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.

Reading Ideas for Toddlers in Constant Motion

Thankfully, my son is now out of the phase where I couldn't even take a picture of him being still. There was always movement when he was a toddler. I've had many parents ask me how they are supposed to sit and read with their toddlers for any length of time. Here are my suggestions:

1. Embrace Reality (Adjust Your Expectations)

You are going to immediately be in trouble if you want your reading time to match a picture in your head of a child happily cuddled on a peaceful parent's lap with a pile of books. Close the door to the bedroom so you have your toddler in a confined space. Child door locks can be your friend in such instances. They may not look like they're listening to you read, but that's okay. They can get up and wander if they want. You can still try to engage them now and again with questions or show them a neat picture.

3. Embrace the short book

This is not time to prep your little cutie for Harvard by reading chapter books. Keep the books short and sweet. Some board books are just longer books for older children in board book form. Bypass those and go for the ones with a few words per page at most. Don't take it personal if your toddler wants to shove a book out of your hand halfway through. It's okay. You don't have to finish every book. When they're a little bit older, you can work on the follow-through skill. Right now, it's not important. If they're interested, they'll let you keep reading.

4. Embrace books with real pictures, flaps, smells, and different textures

Your child is in a state of constant exploration, so what a great way to get them interested in books by exploring. It keeps their attention and teaches them that books can be fascinating. Where else can you find little squares of shag rug and shiny mirror material in the same place other than a disco or roller rink?!? Bob the Builder has some super awesome Life-the-Flap board books. Below is our very favorite, Bob's Toolbox Mix-Up. Babies and toddlers are also extremely interested in books that mirror their lives and what they look like. Some of our favorites were simple real pictures of babies and things that babies play with.

5. Embrace books that involve songs and/or movement

The reason I decided to write this post is that I recently discovered an excellent series of books for toddlers involving yoga moves. I read the books while I was over babysitting one of my favorite toddlers, and he surprised me by doing every single yoga pose in the book. What surprised me more was how natural and perfect for toddlers each of the poses were. There's Sleepy Little Yoga and Little Yoga: A Toddler's First Book of Yoga. Other books like Little Bunny Foo Foo, where you can sing and do movements, can also be very entertaining for the little ones.

6. Embrace Humor

If you can find a book that's silly, you will have your child's attention. Anything that makes them giggle or laugh is one they will want to revisit over and over. Bob the Builder's Tool Mix-Up has some silly parts in it. What Shall We Do with the Boo-Hoo Baby is another fun one. Luckily, there are lots of board books out there that embrace fun. You also have to remember YOUR sense of humor. Don't ever get tense around books, as Mem Fox likes to say. Enjoy the craziness that is your toddler running around the room as you read. It won't last for long.

7. Embrace Repetition

Yes, you are going to find a few all-out favorite books that your toddler will want you to read over and over. That is a fantastic thing to do. It helps cement vocabulary, syntax, and the rhythm of language for your child. Plus, it's one of the very few times where they can feel like an expert. Children LOVE reading stories over and over again because they know what's going to come next. This happens so rarely in their little lives that this a great opportunity for them to feel some control and pride.

8. Embrace Your Toddler!

I can't resist mentioning this rule. Give lots of hugs and love when you have reading time (that is, if you can catch them!).  As long as they associate reading with fun and love and laughter, you've done your job!

Need some more ideas? Check out this article, "Reading Tips for Parents of Toddlers"  from ReadingRockets.org.

Lazy Summer Reading Ideas

Sometimes we all need a little help to get moving with summer learning. Here are some great (mostly free) ideas I've come across recently. 

Motivation! 
One of the favorite things I've found so far comes from Plenty of Picnics. They're called Summer Brain Time punch cards. I love them because I can say to my son, "Let's do some brain time!" and our reward for that is a punch on our Summer Brain Time card. I say "our" because I need a little motivation to focus on learning, too! Then when we fill out a card, we get to have a treat together like popcorn and a movie or ice cream. Here's the link to print out your very own Summer Brain Time cards! 

Summer Online Resources:
Summer Reading Resources for Kids 2012 from Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas is an amazing compilation of summer reading programs!!

