Learning b and d and other fun things

These are just a few of the preschool/First Grade Activities we have done. 

 I found this book at the Library, I love it. Wish I owned it. BUT it is out of print so it is expensive. BUT we enjoyed the Library copy, and learned all about shapes, this was really a review but this book had some shapes that are more then the standard shapes. Then we drew all kinds of shapes out side with chalk, also traced the boys and had fun, making all kids of chalk drawings.

Another one we like is "guess where the rock is" we got these stackable cups from Ikea, but anything will do, we put a small rock under one then they take turns moving them around and hoping the cups around switching things up fast then you try to guess where the rock is. Lots of fun, great at developing skills with paying attention, and focusing etc.

 Both boys know what better b and d are but when Ryan is reading he often times mixes them up. I thought it would go away but even after a year of reading and he is reading many words on his own he still mixes them up. I was super happy when I found this idea on Pinterest, worked like a charm! More details bellow.

 You can only Bulldoze a b! "b" is for bulldozer, and when you scoot a little bulldozer along it will stay straight, because it is a b! But, if you try to bulldoze a d, it will dump over because "d" is for dump!

This activity worked soooo well, and really make it click! when reading I tell him to check and use his finger like a bulldozer, if his finger lines up with a "b" then it will be bulldozed. If it hits a curve part of a "d" then he knows it will dump. After only 1-2 days of this activity he has got it, and does not mix them up any more.

I used some magnet letters and a little bulldozer that we already had, and drew a track on some paper.

Ryan's Reading Lessons

I  have taught all three of my older boys to read so far, well Ryan is still leaning but he is doing fantastic. People always ask me "how?" or "what program" etc I honestly have never used "a program" Teaching Ethan was an accident. He was in public school up through 1st grade but he learned to read full in kindergarten from what we did at home. I just read with them. Did letter and sound games. I read simple reader books, and I did do site word flash cards with two of them. But I do not do that any more. I guess my method is a combination of exposer and phonics. I do not introduce a phonics "rule" though a program and then teach words in that fallow that rule. I just read books and discuss the rule as it comes up. Starting with sounds letters make and then working my way through letter blends etc. Some might think this is confusing or how a child could keep up, but I have been blown away how well they learn and my guess is because they are learning though reading works in contacts of stories and book instead of just "memorizing rules" and then trying to use those rules to read. I hated reading as a child, and hated the rules, they did not make sense to me, and there were always words that did not fallow them, so I do not stress my kids learning them, but I dooo teach them, just though reading as they come up. 

 I did buy this program Delightful Reading through Simply Charlotte mason, and I enjoy it. I used it with Aaron some but he took off and did not finish it. I am using it more with Ryan, but I adapt it to make it work for us, but I really like it so far. We build a work, sound out the work and write it in his book. Here he is learning about Magic "E" words. (see I do teach the rules) and we build worlds with this rule, and then we will read books later and try to find words that fallow this rule. I guess you could say I do "use this program" but I do not fallow it to exact but I do use it. I also have the books a Parents guide to teaching reading, but I do not do that until after my kids are already reading fully on there own. I do go back and teach them the rules so they can be better able to figure out new words on there own. But I do it later when they are fully reading (age 6-7ish) so they are not feeling frustrated, but almost like tools to decoding - I hope that make sense.

 I have a bunch of work books and games, file folder games, work wheels etc. I think I have posted links some where here. I also use the Now I'm reading books. They like those, along with lots of other fun reading books that I read with them. I take turns reading they read a word or two then I read, then as they learn more, they read more. I will also have them repeat me sometimes too, a good skill.

 I am kinds of all over the place and go with the flow depending on the child. But it seems to work. I think the KEY is making it fun, going at their own pace and eliminating stress and pressure. I know after my fist two kids read so fast, for a while Ryan was really resistant, and I though - man this kid will never learn to read. But I just changed things up, prayed for him, and stepped back and did not pressure him and how he loves reading lessons. He also took a big jump into it when he turned 6 and really has a desire to want to read like his brothers. That really helped him wanting to do it because he sees he benefits not just because I am saying he needs to learn. Love the self motivation!

