My Simple Preschool: A Touch of “Unschooling”

November 8, 2012 By

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

No curriculum, no pressure, but lots of learning!

Having come from a very traditional schooling background with an emphasis on classical education and a splash of Montessori thrown in, “unschooling” really isn’t on my radar as an educational alternative for my children. However, I think there is great value in being intentional about discovering what interests and intrigues them, and then developing those interests in an educational setting.

That’s why, after Bible, Phonics, Reading, Handwriting, and Math, we have a subject I like to call “Other”. It’s very purposefully left vague so that we have the freedom to explore different topics of interest throughout the year without being restricted by a topic like “Science” or “Social Studies”. Preschool is the perfect age to explore a variety of subjects because children are like curious little sponges, always desirous of soaking up knowledge about the things that catch their eye.

The possibilities are literally endless, and depend entirely on your child’s interests and what is going on in your life at any given time. Here are some ideas of topics we’ve pursued and/or intend to pursue soon.

Holidays

You can incorporate holidays into the other subjects by choosing worksheets, games, and reading materials that reflect the holiday in question. But you can also choose to focus on the holiday a little more specifically, and learn about its history and the way it’s celebrated today. For example, Thanksgiving is coming up in the next couple weeks, so we’re going to spend some time learning about the Pilgrims and Native Americans and the First Thanksgiving. We’ll read some books, do some crafts, and focus on the quality of Thankfulness over the next week and a half.
Preschool Veggie Picking Field Trip

Science

Preschoolers are so curious about their world, and it’s a great time to take advantage of that curiosity and explore it in depth. Any number of scientific subjects can be taught at their level with field trips, books, movies, crafts, experiments, and more.

  • Animals - Kids LOVE animals. You can group animals by their habitat (farm, jungle, desert, etc.), or by their classification (mammal, bird, reptile, etc.). Or you can just start with whatever animal in particular your child loves and go from there. Your child will love to learn about things like life cycles (for example, egg-larva-caterpillar-pupa-butterfly), habitats, diets, and other aspects of the animal kingdom.
  • Weather & Seasons - We actually just wrapped up a “unit” (if you want to call it that!) about the weather and seasons, and My Certain Little Someone found it all very interesting. We learned about how the sun affects the seasons and weather, and about the water cycle. We learned about the four different seasons we experience in our hemisphere, and what kinds of weather to expect in those seasons. Since we were learning about autumn right when the season changed to autumn, we spent a good deal of time learning about why and how leaves change color, as well as some very basic scientific information about pumpkins and apples and how they grow. We also took the time to read a rather lengthy - but very interesting - book about Johnny Appleseed, which we both enjoyed very much.
  • Plants - So much can be taught and experimented with regarding the growth process of plants, especially flowering plants and those that produce fruits and vegetables. Hands-on opportunities abound with this subject, so much so that you could probably spend an entire school year focusing on this topic alone. Even if you’re not a green thumb (Hey, I understand!), you can still experiment with growing beans in a jar or planting seeds in eggshells. And if all else fails, plan a field trip to a local farm and learn about how food is grown!
  • Transportation - I don’t know about little girls, but both my boys are fascinated by any kind of transportation! Race cars, trains, plains, boats, motorcycles, trucks… you name it, they love it. We read books endlessly about them, but one of these days, I’m going to take some time to learn about some of the basic scientific aspects of how vehicles move. Like, for example, the fact that wheels are round. Or that planes have wings (and helicopters have blades). Or maybe why boats don’t sink (most of the time).

Community

By “community”, I mean the people and institutions that make our modern world go around: firemen and fire engines, the postal service (my Certain Little Someone went through a stage where he was VERY inquisitive about how mail got from one place to the other), farmers, police officers, traffic lights, etc. Most of our education about these matters has taken place outside the context of our school time, but we’ve intentionally taken advantage of opportunities like visiting a local firehouse at their open house, and taking a ride on a train in a nearby city, or visiting local farms during special events. And, of course, we read lots of books from the library about things like garbage collectors, and construction workers, and police officers. Lots and lots. Those are pretty hot topics for little guys, apparently!

Current Events

Some of my friends took the time during this past election season to teach their little ones the very basics of the American system of government and elections. Of course, there’s not a great deal a child this age can understand, but at this point, it’s mostly about introducing a subject to open the door to later learning. Other major events could include:

  • The Olympics - History, science, math. geography, and physical education can all come into play here. My Certain Little Someone was SO fascinated by the Olympics this past summer; he even developed an interest in Michael Phelps!
  • Natural Disasters - Hurricane Sandy, anyone? This is a great time to learn about extreme weather, as well as the importance of community and service to one another. Depending on where the disaster occurs, you can also teach some geography!
  • Local Events - Perhaps there’s a bicycle race in town one weekend, and it piques your child’s interest. Or maybe an Irish festival, or the county fair. Each such event is a great opportunity to expand your child’s knowledge about his world, if you just take the time to explore it in depth a little more.

montessori preschool world

Geography

By “geography”, I mostly mean getting a taste of different cultures, and creating an awareness that there is a great big world out there outside the limited experience of your child. Preschoolers are only just beginning to understand that whole concept, and maps and globes will mean very little to them. However, they will be fascinated by the dress, food, language, and customs of different countries, and it’s fun to teach, too!

