Big kid, little kid

I received a suggestion from a friend asking that I describe an activity that would foster both reading and relationships among siblings. Well, not in so many words, but that's the direction I'm going with it.

Let's suppose you have a pre-reader (we'll call her Frannie) and an early reader (we'll call him Will) in your home. There are several activities your children can do together that will introduce reading and phonemic awareness concepts to little Frannie while cementing those same concepts for big Will.

Nursery rhymes make great read alouds for siblings to share. Since Will probably has many of the rhymes nearly completely memorized, the reading task will not be too challenging or intimidating for him. Reading the same rhymes over and over to Frannie will help Will build his reading skills and speed while delighting his sister.

In turn, Frannie will be learning about the sounds that join together to make words. Nursery rhymes are a delightful way to learn how to identify the first sound in words "Wee Willy Winky" or listen for rhymes "Hickory, Dickory, Dock." Making up hand motions to go with the rhymes can add to the general fun and silliness all around.

Another activity for Will and Frannie involves scissors again. Use your computer and a basic word processing program to make a table of letters in different fonts. Here's an example, you'll want to make yours with more or fewer letters depending on your children, their level of patience, and your tolerance for messy paper clippings all over. Make sure that you include multiple forms of letters (check out the various lower case a's in the example screen shot).




Leave enough room between the letters for little hands to cut the letters apart. Then teach your children how to mix the letters up, then sort them. You'll need to do this activity with them the first time or two. After some practice with you, your children should be able to work together while you relax and catch up on Facebook. Ha! JK! You'll be making dinner while simultaneously doing a load of laundry and searching for something (I'm always searching for something).

First they can just sort the letters into A's, B's, C's, etc. Then you can have them separate lower case from upper case. My children like to find the "baby" for the "mommy" letter and match them up in pairs. When one set is mastered, you can move on to new letters, make the fonts trickier, or more letters to the mix.

I hope this is helpful, and I'd love to get any suggestions or questions you may have for a future post!

Fun with scissors!

Identifying the first sound in a word is an important skill for children to master. The first sound in a word is often the easiest for children to hear; however don't be surprised if your child answers the question "what does WORD start with" by repeating the last sound of the word rather than the first.

To help your child separate and identify the sounds in a word, there are several activities you can do. One of my favorites involves using scissors, old magazines, catalogs, and coupons. If you're attracted to the word "frugal" in the blog title, chances are you are a coupon clipper. Children love to cut, as many a mom has found out too late to save an unread copy of her favorite magazine!

The next time you are clipping coupons, give your child some safe scissors and a catalog or old magazine. Choose a sound, and have your child cut out pictures that start with that sound. Use a glue stick (another favorite of preschoolers) and glue the pictures to the back of a sheet of recycled paper.

Remember, the focus is sound, not letters. When we were cutting out pictures that started with the sound usually represented by J or "juh" recently, my daughter's page included a picture of a gymnast. Perfectly fine!

The first few times you do this, your child will probably need significant guidance. Choose more common sounds at first (k, s, m, b, d) which might mean not using your child's "special letter." After a few times, you'll find your child will become more independent, leaving you more time for efficient coupon clipping!

This activity is also an opportunity to develop your child's vocabulary. If your child is frustrated looking for pictures that start with the P sound, point out a picture of a dog and remind your child that a dog is also a pet.

So, tomorrow is Sunday, grab those coupons and start looking for sounds!