A "Typical" Day in the Life of a Homeschooling Family

Hey readers!

So I felt compelled to write this post to help out all the new homeschooling mamas (and dads), whether temporary or long-term, out there. With schools closing left and right, the prospect of being your child's teacher for the short-term (and perhaps long-term), can feel dizzying. Many of you were blessed with teachers who gave you a packet of paced-out assignments to do during the school shutdown and teachers that are working hard to provide quality distance learning! Honestly material gathering and pacing are THE hardest parts when first starting homeschooling, so you're in a GREAT place!

Looking at that packet could feel a bit intimidating. Maybe you've never had classroom teaching experience before, or maybe you had difficulties in school yourself and don't feel like you can do this.

Take a breath right now Mama, and repeat after me:

"I was my child's first teacher. I did it then. I CAN do it again!"

And it's completely true! You were there to offer those enriching read alouds when they were snuggled in their cozy PJs on your lap, to answer the late night questions about why the moon comes out at night, and to shriek in delight as they did their first puzzle all by themselves!

The challenge now becomes how to manage instruction time AND all the other items in the house. Now that we're in our 3rd year of homeschooling, I feel that we've hit a pretty good rhythm for our daily routine, and I wanted to share it with y'all to help ease your transition!

As a disclaimer, please note that this routine works best for my kiddos and my family. The beauty of homeschooling is that you can adjust your own routines so they work best for you! Feel free to use this as a jumping off point and tweaking it until it feels right for you!

For this schedule, kid activities will be noted in blue and "mom" activities will be noted in red.

Our Morning

Wake Up and Breakfast

• Kids wake up, get dressed for the day, Charlotte switches the laundry from the washer to the dryer and starts it, and then the kids have screen-free, free play while waiting for breakfast. 
• I dress and change the baby, empty the dishwasher from the night before, put on the coffee, and make breakfast.
• Kids eat breakfast, clean up their spots, putting dishes in the dishwasher, and are free to play outside or inside, usually about 20 minutes.
• I clean up the kitchen from breakfast, check my lesson plans, and lay out materials for the day at their places on the table.

Academics Round 1 (usually around 8:30)

• Kids come over to the table for school. We start with our morning song, calendar time, and then each child has their first morning assignments.
• Thompson, for PreK3, has a combination of his WB pages, phonics work, math, and activity binder. (He's usually done in 25 minutes).
• Charlotte, for 1st grade, has her math workbook lesson (2-4 pages), sometimes a math worksheet for the day, and occasionally I give her part of the next lesson block if I know she'll work through quickly. (She's usually done in 20-25 minutes).
• After teaching, I put the materials away and check what I need to, giving feedback. I then look up materials Charlotte will need for her next academic time and put them aside.

Free Play Time

• Kids either go outside to play or play inside (we are still doing screen-free play).
• I usually take a short 10 minute break and decompress with coffee. Then, if we need to run errands or go to practice, this is the time that is done. Also, we might get exercise in by running/biking to the park before it gets too hot or going on a walk.

Academics Round 2 (this can either happen in 2 pieces right before lunch and then during little kid nap, or only during nap time depending on the length of the lessons)

• Charlotte comes to the table to do a combination of lessons that can require more guided instruction. She will do:
• instructional reading for comprehension, 
• phonics work,
• spelling,
• and social studies, geography, or science (depending on the day)
• Whether we do this all at once or break it up, the combined time is usually between 40-50 minutes.
• I usually let Josie and Thompson play during this time, or I put on an instructional video for them to watch in the playroom (out of sight of Charlotte).
• After lessons, I put the materials back, prep for Religion, and then start lunch.

Lunch and Religion

• Kids eat lunch and then toward the end, we do our Religion Lesson for the day (usually 15-20 minutes). They then clean up their plates, put them in the dishwasher, and play about 10 minutes.
• After Religion, I clean up the materials, clean up the kitchen, put Josie down for nap, and then get Thompson down for nap, and Charlotte for rest.
• I'll tidy up a bit or do a couple items I need to get done (pay bills/write emails) for 15- 20 minutes before I get Charlotte to finish Academics Round 2

Nap for Littles/Academics Round 2 for Charlotte

• If Charlotte finishes early, she can do quiet play (puzzles, coloring, etc.) with me while waiting for brother and sister to wake up.

Afternoon TV/Warm Up from Nap

• Kids wake up from nap and are allowed to watch movies/shows on Disney Plus, Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. They usually need time to "warm up for the afternoon." (We don't use screens until after most of school is done, because they tend to have a difficult time focusing or having a positive attitude in school if they watch something first).
• I'll usually fold a load of laundry on the couch while they watch something and put it away.

Afternoon Free Play

• TV is turned off and kids have free play time.
• Depending on time, I will check the dinner menu and start prepping.

Independent Reading Time

• Later in the afternoon, Charlotte and Thompson will sit down with a pile of books and do their independent reading. I like to give them choice (hence the pile). Charlotte reads for 45 minutes and Thompson for 20-30.
• If Thompson is particularly restless, I have him tidy up the living room or playroom while sister is reading once he has finished at least 20 minutes.
• I keep my ear out for Charlotte as I cook dinner in the kitchen. If I have time, I might round up a load of laundry to put in for the night and help Thompson clean up.

Dinner

Evening Play/Winding Down/Writing

• After dinner, kids will clean up their plates, and Thompson and Charlotte find something to play with.
• I put Josie to sleep and clean up the kitchen.
• Then, if Charlotte didn't do her writing during Academics round 2, I'll call her over to do it in the evening. She'll work on writing a letter or journal prompt response. (This usually takes 10-15 minutes).
• After she's done, she gets dinner ready for the dog, and the kids can watch a little bit of TV before stories.
• I'll use that time to tidy up a bit, get trash together, and then sit down with them to watch too.

Bedtime stories and Nighttime Routine

• Kids pick stories for us to read together and then we go through nighttime routine.
• After Thompson goes to bed, Charlotte and I will read 2-3 chapters from one of her favorite chapter books together, alternating pages to read aloud. Then, she'll go to bed too.

Quick Takeaways

1. This is OUR schedule, but yours may look completely different based on your children, which again is the beauty of homeschooling!
2. Some days will be awesome, some will be frustrating.
3. On the frustrating days, take a break (which benefits both you and your child) and pick it up later in the day, or put it on the schedule for tomorrow.
4. This is an exciting time for you to learn about your child, how they learn, and to spend extra time with them!
5. Most importantly...YOU CAN DO THIS! You were your child's first teacher, and you can continue teaching now!

Happy teaching!

5 Educational Benefits of Baking With Your Littles

Sometimes it seems that the richest learning opportunities we can offer our little ones lie right under our noses, or in this case, fill our noses with sweet smells from the kitchen. Yes, that's right, cooking and baking (because let's face it, that one's almost always more fun) are wonderful ways to offer educational opportunities for your little ones. The kitchen offers an abundance of experience for little learners that will help them in a multitude of ways. Still not convinced? Well, keep reading, because I will tell you the tips I use to maximize this activity for my littles and explain five areas of early childhood education that this activity enhances!

Tips to get started

1. Take inventory

Make sure you have all the ingredients you need beforehand, in the house. This will reduce the risk of disappointed bakers if you have to stop to go to the grocery store.

2. Schedule this During Play Time

For little learners, you should be approaching this as an enriching play activity. As such, try to do this during a time when you would otherwise allow your child to do free play during the day. 

3. Lower Those Expectations

This is NOT a time to fine tune that new tart you've been dying to try or put the finishing touches on the macaroons for an upcoming dinner party. Instead this is an exploration through guided play, so if the sprinkles are a bit overdone (which believe me they WILL be) it's perfectly okay!

1. Genre Knowledge

Every time a text serves a different purpose, or is written in a different way, we label it a genre. In school, children will need to know all kinds of genres from narratives (stories) to informational, and everything between. Recipes are actually and officially known as procedural text.

Besides ringing your hands to the ceiling as you're putting together IKEA furniture and deciphering the directions, you'll notice that there are not a plethora of times a child can be introduced to this genre in such a meaningful way, than in the kitchen. As such, take the time to point out the different textual features. Point out where the ingredients are listed and how the recipe is divided into steps. This will be done naturally as you work through the recipe and you say phrases such as, "Now we're at step 5."

