Emergent Literacy and Beyond

I originally wrote this post for Because Babies Grow Up as part of a series on emergent literacy. Stop by Because Babies Grow Up to read  some great information about encouraging your child’s development.

Becoming a literate person is a big undertaking, and the early years are the time to lay a firm foundation. Throughout this series on emergent literacy you have read about some specific skills needed to read and write well and learned that it takes lots of practice to master those skills. In this post I’d like to sum it all up.

The most important thing that you can do to help your child learn to read and write is to simply reading good literature to your child from birth through the teen years. There is so much that you share with your child during those special times spent reading together. Your oral reading helps your child hear the rhythm of the language and the intonation used in reading. You also serve as a model for what expert readers do and how they solve problems when they read. Since your child naturally wants to mimic you in the early years, reading aloud is a great time to inadvertently (or even intentionally) teach your child about reading.

What behaviors are you modeling for your child as an expert reader? Just think of all that you do when you are reading aloud. If you misread a word in a sentence, you correct yourself when you realize that the word did not make sense, and you use the context to figure out the meaning of certain words. You make predictions as you read, too. You even reread excellent books because you get something new from those books each time you read them. The next time you read aloud, think about all that you actually do when you read.

As you model these skills, you can also explicitly share them with your child when you read aloud to him/her. When you and your little one snuggle together and read, talk about the book and ask questions.

“Those words rhyme.”

“I love this author (book).”

“I wonder what will happen next.”

“Have you ever felt like that?”

I cannot stress enough how important it is to read to your child . The time you invest in reading aloud to your child is time well spent. Enjoy it!

Photo courtesy of luiginter

Summer Vacation Planning

Summer is approaching and lots of families are planning vacations, and it is truly a wonderful idea to travel with your children. Go to Playground for Parents to read an excellent guest post by Renee from Mothers Raising Boys on why it is such a great idea to take your kids on trips. Even though travel with your kids can be difficult, you can be successful.  Here are some tips to improve your chances of having fun together while you travel.

Photo courtesy of twodolla

~Pack carefully for the traveling part of your vacation. Kids get bored easily in the car or on a plane. Here are a few things to take with you:

-A DVD player with a few movies your kids never get to see is a great thing to pack with you. It can provide much needed peace and quiet.

-Audio books and headphones can keep kids of all ages entertained for a while. You can also pick an audio book that the whole family will like.

-Lacing cards are a fun way to keep little ones’ hands busy. They don’t require a lot of supplies . Plus lacing cards help your children improve fine motor skills and hand/eye coordination.

-Take a trip to the local Dollar Store and fill a bag with cheap toys. The kids will like the fact that they are new. You won’t care if they get lost.

-A fun retro idea is to give your kids a Rubix cube. It’s compact and won’t make a mess. It will keep your kids’ attention and will keep those hands busy.

-Mad Libs are a fun and educational activity for the whole family. Everyone will have a few laughs!

-I give the kids gum. It keeps them happy!

-Little kids love lift-the-flap books. They keep small hands busy and little minds engaged.

-Create a scavenger hunt for your kids. You can use the printable lists found on MomsMinivan, too.

Photo courtesy of Andy and Tracy Sidesinger

~Be realistic about what you can do on your trip. PLAN!

-Young children get tired and cranky, so plan the things that you absolutely don’t want to miss for early in the day.

-Discuss lunch and dinner options before you head out for the day. You don’t want to have that discussion while the kids are melting down and you are famished.

*Remember to bring healthy snacks with you. You’ll save money, and the kids will have good food to fuel them throughout the day. Avoid the sugar crash!

*Don’t forget to bring water for the whole family – including you. Staying hydrated will make everyone happier and healthier.

-Bring a change of clothes for the little ones in case of an accident.

-Bring sunblock, hats, and sunglasses.

-Pack a map. It can save you!

-Let the kids help you decide on activities for the day.

-Plan for a place to meet up at a certain time if someone gets lost.

~Remember that your vacation is supposed to be FUN for everyone. If you aren’t having fun, then you need to change something!

Make some memories this summer!

