Sticky Vowels

Vowels are the letters that hold words together. This is a fun craft to help solidify that idea in your child's mind.

First, find a glue clipart picture you like online (or draw your own).

Second, copy the picture and paste it into your word processing program. 

Third, resize it to the size you like and then copy it and paste it four more times.

Fourth, print this sheet out.

Fifth, you will want letters. You can write them, get stickers or die-cuts, etc. You could even put them on your glue bottles in your word processing program before you print.

For the activity, have your child color the glue bottles, cut them out, and stick the words on the glue bottles. Talk about the role vowels play in our words. Not only will you be increasing your child's understanding of letters in preparation for reading, but also practicing cutting, coloring, and pasting if gluing letters on the bottles. 

Rhyming Cards

Today is Dr. Seuss's birthday! In honor, I thought a rhyming game was appropriate. 

This is simple. You print off two pictures that rhyme. These cards have "duck/truck", "bee/tree", "goat/boat", "fish/dish", and "mouse/house."

You then have your child color the pictures, cut them out, mix the cards up, and match the words that rhyme. 

Simple and fun!

While this game is simple enough, it is not uncommon for children to have a difficulty with rhyming. Stress that words that rhyme sound the same at the end of the word, not the beginning. 

If you want more lots of Dr. Seuss activity ideas, check out Seussville.com games at: http://www.seussville.com/#/games

Reading Sight Words

Sight words are words you have to read by sight. You cannot sound these words out. As your child becomes more familiar with sight words, he will be able to 

So just how do you teach your child to read sight words?

First, start by reading to your child regularly--daily for at least 20 minutes. Do this no matter the age of your child (that means from young to old). 

Second, run your finger along the words as you read. As your child starts to become interested in reading, he/she will follow along and might just start to pick up on some commonly read words.

But you can't simply read. It does take more.

A common approach is flash cards or word lists. This is one method that has its place. Above, you can see the sight-word flash cards I made for Brayden. They are simply notecards with the words written on the back.

My favorite approach is the Bob Books Sight Words books. These are new. I did a review on these books on one of my other blogs. The great thing about these books is that the child is reading the words in context, and reading the new sight word over and over again. This means the child really gets to know that sight word well by the end of the book. It is read capitalized, lowercase, at the beginning of sentences, in the middle of sentences, at the end of sentences....it is more than memorizing a list. It is learning a word in the purpose it was intended--to read it. Bob Books sight words do include some words that can be sounded out. The Bob Books Sight Words set also comes with pre-made flash cards for extra practice. These flash cards have the word on one side and a sentence with the sight word in it along with a picture on the other side.

So there you have a few simple ways to teach sight words. Need help knowing what sight words are? Here are some lists:

Saxons Phonics Sight Words for Kindergarteners (15)

• My
• You
• Into
• From
• One
• Said
• Have
• Four
• Love
• What
• The
• To
• Of
• Do
• Was

Bob Books Sight Words for Kindergarteners (30)

• Ran
• Saw
• To
• Can
• Jump
• On
• A
• Fly
• Has
• Is
• Look
• Who
• As
• Had 
• Was
• In 
• Not
• Some
• Did
• Do 
• She
• Get 
• Go
• Off
• Over
• They
• Went
• Goes
• Down
• Home

Book Recommendation: The Read-Aloud Handbook

Are you ready for some gushing?

I don't know that I could really express how much I like The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease. In fact, the thought of trying to do so is so overwhelming to me I have a hard time trying to come up with words...writer's block!

First of all, this book was sent to me by a blog reader of my Chronicles blog. Now, publishers and publicists have sent me books to review before (I always let you know if a book was sent to me for review; but a book being sent to me would not slant my opinion at all). Readers have suggested I read books before. But never before has a reader had such a love for a book did she send me the book herself. I think that kind of gives you an idea how great this book is.

Second of all, I love books and I highly value reading to children. It is so important to me, one of the first posts I ever wrote on this my Chronicles of a Babywise Mom blog was on the value of reading. So a book about the importance and value of reading, full of references to various studies would of course be of great interest to me.

This is, without question, one of the best parenting books I have ever read. No doubt.

A very refreshing thing about this book is that Trelease is an actual writer, so the book is well-written. It is easy to read, and somehow Trelease manages to keep this informational book interesting enough that I kept coming back to it like it was a Dan Brown book. Okay, this might be in part to my extreme love for the subject, but I promise it is an easy and even interesting read.

