Reading with Hannah

Spelling all by Herself!

2011-09-24T16:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Hannah started spelling by herself for the first time. Usually when she writes notes she is constantly asking, "How to you spell TOGETHER?" "How do you spell ARE?" etc. So I was excited when I saw this.

"Wratr (water) tast (taste) betr (better) the more you drek (drink) it"

Here is her note from today.

"I ben (been) the King of traning (training) Rex but I watid (wanted) him to be a big boy So I satid (started) to have him go to school in the haws (house) and I wod (would) tech (teach) him"

Penmanship

2011-06-03T07:11:00.000-07:00

by Hannah, age 6

(I think she prints better than I do!)

Spanish Calendar

2011-02-05T18:29:00.000-08:00

Hannah attends an international school where they learn in English half the day and learn in Spanish the other half. Her Spanish teacher invited me to watch Hannah leading the class in their daily calendar. After only 6 months of Spanish, I was so surprised at what she knows!

Summer Learning - Hooked on Phonics "Master Reader"

2011-01-27T11:50:00.000-08:00

Master Reader Program

This past summer we also worked on "Hooked on Phonics" Master Reader. I meant to do these lessons every day during the summer, but it seem like the days slipped by too quickly, and we didn't finish the program. We are still working on it though :)

There are 4 different levels of books and the first one is blue. It's not a "fun" as Hooked on Phonics, but is "cooler". Part of each lesson is done at the computer via their software. Hannah though some of the sound effects were too loud and would cover her ears. I didn't like the controls for dividing up the words into syllables, it was too easy to make a mistake without meaning too. The lessons were a bit long for Hannah, but then again she is only 5 and it's meant for ages 7 and up. Other than that, I thought it was an good program.

After you do the lesson on the computer, you pull out one of their short stories. I thought this was the best part. I could sit with Hannah and have her read to me. Very fun stuff!

Each lesson has a tab with a story using some of the words from your lesson.

Some lessons have more than one story

After you finish the entire blue book, there is a chapter book to read.

Very cool!

Well, we didn't ever get to the chapter books, but we are still working on it :)

Summer Learning - Hooked on Spanish

2011-01-20T16:59:00.000-08:00

Hooked on Spanish

I bought this for our Summer learning and Hannah LOVED it!! It is very simple, thus the age 4-6. It teaches numbers, colors, shapes, body parts, etc. You play and follow along with the CD and then there is an activity that you do with your family. For example, after learning the numbers it tells you to get out the photo album and find pictures of your child at age 1, 2, 3, etc.

Sorry I don't have any detailed pictures. Hannah is now attending a Spanish immersion school and doesn't need the Hooked on Spanish, so we've passed it onto another family.

What She's Reading Now

2011-01-15T21:50:00.000-08:00

Hannah's Stack of Books

Hannah said that she wanted to read "big" books, so I went to the library and picked out some I thought she'd like. I knew she could read most, if not all the words, but wasn't sure how long her attention span would be or how well her comprehension and retention would be.

To my surprise, she read the entire story "India The Moonstone Fairy" in two days. She also told me what happened in the story and who the main characters were.

She was SO excited "Mama! I read "immediately" all by myself!

I was excited too :)

Summer Learning - Hooked on Math

2011-01-13T16:41:00.000-08:00

Hooked on Math

First of all let me say... I know it's January (I'm a little late blogging about this). We started working on Hooked on Math during the summer. Hannah loved the games the most. There were games on about every other page, so she was thrilled.

I loved right off the bat, that Hooked on Math taught the concept of "Counting On". Hannah already knew how to do this, but Hooked on Math makes it very easy.

Hannah's favorite game was space bingo. You add the numbers on the flashcard...

and see who gets bingo!

I loved that there were stickers just like Hooked on Phonics.

Here's the poster

Numbered stars, so you know exactly where your stickers go.

There are lots of extra stickers, so I let her put one of each of the pages she completed.

It also comes with a clear plastic sheet for writing all your answers on.

Here's one of the "Practice and Review" pages

With the sheet on and all the work done!

Here's a close up

The following page has the exact same problems but with the answers. Hannah LOVED to check her work!

The clear sheet is also great for keeping score with the other math games.

The only thing that I did NOT like about the Hooked on Math, was the "Practice" pages.