Arts, Crafts & Music

Little kids love to get crafty! And learning to use scissors, tape, glue sticks, paint brushes, markers and crayons are all important fine motor skills that need to be developed. And the crafts do NOT have to be extravagant. You’d be amazed by the simplicity that delights a child!

Music likewise does not have to be anymore complicated than listening to music or singing children’s songs. Learning about different types of instruments would be very interesting to most little learners. Hey, you can even experiment with making your own instruments!

Art can also be explored at this age. Don’t be afraid to take your child to an art museum (just don’t expect their interest to hold for TOO long!), and point out some different types of art, like sculpture versus painting for example. Children have so much fun learning about primary and secondary colors, and experimenting with mixing them in different mediums. Read a children’s book like “Katie Meets the Impressionists” or watch the short movie “Linnea in Monet’s Garden“.

Literature

It’s not as stuffy as it sounds. Truly, the English language is blessed with a bounty of beautiful children’s literature that delights, fascinates and educates. Fairy tales, folk tales, tales of imagination and fancy, rhymes and poems… the possibilities are endless. In fact, I would say that it’s impossible for any child to experience the depth of English literature available to them. A few categories or genres stick out to me as excellent ones to explore during the preschool years:

  • Mother Goose - Rhyming is an important element of pre-reading development, and will aid in better reading, writing and spelling later on. Plus, you can have a lot of fun with these (frankly, rather odd) little ditties.
  • Jan Brett - Jan Brett is my favorite current children’s author because she intentionally reaches out to her audience and engages with them. She’s got all kinds of activities on her website that you can incorporate into your schooling. Plus, her books are so full of amazingly detailed drawings and whimsical characters that it’s hard not to be drawn into the stories whether you’re a child or an adult. (Although, I will say that my DH is not fond of her books. He says they have no point. And he has a point. But I still love them!)
  • Winnie the Pooh - I am going to be very firm with you here: NOT the Disney variety. Please. I beg you. The original is superior in every way: language, art, whimsy, and even humor. Winnie the Pooh has got to be one of my favorite classics of children’s literature, and I absolutely love A.A. Milne’s writing style. It might be a bit much for 3-year-olds, but my Certain Little Someone (who is 4 now) is capable of enjoying the real thing now, which makes me very happy.
  • Beatrix Potter - As I mentioned already, kids love animals, and Beatrix Potter’s stories are replete with adorable animal characters who are very relatable to small children.

The How-To

The only question remaining is, how do you go about teaching these subjects? Thankfully, that’s pretty easy. Don’t waste your time planning out lengthy lessons that will only bore your small child. Instead, choose one of the following activities to participate in each day on any given topic until you’ve exhausted your resources… or your child is exhausted!

  • Books - The library is where it’s at! The librarians at the children’s desk are always more than happy to help you find books on any given topic at your child’s level of understanding. Thankfully, these days, there is a picture book for just about any subject you might ever consider researching!
  • Crafts - A quick google (or Swagbucks) search will likely yield tons of craft ideas for any topic you desire. If all else fails, you are sure to find an appropriate coloring page somewhere!
  • Printable Worksheets - Likewise, workbooks, activity books and online printable worksheets abound on various topics, especially more popular ones like animals and plants. Scholastic is a great place to start.
  • Hands-On Activities and Experiments - For some subjects, this will be easier than others, but for the vast majority, you can probably come up with simple activities yourself. For example, when we were learning about fall, I cooked up a pumpkin, then cut it in half and we looked at the cross-section of the pumpkin and talked about the different parts inside the pumpkin. And of course, we ate some yummy pumpkin stuff! Remember, it doesn’t need to be complicated.
  • Field Trips - If at all possible, go to where the real action is. Experiencing something is the best way to learn about it!

I could go on and on about ways to enhance your child’s learning by taking advantage of his or her natural curiosity… but I think you get the general idea!

Other posts in this series:

Phonics-Phonics, Part 2-Reading-Reading, Part 2-Handwriting-Math-Days of the Week-Bible-“Other”

BundleoftheWeek.com, 5 eBooks for $7.40!

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My Simple Preschool: Bible

November 1, 2012 By

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

No curriculum, no pressure, but lots of learning!

We’ve covered Phonics, Handwriting, and Math in this series so far, but honestly? By far, the most important subject in our preschool homeschool is Bible. We begin each school session with prayer and a simple Bible lesson in an effort to establish a routine that honors God first and foremost. Truthfully, all true knowledge proceeds from God, so it just makes perfect sense to begin our learning by kneeling at His feet first.

In each Bible lesson, we read a Bible story or learn a Bible truth, and also commit Bible verses and truth to memory. We don’t necessarily follow a systematic approach - no curriculum, remember? - but we do use some tools to provide a sense of order and sequence to the process of learning.

In this post, I’ll share with you the tools I use currently or have used in the past, as well as some exciting new resources I’ve recently discovered.

 

Bible Knowledge

At this age, Bible stories are the most effective way to communicate Biblical truth. If those stories are combined with pictures, so much the better! Almost any children’s Bible or series of children’s Bible stories will work; in fact, for K3, our entire Bible curriculum consisted of the Sunday School papers my Certain Little Someone brought home every week! If your child attends a Sunday School class that includes lots of take-home papers, I think it’s a great idea to utilize them to reinforce at home what he’s learning in church. And since those Sunday School curriculums generally follow a progression of some sort, you don’t have to worry about coming up with your own system. (As the children get older, of course, they will require more systematic and thorough instruction, but I think it’s an ideal solution for the littlest ones.)