2. Math Practice

Interestingly enough while completing a recipe, you are able to practice two different kinds of mathematical skills with your littles: number recognition and measurement

Number Recognition

As you're reading through the recipe with your little one, you can enhance their number recognition skills by pointing to numbers within the recipe (whether is be 3, 2, 1/2, or 1/4) and reading them together. As they get better at reading numbers, you can just point and they can start to take over. It's wonderful authentic practice!

Measurement

Whenever you're leveling off a 1/2 cup of flour, or pouring 2 Tablespoons of oil with your little one, you're actually giving them excellent hands-on experience with measurement concepts! Later on in school, they'll learn to convert cups to pints to quarts to gallons, etc. But by giving them this hands-on experience and understanding of just how much a cup is, it will help them when they are doing these measurements later.

3. Fine Motor Skills

A pinch of sugar, a dash of salt, and a heaping of fine motor skills are refined as you work through just about any recipe. Just having your little scoop out the baking powder, level it off, and turn it into the bowl engages an entire series of fine motor skills! Using a whisk, stirring with a spoon, or hand held mixer (with supervision) are also wonderful ways to give them practice. That doesn't even include the delicious wonders of placing chocolate chips on top of muffins or decorating cakes and cookies with icing and sprinkles!

4. Reading

Anytime and every time you can read aloud to your littles is a huge plus and the kitchen is just another way you can add more reading into their lives. As you work through the recipe, make sure to put your finger under the words in the text and show your child the words as you're reading them. Older children will be able to sound out familiar words or read sight words along with you. No matter the age of your child, reading aloud to them in this context is valuable, because they can understand that reading is essential throughout all areas of life.

5. Sensory

Since recipes can range anywhere from oily, to sticky, and even gritty, cooking with your littles is a great way to help them engage sensory learning too. Whether you are putting olive oil on their hands as they flatten out the fresh pizza dough, or you are having them roll peanut butter cookies into balls and then roll the ball into granulated sugar, you're giving them a variety of feelings to process from texture to temperature! All of these experiences are perfect for engaging their growing minds and their vocabulary as they will immediately want to describe what they are feeling.

But really the true treat...

is that once the cookies are done and the pizza gobbled, you'll be able to know that not only did you spend educational time with your little one, but also quality time as well. Cooking and baking aren't just wonderful ways to feed your littles' tummies, but also to feed the growing relationship you have with them. I hope with these tips that you enjoy cooking with your littles as much as I do!

10 Ways to Sneak in Letter Practice into your Bitties' Daily Routine

Hello Again Readers!

As I'm finding more and more with my own toddler, sometimes the secret to being a good parent is being a sneaky one! Whether you're folding vegetables into mac and cheese, sneaking around the corner to pounce when you think your bitty needs to use the potty, or making cleaning up toys into a game, it certainly takes tact to both interest your toddler, and to direct them to a useful activity. From the ages of 1-4, one of those useful prereading activities is working on letter recognition, or your child being able to name letters. With this age group, however, you can't just drill them with flash cards because:

1. It's not fun for them, and they lose interest.
2. It's not fun for you, because you get frustrated.
3. They're little! Flashcards shouldn't quite be busted out on the regular juuuust yet!

So, you're probably thinking, "Well Reading Specialista, how in the world am I supposed to get my kids to practice their letters?"

It's easier than you think, you just have to be a bit sneaky, and slyly tuck the activities into your child's daily routine! In this post I'll show you 10 ideas for how to include letter recognition into your bitties' routine from morning to bedtime!

**As a disclaimer, I do NOT do ALL of these activities every day, but I do get to all of them a few times within a week!**

Morning

Getting Dressed/Changing Diapers

1. Sing the ABCs

It's simple I know, but it can make a world of difference in opening the door for letter recognition. I began to realize this myself, as I started to think of all the times I changed Charlotte's diaper or her clothes during the day. Instead of looking at this as time wasted in the day, or a chore, I could use it as an opportunity to teach her the ABC song. Every time I change her diaper or her clothes, we sing the song together. When you first start, your little one will be doing a lot of listening, but then gradually, he'll start to pick it up too! To be fair, we don't limit singing this song just to diaper changing time, but we sing the ABCs in the car, during playtime, music time, and on walks, just to name a few! She's picked up the song very well, and now that she can sing her ABCs, she's more ready to apply the letter names in her letter recognition activites throughout the day.

Brushing Teeth

2. Letters in the mirror

Another spot to work on letter recognition is the bathroom mirror. Simply use a dry erase marker and write 1 or 2 letters you're working on with your child. You can change them out every morning, or every few days to surprise your child with a new letter, or you can wipe the mirror clean every night and then write the letters in front of your child so they can watch you make the letters. An example of dialogue during this activity would be:

"Hmmm, I wonder which letters are going to join you today when you brush your teeth! Let's go see! Oh look! What letter is that? You're right! It's an 'M.' Look there's big 'M' and little 'M.' Oh, I'm going to add our other letter from to the mirror now, do you remember this letter? You've got it! It's a 'B.' Here's a big 'B' and a little 'B.' Can you say good morning to our letters?"

**On a side note, your toddler will not judge you for being silly, so don't worry if this exchange feels silly at first!**

Breakfast

3. Making letters with cereal/finding letters in cereal

There are so many fun ideas to practice letter recognition with breakfast food as long as you're willing to throw out the old advice of "don't play with your food!" You can make letter shaped breakfasts for your kids! One easy way to do that is use letter cookie cutters as pancake molds or to cut letters out of pancakes once you've made them. You can also arrange cereal in the shapes of letters before dumping it in the milk. You could even go one step further and buy alphabet cereal and have your little one look for certain letters. Berries, grapes, and banana slices all can be arranged into letter shapes. You can even have your little one practice making their letters with their food! It's a fun and tasty way to keep letter recognition in your morning, and maybe it will help them eat their food too!

Morning Walk

4. Using Wreaths and Letter Monograms

If you're like me, you live in a beautiful neighborhood where people love to decorate their front doors and lawns with single monogram letters of their last names! I've found this to be a wonderful opportunity for Charlotte to practice her letter recognition, out of the alphabet sequence on our walks. Another reason monogram letters are good to practice on, is because they look a little different than typical Arial of Times New Roman Font, which they usually see. This helps children to learn letters when they look a bit different, and thus cements their recognition that much more. Initially, I do most of the work to point out the letters, but now, Charlotte is familiar with these letters and where they show up on our walk. For example, we'll round a bend, and I'll tell her "Oh we're going to be on the lookout for that letter 'H'! Can you find it!?!? That's right! What sound does 'H' make again? Mommy can't remember? That's right! It makes a Hhh Hhh sound!"

If your neighborhood doesn't have a lot of monograms, you can always go on a letter hunt using license plates. We've done that before! For example, one walk, we spent the whole time looking for the letter 'B' which was hiding on the backs of cars and trucks and on signs! It's perfectly fine to repeat the same letter over a few walks! This gives your little one extra practice in really isolating that letter and identifying it among many letters.

Reading Time

5. Include ABC Books in your little one's library

There are honestly a plethora of possibilities when it comes to ABC books and they are SUCH a useful resource for teaching letter recognition to your little ones! The best books are ones that are engaging, bright, show both uppercase and lowercase letters, and that give examples of objects or words that start with the letter featured on the page. The books pictured below are some of my absolute favorites for all of those reasons, but if your little one likes a different ABC book, go with it! Motivation is absolute key, because you want your bitty to read these books again and again and again so they can get constant exposure to these letters and start to learn them!

If you're looking for more suggestions on great ABC books, click the following link http://childrensbooksguide.com/alphabet. It's a pretty impressive list, and it will give you a great starting point!

Lunch Time

Potty Time

6. Keep 3-5 letter flashcards by the potty for your child to practice

At my house, Charlotte is currently in the process of assimilation to the

potty. I hesitate to call it potty training, because with juggling her 3 month old brother Thompson, we haven't been able to get serious yet. As of now, we're at the point where I try to get her to sit on the potty once a day, and just get her comfortable with it. As I initially spent time waiting for her to do something/anything on the potty, I started playing I spy with her with colors in the room. She quickly cemented her recognition of colors and even started to quiz me. It was then that I realized I could use this time to have her practice letters.

