In addition to All About Spelling, which I reviewed in depth here, Gareth has become a fluent reader over the past several months through daily levelled reading—something that, in all honesty, I am not a fan of and never expected to use with my own children. But for this child, it was exactly what he [...]
Last year my friend Valerie told me about a new spelling program, All About Spelling (hereafter AAS) that she had used with her daughter—and which her daughter felt was key part of learning to read. Valerie brought it over one day, and I had a long look, and decided to order it for Gareth to [...]
So we recently joined the 21st century and got iPhones and an iPad, and I’ve been spending some time checking out various educational apps for the boys. Over the next few days I’ll write up some of our favourites—do keep in mind that we are new to this Apple world, so no doubt there are [...]
On the weekend I went to a used curriculum sale at the Calgary Education Fair, an annual event. I got lots of goodies: more Math-U-See blocks, several board games, a few DVDs, lots of books, etc. I also found several ‘hands-on’ math activities, like this book of animal tangrams (50 cents): and a set of [...]
In my recent blitz of “learning to read” materials at the library, I stumbled across a DVD series that Gareth and I have been working through and enjoying. It’s called Webster’s You Can Read! Phonics Video Tutor, and comes in two levels: Level One for ages 4-6, and Level Two for ages 5-7. (It actually [...]
I recently blitzed our local library for phonics and learning-to-read books, putting some 50-odd titles on hold. Many of them were "How to teach your child to read” type books, and sadly, I have found most unhelpful—games-based or video-based learning seems to work better here. But I also put on hold a number of “first [...]
This morning I gave the boys the same reading assessment I gave them last year around this time. Gareth’s results of last year are here, and Daegan’s here. You can find the reading assessment here, if you want to try it with your own kids. I am very pleased to see that both my boys [...]
Gareth is growing more confident in his literacy skills. He wanted to try the Spelldown (US) game, which up until now has languished in the cupboard. In the game, each player has 10 letters that need to be used to spell words—at which point you flip up any letters used—and two dice (one vowels, one [...]
Just a quick post tonight at the end of a hectic day that began with me having an interview about being a homeschool facilitator next year. All systems go! I was super-excited to learn that days spent facilitating count as teaching days—in other words, it is possible to earn one’s permanent teaching certification (which in [...]
I tried a couple activities with Gareth this morning from Peggy Kaye’s classic Games for Reading (Canada) (US). I love her books, as they are full of simple learning games and activities for the pre-K to grade 3 crowd, though I have successfully adapted many of her games for older kids when I tutored junior [...]