Other resources we have used (and continue to use) include:

The Beginner’s Bible

My First Study Bible - I love how this one gives some background to each book of the Bible, plus it introduces the main characters and authors. Each story also comes with a probing question, and includes some additional facts about the story.

The Child’s Story Bible by Catherine Vos - This one’s a classic, and for good reason! It’s ideal for slightly older children (at least 5 years of age), but it goes through the entire Bible in such beautiful language, I cannot help but include it here. You might think the language too stuffy for young children, but year after year, my class full of 5-year-olds sat enthralled through each story. And there were tears in every eye - including mine! - whenever we read of Jesus’ crucifixion and death.

Arch Books Bible Stories - This collection of rhyming Bible stories will engage younger children and still teach Bible truth. They are typically readily available in Christian bookstores on a rack in the children’s section.

The Jesus Storybook Bible - This is a favorite of many, although I don’t personally own a copy. Yet!

The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes - I grew up on this, and still have very fond memories of listening to the recording of it, as well as listening to my mom read it.

A is for Adam - We are currently working through this great resource from Answers in Genesis. It teaches the Gospel by telling the story of Creation and the Fall of Man through the use of alphabet rhymes. Admittedly, the rhymes are kinda cheesy, but my Certain Little Someone is enjoying memorizing them… and internalizing the truths they contain! Each letter of the alphabet and its rhyme come with an eye-catching picture and several different teaching and learning activities. We are working through it pretty slowly, one letter each week, in order to really have time to delve into all the truth that’s taught.

The Beginner’s Bible - This one is a favorite of My Certain Little Someone. We have an older edition, but we’ve worn it through! I think half the pages have fallen out, so it’s about time to invest in a new one.
Open Bible

Bible Memory

Small children are like sponges - now is the perfect age for them to commit all kinds of Scripture and doctrine to memory! You can choose one of several different systems to help you choose what Scriptures you want your child to memorize:

  • Character-Building Verses: Choose verses that focus on character qualities you want to instill in your child’s life. Wise Words for Moms is a great place to start.
  • Famous Passages: Now is the time to teach children lengthier passages of Scripture they will remember throughout their lives: The Lord’s Prayer, The Shepherd’s Psalm (Psalm 23), The Love Chapter (I Corinthians 13), The Armor of God (Ephesians 6), etc.
  • Coordinate with the Bible Study: Pull verses from whatever Bible stories you are working through.

Currently, my Certain Little Someone is in the AWANA program at our church, so those are the verses we work on throughout the week. We also work on the stories and activities in his book so he can get full credit for those.

We’ve also been working through a Baptist Catechism for Little Children, although we don’t do every single question. There’s a whole list of catechisms for children here if that one doesn’t suit your fancy.

Other posts in this series:

Phonics-Phonics, Part 2-Reading-Reading, Part 2-Handwriting-Math-Days of the Week-Bible-“Other”

BundleoftheWeek.com, 5 eBooks for $7.40!

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My Simple Preschool: Days of the Week Printable

October 26, 2012 By

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

No curriculum, no pressure, but lots of learning!

Last week, I confessed my ineptitude when it comes to math, and shared how I’m dealing with it by going really low-key throughout the pre-school years.

One thing I’m really focusing on this year is the concept of time: years (seasons), months, weeks, days, hours, minutes. Since I know how to tell time, this is a concept I can handle! Also, my Certain Little Someone had been asking me incessantly about things like days of the week, and what time it is and what time it will be when, etc. etc. After answering the same question approximately 1000 times in one day, I decided it was about time to teach him how to figure these things out for himself.

Like other aspects of math, time can be an abstract concept, so I knew I needed to visualize it in some way. In particular, he was very curious about the days of the week, so I started there and made a printable chart. I hung it up on his school magnet board, and as we go through the week, we rotate a round magnet through the cycle of days.

I’m sharing this printable with you in case you, too, have a curious little pre-schooler who wants to know what day it is today, what day it will be tomorrow, and the day after that and the day after that. You can hang it on your fridge or a bulletin board and use any kind of marker to keep track of the days - magnets, push pins, etc.

Click here to download the days of the week printable.

We also sing a little song to keep the days of the week in order. I keep it very simple, of course. (That’s how I roll, as you might have guessed.) It goes like this:

Sunday (C)

Monday (D)

Tuesday (E)

Wednesday (F)

Thursday (G)

Friday (F)

Sat. (E) Ur. (D) Day. (C)

Those letters in parentheses are the notes we sing in case you didn’t catch that! Really we just sing up and down a pentascale (5 notes in a row) - like I said, simple! It really helps my Certain Little Someone memorize the order of the days of the week.

And, of course, you don’t have to be home-schooling to benefit from this little tool! Just make it part of your morning routine so your little one can easily and quickly learn the days of the week.

Other posts in this series:

Phonics-Phonics, Part 2-Reading-Reading, Part 2-Handwriting-Math-Days of the Week-Bible-“Other”

BundleoftheWeek.com, 5 eBooks for $7.40!

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My Simple Preschool: Math

October 18, 2012 By

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

No curriculum, no pressure, but lots of learning!