A Traditional Literature Theme: Tall Tales

Continue your Traditional Literature study in your homeschool with Tall Tales. These stories are short, fun, and engaging. If your children are resistant to reading, Tall Tales can be a great way to capture their interest.

~You can find copies of American Tall Tales here. There are also comprehension quizzes on this site.

~You can find a unit study on Tall Tales at German Town Academy.

~Tall Tales fit into a unit of study on the westward expansion. You can find general information about America in the 1800’s at this website. You will also find a host of educational resources at this website.

~Some Tall Tales are based on actual people. You can have your children research the lives of the Johnny Appleseed and Davey Crockett and compare the facts they find to the exaggerations in Tall Tales.

~You can make a lapbook on Johnny Appleseed. Homeschool Share has a free one.

~Have your children write their own Tall Tales. Remember to include exaggeration in the tales. Illustrations would complete the stories.

Photo courtesy of cliff1066

A Traditional Literature Theme: Fairy Tales

Are you studying traditional literature in your homeschool? You can engage your children in this study by diving into Fairy Tales and adding a twist to the learning experience.

• Your children might enjoy reading several versions of the same fairy tale. It is common to do a study on the Cinderella stories and compare the different versions of the tale. You can find a great lesson plan at EDSITEement. Write or act out the story from a different character’s point of view. You can even have your children write their own version of a fairy tale but from as if it is from a different culture. Research a particular culture thoroughly first and require that the story include information about that culture in the story.
• Add fractured fairy tales to your study. Read the “original” version of a tale and compare it to the fractured version. There are many great fractured fairy tales available now such as The Fourth Little Pig, Just Ella, Sleeping Ugly, and The Paper Bag Princess. Then have your children write their own fractured fairy tales. You can even incorporate persuasive essays in your study. Your children can write from the antagonist’s point of view explaining why s/he was wronged.
• Since many fairy tales were collected by the Brothers Grimm in an effort to preserve German folklore, you can do a research project on Germany.
• Study Hans Christian Anderson’s life and fairy tales. (Beware that his tales do not always have happy endings.) You can also learn about Holland since Andersen was Dutch.

Photo courtesy of g.naharro

A Traditional Literature Theme: Nursery Rhymes & Fables

March is a month filled with inspiration for themes for learning in your homeschool. This month many people will be taking advantage of St. Patrick’s Day. Perhaps you don’t want to read all about Irish history and culture, but you can twist that theme and read traditional literature instead – myths, folktales, fairy tales, fables, and legends.

My Favorite Author is using this theme this month, too. Stop by that blog for interviews with authors and reviews of books related to this theme. “What can you do with a traditional literature theme?” you ask. It is one of my favorite literature studies because it is truly a rich topic. Today I am sharing a few ways to engage your children in this study with Nursery Rhymes and Fables:

Photo by aturkus

Nursery Rhymes

Nursery Rhymes are very short, funny, poetic stories. They are often historically and politically significant.

• Your little ones can participate in this study by reading Nursery Rhymes. These funny rhymes build phonemic awareness and are easily
  memorized. Have your little ones choose a few to commit to memory.
• Make and Break words from the rhymes. Use words such as Jill/hill, down/crown. Use the onsets and rimes to build new words (spill, fill, mill, bill).
• You can have your children illustrate several Nursery Rhymes and bind them into a book. Those illustrations are a great way to teach visualization, and they help you see if your child comprehends the text.
• Teens can research the political and historical significance to each of the rhymes. Then they can write their own Nursery Rhymes that have political and historical messages cleverly hidden in them.

Fables

Fables are short stories that have a moral or a lesson at the end.

• Since fables are so short, you can use them to practice oral reading. Have your children read them aloud with the goal of making the reading “sound like talking”.
• You can focus on memorization skills with Fables. Choose shorter ones that your older children can memorize and have the younger children memorize the moral.
• The lesson can spark an interesting discussion about morals. Ask your children what they think is the right choice in each situation.
• Fables can help you gauge your children’s comprehension because they are short and have a moral. Did your child predict the outcome based on the clues in the text? Did your child make connections to other stories or situations?

Look for more posts about using folklore in your homeschool.

