Help Your Child Become A Phonics Reading Pro

Picture Dictionaries

 

 

In the past we’ve discussed how to help anchor your child’s recognition of the alphabet by using wall cards. These can be purchased at any office supply store in the education section, as well as in teachers supply stores. We’ve also talked about the ‘write way to reading’, meaning the art of helping your child learn reading skills through writing words, sentences, and just letters by themselves. Now it’s time to combine these two techniques!

 

Picture dictionaries are a great way to use pictures and letters together to build your child’s reading skills. Your child can create a picture dictionary by using handy printable alphabet pages with accompanying pictures that they can color which you can find on many websites such as http://www.enchantedlearning.com/categories/preschool.shtml or in alphabet workbooks that can be ordered through just about any education resource company.

 

So do some online sleuthing and find a great set of printable picture dictionary sheets for your child today! Happy hunting J

Word Searches Rock!

 

I don’t know about you guys, but one of my favorite word games growing up was word searches. You know, the letter puzzles that are arranged in a grid that look like gibberish but have hidden words inside? Talk about developing deciphering skills! Once kids discover how to find words out of a jumble of seemingly nonsensical letters, they’ll love the challenge this game can bring.

 

It’s easy to find word searches in stores, like in the handy booklets kids can carry with them on road trips. Or if your kids are more computer savvy, there are plenty on websites that have free word searches for their use like http://www.eastoftheweb.com/games/ that features word searches that your child can customize to their liking.

 

Usually word searches will help build a child’s confidence to try bigger challenges like crossword puzzles—another old classic that every child should experience!

 

An Old Classic: Hangman!

Remember playing hangman with friends on lazy summer days as a child? I bet you didn’t realize you where helping your reading skills by doing so! Hangman can be a very helpful game because it engages foresight and memory of word and sentence structure. It may not be the most popular after school game anymore, but it’s definitely worth it to introduce this old classic to your kids. Start out with one-word puzzles and eventually build up to sentence-long puzzles. A cute idea is to pack a hangman puzzle inside their lunch box once a week and have them figure it out during their lunch break. Be sure to add a few clues for them. When they get home, you can have fun checking if they guessed correctlyJ

 

The rules of hangman are:

 

1)      Draw empty spaces that represent letters in a word, so that each letter had its own line to be written on.

2)      Ask your child to guess a letter that may be in the puzzle. If letter they guess is in the puzzle write it in the space(s) it belongs.

3)      Draw a box under the spaces you’ve drawn for the words in the puzzle. This box is where you write any letters that aren’t in the puzzle so you’re child won’t guess incorrectly numerous times.

4)      Every time they guess incorrectly you draw a part of the hangman’s body on the noose (i.e. head, body, two, arms, and finally two legs.). So in other words, they have 8 incorrect guesses before the hangman is complete and they’re out of guesses.

5)      When they guess the word or sentence correctly, they’ve won and then it’s their turn to make up a puzzle for youJ

 

Enjoy!    

Homeschooling and You-- Part 2

The argument against homeschooling usually lies in the belief that children will lack social skills as a result of not being around children their age consistently or that they can’t receive as good of an education with parents being their teachers instead of trained educators. I can understand the idea that children can end up lacking social skills by only interacting with adults (namely their parents), but one thing to consider is all the options parents have to still immerse their children in social activities while educating them at home. Extra curricular activities are practical options for getting children involved in activities with other kids all while learning valuable skills. Think: sports, the arts, 4H, church youth groups, etc. Most public schools are open to allowing homeschoolers to take certain classes through their curriculum as well, so when those driver’s education days roll around you don’t have to have that scary job :)  Your kids could also attend prom in most cases depending on the school district’s rules.

 

As far as parents not being adequate educators, I can understand that train of thought as well. After all, how can someone who hasn’t been trained to educate children know how to make lesson plans and keep their children up to date with learning standards for their age range? 20 or 30 years ago I wouldn’t be shocked if certain children who were homeschooled didn’t have consistent learning goals and ended up with a sub-par education. The good news is in today’s world there are so many support groups and teacher’s associations out there that parents have no excuse not to find all the tools they need to give their children a stellar at home education. For that matter in many states it’s now necessary for parents to take training courses on how to teach effectively and/or have a full fledged teacher’s license or they are not allowed to be home educators for their children. Thankfully with the resources the internet provides it is possible to learn how to be a great teacher for your children whether you are their after school tutor or their main educator.

 

So now that you’ve heard the arguments, where does your opinion lie?

Homeschooling and you

If you want a hot topic for discussion you should bring up homeschooling in America. For most people the issue is black and white: A) Homeschooling is highly beneficial for most children because parents can adjust the speed at which their child’s curriculum progresses (i.e. if their child is in 2^nd grade but has a 7^th grade reading level, they can give them lessons to support that and not have to hold them at a certain speed because of lesson plans)  or B) Homeschooling is detrimental to children because they’ll develop a lack of social skills and won’t get as good of an education through parents rather than trained educators. Let’s talk about argument A for this blog post…

Homeschooling has been a viable option for education in America for a long time. Many people decided to homeschool their children in the past based on religious reasons, but now homeschooling is becoming more and more about improving the quality of education children will receive, safety, and convenience.  Public schools have been struggling for a while in terms of being able to serve large numbers of children on various learning levels who learn differently from one another. Some kids excel in the social environment and are able to keep on pace with lesson plans and learning in a mainly auditory based system. Other children slip through the cracks because either they are bored to tears and aren’t challenged academically or they become victims socially through many forms of bullying. Safety in schools is another issue parents are leery about. The rise of school shootings and drug sales amongst students is enough to help parents consider how much safer it would be to have their child at home rather than in an area that may turn out to be a ticking time bomb. Also, the convenience of homeschooling plays a major factor in its popularity. Families that move around a lot (such as military families) can save their children a lot of strife by homeschooling them. In addition, certain families that own home-based businesses may feel their children would benefit from going to school at home, while also learning the family trade at the same time.