This book is all about how to help children learn to love to read. Not how to teach them to read or how to teach them phonics...just how to teach them to love to read. Why love to read? I go through this in my much earlier post on the value of reading, but if you can read then there is no limit to what you can do. You never have to stop learning. Your knowledge and imagination can increase indefinitely. But in order to turn to books, you must love them.

Another importance on love of reading is that if you love to read, you will read. That will translate into becoming better at reading, and every subject in life requires reading.

So that is just a little bit of why. Trelease covers ages on when to do things, various strategies for teaching this love, some school topics, and technology vs. reading. And all of it is full of references and explanations of studies that back his recommendations.

And to top that off, he has a very large list of books he recommends for children in various ages along with a synopsis of many of them.

This isn't one of those books that you read and feel completely overwhelmed. It is very doable. And simple.

Every parent needs to read this book--and they need to do it as soon as they possibly can. Not only will it help you improve the lives of your children, it will inspire you to try to improve the lives of other children who do not have the support needed to learn to love to read.

I recommend this book with all of the energy I can muster. You will not regret this read!

I am cross-posting this with my Chronicles blog today. I will also be further reviewing this book on this blog and that one, depending on which blog it is more appropriate for.

Preventing (or minimizing) Summer Setback

What is "summer setback"? Simply put, summer setback is the lack of learning that happens to kids over summer break. A two year study found that all students had a slower gain of knowledge over the summer. The study also found that some students still have scores rise while others actually lower scores.

So how do you prevent the loss of skills?

As has been discussed on this blog, even we parents don't want to put all the gung-ho effort into learning activities that we do during a normal "school year." We are busy and we want a break. But taking a full break from learning activities can be detrimental to children.

There is good news.

I recently read The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease (which I absolutely love and 100% recommend...but more on that in another post). In it, he briefly discusses summer setback and ways to prevent it. Here are the factors that prevent/minimize summer setback (pages 87-89):

• Model: model reading. This means that you read when your kids can see you read.
• Offer reading space: provide space for reading.
• Variety: provide a variety of reading materials. Examples are magazines, newspapers, and books.
• Bookstore/Library: visit the bookstore and/or library. See Library Day!
• Vacation: a vacation or summer camp out of town provides new experiences. They meet new people and see new things. This increases background knowledge and teaches new vocabulary words.
• Educational programs: when you watch TV and videos (and even listen to the radio), watch educational and informational programs.
• Read to child: Read to the child daily. See Simple Summer Fun: Reading. See also literacy blog label for more posts.
• Encourage child to read: even if your child can't "read," he or she can sit and look at books or magazines.
• Field Trips: visit the fire stations, museums, the zoo, etc. See Simple Summer Fun: The Zoo and Simple Summer Fun: Museums

Do many of those look familiar to posts from the "simple summer" series, as well as other posts from the summer? I have linked related posts in each bullet.

Why write this post now, at the end of the summer? Several reasons. One is that I just read this book last week, so the subject wasn't at my forefront. Another is I know if I wait until next May, I will forget all about it. Another is I hope that you will read this now and somehow remember it next summer and turn to it. Finally, because I know I am kind of a little nervous about summer setback in my own child. I do remember being aware of summer setback in myself. But this is a simple list. It involves easy things to do, and many of them are on the Simple Summer list, so perhaps it can help ease our (or my) own worries a bit.

Developing Reading Skills: For Kindergartners

According to the National Institute for Literacy, these are skills that your child should develop while in Kindergarten. These will be things for you to watch for during your child's Kindergarten year. If you seem some areas lacking, spend time on it at home. If you are homeschooling, make sure you introduce opportunities for these skills to develop.

• The child listens carefully to books read aloud.
• The child knows the shapes and names of letters of the alphabet and writes many uppercase and lowercase letters on his own.
• The child knows that spoken words are made of separate sounds.
• The child recognizes and makes rhymes, can tell when words begin with the same sound, and can put together, or blend, spoken sounds.
• The child can sound out some letters.
• The child knows that the order of letters in a written word stands for the order of sounds in a spoken word.
• The child knows some common words, like a, the, I, and you on sight.
• The child knows how to hold a book and follows print from left to right and from top to bottom of a page when read to.
• The child asks and answers questions about stories and uses what she already knows to understand a story.
• The child knows the parts of a book and understands that authors write words and text and that illustrators create pictures.
• The child knows that in most books, the main message is in the print, not the pictures.
• The child predicts what will happen in stories.
• The child can retell or act out stories.
• The child knows the difference between made up fiction and real nonfiction books and the difference between stories and poems.
• The child uses what he knows about letters and sounds to write words.
• The child writes some letters and words as they are said to her and begins to spell some words correctly.
• The child writes his own first and last name and the first names of some family members and friends.
• The child plays with words and uses new words in her own speech.
• The child knows and uses words that are important for school work, like colors, shapes, and numbers.
• The child knows and uses words from daily life, like street names and names for community workers (teacher, mail carrier, etc.)