Puppets Encourage Homeschool Literacy

Puppets can be a useful tool in your homeschool literacy program. Here are a few ways to use them with children eight years old and younger.

~Your beginning reader can read books to a puppet. Young children buy into the fantasy of the puppet interacting with them. Sometimes the presence of the puppet helps a child who is struggling with reading to relax and enjoy the experience. The puppet makes it fun to read.

~Your children can retell books by writing a script and using puppets. It is a fun way to encourage your children to reread a book and understand it well enough to capture the essence of the story. It also encourages your children to write a good script. Younger children will love to watch the puppet shows, too.

~You can make a read aloud more engaging with a puppet. My kids love listening to the puppet read stories, ask questions, and explain parts of the stories. They talk to the puppet. They also like touching it and even mimicking the way that I use the puppet. This tool can be especially helpful in engaging children who find it difficult to sit still long enough to listen to a whole book.

~Your children can teach the puppet. This is a fun way to have your child summarize a new skill or concept that you’ve been practicing. For example, the puppet can learn to sound out words or find rhyming pairs. The puppet can even find sight words in a story such as “the”, “what”, and “said”.

~You can research another culture with puppets. Shadow puppets are part of Indonesian culture. Your children can create a shadow puppet show as a culminating activity after researching Indonesian culture.

Have fun with puppets!

Photo courtesy of nickstone333

Success for the Beginning Reader in Your Homeschool

Photo by pingu1963

Has your child just started to read in your homeschool? Here are a few tips for the beginning reader.

~Have your child practice rereading that first book as much as possible. Start an autograph book for anyone who listens to your child read. Doing this builds excitement for reading since everyone will affirm your child’s efforts.

~Record yourself reading the book, and have your child follow along with that recording pointing to the words. This adds more opportunities to practice independently.

~Remind your child to point to each word while reading. This helps beginning readers to read the words instead of saying the words from memory.

~Create flashcards with the words in the book. Make doubles so you can play “concentration” and “go fish”. This allows your child to practice reading these words in a playful way.

~Cue your child to use different strategies if s/he gets stuck. For example, use the picture clues to figure out tricky words. This allows your child to word solve independently and builds confidence.

~Remind your child to look at all of the letters in the word. Sometimes beginning readers guess the word based on the first letter or two.

~Have fun with your child and be positive!

Provide many opportunities for your child to be successful with reading because that will help your child to learn to love reading in the end.

How Corn Flakes Can Help Your Child to Read

We had an amazing moment today while I was making dinner. My 4 year old daughter named the letters on the Corn Flakes box and read the word “flakes” as “f-l-a-k-e-s” (short a & short e). After I explained that the “e” is silent and tells the “a” to say its name, she read the word correctly! Then she covered the “f” and asked me what it says. I told her to try it out for herself, and she read “lakes”. Then she proceeded to cover other letters and read those words, too. I was stunned and called my hubby and my dad. This is a moment that I have been anxiously waiting for. I just knew that she was ready to start reading! Here is a sampling of what I have done to get us to this point:

• For a couple of months now I have been demonstrating how to sound out words by saying the sounds of each letter and then “pushing” the sounds together.

• I point out sight words (the, is, what) when I read aloud.

• I have her read the letters in alphabet books.

• I have shown her how you can use onsets and rimes to make new words and to figure out unknown words.

1. I’ve written words in the same word family (-at) with sidewalk chalk and bathtub crayons.
2. I explain that we know that “a-t” says “at”.
3. Now add the “b” to “at”. The word is “bat”.
4. Take off the “b” and add a “c”. Now you have “cat”.

I am so excited for her. She was so proud of her accomplishment. This is what homeschooling is all about!

Make Way for Our Next Lapbook

Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey is the subject of our next lapbook. There will be a series of posts with thoughts and photos as we go through the process of this particular lapbook. I will even include titles of other books we are using. Again, I am making up my own lapbook using library and internet resources that are available for free.

I started this lapbook unit by creating a web of ideas for what we could learn about. This is a great way to get started. Based on my web, I searched the internet to see what was available. I looked at an example of what someone else had done for their lapbook on Homeschool Share, and I printed out what I intended on using for my lessons. I put together the first mini book we were going to make as well.