“According to a report by the U.S. Department of Education, about one and a half million students were homeschooled in 2007, an increase of about a half million students from four years ago.” (http://news10now.com/content/all_news/473821/homeschooling-on-the-rise/) . Huh, definitely something to think about, right?

Sight Words Revisited

Sight words are something we covered in an earlier post, but something we should revisit. We established that sight words (aka Dolch words) are words that have to be taught to be recognized by sight and can’t be phonetically sounded out. Because sight words don’t fit the rules of phonics, they must be taught by rote memory through a variety of methods such as games, flash cards, and practice through reading books. There is discussion, however, as to which words should be considered sight words and which words can actually be phonetically sounded out. The Dolch word list outlines 220 words that should be memorized by children for speedier reading skills. Some of these words, some argue, can be ‘sounded-out’ though and should not be considered sight words by definition.

Some of the words up for debate include:

AND

IT

IN

IS

Others say the definition of a sight word has nothing to do with whether they can be sounded out; rather it has to do with the frequency they are seen in written works or their “commonality”.

Where does your opinion lie with the sight word debate?

Story Writing 101

 

Once your child has a firm grasp of what makes up a story- introduction, main theme/story, and ending- have them begin to write short stories of their own. When you’ve taught them the word drop game that I discussed in a recent post, they’re going to learn how to write a proper sentence. The only thing you have left to introduce to them to is how to group together sentences to make a story. This begins early when you read them their bedtime stories! It doesn’t take long for kids to recognize the sequence of characters being introduced, the characters having some adventure or solving a problem, and the resolution and end of the story.

 

Encourage your child to draw a picture and then tell you a story about it. Once they’ve done this, you can suggest that they write the story down. Give them lots of help the first few times they do this exercise and then let them fly free! :)  Be sure to provide them with large pieces of paper that have a space on the top for their drawing and then pre-printed lines for them to write their story on. You can find sheets like this at any teachers supply stores or anywhere office supplies are sold.

Tip of the day: The Power of the Spoken Word

 

 

The more ways you introduce your child to language, the better they will be able to grasp an understanding of the spoken and written word and how language works as a whole. This is why from birth it is so important to talk to your child, ask them questions, answer their questions and really develop their speaking skills in the process. I know it’s easy to get bogged down with day to day responsibilities, but remember that your child is a sponge wanting to soak up all the information around them. Don’t let the TV become a replacement for real interaction.

 

Here are some things all parents should do with their kids to immerse them in language early on and subsequently help them academically before they even make it to preschool:

 

Read books and encourage them asking questions and predicting the course of the story, sing songs, teach them rhymes, play interactive games like “I spy” and “Memory”, start to teach them letters and sounds, point out signs when your out driving to introduce word association, and so on…

 

Any other suggestions out there? Please drop a line in the comments!

 

Name Writing!

Now, you guys are probably wondering right now when is the best time to teach your child how to write their name... Most names are not phonetic, but that doesn’t mean you need to wait later in your child’s reading development to teach them how to spell and write their name. In fact, you should do this early on as a confidence booster and a great introduction into proper writing skills. There are many resources you can find on the web or in teacher’s supply stores that contain writing hand-outs where you can copy letter worksheets and have your child practice them to learn and/or reinforce their skills. Just make sure that the style of writing you teach your children is the same as what they are learning in school. Most schools teach denelian style letters, but be sure to check with your child’s teacher first.

 

Have them complete the entire alphabet over time and don’t be afraid to have them do it over and over again in order for them to learn really learn how to properly write letters. In today’s world with computers and text messaging dominating the written word, good handwriting is becoming a thing of the past. So while it’s important that your child have good computer skills, it’s also important that you give them a solid foundation for their handwriting skills. So make it easy and start with name writing! Once they learn how to write their name on their own you can have them write it on the cover of all their phonics books that they compile their word lists intoJ Before you know it, they’ll want to write their name at every given opportunity!

For your little reading star!

Back when I discussed positive reinforcement I was trying to make a point that a positive attitude and words of encouragement can go a long way in giving your child confidence. This confidence, of course, is going to go beyond their reading skills and help them become confident individuals as a whole. This might seem old fashioned, but something that teachers used to do back in the day should be carried on as a motivational tool and form of positive reinforcement: putting gold stars on their work!

Kids love stickers in general, but a star is representative of achievement. They are reaching for the stars in the academic world! Please reward them for all their hard work! The perfect time to do this is after they’ve written their ‘books’ of phonograms (short vowel words and long vowel words for example). When you make the cover, add a shiny star to show them how proud you are of their hard work J Try to stick with stars or ‘words of encouragement’ stickers ( ex: “Awesome!” “Great Job!”) and stay away from cartoon characters and other images that might distract them from the book itself.