Flip Book Fun

I find that we frequently find ourselves challenged to find beginning readers enough easy books to practice with. Unfortunately, many of the options can be dull and uninspiring. That's why I was excited for my son to come home with a "flip book" recently that he was super excited about. These are super easy to read and he begged me to find more for him to make. Remember "easy" readers help our kids become fluent readers. The more they see the same words, the faster their brain will recognize them. A quick exploration on Teachers Pay Teachers found me quite a few. I encourage you to look for yourself. I picked some that cost money, but there are several options for free, too! Just click on the pictures to visit the ones I picked. The first two also include worksheets that go along with the flip books.

Great ABC Games with Magnetic Letters

Please check out the very inventive alphabet games that Growing Book by Book shared in her post today. This is such a great example of those quick 5 minute activities you can do with your children without much prep. So fun! 

Chapter Book List for Read Alouds with 4-6 year olds

Since I have a 4-6 year old, this post by What Do We Do All Day? automatically caught my eye! I'm cautious to read many chapter books at this age with my son mainly because we have so little time to enjoy great picture books before everything he'll want will be in a chapter book. However, the books on this list sound like they might be worth it! Happy reading!

Free Printable Early Literacy Calendar!

Wow! Just found this excellent and FREE printable Early Literacy Calendar for 2014. Each month has great reminders on a variety of literacy topics for you plus book suggestions. Love it! 

What can you do before or instead of sounding it out?!?

Another great post from Anna over at The Measured Mom that you simply must check out if you've got a little person beginning to read or going in that direction. So often, as parents, all we remember as children was being told to "sound it out," so we tend to rely on that as our sole teaching strategy when helping our kids read. Anna does a great job in this post helping you understand all of the knowledge that has to come before they're ready to sound something out. Also, it's really important to use many reading strategies when a child gets stuck on a word. I need to do a longer post on this but, here's an example of a picture from Literacy Links that you can print out and use to encourage your child to try different things if they're stuck on a word. There are also lots of sheets like this available on Teachers Pay Teachers like this one for free or for a small cost.

Guest Post over at The Measured Mom...Help your child develop a great vocabulary

I am thrilled that Anna over at The Measured Mom (one of my very favorite blogs) asked me to do a guest post on her blog as she enjoys her new baby girl. Please take a moment to check it out here.