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

Dates!

Dates aren't just for grown-ups...

One thing I've learned (and relearned) is never to underestimate one on one special time with your little one, especially if there is more than one! Sometimes it's the random "cure" for off behavior, a much needed break for both of you away from the day to day to-do list, and most times...it's just plain fun.

I especially need this time with my girls when the holidays start. Between shopping, parties, dressing up, family visits and visiting, pictures, and trying to do the not-so-fun year 'round stuff (cleaning, cooking, etc)...we can forget or put off time just to talk and enjoy time with our kids.

I've learned some really neat things about my girls when it's been just the two of us. It also has opened the door for some deep conversations, and given my oldest the opportunity to share her heart more freely. I've never once regretted the few hours on our "dates."

It's also really important for Dads to take part in this too. There's nothing like daddy time, and please never make the mistake of underestimating it's importance. My husband recently took our 3 year old to a local lotus park/pond for a tea party. To her delight, she was allowed to dress in her Cinderella dress, get all "fancy", and they had a sweet time, just the two of them. She served him "tea" and even cut up his muffin for him. It was a great time for both of them and she almost walked on air for the rest of the day.

So think about what you can do that your child would enjoy, away from the normal routine, just the two of you or your child and husband. What can you do to make it happen? Write in on your calendar, plan it in advance, or life will tend to get in the way.

And trust me...next month you won't remember how clean your floor was or how many loads of laundry you did that week. And neither will your family. But you'll ALL remember and be really changed when you take time to simply enjoy each other, especially around this busy time of the year.

Thankful Basket

This is an activity we did last year, and we will be repeating it this year. It is quite a simple way to help teach your children (and remind yourself!) about being thankful for what you have.

November is a logical time of year to do this activity since it is Thanksgiving, but there is never a wrong time to focus on gratitude.

PREPARATION

• Get a basket or some other container
• Cut up small pieces of paper

ACTIVITY

We did this for one of our Family Home Evening Lessons. You could do it as a lesson with the family, or simply start it with your family one day.


The way this works is each night (or each morning if that works best), each person in the family says something they are thankful for.


You then write on a piece of paper the item and put it in the basket.


At Thanksgiving, you can look and see the many things your family has to be grateful for. 

Whenever you first start an activity like this, it can be hard to think of something new after the standard answers have been used up. But you soon find that it is hard to stop thinking of the blessings you have once you start to focus on them.

Turkey Round-Up

Here are our Turkey ideas from last year:

Involving Young Children on Thanksgiving Day

Turkey Handprint Place Cards

Handprint Turkey

Turkey Apple

Feather Turkey

No-Bake Turkey Cookies

Successful Learning Tip: Read To Your Child

Can I push reading any more? I probably could :).

A very important tip for successful learning is to read to your child. Reading is so important because all learning requires reading. Every subject involves reading. I have gone over more in this in this post. I wanted to make sure that as you look over ideas for making learning time successful, reading came on your radar.

Not only do you want to read, but you want to share with your child your own enjoyment of reading. Tell him about the books you liked when you were little. Causally talk about what you like about reading.

Surround your child with good books. Keep them age appropriate. You can check with your local library for ideas or google "reading lists." When I say "surround your child" with books, don't think that means you need to go broke buying him books. Libraries are wonderful resources.

Also, give books as gifts. I always make sure that I give at least one book to each child at Christmas time. I also give a book to each child at Easter. Giving books to children shows them that you value books.

For a great book on teaching your children to love reading, see this post.

Blast from the Past: Pumpkin Faces

Last year, Raegan came up with this idea to make pumpkin faces. I did this activity at playgroup this last week with several 3 year olds and a 4 year old. It was a hit! Here are two of the finished products. 

I love this activity because it is a fun, simple craft. It is something you can use to decorate and it looks cute no matter how the pieces go on. You can also talk about colors and shapes, and it works on fine motor skills. Great, well-rounded activity.

Mummy "M"

Mmm...fun Halloween letter activity.

Age Range

Toddler and up. Young toddlers will need help.

