Need an online reading program for your children? My 4 year old son has been using ClickN Read. He is now on lesson 23 and so far, he still likes doing using this phonics program. I don’t get any complains from him. The material is well laid out so I don’t have to think about lesson planning. I just see what the online lesson is about and then reinforce that learning offline.
ClickN Kids is always offering discounts. For this month of March, the following is the coupon code and link:
A while back, I wrote a brief description about how I combined some offline phonic exercises with ClickN Read. Click here to read about it: Teaching children to read with phonics.
Click here for up to date coupon codes and a detailed review of ClickN READ phonics.
If you are going to do a homeschooling lesson on lions, you’ll want to include this documentary called “The Last Lions”. Here is the trailer. Captivating don’t you think?
Get your child to do something to save the lions from extinction. Over at the National Geographic website, they have a Big Cats Initiative. There is a project called Letter to Lions where children can submit drawings and letters about lions. Write why lions are important to you. Your writings and drawings will be delivered by the Jouberts to African leaders.
Click here to learn how you can write your letter to lions.
When you talk about homeschooling, a lot of people imagine children sitting together at a table, scouring over workbooks under the watchful eyes of mom or dad. This is the not entirely true. There are different methods of homeschooling, and the method you choose will decide the curriculum and your style of teaching.
Given below are some of the most influential and popular homeschooling methods.
The Charlotte Mason method
Charlotte Mason is known as the founder of the homeschooling movement. A homeschooler herself, she was passionate in her zeal to lay out the foundations for an effective a complete homeschooling program that is fun and educational at the same time. This method focuses on all the core subjects with emphasis placed on classical literature, poetry, fine arts, classical music and craft. Mason used a variety of books from classical literature, which she called ‘Living Books’. Since this method encourages a passionate awareness of literature, the child is read to daily from the ‘Living Books’. After this, the child is asked to narrate what she has heard. This process begins at the age of six, and by ten the child is expected to write her narrations in her book. Mason also advocated the use of ‘Nature Diaries’. After each short and interesting lesson, the child is asked to go to Nature and draw observations from Nature. Thus the child also gains a sense of respect for her environment. Mason believed that development of good character and behavior was essential to the complete development of the child’s personality.
The Eclectic Homeschooling
This is a mixture of various homeschooling techniques. Here, the innovative parents trust their own judgment and pick out the topics that make the best curriculum for their child. Such parents continuously look out for the best products that will meet the needs of their homeschoolers. Most Eclectic homeschooling curriculums are improvised. This means that the basic curriculum is ready-made. The parents then make changes in the curriculum to
accommodate the individual needs and interests of their children. The child’s gifts, temperament, learning style and interests dictate the curriculum. Eclectic programs include visits to the museum, libraries and factories.
Unschooling
A Boston public educator name John Holt laid the beginnings of the unschooling method. He believed that children learned best when they are free to learn at their own pace and when they are guided by their own interests. His message was to ‘unschool’ the child. This method is a hands-on approach to learning, where the parent takes definite cues from the children. There is no definite curriculum, schedules or materials. This method is the most unstructured of the various homeschooling techniques.
The Montessori Method
This method began in Italy, when it was observed that children have acute sensitive periods, during which they undergo periods of intense concentration. During such phases, a child will repeat an activity till he gains a measure of self-satisfaction. The Montessori method depends on a prepared environment to facilitate learning. All the materials used in this method are designed to satisfy the inner desire for spiritual development of the child. The materials used progress from simple to complex, and are rather expensive.
I hope these examples of different homeschooling methods have been helpful. Just remember that when choosing the right homeschooling method, be flexible and take into account your childrens desires and interest. The secret is to use the child’s desire for knowledge to further his education.
When you’re on the computer and your kid comes to you asking for some attention, why don’t you plop him/her on your lap and open up to the following website and read a short story. Reading to your children doesn’t have to take long. If you are very busy, you can still squeeze in 5-10 minutes of reading. Reading aloud is one of the best ways to teach children to read.
Since my son D1 had no problem with ClickN Read Phonics lesson 3 & 4, we moved on to lesson 5. He was very enthusiastic to start his lesson. Probably because he successfully completed the last 2 lessons and that gave him confidence. In lesson 5, he still had opportunities to practice listening and identifying the letters A, M, S and T. However, 2 more letters were added: C and D. Still no problems for my son. He breezed through the lesson. Ermm… okay, maybe he still needs more practice with blending sounds.
