Learning to read is fun

I love to see my children learn to read!  It is simply one of the best things in life.  We’ve used many approaches in order to learn to read.  My preference is to mix a phonics approach with a sight word/whole language approach.  In my school teacher years, we called this balanced literacy.  I see pros to both methods so to me it just makes sense to mix the two approaches in learning to read. 

We begin early in teaching our little ones the letter names.  We take a fun, hands-on approach when learning our letters.  By the time our kids start kindergarten, it has been easy to move on to letter sounds and the blending of sounds because they have been exposed to the letters for over two years.

It takes a lot of repetition to get the letter sounds committed to memory so we try to make it fun.  Some of our favorite learning to read are games.   Some of the kids’ favorites are:

 

 A simple file folder, some markers, and a little time can made a board game that our kids love.  We use this to review letter names, letter sounds, and sight words.  It could be used for math too.

 For a little variety, I quickly made this game on a piece of cardstock.  Despite its poorly drawn path, the kiddos enjoy using it for a quick review.

 Our curriculum calls for a weekly letter name review.  Sometimes we play go fish or memory with the cards.  One day, I just dumped a bunch of letter tiles out onto the table and called out a letter.  They would try to find as many letters as they could as quickly as they could and put them back into the jar.  Such a simple game but they loved it! 

We can’t forget about good old Bingo either!  We’ve had these cards for years but it is really easy to just make Bingo cards too.

We have recently added a morning message to our calendar time.  I write a message with the children who are with me.  (This morning it was just Abby.  Sometimes it is also Evan.  He joined us a little late today though.)  We write a quick message and I have Abby help me fill in what she can.  I plan on incorporating more sight words into the morning messages and having Abby find the words.

At the bottom of our morning message, we work on different reading concepts.  Today it was rhyming words/ –at word family.  We’ve also worked on number words, color words, and words beginning with the letter sound we are working on.  They love to watch me draw goofy pictures to match the words.  (I am so not an artist.)  Then they try to draw the pictures too. 

This year, we have been using the sight words printables from 1+1+1=1.  We go very slowly through the words.  Actually we spent weeks just going through unit one.  For more great ideas, be sure to check out 1+1+1=1.  She has wonderful ideas!

 One of the most important things we do is read!  We read a lot.  Everyday, the little ones and I sit down and read books…many, many books!  They love it and I love it. 

 

Resources we use to learn to read:

The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading

My Father’s World Kindergarten curriculum

Easy books like Bob Books

Abeka’s Letters and Sounds

Music to my ears

The Little Ones are learning the hymn “This is My Father’s World”.  We added hand movements to make it a little easier for them to remember.  It is adorable to see them as they sing.  It is even sweeter to hear them sing it.  I wish I could share that with you too. 

It is sweet, sweet music to my ears…hearing lovely, pure little voices singing about God.

This is my Father’s World,

and to my listening ears,

all nature sings

and round me rings

the music of spheres.

This is my Father’s World

I rest me in the thought

Of rocks and trees and skies and seas

His hands the wonders wrought.

 

If you would like to hear what we are singing, here is a clip of a version of “This is My Father’s World” from youtube.

Kindergarten week 1 pictures and curriculum

Sunshine Girl has been so excited to begin Kindergarten this year.  This girl loves to learn.  We were originally scheduled to start school on August 15.  Seven days before that, Sunshine Girl started counting down the days until the beginning of school.  Every morning, she would run to us with her little fingers showing the number of days and exclaim, “Only six {five, four…} days until school starts!” 

Imagine how upset she was when the big day finally arrived and she woke up sick!  I really thought her first day of school would not really be enjoyable with a fever and a cough so I postponed the first day of school.  She tried her best to persuade me to go ahead with the school plans but by mid-day, she was feeling worse so it all worked out for the best.

A week later we finally got to have Sunshine’s first day of Kindergarten.  She was thrilled!  Little Brother, who is three, sits in on his sister’s lessons just like he has for the last three years.  I was actually surprised on the first day of school how much he all ready knew.  I’m not pushing him at all.  If he shows interest in what we are doing then he is more than welcome to join us and learn with us.  Today he became bored with an alphabet game we were playing so he went on to play something else. 

We are loving our activity bags from the swap we participate in during July.  The two little ones sit on a blanket during the older kids’ Bible and memory work time and work on the activity bags. 

Sometimes I need to keep the little ones occupied while I teach the older kids.  I wrote here about some of the activities that I keep on hand in plastic shoe boxes that I can easily grab and distribute.  Also listed in that post are links to sites that offer wonderful printables and activities that I keep on hand for fun extra practice. 

Our Kindergarten Curriculum for 2011 – 2012

My Father’s World Kindergarten

Abeka’s Letters and Sounds (phonics)*

Essential Math (Singapore)**

Language Lessons for Little Ones

In Kindergarten, we mainly focus on learning to read, write, and do basic math.  And we read a lot of books!  The little ones also listen in on the lessons of the older kids.  Today the little ones could almost repeat the entire list of pronouns that the older children were memorizing!  I am amazed at what they pick up! 

In addition to the above, Sunshine Girl will also be participating in:

Nature Study, Artist and Composer Studies, Learning to read music, Children’s Choir, Running Club, and Field Trips.

(Possibly piano lessons too if we can figure out how to get the piano that my Mom has given us to our house.)

Notes about the curriculum:

* Both My Father’s World and Abeka’s Letters and Sounds teaches children how to read.  After looking at My Father’s World, I realized that it may move a little too slowly for Sunshine Girl.  She is so ready to read.  I decided to supplement with Abeka’s reading.  I’m not quite sure how I’m going to meld both of them together but I just love MFW (My Father’s World) so I’m going to do both…unless it proves to be too much.  I’ll keep you posted on that.  I am also adding in sight words to her reading lessons that I get from 1+1+1=1. 

** MFW has math integrated into it but Sunshine wanted a math book so badly.  I almost went with Horizons having used it before with one of my older boys but I decided to go with Singapore’s Essential Math.  We haven’t received it yet but Sunshine Girl talks everyday about getting that math book.  She can’t wait! 

So far our Kindergarten is off to a great start.  We are just beginning week 2 and all ready, Sunshine Girl is learning so much.  She is so much fun to teach because she really, really wants to learn to read!  It is so exciting.  {smile}