Happy New Year!
I haven't posted in a long while, primarily because I have been too busy with my day job, and also because Shane is doing a coop program this semestre, working with dogs at a dog day care. He is having a wonderful time at this job, and it has really opened our eyes to some potential careers.
Pets are a very good way to engage your child/young adult with Autism or Asperger's. Dogs especially, give unconditional love, can be trained, and are good for developing responsibility. I've heard that horses and horse-back riding is also therapeutic.
Give something new a try in 2012! (But remember to plan it out and have a Plan B in case it doesn't work out.)
Lisa
December 31, 2011
June 11, 2011
Math - annual and hourly salaries calculations
Gearing up for final exams now. A bit of revision from the beginning of the semester will include BEDMAS, some basic adding and multiplication, then job pay types. Here are some new worksheets on "getting paid". They describe the various types of pay and the pros and cons of each, then how to calculate annual salaries and hourly pay rates.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
June 5, 2011
Math - recipe conversions and costs
Shane is currently doing an assignment in math that calls on the students to find recipes and convert them for a catering event, then research costs online, figure out the total cost, decide how much to charge per customer, and make a flyer to advertise for it. It's a huge assignment, and we've been practicing at home for a few weeks now, but the work has to be done in class.
Not a lot of structure was given, so, being the template queen that I am, I have developed a table to guide Shane through the conversion process and the costing of the ingredients. Here's a blank template, and an example for an egg salad sandwich. I thought it was pretty simple myself until I ran into a few details snags, then I realized how tricky this can be. For example, you only need 1/2 teaspoon of dill, but it is sold in bags by the gram! How many grams are in a teaspoon? Shane and I googled the question and volume to weight conversions depend entirely on what you are measuring. Shane's teacher said he could ask for help, and he would give him an estimate. Still - not so easy! I have a master's degree in statistics, and I was a little stumped for a while. My empathy is with these kids. I hope these templates that I post do provide some help.
Lisa
Not a lot of structure was given, so, being the template queen that I am, I have developed a table to guide Shane through the conversion process and the costing of the ingredients. Here's a blank template, and an example for an egg salad sandwich. I thought it was pretty simple myself until I ran into a few details snags, then I realized how tricky this can be. For example, you only need 1/2 teaspoon of dill, but it is sold in bags by the gram! How many grams are in a teaspoon? Shane and I googled the question and volume to weight conversions depend entirely on what you are measuring. Shane's teacher said he could ask for help, and he would give him an estimate. Still - not so easy! I have a master's degree in statistics, and I was a little stumped for a while. My empathy is with these kids. I hope these templates that I post do provide some help.
Lisa
May 23, 2011
Math review - BEDMAS
It's been a while since I've posted, and unfortunately I don't have any new worksheets. So, here's a review of BEDMAS, while I continue to work on some new materials.
Shane's grade 11 math for life essentials class is learning about catering a meal for several people. He is researching the recipes, multiplying out using ratios, and coming up with total costs and what to charge for his catering. To help with this, we are downloading recipes from the internet and multiplying them out. For example if a recipe makes enough for 4 servings, we multiply each ingredient by 15 to make enough for 60 people. You can try the same thing.
Anyway, here are the BEDMAS or PEMDAS worksheets for review.
Lisa
Shane's grade 11 math for life essentials class is learning about catering a meal for several people. He is researching the recipes, multiplying out using ratios, and coming up with total costs and what to charge for his catering. To help with this, we are downloading recipes from the internet and multiplying them out. For example if a recipe makes enough for 4 servings, we multiply each ingredient by 15 to make enough for 60 people. You can try the same thing.
Anyway, here are the BEDMAS or PEMDAS worksheets for review.
Lisa
April 24, 2011
Math for Everyday Life 11 - Managing Money
Shane has now completed the English Literacy test, and we need to start to buckle down on some of the other subjects, like math. The text he's using is Mathematics for Everyday Life 11 by Irwin Publishing. It's a pretty good book, but I'd like to see more examples. So, as usual, I am making my own. From chapter 2, here are some worksheets on managing money.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
February 20, 2011
Math Worksheet - Calculating Tax
Now that we've got some basics of math covered off - rounding and order of operations - we can start to build on those with some real life scenarios.