Like before, after finishing 1 lesson, my son asked to do another lesson. So we continued to lesson 6. Still on A,M,S,T,C and D. But looking at his report, he seemed to have done better this time round. A sign of improvement I guess.
Then ClickN Read Phonics is a wonderful tool to teach reading to kindergarten children. If you would like your children to try out ClickN Read Phonics, you can do so for free. Just click the affiliate banner below:
Just so you know, how I teach my son to read is not just confined to using this online software. I do other reading activities too. For example, one of the words introduced by the software is “at”. So I did a quick activity where I put different beginning sounds in front of the word “at”. First of all I wrote down the word “at” on a whiteboard (for some reason, my kids all love to use the whiteboard). Then I wrote the letter “c” in front to form the word “cat”. I would make the individual sounds /c/ /a/ /t/, then blend it for my son to hear. I had him repeat after me too. I went through a few words such as “fat”, “rat”, “mat”, “pat”, “bat” and “sat”. After which I listed down all the beginning sounds on the left side of the board. On the right side of the board I had the word “at” with a blank in front.
___ at
As I called out a word, I had my son point to the correct beginning sound. So if I said “rat”, he had to point to the letter “r”.
Here’s another reading activity we did. This one is to build up his phonemic awareness. We went out to run some errands yesterday. In the car, I played a simple game to help him learn rhyming words. I would say 2 words, and if he thought it rhymed, he had to clap his hands. Before this, I haven’t really done much to help him identify rhyming words. He was doing a lot of guessing. We’ll definitely need to do more of this.
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Well, there are lots of people writing reviews online. But how do you know if what they’re saying is trustworthy? There is no guarantee that they’ve used the products or services themselves. So why should you trust them?
I don’t want to be one of those people. So, I’ve decided to let you follow along as I teach my 3 year old son (soon to be 4) how to read using this online reading program. I’m inviting you to take a peek at how I teach my child to read. Then you can decide for yourself, if your children can also benefit from this reading software.
Let me first give you a little background about my son’s reading ability. He knows all the alphabets and their corresponding sounds. He also knows quite a number of words by sight. We did 80 words from the Dolch list. But I’m sure he knows more words than that as he will take some of his favorite books and read them by himself.
I tried starting him on ClickN Read Phonics a few months back. I didn’t continue as I realized he still couldn’t blend words. To develop this ability, I played the “can you guess what I’m saying” game. I would stretch out simple words like “cat” and “mop” and he would try to guess what I’m saying. For example, I would say “mmmmm ooooooooo p” for the word “mop”. I also used alphabet cards to let him see how to put a word together. For example, I would lay out the alphabet cards m-o-p to make the word. I would point to the individual letters and say the corresponding sounds. Then I would blend it for him to hear. After which I would mix the cards up and ask him arrange it back to form the word. Sometimes I would put a whole bunch of alphabet cards on the table. I would say a word and he would have to pick from the pile the correct alphabets and arrange them in the right order to form the word.
So today, we started with ClickN Read Phonics again. Since he already knows all the sounds of the alphabet, I started him on lesson 3. There are 5 parts to the lesson.
He had to listen to the sound and the click the corresponding alphabet.
He had to listen to the sound then find on the keyboard the corresponding alphabet.
He was tested on beginning sounds. He was shown 6 words and he had to choose the right word that had the specified beginning sound.
He had to listen to sounds being blended into words. Then he had to click on the right word.
Reading practice. He was shown a sentence and he had to read along with the doggy instructor.
At the end, this is his individual lesson report.
As you can see, the report shows what he knows, what he’s not sure of and what he needs practice in. I can see he has progressed from a few months ago. At least now he is able to do the exercises. He can now blend words. Not perfectly yet, but at least he knows how. As you can see, the focus in lesson 3 is on the letters A, M, S and T.
I asked him if he wanted to stop and he said he wanted to do some more. So we went on to lesson 4. Not much different from lesson 3. Still on the same letters and sounds. I guess it’s a good reinforcement for the previous lesson. In the end, this is his report for lesson 4.
To tell you the truth, I was a bit occupied with the baby when he did lesson 4. But he managed to get through it by himself. It’s good there is a report at the end. At least I know how he performed. Not bad.
Okay, so that is the first peek at my son learning how to read. Stay tuned for more.
p.s. Did you know you can try ClickN Read lessons for free? Just click on the banner below. And if you are interested, save $10 off your order today with coupon code: CNKB2S10 exp. 10/31/10
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