I introduced the book to the kids by talking about Robert McCloskey since we just read Blueberries for Sal. I read the book just for enjoyment this first time. We simply discussed the book as we went along. My kids’ bedroom is painted in a Make Way for Ducklings theme (painted by Caroline Funchion), so we talked about that connection to the book.

The next time we read the book, I wrote the ducklings’ names on our chalkboard- Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Pack, Ouack, & Quack – to use the ducklings’ names for learning about onsets and rimes. We created a flip book with the names. I wrote the letters, and my kids traced over them. The little one did not do a page for Ouack and Quack as I think it would have been too much work.

As a note for the reasoning behind this particular lesson, rhyming is a great precursor to reading. Try playing with rhymes when you’re waiting in the grocery line or at the doctor’s office. Sing rhyming songs for fun. Using onsets and rhymes is also a great strategy for figuring out unknown words when you are reading. Try pointing them out when you see a good one in a book or on the cereal box. This strategy is also helpful with writing. You can point out that a particular word rhymes with another one while you are writing and show your kids how you use that strategy.

I hope this helps you get started on your Make Way for Ducklings lapbook!

Encouraging Reading Comprehension Strategies

The other day our family was in the car listening to Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey for the millionth time this month. (I really do love the book, but I am ready to put it to bed for at least another year!) We have been finishing up our lapbook on this title, and now we are just rereading the book for (the kids’) enjoyment. During the story, my kiddo made some interesting comments that showed great inferencing and questioning skills. This kiddo is on the verge of reading right now, so we have been working hard on decoding this summer, but as I reflect on this particular moment, I see some great comprehension strategies at work that some kids who are already reading do not use. Why is this so significant?

There are many children who can “word call”, or recognize words, who cannot understand what they are reading. As a reading teacher, I often worked with struggling readers who needed to develop their comprehension skills. Even proficient readers don’t always use all of the reading strategies that they could when they read, and I taught many lessons on how to apply those reading strategies. Some kids do not even realize that they are supposed to think while they are reading, so they simply “read” the words from the page to get through it. (This one of the reasons that some kids hate reading.) Comprehension is the reason that we read, though. You read to find out or as an escape from the real world. You need to understand what you read.

I am impressed by my kiddo’s ability to make inferences and ask great questions about books. How have I encouraged this?

1. Read aloud to your children – no matter how old they are. It is crucial that you model good reading (and comprehension skills) for your children.
2. Read the selection to yourself before you read it to your children. This only applies if you are planning on explicitly teaching particular reading strategies with the title. It helps to think about the text and about your own reactions and questions before you read with the children.
3. Tell your children what you are thinking about when you read aloud. (aka think aloud) Here is another example of modeling for your children. You might also bring up a point about the text that your child hadn’t thought of.
4. Ask your child questions while you read. These questions can be used to check basic comprehension like “What did Sal do with the blueberries?” Or ask for a prediction like “What do you think Sal’s mother will do when she realizes that Little Bear is following her and not Sal?”
5. Have your child find the answers to your questions in the text. Showing you what in the text made yoru child think of something can be very enlightening, especially if there is a misunderstanding. It also shows you that your child is using the information in the text and not just experiences to understand the book.
6. Ask follow-up questions to help your child take that extra step. You can deepen your child’s comprehension and general knowledge if you push them beyond the basic comprehension questions.
7. Make inferences and ask inference questions. Again, this is a way of modeling comprehension strategies. Ask, “Why would Sal’s mother be afraid to have a baby bear following her?” inferencing is a difficult comprehension skill, so try to model it often.
8. Make connections. When you read, you think about how the book relates to your life, other books, and the world at large. Start thinking about how you do this and try modeling it for your children.
9. Point it out when your child is actually using a comprehension strategy. This is really encouraging and labels the skill for your child. Chances are your child will use that strategy more in the future.
10. Have a genuine conversation about the text. Respond to what you are reading. Talk about what you like about the characters or what you don’t like about the writing style. Ponder about the story line.

Remember that reading is supposed to be fun, but it is only fun if you understand the text. Teach your children a few reading strategies in order to make reading a pleasurable experience. Happy reading!