Calculating the tax is something we all should know how to do. Often it is done for us (buying groceries, eating out, etc), but it is always good to know how to calculate it to help us plan ahead. We recently to a friend of Holly's skiing for the day. We have season's passes, but her friend had to buy a ski pass for the day. We googled how much the day pass would be, but taxes were not included in the cost. Should we bring only the $30 for the day pass? Should we bring $35? Would that be enough? Doing some quick math, using a 15% tax rate as an estimate, we estimated ($30 times 10%) + ($30 times 5%) is $3 + $1.50 = $4.50. So, $35 was just enough.
Here are some worksheets, with answers, on calculating taxes.
Calculating the tax is something we all should know how to do. Often it is done for us (buying groceries, eating out, etc), but it is always good to know how to calculate it to help us plan ahead. We recently to a friend of Holly's skiing for the day. We have season's passes, but her friend had to buy a ski pass for the day. We googled how much the day pass would be, but taxes were not included in the cost. Should we bring only the $30 for the day pass? Should we bring $35? Would that be enough? Doing some quick math, using a 15% tax rate as an estimate, we estimated ($30 times 10%) + ($30 times 5%) is $3 + $1.50 = $4.50. So, $35 was just enough.
Here are some worksheets, with answers, on calculating taxes.
February 13, 2011
Free Math Worksheet - Rounding
We've started the new semester, and Shane has math now. I've covered off the some of the basics in past postings - Order of Operations, or BEDMAS / PEMDAS, is one of the fundamentals. I work in a business environment, and I use this principal every single day, to make basic calculations. To view this post, please view my archive from Oct 31, 2010. There are also some youtube videos that are useful - just search for BEDMAS.
Another basic in math is ROUNDING. This is a critical step for many everyday uses. I'll just cut to the chase and post the worksheets. All the principals of rounding are explained in the worksheets.
Enjoy!
Another basic in math is ROUNDING. This is a critical step for many everyday uses. I'll just cut to the chase and post the worksheets. All the principals of rounding are explained in the worksheets.
Enjoy!
February 6, 2011
A New Semester
We started the new semester last Thursday, and we are once again easing into the homework routine. Most of the course outlines have come home, with the usual stuff in them.
Shane is taking a warm-up course to the full term co-op that he will be doing next year in grade 12. This is a really good idea - it's a full credit course that introduces the students to the world of working. They will each complete 2 one-week work co-ops, the first in April (after quite a bit of classroom prep) and then re-grouping back in the classroom, then the second session in May. We've been asked to think of work places that would be appropriate. I am very much looking forward to the feedback we will see from this course!
His other courses are math, science of the environment, and cooking. I'm guessing he will enjoy the cooking course the most. He already cooks at home once a week for the family, and he's getting pretty good at it. This week will be steak. Yum!
Tip of the week:
Introduce your child to as many life-skills as you can at home, in a very safe environment, with all the time he needs to learn. Shane has been cooking for 2 years now. In the beginning with tons of guidance. Now, he can plan a meal independently, follow recipes, and cook really well. His confidence is really strong now.
Cheers
Lisa
Shane is taking a warm-up course to the full term co-op that he will be doing next year in grade 12. This is a really good idea - it's a full credit course that introduces the students to the world of working. They will each complete 2 one-week work co-ops, the first in April (after quite a bit of classroom prep) and then re-grouping back in the classroom, then the second session in May. We've been asked to think of work places that would be appropriate. I am very much looking forward to the feedback we will see from this course!
His other courses are math, science of the environment, and cooking. I'm guessing he will enjoy the cooking course the most. He already cooks at home once a week for the family, and he's getting pretty good at it. This week will be steak. Yum!
Tip of the week:
Introduce your child to as many life-skills as you can at home, in a very safe environment, with all the time he needs to learn. Shane has been cooking for 2 years now. In the beginning with tons of guidance. Now, he can plan a meal independently, follow recipes, and cook really well. His confidence is really strong now.
Cheers
Lisa
January 31, 2011
English Worksheet - Letter of Complaint
We've finished all the final exams for this semester. Shane's teacher very kindly marked his exam and told him he passed the course! Thanks to all of Shane's hard work throughout the semester, and the help of his tutor, Ann, and his grandmother who works with him also.
The final exam in English seems to have been a single application question on (my un-favourite novel) Iqbal. They were asked to write a letter complaining about the poor working conditions in Pakistan. This would show the students' knowledge of the material in the book, since it focused on illegal child labour in Pakistan, as well as their ability to follow the format of a business letter.
Here are some examples and practice topics for letters of complaint. Keep up your hard work, and it will pay off - it has for us!