A Mom with a Lesson Plan: idea for collecting book reports and rewarding with money towards Scholastic book orders in the fall!

Help for Struggling Readers :great compilation of ideas

The Measured Mom: Can You Read 100 Books This Summer? 

Education.com: Do-It-Yourself Summer Reading and printouts

3 Dinosaurs Summer Printable Round Up: Lots of great ideas!

Growing Book by Book Table talk cards - topics to talk about at the dinner table or on a road trip!

Small Types: Alphabet Summer and Reading and Writing on the Road

Games for Summer:

* Lots more on my Pinterest boards!

Good for all levels:

PirateAttack (readingresource.net): Students discover pirates and treasure by identifying sounds/letters, reading sight words, or defining vocabulary words 

PlayingWith Plates:  Write sight words, word families, vocab words, or letters on small paper plates. Put them on the ceiling or floor and search for them in the dark with a flashlight. Fling them like Frisbees. Throw balls or balloons in them and read the words they land on. Sort the word family plates into words that rhyme (-at family = cat, bat, sat, mat, that).

                                                

MuffinTin Games: From one of my new favorite sites, Growing Book by Book. They are similar to the plate games but using a muffin tin and post-its or paper muffin cups. Use pennies or hard candy to toss into the cups or play a tic-tac-toe type game. 

Treasure Hunt: Hide short phrases around the house so kids can read and follow the clues. You can purchase the game Ukloo to do the same thing.

Pre-Readers:

Memory or matching games with Letters/Pictures/Rhymes

Readinga-z.com and reading-tutors.com have lots of resources for letters, rhyming, and sight words - print out the free samples!

Beginning Readers:

Word Family Mats from The Measured Mom

Flip-It Down Basic 

Zingo Sight Words bingo game:

Advanced:

Flip-It Down Advanced 

Hockey 

Great Sites for Free Printable Games and Word Lists:

·        Mrs. Perkin’s Dolch Words:  Lists of all levels of sight words plus much more!

·     Flocabulary.com:  Vocabulary word lists, SAT vocab lists, rapping program

·        Teachers Pay Teachers: just search for free items and the grade level you want – don’t be afraid to sign up, it’s easy and free

·        Primary Inspiration

·        Reading Resources

·        The Measured Mom: - sight word easy readers, word family mats, all sorts of good stuff

·        1 Plus 1Plus 1 Equals 1:  Lots of printables, especially for packets with popular themes from toddler to kindergarten level

·        Reading Tutors and Reading A-Z: Many free samples for learning letters and sight words

·        Reading Rockets printable family packets and parent articles

Books to Inspire You:

Games for Reading by Peggy Kaye

Book Love by Melissa Taylor

I Can Teach My Child to Read by Jenae Jacobson

The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease

Reading Magic by Mem Fox

Playing with Plates

Okay people, I am getting down to the bare bones for you. You are a busy parent who has no time to plan out wonderfully enriching ideas for your youngster. Don't worry. I've got your back. All you need is a Sharpie marker and some paper plates. If you need some inspiration on what words to choose, you can check out http://dolch-words.com. If your kiddo isn't ready for sight words yet, use letters. By the way, the importance of sight words is that they are the tricky words you can't always sound out. It is hugely helpful as you learn to read if you can recognize these words by sight.

Option 1:  Go into a dark room and ask your kiddo to find a word with a flashlight. You know they all love using flashlights! Some creative Pinterest people have even mounted words on the ceiling for this!

Option 2: Use pennies or a soft ball to have your kids throw them onto the plates. Whichever ones they land on, they read.

Option 3: lay out a few p,ages while you're reading. Every time you come across one of the words, your child puts a paper clip or penny on the plate. In the spirit of competition, see which word "wins" by showing up the most times in the book.

Option 4: Frisbee time!  If they can read the word, they get to fling the plate. See which word gets the farthest!