Something that strikes me is that many of these skills are accomplished by doing the things listed in the toddler and preschooler sections (posted previously). You can see how these simple skills you teach your child when she is young help her as she gets older.

Getting Ready To Read: 4 and 5 Year Olds

Now that your child is a preschooler, you can take these tips from the National Institute of Literacy for helping your preschooleer get ready to read.

• Help your child hear and say the first sound in words (Boat starts with "B")
• Help your child notice different words that also start wtih that sound (boat and book both start with B)
• Introduce your child to new words. Use new, interesting vocabulary. This means no baby talk and no "dumbing-down" your language for your child.
• Talk to your child about the alphabet
• Talk about the letters you see in books
• Point out signs and lables that have letters, like street signs and food signs in the grocery store
• Encourage your child to enjoy reading
• Allow your child to choose what book you read most of the time
• Let your child pretend to read parts of the book as you read together
• Talk about the stories you read and help make connections to things that happen in your own lives
• Ask "What," "When," "Where," and "How" questions as you read
• Help your child write notes or make books (like an alphabet book), even if his writing looks like nothing more than scribbles

This list is definitely more involved than the one for the 2 and 3 year olds. Even so, it is still very doable. This list is full of ideas for literacy activities during your learning time during the week.

Getting Ready To Read: 2 and 3 year olds

The National Institute for Literacy has a checklist for parents of 2 and 3 year olds for establishing literacy at home in the pamphlet Literacy Begins At Home. They say, "You are your child's first and most important teacher." Here is a checklist for you to help your 2 and 3 year olds get ready to read.

• Read with your child every day, even if it is only for a few minutes.
• Encourage your child to bring his favorite books to you so you can read together.
• Point to pictures and name them out loud.
• Encourage your child to point to pictures while you read
• Make eye contact with your child as you read aloud. This tells you she is paying attention.
• Talk with your child throughout the day about things you are doing and things that are happening around you.
• Be patient when your child wants to read that same book over and over (and over again).
• Encourage your child to lay with books. Let her pick them up, flip them form front to back, and turn the pages.
• Listen as your child pretends to read a book. Watch for him to hold the book, go from page to page, and say words. Not necessarily the right words, just words.
• Allow your child to use paper and crayons to scribble, make pictures, and pretend to write.

To me, this seems like a super simple list that is very achievable with the 2-3 year old children. It is nice to see a simple list!

Promoting Reading and Writing Readiness

Aaahhh. Reading. I love reading. I value reading so much. I truly believe that if you can read and comprehend what you read, you can accomplish anything. If you can read about it, you can learn about it.

The elementary school that my son will be attending this fall gave us parents a list of things to do to help promote reading and writing readiness in our children. Naturally, I will comment on each bullet :)

• Read aloud daily for at least 20 minutes. This is so simple to make happen. All you have to do is have reading stories part of your bedtime routine. This means you have to make sure you start getting ready for bed early enough to include this.
• Read expressively. Use different voices. Use and enjoy humor in the stories to engage your child. 
• Re-read that favorite story. This is a powerful tool for fostering vocabulary growth. It also gets your child familiar with books and print. Children love repetition! I know, I know. Sometimes it almost seems painful to read that book again. I have felt giddy on library day, knowing we would soon have new books to read at night. But the kids love it, and it is beneficial for them.
• Have your child retell a familiar story. There have been nights that I have had Brayden "read" the story that we were reading for the twentieth night in a row. Even though, as a three year old, he couldn't read, he got every, single word right. It was amazing. If your child isn't prone to verbatim story telling, that's okay. Have her tell the story in her own words.
• Encourage word play, rhyme recognition, sentence completion, and word and phrase repetition as you read. You can also do this as fun learning activities in the day. Word play can be confusing on the surface sometimes, so I will do a separate post all on word play. Rhyming is pretty straight forward. You can read books full of rhymes and you could also ask your child what rhymes with a key word in the story. For sentence completion, this is where reading that story over and over can come in handy. You can start a sentence and then stop and let your child fill it in. Word and phrase repetition can be done by you, but there are also a lot of books out there that repeat things in the story. Boyton books come to mind (Barnyard Dance), as well as Seuss books (Green Eggs and Ham).
• Discuss the story with your child as you read. Note illustrations and story elements, such as characters, settings, and sequence of events. This helps develop strong comprehension and critical thinking skills. There are typically pictures in a story that are not spoken in the words. Ask your child if he noticed. One that comes to my mind is My Truck Is Stuck. The words of the story are about a man (well, a dog, but a man) whose truck is stuck. Different people try to help him and in the end a tow truck arrives. The pictures show that a bunch of little dogs dug a hole in the road that got him stuck. Then then emptied every last bone from his truck while he tried to get unstuck.
• Use your finger to track the words you are reading. This reinforces the connection between the words you are saying and the print on the page. It will also show  your child that we read left to right and how to follow lines down a page.
• Continue reading to your child. Once your child starts to read on his own, he still needs to be read to each day.
• Use magazines and newspapers to cut out letters and pictures. Brayden did this often in preschool.
• Provide writing tools like large pencils, crayons, and markers. Your child won't learn to write unless he practices, and he can't practice without the necessary tools.
• Provide lined paper and blank paper. Again, your child needs tools to practice writing.
• Encourage drawing. Encourage your child to illustrate his thoughts and memories.
• Act as a scribe. Write sentences that your child dictates to you.
• Encourage your child to write and illustrate books.
• Encourage your child to write his first name. Now, this is very important, apparently. Have your child write his first letter capital with the following letters lowercase. The teachers said they spend at least half the school year teaching the children to write their names this way. It is so hard for them to get the children out of the habit of writing in all uppercase letters.

