Slightly overwhelmed....but here

[McMom]

I am a homeschooling mother of eleven.  Our littlest blessing is two years old as of Dec.  She has Down syndrome.  She is absolutely precious.  We adore her.  But Iam a bit overwhelmed at times when I think of all the things I could/should be doing with her. She does get PT, OT, speech and a special ed teacher.   They come at various times during the week.  I also drive school bus for health insurance and homeschoolinganddownsyndrome six of the other children as well.  But I have a typical child who is six and isn't quite reading too.  Ugh!  Anyone else have a large family and part-time job have insight as to how you balance everything?

[McMom]

My phone autocorrected my word "homeschooling" ...to homeschoolinganddownsyndrome.   It should have just said I am homeschooling six children.   I am also accessing this on a smartphone which typically messes up my messages.  Hope you can make sense of it all

[Mandabplus3]

Goodness! 11 children! I think the best you could expect is semi organized chaos! Forget balance  I struggle to find balance with just 3 kids!
So LR would be great for your 2 years with down syndrome, it is a pre made corriculum, takes just a few minutes twice a day truly an easy head start. You could teach your 6 year old how to turn it on and get him/her to show it to the baby, that way he/she will see all those lovey words and pattern phonics too! ( pattern phonics start at day 20, feel free to start there and catch the baby up on the beginning words when 6 year old is busyM)
A 6 year old who isn't reading needs a systematic approach to phonics training. And daily flash cards/ practice with sight words. Pick a program and follow through it starting right at the beginning. Yep revision is good. They need to have success each time you read as well as learn something new. As a home schooling mum of 6 I am sure you have the resources already but if not I am sure someone will reccommend a few for you to try. Let us know what you use now for the other kids.

[kmum]

We just have 4 girls, so we are not nearly as big, but the girls are all involved in sports, & other activities, so it still seems to take a lot of juggling at times.

I think the most important thing is to start slowly & add new activities gradually so you are not overwhelmed. If you jump in too quickly, it would be  easy to get overwhelmed & quit.

Some of the things that I would try to do to save time are to teach more than 1 child together when possible. Could your 6 yo read to the youngest? 

I also try to add activities to another so I don't forget to do them. For example, we used to do things like mouth stimulation, hand massages or reciting abc's at diaper changes. I still do Little Reader Little Math & Little Music around meal times. 

How good is your 6 yr olds memory?  Can he repeat 5 or 6 numbers back to you?  A child who does not have that long of a working memory may have trouble with phonics taught in the traditional way. It can be done but working on his memory will speed things up a lot. My dd with DS is 4 & is only at a 4 digit memory span, but is able to sound out words because she has learned so many sight words that she can intuit the rules of phonics. Once we realized that she was starting to sound out words, we started to  teach her word families by sight to help speed up the process.
 
I think the biggest thing that helped is fast flashing our flashcards. It is so fast that it takes literally less than a second per card. I am on my phone or I'd link it, but if you check my blog - the link is in my siggy, & look under the important posts heading for the fast flashing post.

If you have any more specific questions, please feel free to ask.

[McMom]

Thanks for the encouragement ladies.  Laura I actually have been on tour website a few times.  I am always in awe and feel challenged to do more but have failed to follow through doing more than the basics.  I will peruse through again and set up a plan.  Thanks!

[kmum]

I'm glad my blog has helped.     

I have an important posts headi g at the top which is where you will find many of the most helpful posts. Also, look in the right hand column under headings & I have the title "questions"  in one of the categories. These are questions from readers & may be helpful as well.

Setting up a plan is a great idea. Slowly incorporate more ideas as you go & if you have days, or even weeks where you don't accomplish much, don't worry, she is still learning lots from everyday life in a busy family. just get back at it again, & start smell again if it helps you get going again.

Have you looked into a neurodevelopmental program? If it is something you are able to do, I would suggest considering it.  I do find this makes it easier for me as it gives me a set list of activities.

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