Hannah discovered that the answers were in numerical order and then just followed the pattern instead of figuring out the work. To overcome this I made her do the problems randomly.

The "Practice and Review" pages were different.

The answers were NOT in numerical order, so Hannah had to really add or subtract to get her answers.

Other than that I would recommend Hooked on Math! Of course this is just a review for the Addition and Subtraction. There are other levels as well that we haven't reached yet.

Deep Inside the Ocean (Art Project and Song)

2010-12-01T21:13:00.000-08:00

"Way Down Deep - Deep Inside the Ocean"

This was an art project that Hannah made in Preschool (2009-2010). Make your ocean collage on one plate. Cut a window out of the other plate...

...place it on the other plate

and staple it together. Super cute!!

Here's the song that goes with it. You can buy (and listen to) the song at Songs for Teaching

Chorus:

Way down deep

Deep inside the ocean

Nothing's ever still

Something's always in motion

Way down deep

Deep inside the ocean

Nothing's ever still

Something's always in motion

Fish blow bubbles but they don't speak

Not a peep not a squeak

They don't talk

They don't walk

They swim and swim and swim around

But they don't ever make a sound.

Chorus

The plants by the coral reef wave and sway

While the fish in their schools

All frolic and play

Dogfish don't bark

Cafish don't meow

Seahorses don't neigh

'Cause they don't know how

Chorus

Slow motion…slow motion….slow motion

Leap Frog "Letter Factory" Flashback Friday

2010-10-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

Leapfrog - Letter Factory

Hannah loves this video. She already knew all her letters when I bought this DVD. She didn't know any letter sounds, but after watching this for a few weeks, she knew all of them. I didn't do any work with her on the letter sounds, she learned it all from this DVD.

Isabella Inchworm

2010-10-18T22:13:00.001-07:00

Hannah came home with the cutest song about the letter Ii.

You can also watch a cute animated video on Frog Street.

Isabella Inchworm will you try

to name some things that begin with I

Into and inside and in between

invisible means that you can't be seen

Indians and igloos, and insects too

and interesting, intelligent kids like you!

VIP of the Week - October 11 to October 15, 2010

2010-10-15T13:31:00.001-07:00

Our VIP

Every week in school a child is chosen to be VIP of the week, and Hannah tells me every week which child was chosen. She was SO excited on Monday, that she was able to say "I'M the VIP of the week!" She brought home Chester (the puppet dog) and his backpack filled with dog books. She also made a poster filled with pictures of her (and one of me?... she insisted). Today (Friday) she gets to stand in front of the class with her poster and they get to ask her questions about the pictures and what she likes to do.

We all made a big deal about Hannah being the VIP, and she loved it!

WheatGrass (Flashback Friday)

2010-10-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

This was our Easter display, but wheatgrass will grown great indoors, even during fall!

I followed Make and Takes tutorial for growing wheatgrass and love the results. Hannah was able to do most of it herself and Ernest even did one for himself. Our first attempt didn't work out well, and since I over watered (a lot!) our wheat started to grow mold instead of grass! I'm happy to say our 2nd attempt worked out much better! This is our results after 12 days. There is just something magical about plants and being able to watch something grow from a seed. The wheat is growing so fast it seems like it's noticeably taller overnight!

I love the dew drops we found on our blades of grass this morning!

Daily Sentences (Flashback Friday)

2010-10-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

Each night I write a new sentence on Hannah's Dry Erase Board. I also write the phonics words that we are working on. The sentence is only made up of words that Hannah already knows and can read. After Hannah read the sentence, it goes into our homemade notebook. This was she can keep reading the sentences after she erases the board. The sentence is either:

1. A silly sentence (like so)

2. A sentence out of a book that Hannah is going to read.

This sentence is from the book "Just Like Dora".

Before she reads a book she will have read each sentence on our Dry Erase Board first. This way it will be easier for her to read a "whole, big, book" all by herself. She will have already read it on the Dry Erase Board without knowing it.

Don't worry if your child doesn't leave the sentence up. This is what our dry erase board looks like 5 minutes after she reads her sentence and words (that's why we have our homemade notebook!)

Reading Time at Hannah's Library

2010-10-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome!

We found this in the living room last week! Hannah having story time with her animals.