In her bathroom, she has 3-5 letter cards at anytime. While she's sitting on the potty, she flips through the cards at her own pace, she talks about them, and every once in a while, I'll ask her to show me a certain card. When I can tell she's just about had enough of looking at her cards, I'll just casually ask her to name the letters on the cards one by one. This is in no way a drill or mindless repetition, but it's at her pace and at her comfort level. So far, it's working well for us. She may not be potty trained, but she's learning those letters! I'll call that a silver lining!

Nap Time

Afternoon Playtime

There are countless opportunities that you can use to play with letters with your child, but here are just a few games/activities that my little one loves!

7. Letter Balloons

After her second birthday, we had balloons all over the house, because she loves them so much. After the initial thrill of batting them around wore off, they would just gathered in corners and sat. As I was about to pop them one night, I realized I could use them to help her learn her letters. I then took 3 of the balloons and wrote both uppercase and lowercase letters on them as pictured.

Now we play a variety of games with them. We'll hide the balloons and then I'll say "Go find the 'A'" balloon!" or I'll get out a laundry basket and say, "Can you put the 'B' balloon in the basket? Good job! Now go get the 'A' balloon!"

Even when we're cleaning up, I refer to the different balloons by their letter name. This way she's getting used to identifying the letters on the balloons and not their locations.

**Note: Make sure to use the same color balloon so your little one isn't confusing learning colors for learning letters!**

8. Coloring Letters

A great way to have little ones interact with letters and practice their early writing skills and coordination is by doing alphabet coloring pages. There are many books you can buy on Amazon that offer great coloring pages and activities to reinforce certain letters. I have some of these that I've bought throughout the years, but I do like using Pinterest as my main source! The reason being that I can easily print multiple pages of 1 or 2 letters for free and have her work on those letters during the week. When you're on Pinterest, simply type in "letter coloring sheets," and a ton of free pins will pop up! I really like the ones that have not just the letter to color, but also trace, and then color objects that start with the targeted letter! Again, this is just another way to expose your child to letters and get them recognizing the letters and naming them!

9. Letter puzzles

There are SO many reason why I love doing letter puzzles with Charlotte!

1. She gets to work on fine motor skills.
2. It demands that you work on letters out of sequence.
3. She's improving her muscles memory for the form of letters as she's fitting them in their spots.
4. We work on sounds of the letters as well as names, because her puzzle has objects associated with the letters.

My absolute FAVORITE brand for letter puzzles is Melissa and Doug, but there are lots of other great ones out there too. Pictured above, there's the classic peg puzzle in the right corner, a Disney version on the top left, a butterfly version where the lowercase pieces help you figure out where to put the uppercase pieces, and Charlotte's new favorite on the bottom left which talks to her when she puts the letters in (for example '"R' is for rose."). These are just a few of the many examples available, and your little ones will enjoy doing them again and again!

Dinner Time

Bath Time

10. Bubble Bath Letters on the Wall

If your toddler is anything like mine, baths don't happen without bubbles. It's pretty much just a house rule! With that said, there's no reason you can't have just as much fun with those bubbles as your little one and use them to reinforce letters one more time before bed! Simply scoop bubbles from the bath and write letters on the wall with them, and ask you child which letter you wrote. Then, your little one can have fun splashing that letter away, clearing the wall for you to write another letter. When they get really good, you can have them make the letters in bubbles and then you can try to guess which letter they wrote! This is an especially fun activity because it's kinesthetic and it's getting your child to make big movements while making the letters. Not to mention, as long as the splashing outside of the tub is kept to a minimum, the clean up is really not too bad!

Bed Time

So there you have it, up to 10 activities you can sneak into your little ones' routines to help them work on their letter recognition! As you're starting out, so as not to make it overwhelming for you or your little one, I would suggest just picking 2 activities from the list to try a day, and focus on one letter. When both you and your little one feel more comfortable with the activities you can gradually expand to do more of them in a day! As with all things on my blog, remember to keep it fun and stress free! That's the best way your little one is going to learn and the best way to guarantee that you will keep providing those quality opportunities for your bitty to practice her letters, because you won't feel overwhelmed either!

Have fun with that ABC practice, and until next time...

Yours in Literacy,

The Reading Specialista

You want to read that AGAIN??? Why rereading books is actually a good thing!

Hello Readers,

I know we've all been there before, and even I've been guilty of saying it, "You want to read that book again!?" Having fully memorized the sequence of animals that parade through Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you See?, the exact costumes that appear in Minnie's Halloween Costume Contest, and all of the words in Duck and Goose Colors, I have to humbly admit, that my little girl clearly has her favorites. Even more, when she's on a favorite streak, we can read the SAME book 6-7 times in a row, and then 4-5 times more that same day. I'm here to offer all of those mommies, daddies, grandmas, and grandpas some comfort today! Besides losing your sanity temporarily from the repetition, rereading books multiple (and I mean multiple) times actually has many important benefits for your child! Here are just a few:

1. Vocabulary Development

Our little ones are constantly noticing and adding new words to their receptive (the words they understand) and productive (the words they use and say) vocabulary. For tiny itty bitties, you'll notice that their receptive vocabulary especially is vastly higher than their productive vocabulary. For example, when Charlotte and I are reading Richard Scary's Best First Book Ever (a current favorite). I am incredibly impressed by the amount of receptive vocabulary she has that the repetition of this book has built for her. I'll ask her to find the sink, piano, chalkboard, rose, paints, crayons, red, blue, and yellow, and she'll point to all of those items, but she's not ready to say them yet. She will point to the items that she does know and say them herself, and from that I can get a glimpse into her productive vocabulary.

The more often you read the same book to your child, you are actually giving them practice to develop their receptive vocabulary and also for them to start feeling comfortable enough to make a word, or words, jump from their receptive to productive vocabulary. In fact, most of the words your child learns throughout her childhood she learns implicitly (without direct instruction) and a smaller percentage, she learns explicitly (with direct instruction). This of course is not just limited to pictures, but also the text that you read as well. Also, recent studies have shown that when parents read books to their children, the books offer a higher variety of words than our usual spoken language to them does. Therefore, even though you're reading the SAME words to your child again and again from that favorite book, there's a good chance that you're offering a higher variety of words than those that you'd use in your spoken language. For example, can you imagine describing everything you see to your child with a color? Although it happens sometimes for me, it's not as consistent as most children's books! Which is why they are perfect for building vocabulary!

Ways to enhance vocabulary building:

• Point out new words in the text or pictures to your little one, and have them think about the meanings of the words. "Look the Pout, Pout fish is sad! Can you make a sad face?"
• Have them repeat words after you. "Can you say truck? Look! That's a truck. Try it, truck." (productive building)
• Ask them to find different objects and point to them in pictures. (receptive building)
• Have them count objects with you in counting books and point out the colors and have them find them in color books. (receptive and productive building)
• Act curious about words. Their own word curiosity will build off of yours! "Oh I like that word squiggly! Look, it is a squiggly line. I wonder where that word came from, but it describes that line exactly!"

2. Sight word recognition

Just as a child's spoken vocabulary can improve from rereading books, their sight word recognition can also vastly increase. Sight words are words that children can read or identify on sight and they don't need to sound them out, because they know them so well!

Once children get older (3-4),  they start to notice words in the book. To help children notice these words more readily, it's important that you underline the words with your finger as you're reading. When you're doing this, children are starting to associate the spoken words with the written ones in the book. Because you read the book so often, they then can begin to identify these words within the context of the book, and the words can easily jump into their mental sight word bank. For example, if your child loves to reread Clifford, he may start to be able to read "big red dog" by himself. (On a side note, for my parents with Kinder, 1st, and 2nd graders Clifford books are INCREDIBLE to practice sight words and many of Fry's sight words are used in the books. Whenever I tutor first graders, we ALWAYS read Clifford books for that purpose!) So by continually reading these books, and pointing to the words, you're actually offering your little one a great opportunity to unknowingly memorize their sight words! *And the best part is, it's much sneakier than making flash cards for sight word practice, because they're actually asking to reread the book! ;-)*

Ways to enhance sight word recognition

• Always point to words that you're reading as you're reading them.
• If a book has a very repetitive pattern, (such as Bear's Loose Tooth), and you've already read it a few times in a row, you can simply underline the repetitive words and have your child read them to you.
• Have your child point to words as you're reading them, or if you have a very itty bitty, you can help them point to the words, guiding their finger under the text.

