Reversing Those B's and D's

I just found a great article plus free printable cue cards to help your kids with their letter reversals. Hopefully by now you have heard that it is completely normal for our young readers to reverse their b's and d's. It does not mean they have dyslexia. My first graders did it fairly consistently each year and now my own son and his friends are experiencing the same frustrating confusion. Please check out the Make Take Teach blog for a wonderful overview of the subject. As far as writing goes, I've always used the fact that you have to make a c as you write the d to clarify the difference between b and d. I know some teachers tell kids to picture the word "bed" or form it with their hands (left hand is the b and right is the d) to remember which is which. Another idea someone shared recently that works for their child is to explain that lowercase d is ditzy, dippy, dingy (pick your d word) and therefore doesn't face the same way as all of the other letters. All of the other letters move to the right as you write them, but d faces backwards. Just try to collect as many tips as possible and find the one that will click for your child!

Book Love Download Free Today!

Not sure how long this will last, but Melissa Taylor's book is free to download today from Amazon! Get it while you can! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A2CD0RG/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_N-oosb0VB7V2N She is also the author of a great blog called Imagination Soup. 

Free Printable Books for Fall!

Happy Fall, dear blog readers!

No doubt school and children are keeping you as busy as they are keeping me. Here's a fun site I wandered around this week called Mrs.Wills Kindergarten. She is offering up some fun things for the fall season in including a free printable book that would be perfect for your very beginning readers. Check out her site here to enjoy the free printable!

Another site that I have loved this week is ReadingA-Z.com. It has lots of interesting sister sites and great info for teachers, but is very applicable to parents as well. They have some free downloads on the site itself, but you can have access to everything for a week for free if you sign up for their free trial. It is well worth it because you can print out a bunch of high interest books for your readers. I found a great Space book and another about sharks that my early reader will love. They even have printable worksheets for working with comprehension, word work(phonics), and vocabulary. If you're not sure what Guided Reading Level your child is reading at, you could take the assessment with them over at Pioneer Valley Books or start with Level A because that is the easiest and go from there. Remember, for a book to be "just right" for your child, they should know around 95% of the words. If you're struggling through the whole thing, it is TOO HARD.