Skills Learned

Letter and fine motor

Supplies

• Construction paper
• Letter "M"
• White Crepe paper
• Glue

Activity

1. If you are working with a toddler, cut out the "M" before you start.
2. If you are working with a preschooler or older, have her cut out the "M" herself. 
3. Have your child glue the "M" to her piece of construction paper.
4. Have her glue crepe paper over the "M" to turn the "M" into a Mummy!

Paper Cup Spider

This is a simple, fun craft to do at Halloween, while learning about insects, or while learning about the Eency Weency Spider nursery rhyme. This is something Brayden made a year ago at Preschool.

Age Range

Older Toddler and up.

Skills Taught

Fine motor

Supplies

• Paper cup
• Pipe cleaner cut into pieces (for legs)
• Eyes
• Marker for drawing if desired
• 1/8" elastic if desired (for putting around wrist)
• Glue

Prep

1. Cut paper cup down to size
2. Poke holes in paper cup for legs. This will make it easier for your child to get the legs in
3. Cut elastic to size
4. Cut pipe cleaner to size

Activity

This activity is simple. You have your child glue eyes on the spider and draw anything they want on the spider's body. You then have your child poke the pipe cleaner into the holes. Glue or staple the elastic to the bottom of the cup if desired. 

Your child can then put the cup on his wrist and walk it around and be a spider.

Halloween Books 2010

Last year, Raegan posted some of our favorite Halloween books. I wanted to add some more for you to check out this year.

Corduroy's Best Halloween Ever

This has been a favorite of Kaitlyn this year (age 3). She loves the Corduroy character.







Corduroy's Halloween

This is another favorite this year. It is a lift-the-flap book and is a favorite of Kaitlyn and McKenna (18 months).






Where is Baby's Pumpkin? by Karen Katz

This is McKenna's absolute favorite book this year. She carries it around all over the house, she looks at it while I change her diaper...she loves it. I love Karen Katz. She makes great books. This is lift the flap along with some touch and feel.





Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley

This isn't necessarily a Halloween book, but one I think is great to read this time of year. Kaitlyn just giggles the whole way through this book. It is a great book for telling those mosters to go away and that they aren't scary!





The Haunted Ghoul Bus by Lisa Trumbauer

This is Brayden's (age 5) favorite this year. It is great for school-aged children. This book is great. It is a bout a boy who accidentally gets on the Ghoul Bus instead of the School Bus. At first he is scared, but comes to like the "scary" folks on the bus. By the end, he is super sad to see them go. Great for teaching to get to know people, and also great for kids who might have some exposure to scary things around Halloween to help them not be scared.


I Like Pumpkins by Jerry Smath

This is another favorite of Brayden and also Kaitlyn this year. This book talks about all of the fun things to do with pumpkins at this time of year.





Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin by Tad Hills

This is a new one with the beloved Duck & Goose characters.







Scaredy-Cat, Splat! by Rob Scotton

Also new and based on a popular character. Splat wants to be a scary cat at Halloween, but is too much of a scaredy cat to scar anyone.

Teaching About Fire Safety

Teaching children about fire safety can be difficult to do. I have been trying to think of ways to teach my young children what to do in case of a fire. Here is what I have come up with.

Preparation
First, I reviewed this website:  Fire Safety.gov for Kids

Second, I wrote a list of notes from the website. If you have an older child (five or older), you can review the website together, but I think younger kids will much prefer to hear it mom's own words. I actually think all kids prefer that.

In Action
Monday night, we had a lesson and practice time for fire safety.

First, we went over rules for preventing fires and burns. We discussed rules that applied to our home (for example, we don't have a fire place so we didn't discuss fire places).

Second, we talked about smoke detectors. We pointed out the smoke detectors in our home. We tested them. This a)tested the alarms and b)let the kids hear what a smoke detector sounds like. An idea from the Fire Safety for Kids website is to also take this moment to clean smoke detectors, but I knew we would lose the focus of the kids at that moment, so it wasn't a family affair.

Third, we talked about our escape plan. Firesafety.gov has an Escape plan grid you can use to write out your evacuation plan.

We talked about how if our smoke detectors go off, we need to get out of the house as fast as we can. We talked about staying low to the ground. We practiced touching the bottom of doors first to make sure they aren't hot.

Fourth, we practiced our evacuation plan. We had the detector go off. We dropped to the ground and left the house. We ran to our designated meeting spot. We practiced leaving each room two ways.