I’m just gonna be honest and come right out with it: Math and I do not get along. We’ve kind of formed a truce over the past few years, but only as long as not too much of me is required in this relationship.

The basic stuff I can handle: counting, addition, subtraction, division and even long division on a good day. Anything beyond that, though, is really stretching it. Oh, wait, that’s not true! I am quite adept at figuring out percentages and decimals because those are required for bargain shopping. But anything beyond that is definitely a stretch.
Math
Thank goodness for Saxon math! It was a lifesaver for me in my Kindergarten-teaching years (I actually learned a few things from the Saxon I material. Yes, yes, I did!), and I have every intention of using it when my Certain Little Someone is old enough. I know for sure I simply cannot teach math in any sort of reputable fashion without some serious guidance; the very thought makes me feel all at sea!

Our Math Non-Curriculum

Which is why we’re being very relaxed about the whole thing in pre-school. I am not using a curriculum of any sort, and I’m not too terribly concerned about how much we do and do not learn. (“We” being the royal “we” this time. I’m actually pretty good at pre-school math now.) I think it’s too early to start a serious for-real math curriculum, personally. There’s time enough for that later on!

In fact, my goals for pre-school math are pretty basic. Here’s what I’m hoping we accomplish before he enters Kindergarten:

  • Counting to 100 (although I’m totally cool with counting to less than that. So far we’re pretty good up to 30, then it gets a little hairy.)
  • Understanding More or Less using manipulatives and objects (bonus if he grasps more and less with just abstract numbers, i.e. 7 is less than 8)
  • Counting Backwards 10-1
  • Skip-Counting (maybe)
  • Basic Concept of Addition (probably not going to start memorizing the facts until K5)
  • Shapes (good to go on this one)
  • Size (pretty good with this, too)
  • Patterns (getting very good at this now)
  • Basic Concept of Subtraction
  • Writing Numbers
  • Recognizing Number Words
  • Ordinal Numbers
  • Counting Objects
  • Calendar/Days of the Week/Months of the Year
  • Basic Concept of Time
  • Identification of Coins and their Value

Pumpkin Seed Math

Manipulatives, Manipulatives, Manipulatives

Since math can be a very abstract concept for little guys, it really helps to use objects they can handle and touch and count when learning various aspects of math. You don’t even have to buy any fancy sets of linking cubes or geometric shapes or what-have-you. Look around your house, and chances are, you have some awesome manipulatives just sitting around waiting to be used:

  • Legos (or Duplos) - I use mine over and over and over again. One thing I learned from Saxon math is to build towers with the Legos: Keep them all the same size and build them only as high as ten blocks. Once you get to 10, start with a new tower. This teaches counting and place value all at the same time. These towers can also be used to learn addition and subtraction. Plus, since the Legos come in different colors, you can do sorting and grouping activities as well.
  • Beans - The larger and more sturdy the bean, the better, but any will do.
  • Dry Pasta
  • Raisins - Practice subtraction! “If you eat one, how many are left?”
  • Magnets
  • Army Men

You get the picture. Any kind of object that comes with multiples (hey, how’s that for a good math word?!) is fair game for use as a manipulative.

Math is Everywhere

Don’t forget that math plays a large part in everyday life, and all you have to do is draw a little attention to it. Here are a few examples:

  • Cook together in the kitchen and learn about measurements and time.
  • Time different activities, like cleaning up. Look at the clock and point out what time it is now, then say “At such-and-such a time, we will do XYZ. Let me know when the clock says such-and-such.” (Insert real times where you see such-and-such. Please.)
  • Give your child opportunities to pay (with real cash, not cards!) at grocery stores and the like. Also, make sure your child has a piggy bank, and when you find spare change around the house, help him or her identify what kind of coin it is and how much its worth, then place it in the piggy bank.
  • Make your child do simple but fun mathematical activities. For example: ask your child to help set the table, and give him 3 napkins. Say, “How many napkins do you have? How many people need a napkin? Four? OK, how many more napkins do we need to get?”
  • Counting practice can be done pretty much anywhere and everywhere with anything.

Resources

Other posts in this series:

Phonics-Phonics, Part 2-Reading-Reading, Part 2-Handwriting-Math-Days of the Week-Bible-“Other”

BundleoftheWeek.com, 5 eBooks for $7.40!

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My Simple Preschool: Handwriting

October 11, 2012 By

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

No curriculum, no pressure, but lots of learning!

If Phonics and Reading are my favorite subjects, then Handwriting is my least favorite. I have come to the conclusion that handwriting is rarely fun for either teacher or student! Sure, there are ways to reduce the pain, but in the end… it’s just not fun. It’s more work than any other scholarly subject, and there’s no way around that.

Handwriting - free texture
Because of that, I keep handwriting lessons short and sweet. Very short, and as sweet as possible.

And I teach cursive first.

“Say what?” I hear you ask. Yep. Cursive first!

The Philosophy

Think about it for a second: what on earth is the point of teaching manuscript, if, 3 years later, you’re going to force the child through an agonizing process to learn how to write all over again, completely frustrating the child to no end and, furthermore, totally undoing all your hard work teaching him or her to write in the first place. I’m a simple girl, and that just doesn’t make sense to me.

When my kids were babies, I loved the book “The Baby Whisperer”, and in that book, the author repeats a phrase quite often that goes like this: “Start as you mean to go on.” This is such wise advice with lots of applications, and it fits perfectly with the whole handwriting situation. If you want your child to know how to write cursive, well then, start with cursive.