3. Story sequencing and retell

Another plus to continually rereading a story is that it gives your little one an opportunity to improve their comprehension, or understanding of the story, through practiced sequencing or retell. Sequencing is basically when we ask our little ones to put the events of a story in order, and retelling is when we ask our little ones to tell us everything they remember in the story, so they are very closely related.

When you have the feeling that your little one is going to soon choose a book to be their favorite, you can start to ask them retelling and sequencing questions about the book, throughout the book. For example, after a page in a story, ask your little one, "Can you tell me what happened on this page?" When they get more "practiced" at a particular story, you can ask. "What happened on the last 2 pages?" When they've had lots of practice in the story, you can ask them to retell the entire book, "Can you tell me what happened in this story?" You can even ask them specific sequencing questions, "What happened first in the story?" or "Did we see the yellow duck or the black sheep first?" Although naysayers may say, "Well gee, that's easy, they've just memorized the story, because you read it 20 times, and now they're repeating it." Actually, much more is going on here. By having your little one repeat stories and narratives to you, they are truly building their understanding for what a narrative is (a sequence of events with a problem and solution). This will help them greatly when they get to school age or if they are already in school by helping them to understand not just what's going on in the book, but also the structure in which it needs to be described. So look at each rereading of a book as a potential practice for your little one to get ready to understand the book itself and the narrative story structure!

Ways to Enhance Sequencing and Retell

• Ask you little one sequencing and retell questions throughout the book, building on the number of pages to be sequenced or retold as they become more familiar with the book.
• Encourage them to use the words beginning, middle, end, or first, next, and last.
• When they are very familiar with a book, have them practice retelling the entire story.
• As a bonus, introduce basic story words like character, setting, and problem and solution. Their teachers will think they are super smart when these words easily fly off their tongues!

4. Concepts of Print

Another great skill for our little ones to practice while repeating a book are the concepts of print. The concepts of print are basically the little skills that all of us take for granted such as knowing where the front cover and back cover of a book are, understanding what a word is, understanding what a letter is, knowing which direction to read from line to line and page to page, understanding of punctuation, and what an author and an illustrator do. The magic of rereading a book is that the story stays the same, so you can really hone in on developing these concepts of print, because your child is familiar enough with the story to be able to attend to them.

To do this, it's important to use your finger, or your child's finger, to point out the text on each page, and to engage them in features of that text. Have them count words. Have them count letters in words. Ask them questions about the words, such as "Oh no, mommy forgot what she's supposed to do at the end of the line, where do I read now? Of course! I go to the next line and start on the left, you're so smart!" or "I finished this page! Where do I go to read more of the story? Oh the next page? Do I start on the left page or the right page? Oh of course! The left page, thank you for reminding me." If your little one isn't yet ready to answer these questions, you can have them point to where to go, or your can tell them yourself. You can also point out periods, exclamation points, questions marks, and commas, and tell them what they do. It'll help to give some variety to that story, especially after reading it for 15 times in one day! *Sometimes, patience can be bred through creativity!*

Ways to Enhance Concepts of Print

• Have your child count how many words are on a page, or how many letters are in a specific word.
• Ask your child what the first and last letters are of a specific word.
• Hand your child a book upside-down and ask you to fix it, so you can read it.
• Ask your child where to read next in a book when you finish a line or a page.
• Ask you little one to show you where the front and back covers are.

5. Learning to independently "read" a book

You'll soon notice that after about 20-30 times of reading a book and practicing all of the items listed above, your little one will start to do something extraordinary, they will start to "read" the book to themselves. Now, I do put read in quotation marks, because essentially, they have just memorized the story, and they are now reciting it, but for them, it makes them feel like a reader! At times too, you'll notice that they'll make up words to fill in the gaps of those they haven't memorized, and most times those words sound like the missing ones too. I was in complete awe when Charlotte "read" Brown Bear, Brown Bear for the first time, and I will still remember her version of "what do you see" which was more akin to "whaddaya ya," and it makes me smile, but for me, in that little moment, my little one was a reader, because she understood that this book made the story, and she was telling it to herself.

So the next time you're about to say to your itty bitty, "You want to read Oh the Things you Can Think AGAIN!?" Just remember that it's repetitive to you, because you've read it and understood it completely each of the 9 times before, but the 10th time MAY just be what your little one needs to develop understanding of that mystery word, trace the text with her fingers, or finally be able to retell the beginning, middle, and end of the story! So take a breath, smile, and open that book again for a 10th time in a row! :)

Until next time...

Yours in Literacy,

The Reading Specialista

V Ways to Add Literacy to Your Valentines

Hello Again Readers,

If you're anything like me, I imagine you have been both shocked by how progressively earlier each year the Valentines are put up for sale at the local CVS or grocery store. I'm pretty sure it was not yet January 2nd, when I saw the first big box of red, pink, and purple decor at my local Kroger. Of course with all the candy, stuffed animals, and hearts come the Valentines. Usually this sight brings me dread. As a teacher, I typically buy Valentines for my students each year quite early, to dish in on sales, but then I always find myself hastily addressing and creating them on Feb. 13th. Looking at those boxes being put up this year through the eyes of a Reading Specialist, I realized they don't have to be a burden, but instead are a great seasonal opportunity for parents to engage in authentic (real-life) literacy activities with their children. To take and adapt from one of my favorite Dr. Seuss lines...

Then the Reading Specialist thought of something she hadn't before! What if Valentine addressing, she thought, doesn't have to be a bore. What if Valentine addressing...perhaps...could have literacy galore!

As a way to help parents who dread those cards, I've thought of five simple, yet effective, activities you can use while Valentine Day Card addressing to help your little readers develop their reading and writing skills!

As a precursor to this list, I would challenge all of my busy parents out there to do 2 things to make sure you don't get caught in the mad rush of Feb. 13th addressing:

1. Buy your Valentines early!
It's not like stores make this one hard, because they've been there since early January! You may as well get them on your weekly grocery trip. Have your kiddo pick out their favorite theme, and pick them up. Having your Valentines early will help you to make this a gradual activity amidst your busy schedules!

2. Request your children's class lists early!
This is especially important if you have multiple children in different classrooms! Typically, teachers send out class lists for addressing a week ahead of time to give you two weekends to work on them. (That's what I typically did anyways!) If you feel you'd need more time, don't be afraid to send a kindly typed e-mail or note to your child's teacher requesting the list. You can detail that although you know it's coming shortly, you'd like a little extra time to practice some literacy activities with your child as they address their Valentines. Teachers can usually send you their lists quite quickly, and I know if I ever got this request, it would have been music to my ears as a classroom teacher!

So with those two important steps out of the way, it's now time to get to those...

V Ways to Add Literacy into Valentines!

1. Read the Cards and talk about them!

Although it may seem simple, this is an often overlooked activity. Have your child open up his Valentines, and read over all the sayings before he addresses them. Usually there are little jokes that you can laugh at with him, or if he's very young, you can help him to better understand. Many have great wordplay in them too, which is a great bonus! Help your child to sound out words they don't know, and enjoy the moment!

This activity is great for building their decoding (sounding out) skills, comprehension, and if you add reading the cards over multiple times, can even help them build sight words!

2. Read over the class list with your child, and talk about the different features in the names!

After you've read over those silly and corny Valentines, read over the class list. You'll be pleasantly surprised that your child can readily identify most of his classmates' names, even by this point in Kindergarten! Patiently help them to read the names they aren't quite comfortable with. After they've read the list to you, you can then play "I Spy" with them with the names. For example: "I spy Michael. Can you find Michael for me?" or to make it easier, "I spy a name starting with an M," and as a request that builds off that one. "I spy a name starting with an Mmmmm sound."

If you're feeling particularly motivated, sing the name game song with your child for all the names "Michael, Michael, Bo Bichael, Banana nana Fo Fichael, Me my mo Michael, Michael!"

By reading over the class list and playing with the letters and sounds, you're giving your child some AWESOME literacy skill practice! They're able to build sight words, practice decoding, build letter recognition, sound-letter relationships (phonics), and phonemic awareness (understanding the sounds in our language). The best part: It's free and fun!

