education Archives - Authentic Simplicity

For the past two years, I’ve been teaching in a summer camp at the school where I am a preschool teacher. Since I taught in summer camp, my kids tagged along with me and benefited greatly from the structured environment and the regular academic review (plus lots of time outside and plenty of fun activities).

This year, however, I’m not teaching summer camp in any official capacity… but I don’t want my kids to get bored! Neither do I want them to forget EVERYthing they learned in school this past year, so I feel that they need to be regularly reviewing basic concepts. Summer camp is the easiest way to address both problems, but I can’t exactly afford to sign them up for any programs available in our area.

Enter Summer Camp at Home! Now mind you, despite the fact that I teach for a living and lesson planning is actually one of my favorite parts… well, summer is summer. Ain’t nobody got time for that planning stuff. So this is my fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants, let-somebody-else-do-the-planning… and-the-cleanup… kind of summer camp.

Sound good to you? Yeah, thought so.

Here’s how we fill our time, have fun, and get in a little bit of education, too (while still leaving plenty of time to relax), without hardly any work on my part:

1.Reading, ‘Riting, and ‘Rithmetic

It’s so important to keep these basic concepts fresh in the mind throughout the summer, and it’s also super easy! It only takes about half an hour each day to do some simple worksheets, reading practice, and flash card review. I love to do creative, play-focused activities with my children and students, but in my opinion, these 3 subjects require plain old hard work (repetition and regular practice in applying the skills) in order to truly master them.

Try a few of these options:

Preschool and lower elementary grades can take advantage of the dollar store’s selection of basic workbooks. They’ll especially love the ones with Disney or other cartoon themes! My kids do a combination of phonics/spelling (depending on their level) and math workbooks every day, one page in each workbook. I’ve also picked up age-appropriate workbooks at their levels in thrift stores and at yard sales.
Free printables abound online! My K3-General Subjects Pinterest board has some great links on it; check out my othe
r Pinterest boards for more subject-specific printables.
Flash cards for many basic topics are also available at the dollar store: numbers, shapes, colors, letters, math facts, and more. You can use these flash cards to play lots of different games, as well.
Various websites offer customizable worksheets so your little summer students can focus on areas specific to their needs. Twisty Noodle is great for beginning writers, while the AtoZ Teachers website offers a handwriting worksheet generator for older writers. Math Fact Cafe is a great resource for creating math worksheets on any level. Starfall is one of the best online resources for teaching and developing reading skills.

2. Science & History Field Trips

Do you have any nature centers in your area? Trails to hike? Public gardens, zoos, animal parks, farms you can visit? All of these qualify for science study, and give your kids great hands-on experiences without a lot of planning or prep on your part. Many of these types of places often have special programs for kids that are cheap or free and provide an even more educational experience. If you’re willing to shell out a few more bucks, most cities have children’s museums and science museums with lots of great hands-on exhibits (and a relief from the summer heat).

My county (Fairfax County in VA) has a special program for kids that rewards them for visiting 8 of their 12 parks and nature centers, and many national/state parks have similar programs. Check out what your local state and national park programs have to offer!

I also plan to take my kids to nearby farms to pick fruit that’s in season throughout the summer, which adds another element to their science (and health and nutrition) education.

In addition to a wealth of science opportunities, we also live surrounded by Civil War battlefields and other historic areas. We also live within driving distance of Colonial era historic sites, like Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown and the like. On top of that, we can head into DC or Baltimore, MD (Fort McHenry!) anytime we want for a field trip as good as any they’d encounter anywhere! For those of you who live in the Metropolitan DC area (or are planning a trip this way), check out Specialicious for local deals on various activities. Also try Certifikid, which is available in 10 different cities around the country, and offers discount deals on all kinds of family-friendly activities, including local historic sites and more. Dealize is a great resource to help you find local group deals wherever you live.

My plan is to take my kids on two field trips each week - one science based, the other history based. You can fit it into your schedule however it works best for you!

3. Exercise

We play outside a lot, too, which has tons of obvious benefits besides being just plain old fun. For hot days, sidewalk chalk and bubbles under the shade are the way to go, at least until evening comes and we can run around a bit in the cooler air.

We also invest in an annual pass to the water park just down the street from us - it’s a wonderful way to cool down and have fun throughout the summer, and adds a vacation feel to our busy summer.

If you live near a Bowl America, consider their Summer Blast Pass, which offers free bowling games to kids all summer long. All you have to pay for is shoe rental.

Otherwise, we opt out of sports programs in the summer, preferring to keep our schedule on the slower side. You might find, though, that your little summer campers benefit from more organized sports programs - swimming lessons, perhaps, or participating in fun runs.

