Hello all! I just returned from a few days with my grandsons, Ollie and Clark. I came back armed with some new blog ideas that I hope will bless all of you. Read below for simple and fun ways to make the 'learning to read' process a joy instead of a chore! My daughter, Shelby, has been trying to prepare my grandson, Ollie, to entering kindergarten next fall. As I showed you in a previous blog, I sent her the Abeka Kindergarten series. Book 1 seemed a reasonable place to give Oliver a start, with the goal of reading it to me on FaceTime in order to get Book 2 sent in the mail as a reward. However, Shelby quickly realized that Book 1 was even a little bit advanced for him. Below is another Abeka series for K-4 (pre-school kids age 4), in case you sense the K-5 series is too advanced for your child. I just ordered them for Ollie because I feel they will boost his confidence before he heads back to the K-5 series. Before I sent the K-5 series, Shelby had been working with Ollie on letter name recognition (e.g. B is called bee), which he had mastered. After receiving Book 1 in the K-5 series, it was apparent Ollie also needed to master all of the letter sounds (also know as PHONICS: e.g. A says ă in apple) before he was ready for this series of books. It is always helpful to try something a little above their level from time to time, because it will be useful to expose any gaps. He knew a lot of the sounds of the letters of the alphabet, but reading requires ALL of the phonetic sounds. Shelby, who is quite the ‘go getter’ mom, quickly blazed a path towards teaching Ollie ALL of his letter sounds. She has such creative, fun, and original ideas that I knew many of you would appreciate learning a few of them. Mom’s, you can can use these at home, but friends, aunts, uncles and grandparents can incorporate them into a fun babysitting/play date with their little ones as well. I have watched Ollie doing these phonic games on FaceTime and did some with him this past week, and believe me... these games are not chores…but PURE JOY! BELOW ARE 4 GAMES TO TRY WITH YOUR YOUNG READERS: #1 KARATE CHOP PHONICS: Watch above while Ollie is correctly guessing the letter that represents the sound given to him by his mother. Once he locates the letter that represents that phonetic sound, he karate chops the magnetic letter right off the refrigerator. Shelby told him the sound of that letter this time, but you can also give them the letter name and let them chop away! HOW FUN!! This activity reinforces phonics learning, but it also helps with coordination and promotes exercise. For this activity you just need:
#2 PARK THE CAR: The picture above is another fun game that Shelby calls ‘Park the Car’. Here Shelby was using PARK THE CAR to help Ollie with his letter sounds, but this game can also be used to help your child learn the names of and practice recognizing the letters of the alphabet. Start this game by laying a deck of letter cards on the floor or table. Once you lay the letters out, ask your child to ‘park the car’ on the correct letter. Ask them to find the letter with the sound /ă/ in apple, or you can also ask them to find the letter ‘A'. An easier version is to lessen the amount of choice by only placing only a few letters on the ground. Choosing the amount of cards to place on the ground or table all depends on the child's level. We don’t want them to be so discouraged that they do not feel they will ever get it. Start with a few letters when they are beginners, then work your way up to the full range of letters. The graduated difficulty will give them a great sense of accomplishment. Be sure to remind them that when they started they only had a few choices but now they are using THE WHOLE DECK!! For this activity you just need:
#3 SNACK TRACING: The picture above shows Ollie tracing the letters with snacks (click on the link for 'snacks' to find some options that are healthy and safe for toddlers in case you have one crawling around while you play this game). Practice phonics as you talk about the sounds these letters make while your child traces the letters with snacks. Later they can eat those snacks as a reward for cooperative participation :) After they eat the snacks, you could also give them a piece of chalk to trace those letters. This activity not only promotes phonics or letter name learning, but it also develops hand eye coordination, pincer grasp skills and letter writing (by means of the tracing activity added at the end). For this activity you just need:
#4 LETTER PINCING: The picture above shows Ollie pincing the letter he was prompted to find. You can ask your child to get the letter after giving them the sound of that letter (putting the focus more on phonics) or by giving them the letter name. This game helps with letter naming and phonics learning, but, as you can see, it also promotes hand-eye coordination. You can also use these letters to teach your toddlers their colors while your older child is pincing away. For this activity you just need:
LORD, HELP OUR CREATIVITY TO BE A USEFUL TOOL IN YOUR HAND TO SEE OUR LITTLE ONES BECOME SKILLED READERS! P.S. Stay tuned for next week’s blog! I will write about ‘How To Have Healthy Boundaries For Your Children’. It’s hard to do phonics games if you children will not even sit down if you ask them. This aspect of parenting was a huge learning curve for me, but my husband’s wisdom encompassed strong love and clear boundaries... taught with calm discipline. I learned from the best, and I hope some of my thoughts will help you if you struggle in this area. SEE YOU NEXT WEEK! P.S.S. Don't forget to sign-up to be reminded when new blogs have been posted!
3 Comments
Esther
9/11/2019 12:49:34 pm
Love these ideas! Very creative and my boys will really enjoy xxx
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Katya Gut
9/12/2019 11:18:22 am
So nice!!! Love this ideas, looks also so much fun. Waiting for the next blog! Love you.
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Anj
9/13/2019 04:16:22 am
Genius. Children and adults (who never quite grew up ...mmm wonder who I could be talking about?) will love this and want to learn...keep them coming Laura!!!
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