 Word wheel activity, and also a dot paint activity, I wrote some words (just letters for Dallin) and said them, and they put a dot on them when they found them. Just review words out of sentence context is a good skill too.

Love my sweet fast growing boys!

Non- Fiction Study Day -

I love the Drawing into the Heart of Reading program. We do this off and on too. This time we learned about non-fiction and for our kick off day we talked about what it covered in the teacher book, and for the activity they looked through out set one One Small Square books, they each got some note cards

 on the cards they wrote a question, and then fallowed it up with, is this true or false? I helped the younger ones with the writing. Then they each took turns drawing cards and then making a guess. They used the books to look up the answer and read the facts. It was a lot of fun.

Nothing but Silliness!

For our Drawing into the Heart of Reading each time we start a new genera we have a "kick off day" to introduce that genera of reading. This time the book were Humor books! so we did nothing but silliness! They dressed funny and did funny faces! 

We played some funny card, games, and did spoons.

We also played a game where they acted out silly noises that animals make and they had to guess what they were being.

We made silly sandwich men :)

We had a lot of fun with this, The books that they read for this section were. Frindle, tooter peperday, and Mr McBroom one Acre Farm . Along with enjoying these fun books we learned about cause and effect, and other things. I am really enjoying this program. There are many books that we read just to enjoy them, but I also think it is "fun" to break stories down and think about the different elements as well.

Biography Kick off day

One of the Things we do is Drawing into the Heart of Reading by Heart of Dakota This program teaching the different Genres of reading, it also teaching biblical character traits and how to "direct" reading, thinking about "moods" "cause and effect" etc. The program starts for 2nd graders but the teacher is very hands on, starting 4th grade it is much more independent. I so adapt it, and we work together as much as we can on it. This program forces my kids to "slow down, and think" about their reading, it is a very different approach then what we normally do, and I like that. We only do this twice a week. We work on a new Genre, every couple months. At the start of the new genre we have a "kick off day" doing fun things to introduce that Genre. This time we did Biography. We talked about what a biography was, a true story of a personals life, written by another person 

Our first Activity was to look at some "family biographies" scrapbooks, of them, and other family History scrapbooks.

Then they each got to pick out the book they were reading. Ethan a book on Milton Hershey, Aaron picked Shark Lady, and Ryan a book on Benjamin Franklin (he does not really do the program) this was just for this day, and we were already learning about Ben Franklin in history. Another activity we did was they went through the house and found 5 things that they would want someone to write about them, and took turns telling there favorite things. As they did this I wrote these things on little strips of paper. After words I picked one of out a bowl and they had to guess who that thing match too. We had a lot of fun.

When we are done with the books they each do an activity from something they enjoyed about the book, Ethan of course wanted to make some Hershey chocolates, and Aaron and I made shark pancakes.  (no pictures of the pancakes but the turned out awesome!) Ethan also wrote a summery of what he learned from it, and Aaron drew a picture of his favorite seen from the book.

we made homemade peanut butter cups and almond Hershey chocolate bars. YUMMO!

wonderful job boys on your projects!

we did this Genre August through september

Homeschool Games- Reading and Math

Here are a couple Home School Games that I have done with the boys, they seem to really like them, they are fun because you can do them over and over again, just change the words or math problems.

Word Game-

For this Game I made a pile of things (that I had flash cards that match two, or you can make your own flash cards)

Then I would flip a card over for each boy, and they would read the word then run to get the object and put it my the card that matched it.

They really got into this and had tons of fun.

Math Game-

This game is very simular to the one above but it uses math instead.

I would flip a number card (for Aaron) and a Math problem for Ethan (for example 2 + 2=) and they would run to get that number of object like, blocks books or balls etc.

Aaron would get the number of objects that matched Ethan would get the answer to the math problem.

These games got them up and moving and they really liked them.

Originaly done 8-6-2010