tree-filled park with a longtime friend led to my requisite unburdening. This was supposed to be a “picnic” on Labor Day for the two of us to catch up! I took only one bite of my salad. Then she asked how I was doing. My eyes welled in spite of myself. She listened. I let everything spill forth unfiltered.

The next day, refreshed, I was then ready to speak with my son.

On Patreon I share more, including photos and several resources that might help your own situation. When you join our Patreon page (pa-treon, as in “becoming a patron”), you not only support our hard work; you unlock the full library, photos and all. Find resources for building those trusted friendships, especially with our children who have any type of special needs, mild or — as in our case — not-so-mild. (Look for the post entitled Trust.)

If you would like to speak privately, we offer private consultations with 1:1 phone conversations or private emails, if you prefer.

As all of this unfolded and as we reflected on the events leading from childhood to this moment, my husband and I realized that the message of Simply Classical is relevant now more than ever. We also offer the above additional options of our more private Patreon page and 1:1 private consultations.

Image: Free-Photos by Pixabay

The post Paranoid Delusions, Impulsivity, Schizophrenia, & Trust first appeared on Cheryl Swope Consulting LLC.

Teaching Latin to Children with Special Needs

We give thanks for the tremendous honor indicated in the photo: having received the Excellence in Education Award four times. Voted #1 for Special Learners!

Long before the release of Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child and the subsequent Simply Classical Curriculum, a homeschooling mother named Barbara posted this message on the Memoria Press Discussion Forum for Special Learners, summarized by the question: Can you teach Latin to a child with special needs?

“I homeschool my two daughters, ages 12 & 13, both with learning disabilities in the form of Auditory Processing disorder,

one with both APD and other sensory issues! I have been researching Latin programs.

I have avoided Latin thus far because of their academic challenges, but I do not want to keep putting off the teaching of Latin.

Unless you could suggest otherwise, I am contemplating beginning with First Form Latin.

Please advise as trying one more program that might prove TOO challenging and therefore going by the wayside with other curriculum

is something I so want to avoid!!!

Anyone else struggle with challenged kids? Am I wrong in that children with LD cannot be taught Latin and the rest of the Classical

courses (logic, rhetoric)? Tell me I’m wrong!”

Short Answer: Yes!

On that day and in the intervening eight years, we have answered this common question many times for many different students. I had asked myself the question so many years ago: Can you teach Latin to children with special needs?

Nearly always, the answer is YES! The details of the implementation depends on the child, the age, and the condition(s) or challenges the child faces, but almost always the child can, at least, study, learn, and benefit from) introductory Latin.

Patreon

We are sharing “Best of…” answers to this and many more questions on our Patreon page, an emerging resource to help families and schools. Uniquely, we approach children with special needs from the understanding of truth, goodness, and beauty within a classical education. Join us to add to the discussions, ask your own questions, and find compiled responses shared nowhere else.

The muse for this topic is my daughter, who is studying Latin in our home again this year at her request. Look for the topic “Teaching Latin to Children with Special Needs.” You will find her with her Latin books, as she worked ahead one afternoon while waiting for me to join her. As many of you know, m daughter, now 25, has autism, learning disabilities, medical conditions (heart, kidney, neurological), and schizophrenia, yet she loves words. In our home, Latin, theology, and music have been the three most influential areas of study in her life. Now it is our life’s work to help other children like her.

Ready to teach?

If you need no persuasion and are ready to teach, consider these unique Simply Classical resources for teaching Latin to children with autism, specific learning disabilities, and other special learning needs. We suggest beginning as soon as English phonics are reasonably strong. No previous experience is necessary on the part of the teacher, but we recommend studying ahead as far as you can to know where you’re going! Materials are written at a level suitable for self-teaching on the part of the adult.

If you have questions or would like a more thorough, private consultation for your own child or student(s), contact us at cherylswopeconsultingllc@gmail.com.

The post Teaching Latin to Children with Special Needs first appeared on Cheryl Swope Consulting LLC.