She's busy reading to all the "children"

The entire living room was her library. She sorted the books by content...

...each section had it's own place.

After she read a story, each "child" received their own book to read from.

Here's Hannah reading/singing "The Animals of Farmer Jones"

I am also allowed to pick out books from the library. She uses my library card, "scans" the bar codes and lets me borrow books. Hannah uses the piano bench as her checkout stand. She loves it!

Elegant Event (the letter E)

2010-10-03T22:49:00.001-07:00

Elegant Hannah

In Kindergarten this past week, they finished the study of the letter "E" with an Elegant Event. All the children dressed up in Elegant clothes and went to their Elegant classrooms. The classrooms were very fancy and so were the teachers! The girls were seated by the boys, and the children were served hors d'oeuvres by their parents. It was an exciting event for the kids and Hannah loved it!

Little Mouse, Little Mouse (Flashback Friday)

2010-10-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

This game is called "Little Mouse, Little Mouse" You hide the little mouse under one of the houses (ok, they are barns... but at the time, I couldn't find clipart for a house that I liked). After you hide the mouse then your child can look.

Me: "Little Mouse, Little Mouse are you hiding in the... what color?... "
Hannah: "Blue house!"
Me: looking under the blue house "No, he's not in the blue house..."
Me: "Little Mouse, Little Mouse are you hiding in the.... what color?... ".

and repeat, and repeat until the mouse if found.

We played this at our library storytime and Hannah loved it. Of course, when we played it at home she had to be the mommy and I was the child finding the mouse. You could also play it with shapes too, or letters....

Here are some clipart to make your own "Little Mouse" Game.

House Clipart - (from this site)
Mouse Clipart - (from this site)
Barn Clipart - (don't have the original site I downloaded it from, sorry!)

Here is a video of us playing "Little Mouse, Little Mouse"

Just make one mouse and as many house colors as you could like. You can use paper (colored and laminated) like we did, or you can use colored felt and a felt board. Since we don't have a felt board, I just put magnets on the back of my laminated paper houses and used my dry erase board.

Hot Crayon Rocks

2010-09-18T12:50:00.001-07:00

Hannah's Rocks

Hannah's been home sick from school for two days. Today (Saturday) she felt better, but not well enough to play outside or with friends. Hannah was begging me today for a "project" to do. I have a favorites folder called "Things to do with Hannah" that is full of bookmarked ideas for fun "projects" to do with her, such as edible playdoh, homemade moonsand, seashell sprayed stationary, and things like that.

We saw this idea from Chasing Cheerios and knew it was perfect for today. Hannah found some usable rocks in the backyard and then started peeling the paper off our unused crayons from this idea. We put the rocks in the oven for 15 minutes at 350. We had several rocks and found that it worked best if we only took the rocks out one at a time for her to work on. We took all the rocks out at first, but after two rocks were done, the other 3 were too cool for the crayons to melt properly.

For the short crayons we used a chip clip (since we didn't have a close-pin to use)

For the longer crayons I just let her hold those with her bare fingers. She's 5 and has enough coordination, that I wasn't worried about her burning herself.

Hannah loved this activity and when her older brother (who's 13 years old) came home, there was another round of making hot crayon rocks!

Shaving Cream Art (Flashback Friday)

2010-09-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

Today Takeshi will be demonstrating Shaving Cream Art for us.

You will need:

Shaving Cream
Food Coloring (liquid works best)
Toothpick or Skewer
White Cardstock
Black Sharpie
Scissors
Black Cardstock

Step 2...

Now it's Hannah's turn...

Just finished scraping off the shaving cream...

Then outline with a black sharpie...
Cut it out, mount on black paper and you have cool art!!
What a great looking dragon!

Here's Hannah's. I think she did a great job with the outlining!
Takeshi cut Hannah's out for her, she's not very good at cutting yet.

Mixed Up Whole Words (Flashback Friday)

2010-09-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

This is our Mixed-Up Sight Word game. Hannah loves to play this!

We are using Glenn Doman's method of teaching from his book "How to Teach Your Baby to Read".

We have 9 flashcards measuring 3 1/2 x 8 1/2. A single word is printed on each one in large letters. First I say the words to her for a couple of turns until she knows them. Like this:

Each day we take out the oldest word add one new word. The first words I picked were: Mommy, Daddy, Hannah, Takeshi and Ernest (her brothers). The next words that I picked are out of easy reader books that Hannah will be reading (after she learns these words).