We went into each child's bedroom and discussed and practiced the two ways to escape. It was great to do. We, the parents, were able to observe the children executing these plans and became more aware of things we need to do to help aide in a quick escape. An example is in Brayden's room. He likes to play with his cars on his large window sill. We don't often clean those up each night because he just gets them out the next day and they aren't in the way. But as he was practicing escaping from his window, he was severely slowed down by the cars. He also didn't want to just brush them onto the floor as we suggested. So we will now have him clean those up each evening before bed.

We also realized that our three year old would be unable to open her window on her own. So we practiced having her leave through her door. We also instructed her of what to do if the door was hot. We told her to leave it shut and go stand in a specific spot close to her window. In that spot, we could break her window from the outside and then reach in and grab her if needed.

We spent about an hour practicing our escaping over and over from room to room.

Now, you may be thinking this over and starting to realize if you talk about fire safety, you are going to have a scared child on your hands. This is most likely true. Even Kaitlyn was scared, and she just doesn't get scared. I do think, however, that it is a small price to pay for preparing your children for a fire. Better a little scared today than unprepared tomorrow.

While house fires are relatively rare, they do happen--obviously. Over the last weekend, a home in our community burned down and is a total loss. Luckily no one was hurt. It was started while the father was grilling outside--one spark. It doesn't take much, and it can happen. This really brought to light the importance of preparation on this topic.

Making the Old New Again

Do you have any toys that you don't want to get rid of, but have been sitting stationary in your house for a while? Our play kitchen was like that.

The girls seemed to be on a hiatus from playing with this kitchen. One beautiful day, my 3 year old herself had a brilliant idea. "Wouldn't it be fun to take the kitchen outside? I can cook outside, like Daddy does on the grill!" Genius!!! Per her request and to her sister's delight, I loaded her up with some fun "mommy stuff" to cook with...extra flour, some random spices, sprinkles, etc. She had so much fun making a normally not allowed and extremely large mess. :) Oh, how I love cleaning up with a garden hose. Ignore the extension cord...husband was doing some yard work while they played happily.
Atalie was not too fond of Charis's creation, but sampled it multiple times anyways. :) Muffin tins, a washable mess, and happy kiddos.

Take a look around your house today! What toy would be more fun or made new again by just a different environment? Grocery cart? Baby stroller? Tea set? Have a party with stuffed animals? Picnic outside (don't worry, the ants will clean up your crumbs)? Even a doll house or trucks and cars?

Jack-O-Lantern Pancakes

My husband made these pancakes for us, and I just had to share them. The kids loved eating them. 

First, you make some pancake batter. Put a small amount in one bowl (for the green) and the rest in another bowl. Dye the small amount green and the large amount orange.

Heat a skillet.

Put the green of the pumpkin on first. Do the eyes, the stem, and the mouth. My husband used a fork and drizzled it on there.

Then pour the orange around the green.

Cook and serve! A fun, festive breakfast. Our kids waited a while before eating them because they liked looking at them :)

Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins...

Besides the usual carving pumpkins with the kids, there are other things you can do with them, too! We roasted the seeds this year and the girls devoured them! An easy recipe:

1. Boil water (1 cup for every 1/2 cup of seeds). Add salt. (1 tsp per cup of seeds, more if you like them pretty salty).
2. Add rinsed pumpkin seeds and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Drain. On a cookie sheet, drizzle some olive oil and roll the seeds in them. Spread the seeds in one layer.
4. Cook for 15-20 minutes in a 400 degree oven. Look for them to be golden brown.

Charis scooping and sorting seeds:

Atalie was a little young to help with the carving and not that interested in the pumpkin goop. So, I pulled out the paint and let her design her own pumpkin. She had a BLAST. (FYI- if you use washable paint and they want to do the activity again, let them

give the pumpkin a bath, dry, and start painting again!)

Blast from the Past: Apple Prints

Last month, we tried out Raegan's idea for making apple cards. If you haven't tried this out, I think your kids will love it! Paint is always fun. We used ours to send a cousin a birthday card. I wrote "Have an "App"solutely Amazing Birthday!" Aahh cheesiness. How I love it.