What I’m Working On

Over more than a decade, schools and parents have asked me questions about students with special needs and about classical education. They range from broad, philosophical questions, “What Is Classical Education?” to specific, practical topics such as “How Do I Teach Place Value to a Child with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome?”

My responses are now scattered among forums and facebook pages, emails and everywhere, so I’m working on gathering and compiling all answers, thoroughly and topically. I intend to share them all in one place, exclusively on my Patreon page, to faithful members who will have access to the entire library as it unfolds.

Look for these. Join to unlock them all. I keep things easy with only one tier of membership.

Pictured: the desk in the Jane Austen Room of the Bashford Manor where I once stayed when visiting Memoria Press in Louisville.

Cheryl Swope, M.Ed. Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child (Memoria Press, 2nd edition, 2019)

Cheryl Swope Consulting LLC

CherylSwopeConsultingLLC@gmail.com

The post What I'm Working On first appeared on Cheryl Swope Consulting LLC.

Teaching Place Value with Special Needs

This popular post is packed with tips and has moved to our Patreon page!

Become a member and join us in the journey.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Cheryl Swope Consulting LLC

Sign Up Now: Online Conference Starts Today! April 16-18, 2020

We cannot gather together in person, but we CAN meet online!
Take an hour to refresh your mind and change your focus away from the day’s news. With the help of God we will press on, for the sake of our children.
Join me from my home in Missouri. Choose any of these four sessions:

Classical Christian Education: Beautifully Defined

Cheryl Swope
10 Reasons Your Homeschool May be the Best Place for a Child With Special Needs

Cheryl Swope
Classical Education for Special Needs & Struggling Learners

Cheryl Swope
What Good Are Labels? Unraveling the Puzzle of Your Struggling Child

Cheryl Swope

These sessions are brought to you by Great Homeschool Conventions and CAP, sponsored by Medi-Share, and made possible by my publisher Memoria Press , who makes everything possible for Simply Classical.

Sign Up Now: MemoriaPress.com.
Bonus: Through Memoria Press enjoy talks from Martin Cothran and mathematics workshops with Tom Clark. All free.

 

 

 

Or sign up through GHC for 100+ available sessions:

Free VIP Registration

Teaching Math, Writing, Spelling, & Reading with Special Needs: As a Bird Builds Its Nest, So We Teach

“‘Little by little, the bird builds its nest,’ is the translation of one of my daughter’s favorite French phrases. This encourages us to teach step by step and with sensitivity to the student. Will he thrive in a traditional classroom? Does he require a smaller group of companions? Will he need private tutoring? Does he need visual aids, adaptive equipment, more practice? As a matter of human compassion and pedagogical duty, we can make modifications for the various needs of our students.”

If any lesson contains too much content, use a mental magnifying glass to enlarge each component. Then divide into smaller parts and teach those.
Stir the heart while tending to the mind.
Assess for understanding and mastery.
Practice to keep memory sharp and well-exercised.

Keep reading the full article … Little by Little, We Teach

Consider our Simply Classical Curriculum, Voted #1 for Special Learners, with lesson plans to help you teach any child for success, little by little. Hear from a satisfied mother:

I am literally in awe of the cohesiveness and thoughtfulness in each piece of the curriculum. A typical learner will make connections in a language-rich environment with access to books and a loving caregiver, but children with developmental delay need explicit training and over-teaching to grasp foundational concepts. For instance, I just assumed my child would understand the 5 senses. I almost skipped it. He’s 5 and we’ve read scores of books and raised him in a language-rich environment. It baffled me that it took him about 3 weeks to fully cement that we see with our eyes, hear with our ears, smell with our nose, taste with our tongue and touch with our fingers. Simply Classical Level B lovingly over-taught this concept, then they had us read The Poky Puppy. His comprehension of the story is significantly different from when we had read this story last summer. The explicit teaching of number sense, prepositions, elements of nature, body parts review and animal identification (which is still an emerging skill for my guy) were all directly taught prior to this read-aloud. And now that I’m teaching my eldest from SC Curriculum, I see how they are laying the groundwork for concepts he’ll visit in the upper grades. — Larissa