3. Have your child write the class list in different ways!

There are many different ways you can have your child rewrite her class list to help her work on her letter writing and reading skills. Simply give your child an extra piece of lined paper, and help her work through these different lists:

• Write the names in alphabetical order by first name. 98% of teachers will make their class lists alphabetical, but by last name. I have yet to meet one that will give a list by first name, but I'm sure they exist (hence the 2%). This is a great opportunity to help your child work on alphabetizing skills. To help them, you can write the alphabet on the top of their paper, which can be a great reference as they write their classmates in alphabetical order, especially if they're just learning the skill.

• Write the consonants (any letter that isn't a vowel) in one color and vowels (a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y) in another. Understanding the difference between a vowel and a consonant is an important skill, and having your child practice this with their friends' names is super valuable! For example: Vowels are in pink and Consonants in purple Michael. Have them pick their own colors and go to town!

• Write the names in order from least syllables to most. Having your child practice sounding out syllables is a great opportunity for helping them to build their phonemic awareness! If your child finds this particularly difficult by "clapping out" syllables, you'll save a lot of time and hair by having her count "jaw drops" instead of "hand claps." Have her place her hand underneath her chin and count the number of times her "jaw drops" in a name, that's the number of syllables there are in the word. This works, because every syllable has at least one vowel, and when you make a vowel sound with your mouth, your jaw drops to accommodate the air you use to make the sound. It's much more reliable than hand claps, especially for little learners. Try it yourself with the word "encyclopedia." By counting jaw drops, you'd easily get 6!

4. Address the Valentines in your own fun order!

Instead of just saying, "Okay hun, now copy the list and check off the ones you've done." Use your practice in the previous activities to give them a fun order to address their Valentines in. For example:

• Hmmm, let's start with all the names that start with the Ssss sound!
• Awesome! Now, let's write all the names that have 3 syllables!
• Let's write all the names that rhyme with "sat!"
• Great work! Now, how about we write all the names that have the same first sound as your name!
• Good! Now, let's write all the names that start with the letter that comes after "s."

and so on, and so forth! For your own organization, have your child check off the names after they address the Valentines. This will make sure you don't skip any!

5. Have your child make his own Valentines for family members!

If your child has really caught the Valentine's Day bug, and you have a knack for arts and crafts, have him make his own Valentines as an extension activity and send them to family members. This is a great idea, because it helps your child to see how reading and writing have real-life purposes and it's fun! If you want some great ideas for easy or fancy Valentines, check out Pinterest! Even just making the traditional little paper hearts with messages on them is great too! Have your child choose which Valentine they want to make, get the cutting/pasting/coloring/painting parts done, and then help him to write a message he wants to write to his family. Not only are these precious literacy moments for your child, but they will serve as treasured keepsakes for your family members for years to come!

So there you have it! Five ways to really add quality literacy activities into an otherwise boring addressing Valentines burden! As with all suggested activities on my blog, make sure to keep the mood light, and space out the literacy learning over many days. For example, if you do suggestion 1 on one day, wait a day until you do suggestion 2. You want to keep your child's literacy learning light and fun, and not turn it into a mandated checklist! Even if it's more realistic for you to choose 2 activities instead of all 5, just do that! You know your child and your schedules best! Keep it fun for you too!

Thanks for reading everyone! Have a Happy Valentine's Day, and until next time....

Your in Literacy,

The Reading Specialista

3 Reading New Year's Resolutions

Hello Again Readers,

Even though the New Year is only hours away, it's not too late to talk to your little reader about a New Year's Resolution, or to make one for yourself to help your little reader grow! The trick with New Year's Resolutions, however, isn't just to light a tiny motivational match that will burn out within a week or two, but to think of a way to build a routine that will help you to ignite a long lasting fire within yourself and your little reader. As I'm sure many of you can attest to, the gyms and fitness centers are certainly at their busiest in January, but rarely do people attack their weight loss regimes with the same zest come February 28th. My goal for this post is to not only give you some ideas for some awesome reading resolutions, but also to give you some routines to help you and your little reader achieve your goals! So, without further ado...

The 3 Reading Resolutions

1. In 2016 I want to read (insert number)  of new books.

The wording in this resolution is PERFECT for our readers from as early as Kindergarten, and reaching through college (not to mention yourself ;-) ). The best part about this resolution, is you can help your reader set the total number, and then divide them up by month. So for example, a Kindergarten student might want to read 48 new books (a reasonable number when thinking of picture books) and this would mean 4 a month for them. Look below for other reasonable numbers to suggest:

• 1st: 48 books
• 2nd: 42 books
• 3rd: 36 books
• 4th+: 24 books

As you notice, the number of books decreases as our readers get older, this is because the length of books (from picture to chapter) and the complexity of the text increases. It's important to help them make good choices with their books too. Let them know it's not just the number of books, but the quality of books to accomplish. For example, a 5th grader reading a Clifford book to "get in" their book for the month, has missed the point of the resolution, and you might want to help him to find a book he would enjoy, and talk to him about how we want to feel completely good about ourselves when we reach the goal.

How do we make this happen again?

• Sticker Charts: For our younger readers, sticker charts are very motivational. You can make one with enough spots to hold all of their books for the year, and then give them a sticker to put on their chart once they've achieved them.
• Calendars with Stickers: To expand on the idea, you could give them stickers to put on their calendar to break down their reading by month. This makes the goal more manageable for our little ones, and as a bonus, it helps you to see how often your child is finishing a book!
• Frequent conversations about reading: For both our younger and older students, ask them how their reading is coming, make visits to the library a family outing, and read along with them as well. This will not only help them to develop those strong reading habits and help them achieve their goal, but also it will give you some special one-on-one time with them, which will give them positive feelings toward reading!

2. In 2016, I want to read a new genre every month.

For our purposes, genres of books are basically different types of books, and many times, our readers find one genre and cling to it, without trying others. For boys, it's typically nonfiction or graphic novels, and for girls it's fiction or fantasy. Although it's by no means "the end of the world" if our student prefers one genre over all others, it can stunt their growth in genre knowledge, which is important for them to develop as they get older and are required to read different genres in class. By making a resolution to explore many genres over the course of the year, not only will our readers gain different genre knowledge, but they will also be able to compare the genres, and perhaps find a new favorite! There are many lists on genres abound, but I've included 12 below perfect for this resolution:

• Fantasy: talking animals, magic, completely unrealistic events
• Mystery
• Realistic Fiction: A text about something that COULD happen, but either the events or characters are not real
• Historical Fiction: A text about a historic event that did happen, but includes fictional characters (the I Survived series)
• Science Fiction: A text about fictional events in space or time, usually includes aliens, technology, etc.
• Poetry
• Nonfiction: A text about a topic that is real
• Biography: A text about a person's life who really lived
• Autobiography: A text written by someone about their own life
• Graphic Novel: A text written to include pictures alongside of text (commonly known as comics, but has completely morphed into it's own genre such as Big Nate books)
• Plays
• Traditional Literature: Folktales/Fairytales that typically teach a lesson at the end of the story

By taking a year to sample all of these genres, your reader will truly grow by leaps and bounds!

How do we make this happen again?

• Theme the months: Let your reader choose which genre they want to read on a given month, and write it on their personal calendar. At the beginning of each month, take a special trip to the library, and find books to fit into that genre! Make sure to keep it fun, and encourage your reader to finish at least one book for that month within that genre, even if they are reluctant to read it at first.
• Read along with them: A great way for even you to understand more about the genre, is to pick your own book in the library and read it too! This will give you even more items to talk about with your child as you can share with them your impressions about the genre as well!

3. In 2016, I want to read (insert number here) minutes each day.

In the spirit of "saving the best for last," I most certainly did on this one! Encouraging your child to read every day is the best thing we can do for their reading development at home, and this is supported by multiple studies! The best part about this resolution, is it works for all ages! From birth-college, our children greatly benefit from daily reading and daily reading routines. For our little ones (birth-PreK3) this resolution may be more of yours, and making sure to do it with them, but for PreK4 and older, they can easily take ownership of this time, and start to show independence in their reading habits. Here are some suggested time ranges to suggest to your children as they are setting their resolutions:

• Birth-PreK3: 10-15 minutes a day
• PreK4-Kinder: 15-20 minutes a day
• 1st-2nd: 20-25 minutes a day
• 3rd-4th: 25-30 minutes a day
• 5th+: at least 30 minutes a day

How do we make this happen again?

