Value Bookshop's Reading Notes

(ARA) – For many children, it isn’t easy to find time for summer reading amid adventure-packed trips to the pool or beach, baseball games or family vacations. Research shows children lose one to three months of learning every summer.

If you want to prevent summer learning loss and motivate your children to be avid lifelong readers, follow these top tips from Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) and the Be A Reader campaign for a summer that’s fun-packed but still helps build on your child’s education:

• Make reading an adventure by connecting read-aloud choices to summer activities. Choose books that allow children to explore new places, meet new people and discover new things.
• Find a list of baseball teams in the sports section of the newspaper. Put them in A-B-C order and find their cities on a map.
• Are the stars out tonight? Check out a book on the constellations from your local library and find them in the sky.
• Pretend you are going to visit another city or state. Write to a local tourist bureau for more information about your selected destination. Read about your fantasy trip and write about your travel experiences.
• Plan an outing to your favorite nature center, theme park or zoo. Review the destination brochure or website to plan your activities and what you hope to discover once you get there. Read the maps and field guides as you explore.
• Take books along on summer outings. Pack books in the family beach bag, picnic basket or backpack.
• Swap books with a friend. Keep sharing books throughout the summer.
• Play word games or letter hunts when you’re on the road. Road signs, license plates, street signs and billboards are filled with letters and words.
• Document summer activities and travels in your personal journal. This will improve writing skills and keep treasured memories fresh.
• Read an e-book together online. Visit BuddigBeAReader.com to select your story, and then provide a brief description about your experience with the book. Parents and children who sign up to read a book together and write a short essay will be eligible to win a $1,000 scholarship bond and a free children’s book from Scholastic.

During the yearlong Be A Reader campaign, parents and their children are encouraged to create their own reading and literacy experiences wherever they may be. With the intent of nourishing young minds, Carl Buddig & Company – the lunchmeat brand that has been nourishing families for generations – is partnering with RIF to raise a minimum of $100,000 for children’s literacy programs. For more information about the Be A Reader campaign visit www.Buddig.com. For additional tips to help your child discover the joy of reading, visit www.RIF.org.

This is a game in one of my son’s books. It helps to teach the concept of “up” and “down”.

It needs 2 players, so here is an opportunity to “play” with your child.

• You’ll need 2 counters. You can cut 2 circles from a used cereal box (or something that is just as thick) and draw a koala bear on each circle.
• You’ll also need a die with numbers 1-6.
• Make a die with 3 red sides and 3 blue sides. Actually, instead of a die, I made another counter that is red on one side and blue on the other.
• Roll the die to see how many spaces to move. Then roll the color die (or flip the blue/red counter) to see if your koala moves up or down. If the counter lands on red move up. If it’s blue, move down.
• The first one to reach the top of the tree wins.

p.s. In the end, I just flipped a coin to see if koala moves up or down. This is probably a more hassle-free way.

I hope when you teach your children about the solar system, you know that Pluto is not the 9th planet anymore. If your children ask why (or if you are wondering why yourself), watch this video. It explains it very well.

Happy Learning.
Please leave a comment if you’ve found an educational video that you liked.

I watched this video and I found Sugata Mitra’s talk to be very inspiring. I was amazed at his “experiments” and the results it produced. As a parent, this is what I gained from it:

• Don’t always think that allowing the kids on the computer is a bad thing. It can be used for good. HOWEVER, there must be a goal.  For example, give them a question to solve or a topic to learn more about.
• Group learning is better than learning alone.
• Sometimes we just have to “leave them” to figure things out on their own.
• Have faith in our children; believe they have the potential to do great things.
• Provide an environment that allows learning to happen.
• I especially like the quote by Arthur C. Clarke “If children have interest, then education happens“.

I hope you enjoy the video as much as I did.

This is a video of my 4 year old reading. I started to teach him how to read when he turned 3 years old. I have been impressed at the rate he is learning to read. I use both phonics and sight words to teach him.

It really is a blessing when they can read at such a young age. He doesn’t have to wait for me to read books to him. When he feels like it, he will just grab a bunch of books to occupy his time. Of course, reading aloud to him is still important.

If you want to get your preschooler reading, there are many things you can do at home. Here are some tips for you:

Expose your babies to books

It may seem useless to read to a baby how just wants to chew or tear your book, but you will see the benefits later on. Read to your babies. Put them on your lap and let them enjoy reading time with you. Let them associate books with fun and enjoyment. My youngest baby is now 19 months old. A few months ago, all she wanted to do was to turn the pages of the book. I couldn’t finish reading the words on the page. But now, she enjoys the “lift-the-flap” books. So just keep at it. The benefits will only be more apparent later on.

Begin with pre-reading skills

Before they actually learn to read, they first need pre-reading skills. Build up their phonemic awareness which is the understanding that words are made up of sounds. Play word games that help them to listen for those sounds. For example, say ‘buh buh buh ball’ and ‘ssss sss sss snake’. This will help them learn to distinguish the initial sounds in words. You can even make up your own song.

Don’t discount nursery rhymes. Learning how to rhyme is a pre-reading skill.

