I LOVE to read. Growing up, I hid a book in my desk at school in case the lesson was boring. If there was a social gathering, I would find a quiet place to hide and read. If we were driving home late at night, I would read snippets of my book by lamp post (which, let me tell you, is pretty ...
Reading/Writing
Dialogic Reading Cheat Sheet
This site uses affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!Everyone knows that reading picture books to children is good, but what you might not know is that NOT "reading" books might be even better. Don't worry...I’m not suggesting that you part with your child’s personal library quite yet. However, rather than simply reading the words on the page to your ...
Lined Paper for Young Writers
This site uses affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!I just started a "Charlotte Mason"-esque copywork program with my 6 year old that requires him to copy short passages from books we've read. (It's called A Quiver of Arrows (not sponsored) and so far we're loving it, in case you're interested.) Since he's never done copywork before, I thought it ...
Amusement Park Map Activity
This site uses affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!When I was about 5 or 6, my mom and stepdad took me to Six Flags Magic Mountain. I had a terrible day. The rides were too scary, the larger-than-life Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd were terrifying, there was sooo much walking...I'm pretty sure I did nothing but complain or cry the entire day. (Sorry, ...
Rhyming Wheels
This site uses affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!I was inspired to make these rhyming wheels by a book from the 1970's called Teaching the Young Child by Susan Rounds. Her idea involved two paper plates and no flaps or pictures, but she didn't have the photo editing software that made making these easy. Basically, the way these work is that ...
Homemade Letter Matching Game
This site uses affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!This letter matching game is very simple, and it doesn't seem like it would be much fun, but even kids that in general don't seem to be interested in learning letters seem to like matching these cards. I think this "game" is best used when the child is fairly confident with the uppercase letters and ...
DIY Sight Word Matching Game
This site uses affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!Sight words are boring. This sight word matching game is my attempt to make them a little bit fun. To give them context instead of just showing the child words written on blank cards. Basically, the game uses a modified version of these illustrated sight word flashcards with the sight word removed ...
Illustrated Sight Word Cards
This site uses affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!I really don't like the idea of making kids memorize sight words. Sure, grown-ups don't take the time to sound out and decipher words like "the" or "as", but we remember them because it's convenient and necessary, not because someone told us we needed to. I wanted a way to help a child remember ...
Letter Sounds Lift-a-Flap
This site uses affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!I'm not sure what other schools do, but at our local kindergarten, the kids are taught this really cute song to help them learn the letter sounds. The song is sung to the tune of the ABC's, except instead of just singing the alphabet, they sing, "A-ah-apple, B-buh-bear, C-cuh-cat, D-duh-duck..." ...
Homemade Letter Cards
This site uses affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!In general, I don't really think "flash cards" are useful tools to teach little kids anything (though I relied on them endlessly in college and grad school). The idea of drilling children to get them to memorize something doesn't appeal to me. However, my son really enjoyed looking at these cards ...