“But”, I hear you ask, “BUT! Isn’t there a good reason for teaching manuscript in the first place?”

The short answer: No.

The long answer: Until the 1930′s, children in the United States were always taught cursive from the get-go. Manuscript was not even considered because people didn’t write in manuscript; they wrote in cursive. Why try to teach a child to write in a way that nobody else wrote? In the thirties, the “whole-word” or “whole-language” method of reading instruction (otherwise known as sight reading) swept through the nation and among its casualties was the cursive method of handwriting. The thinking went something like this: children will confuse cursive letters with the printed letters in their reading books, and will delay their reading instruction.

It seems like a valid point, doesn’t it? Not really. Children had no problems differentiating between printed and cursive letters for hundreds of years prior to 1930, and they still don’t have any problems. There are no studies - that I am aware of - that were used to prove that learning printed letters for reading and cursive letters for writing ever hindered a child’s ability to read or write. It was just a guess based on faulty logic, and unfortunately, generations of children have been forced to struggle through the process of learning not only one, but TWO, systems of writing.
Layer Texture Paper With Handwriting
Furthermore, it’s actually easier for children to write in cursive than it is for them to write in the “ball-and-stick” format. This was proven to me over the course of many years as I banged my head in frustration attempting to teach children to begin forming their letters from the top, and, for goodness’ sakes, to PICK UP YOUR PENCIL before you form the next line!!! Oh yes, I remember that frustration quite well!

See, for children, their natural tendency is to begin a stroke from the bottom, which is where the majority of cursive letters begin. Their other natural tendency is to keep the pencil on the paper to create one continuous stroke until the letter is done, which, again, is how cursive letters are formed. The “ball and stick” or manuscript method requires children to begin strokes at the top and to lift up the pencil between each stroke in order to form neat letters, which feels completely unnatural to the child. Also, consider what kind of strokes a toddler makes when they first pick up a pencil or pen: scribbly lines and loops that closely resemble cursive writing. It just comes more naturally to the hand.

My frustrating years of teaching handwriting with the ball and stick method only intensified my determination to teach my own child cursive first. Mind you, it’s still not easy, as I have already established. It’s a fine motor skill that takes years to develop, so in the beginning, it’s essential to go very slowly and make sure your expectations are reachable.

The Process

We don’t yet use a curriculum for handwriting, mostly because the ones that teach cursive are few and far between, but we do use a few tools, and we are working systematically through the process, beginning from the easiest point possible.

Our handwriting training began when he was a toddler, and I gave him plenty of opportunities to use crayons and pencils without instruction on my part. Just getting used to holding a pen or crayon is part of the process, and sometimes you have to make sure it happens.

When we started doing official “preschool” work at the age of 3, we stuck to lines and never even once tried letters. I found tons of printable worksheets online that contained tracing lines (straight ones, squiggly ones, angular ones, all kinds of lines!) for pre-schoolers to practice their writing skills. At this point, I still didn’t worry too much about the proper position for holding the pencil, because frankly, holding the pencil properly was too difficult for him. If he did hold it properly, he couldn’t write very well anyway, so I never enforced a proper hand position at that age.

We also did letter-forming exercises without a pencil. There are a lot of ways you can do this:

  • Felt letters - trace them with the fingers
  • Sand or Salt box - fill a box with salt or sand and trace letters in the sand/salt with the fingers
  • Ketchup bag - fill a zippered plastic bag with ketchup and seal it well, making sure air is removed, then trace letters on the outside of the bag, pushing through the ketchup so the letter will show clear
  • Sandpaper letters - same idea as the felt letters, but with sandpaper.

In K4, our handwriting instruction has become more intentional, but it’s still moving very slowly. Here’s the process we’re following:

  1. Begin with elements of cursive: loops, swirls, circles, etc.
  2. Begin on a whiteboard, chalkboard, or paper without lines. Just practice making loops, swirls, and circles.
  3. Use large lined paper, with at least an inch of space for children to write the letters. At this point, begin giving them a frame of reference regarding size and proportion. Letters begin on the bottom line and either stretch up to the dotted line or all the way to the top line.
  4. Almost all handwriting at this point is done by tracing, with the opportunity for the child to practice their own samples once or twice after completing the tracing.
  5. Keep practicing the elements, and introduce some of them as letters: a tall skinny loop is “l”, a circle is “o”.
  6. Keep tracing! Introduce all the letters.
  7. Keep tracing, but increase the opportunities for the child to draw their own samples.
  8. Reduce the line size as the child gains confidence.
  9. Practice, practice, practice some more.

Since I’m not using a curriculum, I just write the letters myself and have my Certain Little Someone trace over them with his pencil. Sometimes I will start the letter (or part of a letter, like a loop) and have him finish it by himself. At every lesson, I give him an opportunity to write his own letters, but he gets frustrated easily by his inability, so I don’t push it. He will learn to write soon enough!

Resources

When it comes right down to it, all you need to teach handwriting is a pencil and a piece of paper. But these other supplies (and even curriculums) will come in handy:

 

Other posts in this series:
Other posts in this series:

Phonics-Phonics, Part 2-Reading-Reading, Part 2-Handwriting-Math-Days of the Week-Bible-“Other”

BundleoftheWeek.com, 5 eBooks for $7.40!

