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Looking to do a hassle-free activity with your preschooler? Try this. All you need are some color paper, scissors, glue and magic pen. Decide how many shapes you want to work with e.g. circles, square, triangle etc…. Cut those shapes out. You can make them different sizes too.

Now have your preschooler decide what he wants for the head and body. Draw in eyes, nose, mouth, legs and arms.

If you are looking for a homeschool preschool curriculum, click this affiliate link:
ABC Home Preschool

I borrowed this book from the library and it has some excellent ideas on teaching children to create stories. I’ve been doing some of the exercises with my kids because I want them to use their creativity and imagination. Also, it will definitely help them in the future when they have to write essays and composition.

Let me share with you one fun exercise we did. It’s called “Fortunately-Unfortunately”. You and your children take turns to make up a story. First you start by describing a situation such as Mary wants to watch the latest Alvin and the Chipmunk movie. The next person than continues the story beginning with the word “fortunately”. So, referring back to the example, you could say “Fortunately she doesn’t have to go to school tomorrow because it is the weekend’. The next person then must add to the story with “unfortunately”. So the story could continue with “Unfortunately she doesn’t have enough money to buy the tickets.” The story keeps going on as you and your children add sentences that use “fortunately” and “unfortunately” alternately.

This was really fun to do. You may need to guide the kids in the beginning. But once they get the idea, they can be really crazy. You could even play this game in the car. It’s a great way to have fun, work the brain and develop language skills all at the same time.

Is it enough for your child to only learn the fundamental skills of reading, writing, math, and science needed to be competitive in the high-tech workforce of 21st century? While these skills are essentials, they may not prepare a child to face the complex and evolving society of tomorrow when they enter their adult life.

At home, you need to teach your child skills that they must acquire as they step into adulthood and begin their life independently. You can teach these skills by setting examples, by talking to them, and giving your child some freedom to practice these skills even if they fail initially. So, what are these skills?

Social skills like compassion, love, listening, etc. are difficult tasks for many children. One of the most difficult tasks is listening and we find lots of adults lack this skill because they were not taught how to listen to others when they were young.

Teach your child the importance of listening and trying to understand what others are saying before she speaks out. Set yourself as an example by not interrupting your child when she is telling you something.

As kids, we learn how to be competitive and we carry those competitive instincts in to our adulthood by resorting to back-stabbing, undercutting and feelings of resentment. Instead, let your child learn that there is room for many people to be successful as a group.

Encourage your child to participate in group sports and games like baseball, volleyball, etc. where the success of the team depends on the cooperation among team members. This will instill in your child the sense of helping each other to be successful.

Teach your child how to manage failure. Childhood is filled with ups and downs. Many parents resort to bad examples when their child fails in an endeavor. Don’t set examples that will be interpreted as “failure is bad” by your child.

Instead, help them develop can-do-attitude by setting examples for your and child’s failures. Encourage them to move on and learn lessons from their failure so that they can apply those lessons to succeed the next time.

Many parents avoid asking their children to do household chores because they think that their children are not ready yet. The same is also true for giving the financial responsibilities to a child. But parents should teach the concept of responsibilities to their kids from their early ages.

Give your child small age-appropriate jobs to accomplish within a time frame. There should be age appropriate reward and punishment components to the job. You should also teach your child the concept of saving, budgeting, paying your bills on time, living within one’s means, and other personal finance matters.

Do your children have spelling tests at school? Do you think spelling tests help your children become better spellers?

According to an article in the Houston Chronicle by Ericka Mellon entitled “Schools take a new direction on spelling“, some schools are getting rid of spelling tests and replacing it with a teaching method known as “word study”. Why is that so? Well, spelling test is more about memorizing words. “Word study” is aimed at increasing children’s understanding of why and how words are constructed. They believe that learning by rote memorization isn’t the best way to go. To be good spellers, children need to learn about letter and sound patterns.

Many parents do not like the idea of “no spelling tests”. What about you? Would you agree or not agree for your children to have spelling tests each week?

As for me, I would prefer a combination of both. Yes, I support the idea that children need to learn how and why letters are combined a certain way to form a word. I also support the idea that children need to be tested to see if they have learned how it works. However, instead of randomly writing down a list of words, I like to put those words to form a story. I guess I’m saying instead of spelling tests, I prefer dictation. So, for example, if I wanted my children to learn the words “cat”, “run”, “this”, and “white”, I would make up sentences for them to write like “This is my cat. It’s fur is white. It likes to run after mice.” If my children are just learning to spell and can’t spell a lot of words yet, then I would do a “fill-in-the-blank” sort of activity.

Tell me what you think about this topic?

p.s. Looking for a fun online spelling program, check out my review on ClickN SPELL. Click here: Learn to spell online program.

My 3 year old son can identify all the alphabets and also knows the sounds that go along with it. I feel he is ready to start reading words. I don’t think he has the ability to blend sounds together yet. For example, if I showed him the letter “C”, he knows the accompanying sound is “/kuh/”, “A” is “/a/” and “T” is “/t/”. But if I were to put it together as “CAT”, he wouldn’t know how to blend the sounds to read the word. That’s using phonics to read.

So, instead of using phonics, I’m starting him off with whole words. This is sorta like the flash card method. BUT I’m not flashing cards to him. This is what I’m doing:

1. Write the word on a card
2. Show it to him, read it to him, have him read it back.
3. Put it up on the wall.
4. Print out simple stories that he is familiar with (taken from his story books) or nursery rhymes that contain the word he is learning. Have him look for that word and color it.

I just started his reading lessons 2 days ago. I started with the word “the”. Very simple and very common. He picked it up very fast. Another word I introduced to him is “is”. To reinforce his learning, I have him point out those words when we read books together. Because these words are so simple to pick out, it builds his confidence and makes him feel like he is a reader.

Are your children glued to the TV or stuck in front of the computer screen? Why not give them something more beneficial and educational to do like fun Christmas worksheets and activities. We are talking about Christmas Games for kids, Christmas Word Puzzles, Christmas Math Worksheets, Christmas Writing Activities, Christmas Mazes, Christmas Cards, Christmas Bookmarks and Christmas Coloring Sheets etc….

It’ll take time for you to search for these activities around the internet. So click here to find a wonderful resource that has many of these activities downloadable as an e-book: WORKSHEETS FOR CHRISTMAS.

Good news! The merchant is offering a 50% discount for this Christmas 2009 season. Instead of $17.97, you only pay $9.00. I don’t know when this offer expires, so act quickly!

Click here for a brief review of the book: WORKSHEETS FOR CHRISTMAS.