Sharing Hilarious Parent Mistakes = Writing Motivation

Sometimes inspiration hits in the oddest of places. As there are many education blogs out there, I always get excited when I think of something quirky that you might not be able to find on ten other sites. Tonight while getting my son's bath ready, I was doing about ten things at once. I decided to fill the sink to soak a few things while filling up the bathtub while helping him clean up his unending Legos. The next thing we know, we're back in the bathroom and there is a flood going on. I had totally forgotten about filling the sink and/or had extremely underestimated how fast it would fill. Probably both. So water was flowing over the counter and spreading out along the floor. Joy of joys. What does this have to do with literacy, you ask?

My son's first question was, "Can I be the one to tell Dad?!?!" He assured me that he was not gleefully trying to get me in trouble but merely trying to transmit some information. Yeah, right. And so this became a great opportunity for using new vocabulary - flood, spilling, soaked, etc.- while practicing his skills of retelling a story in the correct order. Even if he just got to tell the story orally to his father, there would be some literacy merit. However, I would suggest taking it a step further and writing out a glorious and humorous tale of how mom almost flooded the bathroom. If your kiddo is too little to write out a whole story, have them dictate it to you or label and illustrate boxes with order words such as first, second, third, and finally. They just get so excited when we're the ones who mess up, don't they? I can see him being very engaged in this particular writing activity. Not to mention, what a great way to preserve these awesome family memories. He did say it was his favorite part of the day.  

Fun and Games with Reading Parent Workshop

I'm very excited to announce my first parent workshop with The Kelter Center in Sherman Oaks! If you live close to there, I'd love to have you come!! While you're at it, check out The Kelter Center's own blog here. Their founder, Sasha Borenstein, is an incredible teacher with a deep wealth of knowledge about kids.

Summer Reading Fun & Games for Parents

The Kelter Center Workshop

Afraid of the summer reading slide?

Worried that you won’t have enough time to devote to reading skills?

Let The Kelter Center help with our first community learning event! We invite you to join Reading Specialist Ruth Edwards as she fills you in on the latest tips and resources for keeping your young readers (entering grades k-3) engaged and learning throughout the summer months. Parents and teachers are welcome. Come put together some fun, simple reading games (at your child’s learning level) that you can take home that evening!

Please Join Us

Thursday, June 27th from 7:00-8:30pm

Childcare provided

Please rsvp by June 25th

$10 per person, $15 for two

Purchase tickets online at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/7133986947/eorg

(310) 312-1056

www.thekeltercenter.com

Excellent and FREE Printable Packs for Learning

I may have mentioned these packs before because they are so great. Wonderful for parents who only have a few minutes but want to do something valuable with their children to keep those brains thinking. I love these packets because they are extremely high interest. There was one on Angry Birds that I did with my 5 year old and he practically begged to get started. Plus, it takes advantage of the prior knowledge kids already have on these subjects, so they are automatically more confident and motivated to learn. I especially like the kindergarten packs I have tried because she includes an easy reader and cut-and-paste activties so we're not just doing worksheets. There are Tot, Preschool, and Kindergarten packs depending on what level you need. Click here to see 1 Plus 1 Plus 1 Equals 1's blog about all of her printable packs. Enjoy! 

Great Early Reading Resources!

I've said it before and I will say it again. I am just astounded and humbled by the amount of amazing work that mom and teacher bloggers are sharing for free on their blogs. I honestly don't know where they find the time to do all of this! Just learned about this fantastic resource from This Reading Mama . It's a Reading the Alphabet Pre K curriculum. Now don't be scared off by the word "curriculum." It doesn't mean you have to put in tons of extra work and preparation time. It just means that someone else has thought about what would work best and in what order. You can pick and choose whatever works for you. Just glancing though it, I saw a cute song to teach the word "the" - grab that if nothing else! Perfect for those of you who want to start reading activities with your little learners but aren't sure where to start. If you click on this post here, you can download all of the files via a zipfile. Thank you, Reading Mama! 

This curriculum is also mentioned in one of my favorite blogs for learning, The Measured Mom. If you have not already subscribed to get her emails, I do not know what you are waiting for. They're perfect for the early learner set. She is starting to create these great, FREE emergent readers for sight words. As you probably know, sight words are those words we just have to learn by sight so we can read them automatically without thinking. When we do, it makes reading soooo much easier. Click here or on the picture for her newest books for the word the.