These are all simple, right? Now, don't get overwhelmed. I know there is a lot here. You don't have to do every single one of these things every single day. Some things, like reading, should be done every day. Many of these things can be done while you are reading the story. Start slowly. Start tracking the words as you read. Once you have that down, start adding some voices. Work through the list and add things to your days to help your child build his reading and writing skills.

Activities for Teaching Reading Skills

READING
I am always talking about reading and how important I think it is. To teach reading skills, you can do more than only read books each day (though I think that is a crucial part). Here are some ideas from the book On Becoming Preschool Wise:

• Puzzles: puzzles help your child "see how one part fits into the whole picture" (page 122). Puzzles for Preschoolers
• Sequencing Cards: these "help children develop a sense of the beginning, middle, and end of a story" (page 122). Sequencing Cards
• Alphabet: introduce the child to the alphabet. There is no shortage of activities available for this. Brayden and Kaitlyn have each had a favorite alphabet book that they wore out. Alphabet Books. Brayden's favorite was The Alphabet Book . There is no shortage of alphabet books out there. You can find them with a variety of items represented or specific to suite a special interest your child has. You can also get magnetic alphabet letters. One of our favorites is the Leap Frog Magnetic Alphabet. You can also do alphabet posters. And don't forget the letter of the day! Each week, you can focus on a different letter. Practice writing it, look for items around you that start with it, focus on the sound of it...make it a part of your day! Leap Frog also has an excellent line of movies that teach the alphabet, phonics, and reading:Leap Frog Letter and Word Movies. I recently wrote a post entirely on Teaching the Alphabet.

See also posts on this blog with ideas to enhance knowledge in:

• Knowing the alphabet and teaching letters
• Establishing literacy skills
• Great literature for children
• Ideas for reading

Teaching The Alphabet

When Kaitlyn (now three) was not much older than one year old, my husband was shocked on night to realize she could point to and tell you what each letter of the alphabet was. We had never made a concerted effort to teach her. As best as we can tell, it happened through her simply reading an alphabet book she loved at bed time each night.

Teaching the alphabet to your child is as simple as exposing your child to the alphabet. Here are some ideas for helping you expose your child.

• Alphabet Song: This is a simple one. Sing the alphabet. Over and over. And over again.
• Alphabet Books: Brayden and Kaitlyn have each had a favorite alphabet book that they wore out. Brayden's favorite was The Alphabet Book. There is no shortage of alphabet books out there. You can find them with a variety of items represented or specific to suite a special interest your child has. You child might have a favorite character like Elmo. Elmo has an ABC Book. Once you have the book, the next step is to read it, and read it often.
• Magnetic Letters: You can also get magnetic alphabet letters. There are the classic Magnetic Letters. One of our favorites is the non-traditional LeapFrog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Alphabet Set. 
• Alphabet Posters: You can also do alphabet posters. You can point to the letter as you say it.
• Letter of the Day: And don't forget the letter of the day! Each week, you can focus on a different letter. Practice writing it, look for items around you that start with it, focus on the sound of it...make it a part of your day! Adjust your focus on the skill level of your child.
• Shows: Leap Frog also has an excellent line of movies that teach the alphabet, phonics, and reading. LeapFrog - Letter Factory is the best one for starting out, but I love all of them. There are also two shows on PBS that I love for learning letters: Word World and Super Why!
• Various Activities: In addition to these basics, you can do all sorts of fun activities to learn the alphabet. We have several ideas for you on this blog under Alphabet.