Oh, one thing I have to say is that learning the ABC song is not very important. Learning to recognize alphabets and then connecting them to their corresponding sounds is important. My son loved it when I would “write” on his back or tummy. I would go from A-Z e.g. “ah” apple, “buh” ball, “kuh” cat etc….

At this stage, learning is usually through games. You can have them clap out the syllables in a word, go hunting for the first letter in their name when you go out shopping or play letter bingo.

Surround them with books.

Create a home library. You don’t have to buy new books all the time. You can save money buying 2nd hand books or closeout books. I know of a place where you can buy children’s books at a good bargain. Click here: CHEAP CHILDREN BOOKS
Apply for membership at your local library too. Take frequent trips to the library. Do this and books will naturally become part of their lives.

Learning words by sight

When I first started to teach my son to read, I taught him how to recognize some dolch words. I find at this young age, they can remember and recognize words very quickly. When we read books together, I would have him read those words that he already know such as “the’, “a’ and ‘is’. When he did that, I would praise him and plant in him the idea that he is a good reader. It really boosted his confidence and made him enjoy reading. One way I helped him learn the sight words is using a “Class Monster”. You can read what it is about here: Learning to read dolch words

Reading song lyrics

My son loves to sing. Every month in church, the kids have to memorize a church primary song. Later in the year, they will have a Primary Presentation where they will sing all these songs to the congregation. At home, I have a church Primary song book. As my son used the book to learn the songs, I notice he was learning to read too. So, if your children have some favorite songs, print out the lyrics for them and use that to teach them how to read.

Online games and phonics instruction

All kids love to use the computer, so why not use it to your advantage. One site that is really good at helping children learn phonics is Starfall.com. Your kids can use it for free. ClickN Read Phonics is not a free phonics program. However, the advantage is that you can track your child’s progress. For every lesson your child does, there is a report. So you can clearly see which areas your child needs help in.

These are just some of the things I did (and still do) to get my son reading. Tell me what are some things you do that have successfully helped your children learn to read. I would love to hear from you.

Image via Wikipedia

Do you know motivates your children to learn? Do you want ideas on how to teach your children?

ARE YOU A TEACHER?

My philosophy is every parent is a teacher, whether you are qualified to teach or not.  So if you are a mom or dad, the answer is YES! You are a teacher. From the moment your children are born, you are the one responsible to teach and guide them. Whether they go to school or not, you (especially moms) are your children’s #1 teacher.

HOW YOU CAN BE A HOMESCHOOLER

Many people define homeschooling as teaching their children at home, as oppose to sending their children to school. Me? I define homeschooling as teaching your children at home, even though they may be attending school. So if you ask me if I homeschool, I will say “yes”.

Currently, my two older children attend school but when they were kindergarten age, I taught them at home. Even now, I still teach them at home because I know what they learn at school is not enough. When I find something interesting online, in the newspaper or in a magazine, I will introduce it to them. I want them to know that education is not about scoring A’s on their tests. It’s about gathering knowledge, being curious, developing skills and building character.

Also, the work they do in school can be boring. So I try to “inject” some fun learning when they are back from school. My kids like to do stuff like word puzzles and mazes. Once in a while I’ll also find online fun worksheets to do. You know, stuff they don’t normally do in schools. It’s a good break for the kids to do something different.

Another thing I do is to give my children freedom and opportunities to pursue their interest. That’s when they are most motivated to learn. My girl likes to learn about other countries, so I encouraged her to start a scrapbook on that subject. I help her look for articles, brochures and pictures of different countries.  My 2nd son likes to draw so I give him lots of time to doodle. My 3rd son likes music. Every month, we memorize a church primary song. I also encourage them to read a lot of books.  Having a library card is wonderful.

There are so many ways you can homeschool your children.

HEAR WHAT CHILDREN HAVE TO SAY ABOUT HOMESCHOOLING

If you are interested about teaching your children at home, you definitely have to check out these collection of short stories written by children about homeschooling: HOMESCHOOLING ADVICE FOR MOMS FROM THE REAL EXPERTS, KIDS!

There are 2 volumes; One volume is written by kids from 6-11 year old and the other by kids 12 -18 year old.

These 2 volumes of essays is brought to you  by CurrClick. They put forth a challenge for homeschool kids to write in essays in the format of an advice column sharing what their mom did to make their homeschooling experience unique, inspiring or wonderful. The essays also include advice for mothers on how to be a good teacher and to overcome homeschooling challenges.

Here are the links:

• Homeschooling Advice For Moms From the Real Experts, Kids! Advice from Ages 6-11
• Homeschooling Advice For Moms From the Real Experts, Kids! Advice Ages 12-18

At the moment, the 2 volumes are available for FREE. I don’t know if it will be free forever. So if I were you, I’d get it now. I’ve already downloaded my copy and it is truly inspiring to read what all these kids have to say. It is also an eye-opener. What better way to know what matters to them then to read their opinions and thoughts.

After you get your copy, come back here and share with me your thoughts (or experience) on homeschooling.