• Set aside a specific time to read each day: By specific, I mean super-specific! For my schedule with Charlotte, I might block off 5:15-5:30 JUST for reading. The more specific we can be, the more consistent we will be, especially when balancing work, practice, school, and other little ones! If she is old enough, let your child pick her reading times. This gives her ownership over the time, and helps her to make it part of her routine. It's commonly cited that it takes 21 days to develop a habit, so by keeping your children reading at that specific time each day for 21 days, they'll soon be doing it on their own!
• Get a timer: You can easily buy a timer for your child's reading, and let them control it. Or even just use the one on your phone! This will help them get excited about their reading. Additionally, for our readers who are just starting off on their bigger block of time, it gives them the freedom to divide the time up. For example, for a 1st grader, you might have them read from 5:10-5:20, and then after dinner from 7:20-7:35. This gives them their 25 minutes, and their timer will ensure that they did all 25.
• Read along with your child: You can listen to your child read, or model good reading yourself. Can you imagine how powerful it is for your child to see everyone reading at the same time? Think of how much we get into sports, and how our children get excited for it, because everyone's gathered together. That same energy could be transferred to reading by having everyone read at once. 

I hope this post helped you to both round out your resolutions with your little ones and gave your practical ways to do it! May your 2016 be filled with new adventures in reading and growing with your child! Have a wonderful night, and a Happy New Year!

Until next time readers...

Yours in Literacy,

The Reading Specialista

Songs that Pack a Literacy Punch!

Hello Again Readers!

It's hard to believe, but we're already deep into the second quarter at my school! After my first quarter in my new position, I do have to also confess that one of my favorite parts of being a Reading Specialista (and believe me, I have many favorite parts) is the Early Childhood Literacy lessons I teach at my school. Although some people may shutter at the prospect of being in charge of 20+ 3 and 4 year-olds, I look forward to the songs, the motions, the jumping, the moving, and the dancing that our Literacy Labs hold together!

Besides reading books for our little ones and practicing letters, singing quality songs is one of the most powerful tools we can hold in our literacy arsenal. By singing songs, our little ones are able to develop their phonemic awareness (their ability to understand and play with sounds: an important precursor to reading) and increase their vocabulary. In this blog post, I've included my 5 favorite songs to use for itty bitty learners, and tips for how you can go beyond the songs to enrich them and add even more umph to them for your little learners!

1. Dance Like You've Got Ants in Your Pants- Eric Herman

First of all, if you haven't heard of Eric Herman, he's basically the new Raffi! He has a host of adorable fun sing alongs, many of which are available on Youtube. I highly recommend him!

The Reason I love this song:
I love this song, because it seamlessly mixes rhyming and vocabulary. By dancing to this song along with the video, our itty bitties learn new words by practicing movements and seeing images on the video, and they also learn basic rhyming pairs!

Add more umph
To add on to this song, you can simply add verses for your little learner to dance and sing along with that rhyme and follow the pattern of the song, for example:

• Dance like you've got a bed on your head...
• Dance like you've got a treat on your feet...
• Dance like you've got eggs on your legs...
• Dance like you've got rubber bands on your hands...
• Dance like you've got charms on your arms...
• Dance like you've got gum on your thumb...

The longer it goes on, the more fun they (and you) have, and the more they learn!

2. If You're Happy and You Know It

The Reason I love it
I love this song, because it is typically very familiar to our itty bitties. Besides the "Itsy Bitsy Spider," it's probably the most sung song in my household, but many people don't notice its great potential for listening and vocabulary building! Every motion and every "command" in the song is immediately followed up by a motion that reinforces it which is awesome for building vocabulary!

Add More Umph
To add more umph to this song, similar to the first suggestions, simply add on to the song. Typically, the song only includes clap your hands, shout hooray, make a smile, and stomp your feet, but there are many other commands that you can do with your little one.

• Wiggle your ears
• Pat your head
• Rub your tummy
• Tickle your knees
• Wrinkle your nose
• Jump up and down
• Spin in a circle
• Stretch up your arms
• Tap your fingers

You'll want to make sure that you model the command along with your child too, to ensure that they understand what to do. Again, the longer it goes on, the more they learn, but remember to keep it fun, and not turn into a "If you're happy and you know it drill sergeant" ;-). 

3. The Wheels on the Bus

The Reason I love it

Just like "If You're Happy and You Know It," this song is easily recognizable and a favorite for most children. It's also a great way to increase vocabulary and practice new words with your child. In fact, with just a few tweaks, this song can really pack a HUGE literacy punch, and you can even add sound play to your child's singing practice.

Add more Umph

For Vocabulary: To support your little one on her vocabulary journey, you can add different characters on the bus (Disney characters, book characters), animals (farm animals, zoo animals), seasonal favorites (Halloween items, Christmas decorations), etc. *Note: Your bus may get quite loud and fun during this activity!*

For Sound Play: As you're adding items onto your bus, instead of referencing the motions or words they would make, reference the first sound of the word, for example:

"The driver on the bus starts with 'duh,' 'duh,' 'duh,'"...

Identifying first sounds in words is an important phonemic awareness skill that your little one can work towards with this fun practice!

4. BINGO

The Reason I love it

This song not only has an adorable tune, but also it promotes early spelling skills, and the understanding that individual letters make up words.

Add more Umph

As you know, Bingo is not the only five letter word/name in the world, consider these names:

Aaron
April
Abbie
Brian
Lilly
Sofia

Also for a religious version "There is someone who loves me so, and his name is Jesus.J-E-S-U-S...my heart remains in Jesus."

5. Old McDonald

The Reason I love it

Just like "The Wheels on the Bus," this song helps our little learners develop their vocabulary, and it can be tweaked to add sound play as well!

Add more Umph

For Vocabulary: There are many animals you can add to your farm besides just the traditional farm animals. It's fun to consider all sorts of zoo animals and all the fun noises they can make too! 

For Sound Play: Just like with "The Wheels on the Bus," you can have your little one practice the first sound of the animal instead of the sounds that the animals make. For example:

...on his farm he had a cow, with a 'cuh' 'cuh' here and a 'cuh' 'cuh' there....

Again, first sound identification is a great early skill to work on with your little ones!

**Just a note, it's best to practice sounds without using vowels to immediately accompany the sound. So the letter c should be as close to the 'c' sound as possible. I just wrote the "cuh" to clarify that you should make the c sound, and not say the letter "c."**

I hope these songs help to enrich your literacy learning time with your little one! After all, (besides Church), there's never a bad place to sing one of these songs. At the grocery store, in the tub, and in the car, your little bitties will love practicing their literacy skills with you! So happy singing readers...

and until next time....

Yours in Literacy,

The Reading Specialista

3 Quick Tips to Get Your Kids School Reading Ready After Summer

Hey Readers,

Well it's getting to that time again, back to school! Although some of you may have already started (like me), others still have 2-3 weeks before you go back (I'm talking about you Michigan!). No matter if you've started yet or not, this is the perfect time to pump up your child's reading readiness for those early weeks of school to propel them into valuable literacy learning throughout the entire year! Whether your summer had more movies and Mickey than books and writing, or if you had your kids on a tight book reading system this summer, these three tips will help your child, not to mention impress your child's teacher!

1. Sight Word Practice

When working on fluency (how quickly, correctly, and with expression your child reads), one of the easier ways to improve this skill is to expand your child's sight word vocabulary. Sight words are basically words that children can read "at first sight." They don't have to take up precious time decoding them, and their energy can be freed up to figure out harder words. A great place to find sight words, and a widely used tool by teachers, are the Fry Words. For the individual list of words, which are arranged by grade level, you can click on the following link Fry Words. You can use these words to:

•  make flash cards to use in the car, before bed, after breakfast, any time!
• play sight word smash (lay 5-10 cards on the ground and ask your child to stomp on or slap one that you call out)
• write them on the mirror (in dry erase marker) for your child to practice when brushing their teeth

As an added help, if you're more into cutting than writing, you can follow this link to print the words and cut them out Printable Flash Cards. Remember, when you're practicing with your child, you're easing them into school again, so keep it fun, start small (10 cards at once), and then add as they learn more! Can you imagine the look on their faces when they have a whole stack of cards that they know!?