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My Simple Preschool: Reading Pt. 2

October 4, 2012 By

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

No curriculum, no pressure, but lots of learning!

Last week, I shared with you my method for teaching reading, and I thought that I would show you a practical example of a preschool reading lesson in action.

Of course, I don’t want to bore you to tears, so it’s really just a snippet from 2 or 3 lessons, but it should be enough to give you an idea of how a typical lesson goes.

The books he’s reading are from the BOB Books series, which I mentioned in my post last week.

You may also have noticed the notebook, which is an integral part of our phonics and reading lessons. I essentially use the notebook in lieu of a whiteboard or chalkboard. In the particular lesson we were working through, my aim was to help him differentiate between the different digraphs “sh”, “ch”, “th”, as well as the individual letters “s” and “t”. Visual discrimination between the different sounds is an essential element in reading, so in this exercise, the ending letters were all the same - “-in”, and the beginnings were all the different sounds we were working through. This is the sort of exercise I like to write in his notebook.
Other posts in this series:

Phonics-Phonics, Part 2-Reading-Reading, Part 2-Handwriting-Math-Days of the Week-Bible-“Other”

BundleoftheWeek.com, 5 eBooks for $7.40!

4 Comments Filed Under: At Home, Children, Knowledge, On My Mind Tagged With: ,

Simple Preschool: Reading

September 26, 2012 By

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

No curriculum, no pressure, but lots of learning!

Reading is a natural extension of phonics. You won’t get too far in the phonics instruction before you naturally start to blend the sounds together to form words. And it doesn’t take a genius, or even an expert, to instruct young children in the art and science of reading English. It doesn’t even really require any special curriculum or equipment. It just takes a patient person who already knows how to read English and can follow a few simple steps.

First Things First

The first step to reading is learning the alphabet and the primary sound of each letter (for example, for the letter “g” I would first teach the hard g sound - as in goat). Once your child has these sounds down, they can start blending them. And blending is the beginning of reading.

To begin with, you’ll want to blend one consonant with one vowel. You can go one of two ways: put the consonant first, or put the consonant last. There are pros and cons to each method.

If you start with the consonant, you end up with blends like “ma”, “fi”, “ju” and the like. These blends are a great jumping point to blend into words - if he can read “ma” easily, all he has to do is add a consonant to the end to form a word like “map” or “mat”. The main problem with this is that those blends do not follow the basic rules of English phonetics. Technically, a syllable that ends in a vowel typically makes the long sound and not the short sound (for example: ta-ble, ci-ta-tion). The other problem is that the majority of phonics curriculums and available worksheets do not use this blending method, so you’re almost on your own when it comes to supplementary materials.

A more popular method with many is to teach blending with a final consonant, thus creating “word families”. For example: “an” can be turned into a multitude of other words like “can”, or “fan” or “pan” with the addition of an initial consonant. This is more consistent with the rules of phonics, but it’s not as intuitive when it comes to actual reading. The child almost has to read backwards in order to blend together a word using this method, because they have to identify the rime (the ending phoneme, such as “-an” or “-am”) before then adding the onset (the initial consonant sound) to it.

I’ve done it both ways, and in my opinion, it’s easier for the child to turn a beginning blend into a word than it is to use the onset and rime/word family method. It may not be 100% phonetically accurate, but hey! They’re not learning syllabication yet, so it’s no big deal. By the time they do get around to learning syllabication, they will have forgotten that they used to say “ma” “me” “mi” “mo” “mu” with short vowels.

Add the Final (or Initial) Consonant

No matter which way you choose, stick to it. And once the child is comfortable reading those word parts (whether “ma” or “am”), begin adding final or initial consonants, blending them together as you do. It’s helpful to start out with consonants that can be stretched, like “m” or “n”, and the like: “mmmmmm…ap”, for example.

Spend a looonnngggg time on this step, until the child is very comfortable with it. Within the context of what we call “CVC” (3-letter short vowel) words, you can explore a lot of concepts, like rhyming. You can make up silly words if you want, too!

At this point, you can also start reading through very simple early readers, beginning with books that have fewer than 5 words on a page with some pictures to catch the eye and the interest of a little one. See the bottom of this post for resources and my personal recommendations.

Onward and Forward

Once your child has mastered the basic idea of blending, then it’s just a matter of giving them opportunities to blend each new sound they learn into words. Following the Phonics progression I mentioned a couple weeks ago, just incorporate each of those new sounds into words and then give them books with those more advanced sounds.

Punctuation

While true English grammar education doesn’t start for another year or two, it is essential to teach a few basics of punctuation that will aid in reading. It’s not necessary to devote a great deal of time to these; just explain what their purpose is and what they are called.

Periods are like stop signs: they tell us when the sentence ends. We always pause when we come to a period, and our voice falls.

Question marks mean a question is being asked. It also means the end of a sentence, but this time the voice rises at the end.

An exclamation point also indicates the end of a sentence (note, by the way, that both question marks and exclamation points contain a period), and means that we should read it with excitement!

Quotation marks mean someone is speaking, and this is what they said.

A comma is just a way to separate lists of words.

Those are the basic punctuation elements a child will encounter in early reading, and there’s no need to get anymore involved than that.

