Dyslexia Resources That Helped Us

I have two dyslexic children. We didn't realize the older one was dyslexic until high school, but for my youngest I was much more aware and began working with her sooner. Neither has been formally diagnosed.

1 - Reading Reflex
I have a friend who is a reading specialist trained in Orton-Gillingham and she recommended Reading Reflex which was so valuable for us. My daughter was about 9 when we first used Reading Reflex. This is a really affordable and practical solution for moms wondering what to do. 


2 - Dyslexia Tool Kit
 After we spent a couple years on Reading Reflex, I searched for another practical help for her to focus on reading fluency and I found The Dyslexia Tool Kit which contains 24 tools that can be implemented separately or in conjunction with others. We didn't use all of the techniques, but the ones we chose really helped her greatly.



3 - Short Cuts to Long Words
She is now 14 and last year (8th grade), I wanted to focus on being able to decode long words. I found this resource - Short Cuts to Long Words by Nancy Lewkowicz - and ordered it sight-unseen. It has really helpful. The website gives an overview of the method. Looking back at the website now, I see there is a higher level of this method that I may order for her this year. http://www.thewordworkshop.com/workbks.html

 4 - Colored Overlays
Another tip that really helped my oldest son was colored overlays. He found that using a blue overlay on a white page really helped him to read better. Other dyslexics find success with different colors. I first heard of this when I was teaching school. Irlen is the company that did the initial work with colored overlays, but they are expensive. At first I used colored overhead transparencies, but later I found a company at a homeschool conference that was selling colored overlay rulers. (I can't remember which company since it's been a few years now.) These are similar, although ours are in varying widths.

Lisa's Logbook - January 20

In our home education last week... My oldest has decided to go to a local comic con coming up in May and is making a Master Chief (Halo) suit out of foam and hot glue and paint. I'll put up some more pictures later but here is one. My younger son (age 13) also decided to make a costume, inspired by his brother, yet a bit daunted by the difference in their abilities. This is the 13yo's first project like this and the 18yo has made several things of this nature before. NOTE: This was not part of their "curriculum" per se; they both had all their regular lessons to do.

What's working for us: having my 3 older kids enroll  in the writing classes I am teaching. During the fall semester, they did not join in the classes. But this time I wanted my 13yo and 15yo to practice their basic essay writing skills and I definitely wanted my 18yo to take my Advanced Essay Writing Techniques workshop since he will be off to college in the fall. You can read more about my writing classes by clicking the links in the sidebar.

One place we visited: I took my younger two children (ages 10 and 13) to the circus on Friday morning. We also took along one of my daughter's friends as a birthday gift for her friend. Fun!

We're reading:

Uncle Tom's Cabin - my high schoolers are reading for their American Lit class

A Wrinkle in Time - my 7th grader is reading this

Pilgrim's Progress, simplified - my 5th grader

Pride and Prejudice - a re-read for both me and Emily for book club

The Freedom Writer's Diary - reading with my sisters and mom to discuss at Sister Weekend

...then just stay fat by Shannon Sorrels - a Kindle freebie I am reading

Walking with Bilbo - a devotional I am reading

I'm grateful for:  Forgiveness. Yep. 

My favorite thing this week: getting together with my friends to watch a movie and chat. So relaxing! Oh wait, did you want to know about my favorite homeschooling stuff?

Favorite Resource this Week: The blue colored overlay you see Suzy using in the pic at right does help my 18yo read better. He has found some success using the blue overlay; he tried some other colors but they weren't as helpful. Suzy hasn't found them to be as useful as David does but we are still experimenting with colors. You can buy expensive colored overlays designed to treat scotopic sensitivity syndrome (aka Irlen syndrome), but I made do with colored transparencies from the office supply store (I think I bought some single sheets at a local store, but it's been so long that I cannot recall where now) or amazon - here's one choice. 

Helpful homeschooling advice to share… Insist they do things they don't want to do. They'll be stronger for it and may even thank you later. (Or at least admit that the experience was beneficial.)

Questions I have: How does one know if one has attained that ideal balance between laziness and industriousness? LOL

A photo to share… That's Monkey-Toed Suzy up there demonstrating one of her unorthodox reading poses. Hey, whatever gets her reading is fine with me. The pic was from October.

I am inspired by… my friend Jennifer who completed a half-marathon today - at Disneyland! You rock, Jen!

Coming up this week: Ice Skating at a local rink, Open gym at a local gymnastics studio, and a kids retreat for my youngest! Fun times!