Here is our video of us playing the game. We put the 9 flashcards down, and Hannah reads them. Then I mix them up quickly and say, "They are all mixed up... you can't read them now!" Hannah of course comes over and reads them again, and again.

Here is another version of the "Mixed-Up Whole Words". Here Hannah says the words once and then has Twyla say them the second time.

We play this game 2-3 times a day, mixing them up about 4-5 times in each sesson.

Puffy Paints

2010-09-05T07:21:00.000-07:00

One Crafty Mumma has a super cool recipe for Puffy Paints. Mix this up, and microwave for 10-30 seconds. The paint will "rise" for a cool effect!

Puffy Paint

1 TBSP self-rising flour
a few little drops of food colouring
1 TBSP salt
Then add some water to make a nice smooth paste.

Paint away on a nice thick sheet of cardboard (if you don't have enough paint brushes use cotton buds - they work really well).
Microwave the design on high for 10 - 30 seconds until the paint puffs and it's all nice and dry. We did ours for 30 seconds.

Here's a recipe for self-rising flour, if you don't have any on hand.

Self-Rising Flour

1 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Here's Hannah's and Carters creations. If you want some really cool pictures, and to see how how the paint can really rise, check out One Crafty Mumma's photos!

Counting Bears (Flashback Friday)

2010-09-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

Counting Bears

Hannah loves her counting bears. When she was younger she would sort them by color into little containers or her muffin pan.

Now she uses them for simple addition with her "Fishing Fun" file folder game. I can't find the original source for "Fishing Fun", but "Math-A-Magic" (addition) and "Math Monster" (subtraction) are available to download for only $1.00 from Finch Family Games!!

Of course counting bears are great for (just) counting too :)

Duplo (aka Large Legos) for Reading Games!

2010-08-22T22:35:00.000-07:00

Image from Filth Wizardry

Check out this awesome idea from Filth Wizardry! Duplo letters, words and sentences!

Tracing the Letters in Your Name

2010-06-01T13:49:00.000-07:00

Finished Projects

This cute project is from Make & Takes. The kids had fun and it was a quick and easy project.

I wrote their names in marker and then they traced around their name in crayon. Since they are only 5, I showed them a sample of how it was done first. They quickly got the idea and did a great job.

Crayon Monograms

2010-05-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

Finished Project!

Thanks to Testosterone Times Three for the original idea. Since the last day of school is Wednesday, this would be a quick and fun project to make for the teachers you know. I also posted this last week on my Rainy Tuesday Mornings blog, so sorry to those of you who check both, this will be a duplicate for you :)

I found some Shadowbox Frames at Walmart for about $8.00 each.

The 8x8 size was perfect.

Using Microsoft Word I made a template and printed it out for each teacher. I have a Word 97 version and a Word 2007 version as well. You MUST download the files to view the large monogram correctly. Let me know if you need a different format and I'll try to see what I can do. The fonts used are Monotype Corsiva and Lucinda Handwriting. If you have trouble downloading the files or don't have Word, let me know what teachers names and initals you need and I'll create & email them to you. Don't forget to leave me your email address!

I had lots of crayons saved from the start of the school year (bought at .25 each) and dumped those out to use. I found that if I poked a hole in the crayon with my exacto knife, that the crayon broke cleanly

and right where I wanted it to.

I printed out a 'test' sheet on plain copy paper and then lined up my crayons the way I wanted, before gluing anything. Then I printed out my 'good' copy on a thick ivory cardstock.
I filled in my monogram letter with tacky glue and started transferring the crayons. I put tacky glue on some of the crayons directly. I didn't use a hot glue gun, because I always seem to get the "spiderweb" effect. Tacky glue also has a longer drying time, which is a benefit with this project in case you need to move a few crayons around.
I also made sure to break my crayons in long enough lengths so they covered my printed monogram.
I let them dry overnight and then put them in the frame.
I think they turned out perfect!

Hannah wrote a note to each teacher, which I laminated and put on the back of each frame.
The best part was that the teachers LOVED them!

Art in the Park (with Jell-O)

2010-05-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

Finished Project!