2. Comprehension Practice

A way to help your child get their comprehension (how they understand the text) muscles working is to get a little bit more involved in your reading time together. As you're reading a book together (either picture book or chapter book), you can stop every once in a while to ask students comprehension questions. These types of questions can include:

Questions about Summarizing

• What happened on this page?
• Can you tell me where we were in the story before we start? What was happening?
• What problem did the character have?
• What happened first in this story? Then what?
• What happened at the end of the story? What about the middle?

Predictions

• What do you think will happen next?
• What do you think will happen at the end of the story?
• Wow! Look at that picture on the cover! What do you think this story is about?

As an added bonus, you can actually have your child ask questions about the story to quiz you! See if they can "stump you!" Various studies have shown that when our little readers are in charge of asking questions, they actually understand the story better!

3. Text Structure and Concepts of Print

This section not only helps your child to amp up their literacy success and their ability to keep up with classroom book discussions, but if kids know these terms and use them correctly right off the bat, this really gets a "wow" factor from the teacher (I would know ;-) )! During your reading time with your child, you can easily work on these areas with them! Depending on the age of your child, they may have already mastered these areas, but keep in mind, summer is long, and review is essential! Check on the lists below to see how you can enrich your book discussions with your child by mentioning these concepts.

Text Structure (How a story/text is organized and the parts of a story/text)

• Characters (People/animals that are involved in a story)
• Main Character or Protagonist (The person/animal who most of the action happens to)
• Setting (Where/when the story takes place)
• Beginning, Middle, and End or Plot
• Problem and Solution of the story (What goes wrong and how it's fixed)
• Climax (the moment the problem is solved in the story)

Concepts of Print (Skills dealing with the understanding of the physical aspects of a book and basic structure of text in a book)

• The location of the front and back of the book
• The location of the beginning, middle, and end of a story
• The location of the author, title, and illustrator (BIG wow points when kids can use the word "illustrator")
• Understanding what a period, comma, question mark, and exclamation mark are for
• Concept of word (a child can define where a single word is in print)
• Concept of letter (a child can define a single letter within a word)
• Being able to name/point to the first and last letters in a word
• The direction we read text (left to right and then top to bottom)

When practicing these areas with your children always remember to keep it fun and interactive! We want to get them warmed up for school not burn them out before the first bell after all! The best part about these activities, is they can actually be used all year long to help your child become an even better reader! By working with your child at home while her teacher is working with her at school, you're creating a partnership with your school that will truly lead your child to amazing reading success!

Thanks for stopping by and reading, and until next time! :)

Yours in Literacy,

The Reading Specialista

10 Activities to Cook up Literacy Fun While You're in the Kitchen

Let's face it, cooking is an ever-present part of our day, so why not make it a fun literacy learning environment for our little ones? I, like you, know how difficult it can be to entertain a tiny one while cooking. It can also seem like you could never have all the necessary "fancy" literacy tools to make meaningful activities. In reality, you CAN find fun, affordable, tools right in your kitchen, to use to make literacy games for your kids!

So I made a list of 10 literacy activities you can do with your little ones that take less than 5 minutes to prep for, and some take no prep at all! Everything you need, you can find right in your kitchen! All of these activities are great for building letter recognition, and some can be extended to higher levels by changing the questions you ask.

**Please note, all activities should be done under the watchful eye of a parent or guardian to ensure safety and maximum learning!**

1. Salt Letters

Suggested Ages: 2-6 years

Materials Needed: 

1. small baking pan (with sides for easy clean up), 
2. 1 cup salt

Steps
This activity works on a child's letter recognition and encoding skills. Simply pour the salt into the pan (as pictured) and tell your child different letters to make in the salt. They can also make piles in the salt to build letters instead of just making them from the depressions in the salt. You can also ask questions like "What letter makes a 'buh' sound? Can you write it in the salt?" As an extra bonus, this gives them sensory enrichment too!

Bitty Learners: If your child isn't yet ready to make their own letters, you can trace one on a piece of paper, and put it down before you put the salt in the pan, this way, the child can trace the letter in the sand while revealing your drawing of the letter. Have them practice multiple times too!

Amp it Up: This is also a fun activity for kids to do with sight words! If your child is at the point of using sight words, they can write sight words in the salt instead of just letters!

2. Dry Spaghetti Letter Building

Suggested Ages: 2-6 years

Materials Needed:

1.  brownie pan (or a baking pan with sides), 
2. small amount (1/5 pack) of angel hair or uncooked spaghetti pasta

Steps

This activity is another great way for children to build their letter recognition skills! Place the cookie sheet on a surface where your learner is comfortable working (the table, a chair, or the floor) and place the spaghetti inside the pan (so it doesn't scatter everywhere). Ask your child to make different letters with the noodles, and make sure to show them how they can break the noodles to make different sized lines (as seen in the picture). This activity can be a bit challenging for your little learner, because it's helping her to recognize letters in different forms.

You can even get her started by making letters of your own, and have her guess what letters you made!

Bitty Learners: If your learner is not ready to make letters themselves, you can again write your own letter on a piece of paper, have her make it with the noodles, and then have her name the letter! By building letters in this way she is engaging many different sensory processes to help her learn the letter shapes!

Amp it Up: Have your learner combine letters to make short words, sight words, her name, etc. Don't be afraid to use extra noodles ;-). 

3. Cooked Spaghetti Letters

Suggested Ages: 2-6 years

Materials Needed:

1.  brownie pan (or a baking pan with sides),
2.  small amount (1/5 pack) of angel hair or cooked spaghetti pasta

Steps

Although it may seem repetitious, it's important to give our little learners various experiences with building letters that constantly engage their senses and give them different kinesthetic experiences. This helps them to not only retain information and recognize letter forms, but hey, it's boring to do the exact same stuff all the time! For this activity, simply cook up some spaghetti noodles, rinse them in cold water (to cool them and so they don't stick together). Then, place them on the cookie sheet on a surface comfortable for your learner. Next, ask your learner to make different letters with the cooked noodles (as pictured). 

I assure you, you will soon here giggles of delight as your little learner manipulates the noodles to make his letters! Show him how you can fold noodles or break them to make them shorter. Also, show them how easy it is to make curves with the cooked noodles, by making an uppercase "B" for example! 

Bitty Learners: Again, if your little learner needs a guide for his letter shapes, make sure to give it to him to place his noodles on, or show them the letter they are making by giving them a magnet or a drawing of the letter! We don't want the activity to turn into a drill, so by providing helpful and necessary support even your itty bitties can learn in a meaningful way about letter formation while still having fun!

Amp it Up: Just like before, you can have your learner make words, or his name. Keep in mind too, that your learner always benefits from practicing lowercase letters as well as uppercase letters! 

4. Cookie Sheet Magnets

Suggested Ages: 2-6 years

Materials Needed: 

1. 1 cookie sheet,
2.  alphabet magnets

Steps

This activity is actually really great, because it can take place anywhere you can take a cookie sheet! You can even explore further activities about cookie sheets on Pinterest as Early Childhood teachers have since adapted this instrument by storm! For our purposes, cooking up literacy in the kitchen, all you have to do is take one clean cookie sheet and multiple letter magnets, which will stick to the metallic cookie sheet (as pictured). You can mix up the letters and ask your little learner to find a certain letter by name "Find the A." You can ask her to find letters by sound as well "Which letter makes the Mmmmmm sound?" This is another activity that will help with your child's letter recognition.

Bitty Learners: If your learner is still in the early stages of learning letter recognition, you can write down a letter on a piece of paper or a dry erase board, and ask your child to find the matching letter magnet. Additionally, you could draw their attention to print by bringing out one of their favorite picture books and pointing out a letter for her to find. For example "Look! Clifford starts with a 'C' can you see the 'C'? Now find the magnet 'C!'" 