4. Arts & Crafts

If you’re not very artsy - see me raising my hand?- and/or you dislike cleaning up a mess made by little artisans - raising my hand again - then consider checking out local arts and crafts stores for their kids’ programs in the summer. Here are some that we’re going to try:

Michael’s has a kids’ art class program called Passport to Imagination with different themed activities each week. One class costs $5, 3 classes are only $12. Joanns has a program called “Little Makers” with different classes in various arts and crafts. Most of them are geared towards children 8 and older, some are designed for younger children, ages 5 and up. Also, most of their classes cost, some $20 or more, some $10 or less. If you have AC Moore near you, they have “Summer Fun Wednesday” classes from 1-3pm each Wednesday.
Home Depot and Lowe’s also have free kids’ workshops throughout the year.
The Lego Store also has a monthly Mini Model workshop where each attendee can build and take home a mini model. You have to register for these right away, though, as they are quite popular!
If cooking is more your thing, and you have one near by, try Williams-Sonoma’s free Junior Chef classes.
Microsoft stores and Apple stores have kids’ programs (ages 8 and up) for the more technologically-minded.

5. Fun & Relaxation

What’s summer without fun? I mean the kind of fun that doesn’t have any other purpose! I check out Facebook groups, local blogs and websites for links to free and cheap fun summer activities. Local libraries are also a great source of fun kids programs in the summer and all year long.

Here are some of the fun things we’ll be doing this summer:

Free/Cheap kids’ movies from several different local theaters. Regal Entertainment is one that offers $1 kids movies once or twice a week throughout the summer.
Downtime at home: we don’t have a lot of time during the school year to watch TV or play video games, so I let my kids have some free downtime during the summer to do those things.
Playdates: We’ve had a couple already and have scheduled a couple more. We are especially looking forward to spending more time with friends we don’t get to see as often during the school year.
We also hope to schedule a few day or weekend trips throughout the summer, just to relax and get away and “feel” like vacation.
And finally, when my husband and I go on a missions trip to … wait for it… Arkansas!… my in-laws will be watching The Boyz for a week, so they get a whole full week with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt, Uncle, & Cousins!

So how do you do summer at home? Do you continue school? Try to maintain structure to one extent or another, or just let the lazy summer days ride on by?

Sharing at Mommy Monday

Join me every week as I show you how me and my 4-year-old Certain Little Someone dosimple preschool at home.

No curriculum, no pressure, but lots of learning!

You’ll have to forgive me, but phonics is a subject about which I am quite passionate. Phonics and reading - the two can hardly be separated - are dear to my heart. Yes, dear to my heart. I know that’s weird, but it’s true. In my Kindergarten-teaching years, phonics was the subject that I absolutely loved to plan and schedule and teach teach teach. By the time my students graduated from my class, I wanted to be sure they were fully grounded in the basic workings of the letters and sounds of the English alphabet!

All the sounds. Not just the individual alphabet letters, but their combinations and how they work together to create all the sounds that we use in English. And you know what? Once you start breaking it down, it’s not nearly as complicated as it might seem. And it’s a lot more reliable than we often think. Sure, there are plenty of exceptions - English is famous for that! - but there are also plenty of dependable rules and phonograms that can be taught at a very young age.

And the best part is this - you don’t really need a curriculum! Any mom can teach her child how to read and spell by teaching phonics in a logical progression. Supplemental accessories like flash cards, worksheets, and basic reading books can be very helpful, but really, an entire curriculum is not essential at all.

The Goal of Phonics Instruction

The main goal of phonics instruction is actually two-fold: to learn to read, and to learn to spell. Teaching phonics in and of itself is almost a means of killing both those birds with one stone, but you have to teach it thoroughly. Good phonics instruction includes at least the following elements:

Identifying letters and groups of letters and associating them with their corresponding sounds
Isolating those sounds visually, aurally and orally
Manipulating those sounds to form new (or even nonsense) words, or rhyming words
Recognizing patterns, similarities, and differences in letter groups and words.

Basic Phonics Lesson Plan Structure

Each phonics lesson should include elements of these different abilities in order to thoroughly teach the sound in question to the child. This is my basic lesson plan for each new sound:

See The Sound/Say the Sound - using flash cards, written letters, or manipulatives to show the letter or group of letters that makes the sound. I demonstrate the sound and ask the child to repeat it.
Hear the Sound - say different words containing the sound either at the beginning, middle or end. Most words are familiar to the student, but I also try to throw in some new words to increase their vocabulary and sharpen their listening skills.
Read the Sound - the child reads the sound both separately and combined into words (as soon as reading skills are developed).
Make or Write the Sound - if a child is capable of writing, listening and dictating exercises can be performed during this section of the lesson. Pre-writing children can practice forming the sound themselves either in sand (contained in a small box) for individual letters, or by using letter tiles (or other manipulatives) to put together individual letters that form the sound in question.