Sight Words

I mentioned sight words in my post about Phonics, but just wanted to remind you here that they are an essential element of learning to read. Drill a few of them every day, and don’t insist on your child sounding them out (Have you ever tried sounding out “the”? Yeah, doesn’t work.). If they forget what it is, just remind them. Eventually, they will remember on their own.

Fluency, Expression, and Comprehension

It’s not enough to be able to read the words. The words must be read fluently, with good expression and understanding on the part of the reader.

Fluency involves practice. And more practice. And then a little bit more practice. Read, read, read, read, read. And then read some more. This process might take years, so relax, and don’t try to force it. Just keep doing it.

Expression should be encouraged from the very beginning. Nobody likes to listen to a dull monotone voice reciting a story! At first, just re-read what your child read with excitement and appropriate expression in your own voice, then give them a chance to do the same. Eventually, they’ll get it, but if not, prod them a little more firmly. Say at the start of the reading session that you would like to hear some good expression as they read, and insist upon it. Also model good expression whenever you are reading aloud to your child (which you should do every day!).

Comprehension does not come easily to some children. The best way to encourage comprehension as they read is to ask questions as the story goes along. In the beginning, since the stories are so basic, the questions might seem inane or just plain dumb. But just because it seems obvious to you doesn’t mean that the child grasped it - it could be he was concentrating so hard on reading accurately that he didn’t pay attention to the meaning of the words. Ask questions after every reading session and explain anything your child doesn’t understand. As reading skills improve, so will the comprehension.

Resources

The Bob Books are great for pre-schoolers.

A Beka Book also has excellent readers for young children in their K4 and K5 curriculums. They have a lot of overlap, too, as far as ability and level of reading, so if you get a complete set, you’ll have lots of options for every stage.

Modern Curriculum Press has sets of readers that are organized by the different types of phonics sounds the children will encounter in the stories. These are more advanced, though. Very good for advanced K4 students later in the year, or for K5.

Primary Phonics Readers are very much like the Bob Books, and excellent for young students.

McGuffey’s Primer is a classic that is best for K5 students. It moves pretty quickly, although it starts out with very basic words.

The Victory Drill should be started as soon as a child can easily read CVC words. You can follow the instructions that come with the book or you can devise your own method of using it. At any rate, have the child read through portions of it every day. At the beginning, one column will suffice. As they get older, they’ll be able to read an entire page in a minute or less.

Explode the Code - I have heard very good things about this program, but I don’t have personal experience with it.

Phonics Pathways - You could probably teach reading with just this book alone. An excellent resource!

Other posts in this series:

Phonics-Phonics, Part 2-Reading-Reading, Part 2-Handwriting-Math-Days of the Week-Bible-“Other”

BundleoftheWeek.com, 5 eBooks for $7.40!

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My Simple Preschool - Phonics Part 2

September 19, 2012 By

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

No curriculum, no pressure, but lots of learning!

Last week, I discussed in detail my approach to teaching phonics throughout the preschool years (and into kindergarten), but I realized I left out a few important details. So here are a few important details that I must mention.

Drill, Baby, Drill

I cannot say this often enough: just like math facts, the phonics sounds must be drilled incessantly until they are internalized. Incessantly. My Certain Little Someone drilled the alphabet every single day of school for the entire K3 year, and he’s still drilling it every day this year. He probably will for most of K4 and the beginning of K5 as well. If these sounds are not internalized, learning has not been fully accomplished.

I follow a particular pattern when reciting drills, and in the pre-school years, the drills are always accompanied by flash cards that contain both the letter and a key picture (i.e., a zebra for the letter “z”). For the alphabet sounds, we flip through the alphabet flash cards, and say this:

  • A says “a”, “a”, alligator. (for very young children, you can just point and say, “a”, “a”, “alligator”)
  • B says “b”, “b”, bear.
  • Etc.

For the other phonics sounds, which are usually made up of a combination of letters, we follow this pattern:

  • First we name the letters (for example - S, H)
  • Then we say the sound they make (“sh”) twice
  • Then we say the key word (“shoe”)
  • For example: S - H- “sh” “sh” shoe

I like to get into a rhythm so that it’s kind of like a chant. If it gets boring, I change it up by reducing or increasing the volume (i.e., whispering or shouting), crouching down or reaching up high, using a different tone of voice, etc.

I generally drill each new set of sounds (digraphs, blends, etc.) daily for at least a few weeks. After that, I reduce the frequency, but keep them in the rotation. Each day, we drill several sets of sounds. (I keep each set of flash cards separate so they can be drilled individually.)

Worksheets

There are plenty of worthy experts who will tell you that phonics worksheets are pointless at best and detrimental at worst. I disagree. I am not an expert, but my common sense suggests that practical experience is necessary in the process of internalizing the phonics elements and rules the children are learning. Because phonics and reading involve written letters, I think worksheets are a valuable resource in helping them apply what they have learned. Worksheets might not be so useful in other subjects, but I think they are very important in phonics and spelling.

Of course, I’m not suggesting that worksheets take the place of instruction and more active educational activities. Not at all! But a well-chosen worksheet can enhance a phonics lesson and help cement different sounds and patterns in a child’s mind.

A good worksheet will help a child develop visual and aural discernment. It will require him or her to differentiate between different sound patterns as they are written and as they are heard. For example, it might ask the child to circle all the instances when the written sound “ph” occurs in a list of words. This helps the child isolate “ph” as a separate unique sound within a word full of other letters and sounds. It’s a very useful tool in training the eye. A similar exercise can be done with pictures containing certain sounds and asking children to identify particular sounds in one way or another. For example: circle all the pictures of words that start with the sound “b”.