Amp it Up: To increase the challenge, have your learner spell her name, sight words, or help her to spell word families. Whenever she spells a word, have her say the word, sound it out, and spell the word back to you by pointing at the letters. For example "My name is Piper  Puh-I-Puh-Er. Piper is spelled P-I-P-E-R." This helps to cement her phonics understanding and her understanding of the alphabetic principle. 

5. Muffin tin letters

Suggested Ages: 2-6 years

Materials Needed: 

1. 1 muffin tin,
2.  1 piece of paper to rip up and put in each muffin cup,
3.  1 pen/marker to label letters, 
4. game markers for the game (can use Cheerios, Goldfish, anything small)

Steps

First, you'll want to take a sheet of paper, and divide it into 12 different pieces. Rip each piece apart and write a different letter on each piece. Then, place the letters in the muffin depressions (as pictured). Now, give your learner little game markers (such as Cheerios) and ask your learner to put a game piece on the letter spots. For example, "Okay, find the 'H' and cover it with your Cheerio!" Make sure to give plenty of praise when your learner gets it right and support such as reminders of what a letter looks like if he is getting frustrated. Also, don't forget to ask him for a letter that you didn't choose! He will really start to giggle when Mommy or Daddy asked him to find something that wasn't there! This is a great activity because it not only helps with letter recognition, but also with listening comprehension and even fine motor skills!

Bitty Learners: As your learners are just starting to learn their letters, you could use your alphabet magnets or drawings of the letters to help him find the letters in the tin. This gives him some necessary support as he is looking for the letters. "Look at this magnet, it's the letter T. Can you find the T in your tin and put a Cheerio on it?"

Amp it Up: For our older learners, see if they can use their Cheerio markers to spell a word within the tin (to do this, you'll have to make sure you give them some vowels!). Make sure to have them spell their word out loud to you as well. You can also make the directions more complicated "Put 2 Cheerios on the M, 1 on the C, and 3 on the A." Again this is a great way to strengthen their listening comprehension.

6. Egg Carton Shake

Suggested Ages: 2-6 years

Materials Needed: 

1. 1 empty egg carton,
2.  1 marker to label letters,
3.  1 game marker (Cheerio, Goldfish, anything small)

Steps

I saw this idea at the recent International Literacy Association Conference, and I thought it was absolutely adorable, fun, and simple! It's also great for building letter recognition. All you have to do is take an empty egg carton of whichever size you wish, and label the depressions with different letters (as pictured). Then, put a small game marker, such as a Cheerio in the carton. Have your learner shake, shake, shake, and shake the carton, and then open it. When he opens it, ask him which letter his Cheerio landed on! Then, shake, laugh, open, and repeat!

Bitty Learners: For learners just learning their letters, make sure to give them extra support. This might even be an activity that you would carefully monitor with them, helping them for the first few times, but then praising them highly when they get the hang of those letters! You might even want to give them a half dozen egg carton, so they aren't overwhelmed by the letters and are able to find success more quickly!

Amp it Up: To make it more difficult, for your learner, write some words in with the letter mix. You can also give her more than one game marker, so she is identifying more than one letter at a time. You can ask her if they can think of a word that starts with their letter. "You're right! That's a 'T!' Can you think of a word that starts with 'T?'" Another way to increase difficulty is to give her a larger carton, such as one for eighteen eggs.

7. Cheerio Tracing

Suggested Ages: 18 months-6 years

Materials Needed:

1.  1 paper plate, (you can use more if you want to do more letters)
2.  1 marker to draw a letter,
3.  1 cup of Cheerios

Steps

This is another great activity to work on letter recognition and fine motor skills! Simply take a paper plate, write a larger letter on it, and give your child a pile of Cheerios. Then, have him place Cheerios on the letter to trace it (as shown). This helps children to practice their letter formation skills and letter recognition. When he's done, you can have him wipe the plate clean and remake the letter, or you can have him do another letter on another plate.

Bitty Learners: As your little learners are tracing the letter, you want to make sure to ask them which letter they are working on. Having them repeat the letter as they are tracing it will help them to remember it. You can also talk about the letter they are working on and what sound it makes.

Amp it Up: For older learners, you can give them the plate and have them make the letter without you tracing it first. You can also have them spell out words with their Cheerios or give them the sound of a letter, and have them spell the letter in Cheerios! These extension will really help to challenge your little learners!

8. I Spy an Object that Starts with...

Suggested Ages: 2-6 years

Materials Needed: 

1. 1 expert mommy/daddy, 
2. 1 or more tiny learners

Steps

Although it may seem simple, this game really helps children to build on their letter and phonics knowledge as well as their phonemic awareness (understanding of sounds in the language). You can start the game by saying "I spy with my little eye something that starts with a 'wuh' sound." Then your child would guess different objects that start with the same sound until she gets to, for example, "water." Then she gets to be the leader and pick something out. 

Bitty Learners: For our little learners, we want to make sure to model out thinking about sounds. You might say for example, "Hmmm I'm looking for a 'tuh' sound, but milk starts with a 'mmm' sound. Oh, were you looking at the 'tuh' 'tuh' 'table?'" They will also need more support when looking at objects, so you can pick some and help them hear the first sound, "Hmmm ffffffork starts with a 'ffffffff' sound." Don't be afraid to really stretch out those sounds!

Amp it Up: For our more advanced learners, you'll want to ask them for objects that start with different letters instead of sounds. "I spy with my little eye something that starts with a 'B.'" This is more challenging, because they have to remember what sound a 'B' makes and then locate an object with that sound.

9. Ketchup Bag Letters

Suggested Ages: 2-6 years

Materials Needed: 

1. 1 Ziplock bag (with a good seal!), 
2. 1 cookie sheet (to keep the bag contained),
3.  1-2 cups ketchup (depending on the size of the bag)

Steps

Although this sounds like it could be a messy activity, when done correctly, it can have minimal clean up and allow for fun sensory letter recognition activities! First, you'll want to put 1-2 cups of ketchup (or other similar condiment of similar consistency) in a Ziplock bag with a STRONG seal! Then, seal the bag, and put it on a cookie sheet. This helps to keep the activity contained! Next, ask your learner to create different letters by tracing them on the ketchup bag (as pictured). Please note, these letters will not look perfect, but this really helps to engage their senses as they create these different letters!

Bitty Learners: For our little learners, you'll want to make sure to give them extra support by showing them the letter they are drawing by either giving them a magnet or writing it on a piece of paper and showing it to them. Remember, this is all in good fun, so keep it fun, and offer praise for successful attempts!

Amp it Up: To increase difficulty, have your child write his name, words, or give him sounds or blends and have him write which letter(s) he would need to make those sounds. Again, keep it fun! 

10. Talking out the Steps

Suggested Ages: 3 months-8 years

Materials Needed:

1.  1 expert mommy/daddy,
2.  1 or more tiny learners

Steps

It may seem simple, but talking out what you are doing to your child in steps can actually greatly help their listening comprehension and their ability to understand narrative text in the future as well as enhance their vocabulary! As you are cooking or working, tell your little learner what you are going to do before you actually start. Then, as you are going through the process, talk through the steps and have your child repeat after you. For example, "Okay Charlotte, first Mommy has to get out the eggs, then crack them, put them in the bowl, and whisk them. So what's Mommy doing now? You're right! She's getting the eggs out!" By doing activities like this, you are prepping your child to be able to identify and understand the narrative story structure within her future reading!

Bitty Learners: For our youngest learners, who may not be able to talk yet, they can still benefit from listening. Make sure that you're telling them exactly what you're doing and show them the different objects you're talking about while you're doing that step. "Look these are the eggs, I'm going to crack them now! Watch! Look at them, I'm cracking the eggs." The more we talk to our little babies, the stronger their language skills will be!

Amp it Up: To increase the difficulty of this activity, you can talk out the steps at the beginning, and then see how many of the steps your child can remember to help guide you through the process. You can also see if she can remember the steps at the end. This would help her to build her memory as well as her understanding of the narrative story structure.

I hope you find these activities useful and a helpful way for you to work with your little learners in the kitchen! Remember to keep it fun! The main goal of these activities is for our tiny ones to practice their literacy skills in a fun and supportive environment! If you have other activities you've done with your learners and want to share below in the comments, feel free! I know it would be beneficial for all!

Thanks again for stopping by, and until next time!

Yours truly in Literacy,

The Reading Specialista