Sample Phonics Lesson

Let’s say we’re learning the sound “SH”. Here would be a sample lesson:

I write an “S” and an “H” beside each other in the same color on a piece of paper (or whiteboard/chalkboard). I tell my Certain Little Someone that these letters have their own individual sounds when they are by themselves, but when they are beside each other, they work together to create a new sound. That sound is “SH”. I ask him to repeat that sound after me.
I then say a bunch of different words: ship, shine, dish, wash, push, etc, emphasizing the “SH” sound and drawing it out. I ask him to think of other words that start or end with “SH” (this skill develops later; he doesn’t do very well with it because he’s not quite 4 yet, but many kindergarteners have enough access to their vocabulary that they can do this well.).
Then we play some kind of game that helps him to differentiate between “SH” and other similar sounds like “CH”. For example, I ask him to hold up the “SH” flashcard high above his head if he hears “SH” in the word, but if he doesn’t hear “SH”, he should put the flash card on his lap or on the table. Then I say a list of words like: share, train, cheese, shop, etc.
I write words or phonograms (groups of letters/parts of words, for example “ash” or “sho”) for him to read and blend together.
For kindergarteners who know how to write, I would dictate words and ask them to write them correctly on a whiteboard or chalkboard. There are lots of different games to be played here as well, and different listening skills that can be applied to different sounds. My Certain Little Someone is still learning how to write, though, so we’re not here yet. Instead we do some kind of activity with manipulatives like letter tiles, where he puts together the right letters to form the sound we’re learning.

Sequence

That’s the basic plan for each individual lesson. This is the progression I developed over time that seemed to flow most naturally for my students:

Consonants - m, s, r, f, n, l, b, g, j, v, w, z, d, p, c, t, k, qu, x, h, y (Yes, there is a reason for going in just that order. I adapted it from Montessori.)
Vowels - a, e, i, o, u
CV Blends - ma, fe, do, etc AND/OR am, ef, od, etc. Follow the same progression of consonants above. Younger children require a lot more time on this step than older children. This step should be repeated until a child can see a CV blend and say the blended sound without sounding out.
CVC - Once a child is comfortable with the CV blends, add a final consonant (or initial consonant) to form short-vowel words, like cat, dog, etc.
Digraphs: sh, ch, th (voiced and unvoiced), wh, ck
Long Vowels - introduce orally first, w/o regard to spelling
CVCe - I call it the “Magic E” that transforms a short vowel into a long
Vowel Digraphs - ai, ay, ea, ee, ie, ie (one says “I”, the other says “E”), oa, oe
Consonant Blends - S blends (sc sk sl sm sn sp st), L blends (bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl), R blends (br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr), W blends (dw, sw, tw)
3-Letter Consonant Blends - shr thr, scr, spr, str, spl, squ
Diphthongs - aw, au, ew (and ue), ow (and long ow), ou, oo (long and short - moon, book), oi, oy
Phonograms - ang, ank, ong, onk, ung, unk, unc, ing, ink, and, ond, ind, ild, old, oll, all, al
R-Controlled Vowels - ar, er, ir, or, ur
Advanced Phonograms - aught, ought, ight, eigh,
Alternate Consonant Sounds - c-”s”, g-”j” (also dge), y-”i”, y-”e”
Silent Consonants - gn, kn, wr, mb
Suffixes -s, -es, -ing, -er, -or, -ed (It makes 3 different sounds “d”, “t”, “ed”), le, -ly, -ful, -ous, -tion, -sion, -ssion, -ture, -sure,
Advanced Consonant Digraphs - gh, ph, wh (h), ch (k), sch, chr
W- Controlled Vowels - wa, war, wor
Alternate Vowel Sounds - o (u), ou (u), ou (long u), ey (ay), ea (short e), ea (long a), ear (er), ear (air)
Contractions - n’t, ‘re, ‘s, ‘ve, ‘s (has), ‘d, ‘ll, ‘m, ‘s (us)
Prefixes - a-, al-, re-, pre-, en-, un-, in-, dis-, etc.

Clearly, once you get to a certain point along this path, the emphasis shifts from reading to spelling because the child will be perfectly capable of reading those sounds… but not necessarily capable of spelling them in all their different formats. It’s essential to teach all of these spellings individually and to learn when each one is used so that the child will eventually be able to spell the English language successfully. Let’s the the “long a” sound for example. It’s not just represented by an “a”. Long A can be spelled in any of the following ways:

ai (rain)
ay (way)
eigh (weigh)
ea (steak)
a_e (late)
ey (grey)
a (at the end of a syllable, like la-ter)
ei (rein)

See what I mean? But I found that my kindergarteners, if they were expressly taught each separate sound, quickly learned to differentiate between them and could also successfully spell words using each of these sounds when I dictated them.

Phonics Resources

Some great resources for teaching Phonics:

Phonics A to Z - This is the bomb- diggity for phonics resources. Not only does it thoroughly explain the intricacies of English phonetics, and how to teach them, it offers charts with examples, and lots of different teaching activities and games.

Phonics Pathways - It follows a slightly different progression from the one I outlined above, but it’s just as effective.

The authors of both the above books have written other helpful books as well, but those 2 are my favorite.

Next week, I’ll share how we do apply newly acquired phonics skills to reading! If you missed it, last week, I shared my preschool philosophy and our little homeschool corner.

I hope you enjoyed this little peek into my brain and into my passion for educating the little ones. I know I usually talk about food and other less mentally-intensive topics, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to talk about one of my favorite subjects of all time. Come back tomorrow for more of the same-old same-old!