Learning the alphabet is an important first step toward learning to read. It is probably one of the more simple subjects to teach to your children. Remember repetition, exposure, and fun!

Fall Books

In honor of the first day of Fall...

I thought it would be nice to have a list of books about Fall. I like to reserve books online at the library and just go in and pick them up. That way I don't have to spend as much time digging for books about specific topics! Included are books about apples and pumpkins.

These titles will be updated periodically, as we come across more great resources!

A Tree Can Be by Judy Nayer
We're Going on a Leaf Hunt by Steven Metzger
**When Autumn Comes by Robert Maas (uses photographs)
**The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons
One Little, Two Little, Three Little Apples by Matt Ringler
**Up, Up, Up! It's Apple-Picking Time! by Jody Fickes Shapiro
**Apples, Apples, Apples by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace
Sixteen Runaway Pumpkins by Dianne Ochiltree
**Changes by Margorie Allen and Shelley Rotner (uses photographs)
**Picking Apples and Pumpkins by Amy and Richard Hutchings (Uses photographs)
Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss

** These books have a good amount of educational information included in the story.

ABC Relay

Once you've started working on the alphabet with your toddler or preschooler, it's always nice to find fun ways to reinforce what has been learned. And if your toddler is like mine, burning energy is always a plus!

Ages: 1+ (I started at 18 months)

Supplies needed: Alphabet cards (like flash cards). I put magnets on the back of mine. Small basket or bucket. Even a bowl will work.

Prep Work: Hang random alphabet letters at one end of the room. I stuck mine to the fireplace since they would stick with magnets. Two will do if you are just starting. My daughter is 2 and knows her alphabet, so we do 5-8 at a time. Any more than that seems to be visual clutter for her. As she gets older she should be able to handle more letters at one time.

Activity:
1. After your letters are in place, start your child at the other side of the room. Explain that you will call out a letter and their job is to go and find the letter, grab it, run back to the "start" position and throw it in the basket.
2. Demonstrate for them.
3. You place them at the place to "start" (mine was a chair), say something like, "You are looking for the letter Y. Look for the letter Y, but don't move. When I say go, you run and get it. Ready, set, GO!"
4. They run and get it, cheer for them, repeat the letter again and again, and remind them of the goal while they are running. ("Look for the Y! Do you see it? Find the Y! Grab it! Good job! Put it in the basket!)

Variety:
*You can do this with numbers, shapes, colors. You can also make it more difficult by trying sounds with older children instead of the name. (Find the letter that makes the ssss sound.) Or look for the letter that is at the beginning of the word "dog."

*Another way is to incorporate a new movement. Dance to the D. Jump to the J. Skip to the S. Crawl to the C. Twirl to the T.

Find The Letter

This is a fun activity to help learn letters. Valerie has done it with her four year old and he really loved it. It adds fun to the "quizzing" of letters. This is meant for the 3-5 year old, but if you have a child younger than that who knows letters, go for it.

SUPPLIES

• Paper
• Scissors
• Pen or Marker
• Three cups

PREPPING

1. Cut out circles of paper that will be small enough to hide under your cup. I have a circle punch I use for scrapbooking, which made this very easy to make. If you don't have a punch, you could trace circles onto paper. You could also just make squares small enough to fit under your cup.
2. Write different letters on each piece of paper. I wrote the uppercase letter on one side of the circle and lowercase on the other side of the circle. If you don't like your handwriting, you could use alphabet stickers.

ACTIVITY

1. Set out three cups on the table.
2. Place a letter under one of the cups.
3. Have your child guess which cup the paper is under.
4. Have your child identify which letter it is once he finds it.
5. Take turns hiding the letters. My son's favorite is hiding the letters for me to find.

PHOTO
Here is a photo of the letters I made. I have shown both upper case and lower case letters:

CREDIT
I got this idea from the Preschooler's Busy Book by Trish Kuffner, page 118. For more about this book, see Book Review: The Preschooler's Busy Book .

Literature/Literacy Links

Here is a list of links to teach literature and reading skills. This includes things as small and simple as teaching the alphabet:

• Alphabet Soup
• Ed Helper
• Enchanted Learning
• First School Preschool Activities
• Handwriting for Kids
• PBS Parents Reading and Language
• Read 'Em and Leap
• Starfall