Ethan is doing really well with his reading in school and I am so pleased to see the delight in his face as he sounds out the words and puts sentences together. Is there anything more exciting than the newness of discovering how cool reading is?
He was sent home a worksheet of words that we needed to work on as a family with him. They are words that he needs to know and be able to read by the end of the school year. I was sitting down with him and pointing to words and he would say them. We did this for a couple of days and he looked up at me and told me, “Mom, this is so boring!” You know what? He was right! I was bored too and the task seemed like a chore.
The next day that he came home, I told him that I wrote him a note just for him. In it, were words from the list that he needed to recognize. He came back downstairs and told me “Mom, I don’t know those words.” I gave him a pat on the back and told him, “Just read my note and you can sound it out while you eat lunch.”
I went down to fold a load of laundry and he came running down the stairs, grinning from ear to ear. “Mom, I know what it says!” He then recited my note word for word.
We have made a pact to do this each day and I will write him a new note just for him.
As teachers, we sometimes have to be more creative than pointing and reciting. It has now become our fun little game that I hope he will remember for years to come!
Do you have any fun ways you have taught your children about reading or writing?
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That is a great idea! Thank you.
Once in a great while I’ll actually mail my children a letter. The looks on their faces, when they receive and read “real mail” is priceless.
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this made me tear up! This the kind if I want to do to teach my kids.
Thank you!
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My three yr old LOVES when I write out his name, the alphabet, or the numbers 1-9 in highlighter and then he traces over it with pencil, marker or crayon.
I know he isn’t entirely cognizant of all the letters he is tracing but I’ll take some easy small motor control practice any time! LOL
I blog about it here: http://twolittlevikings.blogspot.com/2009/02/wfmw-easy-small-motor-practice.html
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This is a great idea. I love writing little love notes to my kids. When my daughter takes her lunch to school I write a little note on her napkin every now and then, which basically says something along the lines of I love and am thinking about you. The first time I did it, it was really no big deal (to me), but when she came home from school she was so excited, and she had saved her napkin. It made me feel good that she was so happy.
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What a great learning activity. Read on.
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When my grandson was 4 he began loving…LOVING….football (he is 13 now). I bought a bunch of plain U.S. maps (states were outlined but no names). Then I printed the names of all of the Pro Football teams and cut them out individually. I would pick a team and say “The Cowboys play here” and he would point to Texas…I would say “Green Bay plays here” and he could find Wisconsin. Eventually we added other teams and states and he would play the game by himself, placing the pieces of paper with the team names on the proper states. By the time he was 6 he could name all 50 states. My daughter (his mom) is a special ed teacher and her motto is “find something that a child is interested in — observe how they learn–and they will blossom–with pride and knowledge.
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That is so sweet!
My son is really into learning to write his letters. I print off sheets of his favorite words from a ms word document for him to trace. Instead of printing in black ink, I print it in grey so he can see where he’s traced.
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What a fabulous idea to make learning fun and help grow that sweet bond at the same time, love it!
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