Phonics workbooks and worksheets abound! It seems like even grocery stores carry basic phonics and math workbooks that you can use to supplement your child’s phonics instruction. Of course, not all of them are worth the money you spend on them; make sure the pages contain meaningful activities (and accurate phonetic sounds as well! It irritates me when workbooks and worksheets use the word “orange” to illustrate the sound “O” makes. In that word, the “o” goes with the “r” and cannot be isolated, so it’s a terrible choice to illustrate “o”. Similar issues exist with other letters.).

Also, you can find phonics worksheets all over the internet with just a simple Google search. The benefit of those is that they are free!

Unfortunately, you will find that once you get past the alphabet and some of the very basic sounds, the number of available worksheets reduces dramatically. So you may want to consider making your own simple worksheets. I’ve made lots of worksheets just using Microsoft Word and very basic graphics and images. Once you’ve seen a few phonics worksheets and workbooks, you’ll have a pretty good idea of the types of activities that work best, and you can just apply those ideas to each individual sound that you are focusing on.

Games

I touched on this briefly in my post last week, but I want to emphasize that phonics learning should be fun. Playing simple games will help! The games can be as simple or as fancy as you like - as you know, I like to keep things simple, so that’s what we do.

Here are a few basic game ideas that my students and My Certain Little Someone have enjoyed:

  • Use a timer to complete a certain task, such as matching up upper-case and lower-case letters. Reward the student with a sticker or similar small prize if the task is completed on time.
  • The basic idea of the game “Memory” can be applied in all sorts of ways - create sets of cards that are either the same (two cards with the same phonics sound) or go together (like the phonics sound - “ch” - on one card, and a picture that goes with that sound - chair - on another); place the cards upside down and proceed to play Memory!
  • Ask the child to complete an action (clap his hands, jump, stand, or sit) when you say a word with a specific sound. Then say a whole bunch of words, some with the sound, some not. Be sure to go slowly enough that he or she has time to respond.
  • Play “I Spy” with a sound - see if you can spy different items around the room (or in a book) that contain the sound in question.

Get Physical

Boys especially will benefit from any kind of physical activity that goes along with the phonics lesson. I should know, because I had a majority of boys in every single Kindergarten class I taught! And they were some active boys, let me tell you! We did a lot of moving around during every lesson, but especially in Phonics class.

Some fun movement ideas:

  • When reciting phonics drills, make it a little more exciting by adding hand motions, like a cheerleader waving pom-poms. Jumping or marching in place also work. Keep the motions consistent across the board so that it doesn’t add any confusion.
  • Write letters in the sky as you learn them.
  • Form letter shapes with your body.
  • Incorporate movement into phonics games (see above).

Sight Words

Sight words go more with reading I guess, but I always teach them during the phonics lesson. Some words in the English language (like “the”) cannot be decoded because they don’t follow the phonics “rules”, and/or they are used so often that learning them by rote is more beneficial than learning to decode them. I don’t particularly care for the most popular list of sight words because it includes a lot of words that either can be easily decoded or don’t need to be learned until they can be decoded. Here’s my own (far from comprehensive!) list in the approximate order I like to teach them:

  • a, an, the
  • in, it, is
  • and
  • I, my, mine
  • do, to, so
  • this, that, then
  • there, their
  • you, your
  • does
  • these, those
  • say, says
  • etc.

There are a lot more words that can and should be taught as sight words, but those are the essential ones for beginning readers.

Teaching sight words is mostly a matter of drilling the words by sight. You can also play games with them (see the above list for some ideas) and employ other creative methods of reviewing them, but it should be a relatively small part of the phonics lesson.

Resources

Teachers Pay Teachers Free Downloads - TPT is an awesome website that consists of content created entirely by actual teachers. This link directs you to the catalog of free downloadable worksheets, eBooks, and other activities, but they also have a lot of similar content available at a cost. You can see samples before you purchase to make sure it’s worth the money you will spend. I’ve gotten lots of great resources from this site.

Printable Preschool Pack Resources - Many amazing home-schooling (and school teachers, too) moms offer up their printable worksheets to the rest of us for free! This list is the best of the best (note that these are not all phonics, but they all include letter sounds to one degree or another).

Alpha-Bites - ideas for introducing each letter of the alphabet in a variety of creative ways

Phonetic Flip Chart - Create your own (super cheap!) flip chart that allows your child to practice blending different sounds and words. The example shown is for 3-letter (CVC) words, but the idea can be adapted to any kind of word!

Sight Word Ideas - Teach sight words in creative ways.

Follow my School Ideas Pinterest Board for even more resources!

Other posts in this series:

Phonics-Phonics, Part 2-Reading-Reading, Part 2-Handwriting-Math-Days of the Week-Bible-“Other”

BundleoftheWeek.com, 5 eBooks for $7.40!

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My Simple Preschool - Phonics

September 12, 2012 By

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!

Other posts in this series:

Phonics-Phonics, Part 2-Reading-Reading, Part 2-Handwriting-Math-Days of the Week-Bible-“Other”

BundleoftheWeek.com, 5 eBooks for $7.40!

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Interesting reads