How do I teach my child with special needs to read when there are not enough hours in the day?

I am a single mom of two children with special needs with a chaotic full-time job as a police officer. My children routinely have so many doctor appointments or therapies that they frequently miss school. Then there is class work to be made up from their absence and homework to be completed. Both of my children also have epilepsy and are overly tired at the end of the day due to their medication. How do I find time to teach my children with special needs to read when there simply aren't enough hours in the day? I have really learned it's not easy, but I have learned to make the most of each day through creative time management and use life around them as a lesson.

If you really analyze your day, I have found I have a lot of time - it just wasn't the ideal quiet setting at a table for instruction. It was filled with driving my kids to the doctor, grocery shopping, yard work, cooking dinner, washing dishes, showering kids, etc. I had to learn to multi-task. So I simply turned my chaotic life schedule into fun life lessons. Reading is all about learning letters have sounds, words have meaning, objects have names, etc. After a long day at school and homework, I knew to get my children's attention I had to make learning fun.

READING MADE FUN

So I got them some computer games that had reading lessons. In today's computer age children spend hours playing games on the computer. There are several software games that are geared toward teaching readers at all levels. My children take turns learning how to navigate the computer and completing the animated reading lessons while I cook dinner. Next, I came up with several word games that could literally be played while driving down the road or sitting at the doctor's and I didn't need anything else to play.

WORD GAMES

WORD BINGO: Since my son is just learning to read, he would be given a mixture of age appropriate sight words and symbols (such as the golden arch's for McDonald's) to look for. To teach letter recognition you could challenge them to find any word beginning with a particular letter. My daughter who can read short common words, but needed to expand her vocabulary was asked to look for other words such as supply, hospital, landscaping, etc. We would discuss what each word meant to teach new vocabulary, how it was spelled and where she might find the word.

NAME GAME: Each player takes a turn and has to label an object they see. Driving down the road the players might start by listing "tree, building, car, sky". However, then begin pointing out that each item listed can be broken down and given other names. For example for a car (roof, door, windshield, steering wheel, tire, hubcap, trunk, mirror, turn signal, bumper, etc.). Each time they play they will remember and learn new vocabulary.

WORD OF THE DAY: Instead of trying to find sporadic time to sit down and go over the sight words with my son, I focused my efforts on (1) word for the day. Each morning I post a new word on the refrigerator for him to learn for the day. You can make up an incentive or reward system for your child for being able to use the word correctly in a sentence, spelling the word, spotting the word on signs or in books, but it has to be the word for the day. At the end of the day the word written on a 3x5 index card goes into a word bank box I have created for him to periodically review.

STARTS WITH: Pick a letter of the alphabet. Then take turns listing a word that begins with the chosen letter. For example: "A" - apple, aardvark, ape, angle, add, and, always, adore, atom, antenna, antelope, anniversary, ant, etc. This will challenge their vocabulary and allow you to introduce new words when you take a turn and provide a brief definition.

PICK A CATEGORY: Take turns picking a category. Then take turns or have another player list as many items that fall into the category. For example the category could be opposites (hot/cold, up/down, short/tall) or body parts (ear, face, nails, elbow, heart) or rhyming words (bake, cake, rake). Other examples of categories: Occupations, animals, ice cream flavors, objects at school, etc.

TELL A STORY: The story teller gets to create their story by picking who the story will be about, what the character is doing, and where the story takes place. For example: Who (a penguin), what (ice-skating) and where (North Pole). Reading isn't just about visually recognizing and being able to pronounce words. It is also about being able to create a mental picture of what the story is about to assist in comprehension.

ROUND ROBIN STORY: One person starts the story by telling a couple sentences. We always start our stories "Once upon a time.". I have found it helps lead them into the story. Then the next person adds a couple sentences. You can keep changing turns as many times as you want before bringing the story to an end.

You can put the names of the games on a card and have your child pick the game by drawing a card.