Lisa
The final exam in English seems to have been a single application question on (my un-favourite novel) Iqbal. They were asked to write a letter complaining about the poor working conditions in Pakistan. This would show the students' knowledge of the material in the book, since it focused on illegal child labour in Pakistan, as well as their ability to follow the format of a business letter.
Here are some examples and practice topics for letters of complaint. Keep up your hard work, and it will pay off - it has for us!
January 21, 2011
Exam Time
We are busy crunching for exams next week. English is the most challenging, so we'll be spending most of the weekend practicing writing paragraphs and news articles, reviewing Iqbal, and answering comprehension questions to short essays.
I have not prepared very much myself for this, so we'll be using the various resources we have. I continue to cut out newspaper articles, especially from the local paper. The articles tend to be short, relevant to the community, and typical of the type of news articles he will see on the exam.
Over the next months, I plan on designing some practice reading comprehension worksheets, leading up to the English Literacy Test on March 29th (in Ontario).
All the best for you and your Aspie child!
Lisa
I have not prepared very much myself for this, so we'll be using the various resources we have. I continue to cut out newspaper articles, especially from the local paper. The articles tend to be short, relevant to the community, and typical of the type of news articles he will see on the exam.
Over the next months, I plan on designing some practice reading comprehension worksheets, leading up to the English Literacy Test on March 29th (in Ontario).
All the best for you and your Aspie child!
Lisa
January 9, 2011
English comprehension - topic vs main idea
While Shane's class is now concentrating on writing paragraphs - they have written one opinion paragraph every day since returning to school from the holidays - I am trying to continue to build his comprehension levels. He reads every day for an hour, listening to an unabridged audio CD and following along with the book. Shane's interest is horse racing, so he reads and listens to Dick Francis books and CDs from the library. The following along part is crucial, so he can see what the words look like, but he gets the comprehension from listening to the story. Over time, he will be reading on his own for pleasure, without the CDs.
One of the biggest challenges for Aspies (and for many kids) is understanding the difference between the topic and the main idea. If you ask your child to read a piece and then ask what is the main idea, often he will tell you the topic, or the title of the article. You need to tell him this the topic, and probe more the main idea. To determine the main idea, ask "what does the author want the reader to know or understand?". It helps to read the first and the last paragraph (very often the last paragraph re-states the main idea in the conclusion). The distinction between topic and main idea are important as this forms the basis of the article. We read something because we are interested in the topic, but mainly to understand the message that the author is trying to convey.
I try to use current stories that are relatively short to help with this, so I will cut articles out of the paper or print them off from the website and read them with Shane. After reading the article, I ask him, "what is the main idea of this article?". Then, it's just a discussion, no writing (since that adds too much complexity at this level). Whenever I see an article of interest, I print it off. It could be anything from sports to dogs to horses to construction to teenagers in schools. News articles also help him with current events in the real world.
Here's a link to an article in the Globe and Mail from October 15 2010, about stem-cell therapy for pets (that is the topic). The main idea is that while stem-cell therapy for pets is now available in Canada, there is no scientific evidence that it works, so the author wants to make the reader aware of this.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/science/stem-cell-therapy-for-pets-now-offered-and-disputed-in-canada/article1760087/
Enjoy!
Lisa
One of the biggest challenges for Aspies (and for many kids) is understanding the difference between the topic and the main idea. If you ask your child to read a piece and then ask what is the main idea, often he will tell you the topic, or the title of the article. You need to tell him this the topic, and probe more the main idea. To determine the main idea, ask "what does the author want the reader to know or understand?". It helps to read the first and the last paragraph (very often the last paragraph re-states the main idea in the conclusion). The distinction between topic and main idea are important as this forms the basis of the article. We read something because we are interested in the topic, but mainly to understand the message that the author is trying to convey.
I try to use current stories that are relatively short to help with this, so I will cut articles out of the paper or print them off from the website and read them with Shane. After reading the article, I ask him, "what is the main idea of this article?". Then, it's just a discussion, no writing (since that adds too much complexity at this level). Whenever I see an article of interest, I print it off. It could be anything from sports to dogs to horses to construction to teenagers in schools. News articles also help him with current events in the real world.
Here's a link to an article in the Globe and Mail from October 15 2010, about stem-cell therapy for pets (that is the topic). The main idea is that while stem-cell therapy for pets is now available in Canada, there is no scientific evidence that it works, so the author wants to make the reader aware of this.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/science/stem-cell-therapy-for-pets-now-offered-and-disputed-in-canada/article1760087/
Enjoy!
Lisa
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