Value Bookshop's Reading Notes

Introduce to your children the countries of the world with this song.

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.

The New Year is fast approaching. Maybe one of your goals is to help your young children learn to spell or to improve their spelling.

With my kids, I used both the phonics and whole word approach. I laminated the different alphabets so they could put them together to make words. I thought them how to listen to the different sounds in a word. Of course I started out with very simple words like cat, bat, sun, hit, hot etc…. I also would use their guided reading books and dictate sentences from there. This was more fun for them because it was like writing a story. Sometimes I would create funny sentences for them to spell. I also would write new words like a flash card and stick them on the wall. I would have them read the words 2-3 times in a day. This are just some of the things I did to teach my children to spell.

Children learn best when learning is fun. You can inject some fun into your child’s learning by using ClickN SPELL. It uses the highly effective method of Copy Cover Compare (CCC) approach to learning spelling. Animation and the game like learning makes it fun for young children. Click the following affiliate link for more information: ClickN SPELL

Here is a hilarious video on why spelling is important. You may need it to save a life one day

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.

We all want our children to eat healthy. That means feeding them healthy foods as well as educating them about healthy foods. If you want to give your children a lesson on nutrition, you’ll find the following website helpful: NOURISH INTERACTIVE

They have free membership which allows you to access countless games, challenges, puzzles, nutrition tools, suggestions, tips and fun activities all aimed at teaching nutritional concepts. There are 3 sections you can choose from: Kids’ section, Parents’ section and Educators’ section.

p.s. For healthy kids meal ideas and tips on how to cultivate good eating habits in your children, click here:
Kids Meal Ideas: Yummy Healthy Tummy

Why Phonics Is The Key To Strong Reading Skills
By Rich Daniels

To date, over 180 research studies have confirmed that phonics is the best way to teach children how to read. Unfortunately, 80% of our nations schools do not use an intensified phonics approach for reading instruction.

They use a whole word approach (see and say) or a combination of phonics and whole word.

While children can learn using the whole word method, it is not the best or most efficient way to learn how to read. The whole word method teaches reading through memorization and guessing.

Unlike the Japanese and Chinese languages which are picture based, the English language is phonetic. There are only 44 sounds while there are about 1 million words in English.

These facts readily explain why having to memorize 44 sounds as opposed to memorizing hundreds of thousands of words is the most efficient way to learn to read.

Reading and writing is simply talking on paper. When children learn to talk, they do so by imitating sounds. They then combine the sounds to form words.

The brain is programmed to learn language in this fashion. Therefore, the most efficient way to learn to read is through phonics because it teaches children to read the same way they learned to talk.

A two decades study on the best way to learn how to read, funded by the National Institute of Health, discovered that the three important aspects of reading – identifying letters, identifying sounds associated with the letters, and reaching for meaning of the written word – are each accomplished by different parts of the brain.

A three-part plan that incorporates this information to guide you as you help your child learn to read.

- Part 1: Phonemic awareness, or learning the individual sounds that constitute a language, for example, “kuh” as the sound of “c”.

- Part 2: Phonics, or the letter-sound relationships available in the language, for example, “kuh—aah—tuh” sounds out “cat”.

- Part 3: Exposure to meaning of the written word through reading and being read to, for example, “kuh—aah—tuh” sounds out “cat” which is “a furry mammal that purrs”.

These elements should be used as building blocks, each necessary to support the next. With phonemic awareness as the first block, a child can begin to puzzle out words in books.

With the help of a parent or sibling by his side he’ll begin to have the answers to questions he will soon begin to ask.

Now is the time to point out important clues, such as how letter sounds blend, how an “e” at the end of a word changes a vowel sound from short to long, how some consonants have more than one sound.

Discuss lower and upper case letters. Point out the eighteen frequently used words best learned by sight. And remember to keep reading to your child to include exposure to meaning, the all important part 3.

What does your child need in order to read well?

You need to provide 4 things to your child, preferably at an early age, to build a proper reading foundation:

1. Phonics information and the ability to manipulate the sounds that make up spoken language.

2. Phonics skills and the understanding that there are relationships between letters and sounds.

3. The ability to read fluently with accuracy, speed, and expression.

4. To apply reading comprehension strategies to enhance understanding and enjoyment of what they read.

There are many commercial reading programs available that combines whole word and phonics based principles. Whatever reading program you decide to use, make sure that it’s recommended by parents and teachers, find out how long the program has been on the market and verify it’s success rate.

how to choose a reading program

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rich_Daniels
http://EzineArticles.com/?Why-Phonics-Is-The-Key-To-Strong-Reading-Skills&id=57310

LEARN PHONICS ONLINE
ClickN READ Phonics is an award winning phonics program. Based on scientific research, it effectively teaches your children to read using fun animation. Kids love it coz’ learning becomes a game.
Click here to discover more about ClickN READ phonics program.