Our friend Natalie hosted an amazing "Art in the Park" activity for all our friends and kids. She brought all the supplies to make a great smelling piece of art using Jell-O and glue.

Supplies Needed:

Fruit Bowl (click to download)
Jell-O in these flavors: Strawberry, Pineapple, Grape, Raspberry, Lime, Lemon, Orange, Cherry & Banana
Elmers Glue (or generic brand)
Paintbrush for each child
Paper cups or other similar item to hold each flavor of Jell-O
Paper cup or other similar item to hold the glue

Directions:

Print out your Fruit Bowl (one for each child) and have them color the bowl any color they want.
Color the stems & leaves of the fruit green.
Pour some glue in a paper cup
Pour each flavor of Jell-O in it's own paper cup (NOT with the glue and don't mix the flavors). Label your cups! Many of the Jell-O's are the same color, but not the same scent.
Take your paintbrush and dip it in the glue cup.
Paint ONE fruit at a time (for the orange you can paint both). After the entire fruit is covered with glue, pour the matching scent of Jell-O onto your fruit. Pour any excess back into the cup.
Repeat with each fruit until it's covered.
Smell and enjoy!

Wheatgrass 'Garden'

2010-03-31T13:03:00.000-07:00

Easter Display

I love the dew drops we found on our blades of grass this morning!

Hooked on Phonics - Book Matchup

2010-03-23T09:32:00.000-07:00

Page 50

A few days ago, Hannah was reading "ear" blends in the Green Hooked on Phonics Book. That night as she was reading "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" by Dr. Seuss...

we came across this page...

How fun to have a page in a "real" book that matched perfectly with her Hooked on Phonics reading!

Word Family Game with Paint Chips!

2010-03-08T13:20:00.000-08:00

I haven't made this game yet, but it is worth posting!! I saw this Paint Chips Word Family Game on Chasing Cheerios, who found it on The Snail's Trail. What a great idea!

Gardening with Kids

2010-03-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

Acacia Demonstration Gardens

With warmer weather (soon) approaching, I thought these ideas might come in handy.

Hannah and I took the "Tricks and Treats: Plant Projects for Kids" on October 31st at Acacia Demonstration Gardens. It was free to attend and was put on by the Master Gardeners of Southern Nevada. We learned so much and Hannah was in heaven making all the fun projects they had.

First they showed us container gardening in recycled milk jugs.

Make sure to poke holes in the bottom of milk containers for drainage.

For tiny seeds (such as radish), you can glue the seeds to a paper towel, then cover with dirt

Here's the radish that was grown in a small plastic container.

Hannah planted a sunflower seed in a plastic water bottle container.

Supplies needed:

empty water bottle container
cotton yarn or cotton rope (1/8")
soil
water
seeds

Step 1: Cut a plastic water bottle container in half. Place the top of the bottle upside down in the bottom of the water bottle (see photo). Place your wick through the top and bottom of the water bottle. If you are using cotton thread, make sure to double it.

Here are the types of rope and yarn used.

Step 2: Pack your soil down around the wick, making sure the wick is slightly visable above the soil.

Step 3: Plant your seed. Here's Hannah planting her seed with a little help.

Step 4: Water your soil and then fill the bottom of the bottle with water (use tap water, not osomosis or water softener water).

The container is self-watering, just fill the bottom with water as need. Here is our Sunflower after a few days.

Here are the master gardeners plants!
The Master Gardeners also showed us how to make easy sachets!

Supplies needed

dried rosemary
dried lavender
small organza bags

To dry your rosemary and lavender, tie them in bundles using a paperclip as a hanger. Hang in a dark dry place for about 4 weeks (1 week in Las Vegas)

Gather your supplies and pour lavender and rosemary in little organza bags.

Place a pretty sprig of lavender on the top and tie closed.

Magic E Activity

2010-02-27T15:32:00.000-08:00

'Magic' E

Here is one of the activities from the Hooked on Phonics Green Book. You could make this yourself using some cardstock or index cards. Hannah thought it was a lot of fun adding the 'e' on the end to change it to a new word!

Hannah Reading - Feburary 2010

2010-02-25T15:13:00.000-08:00

Hannah Reading

Hannah is loving the Magie E (aka Silent E). I am amazed at how quickly she caught onto the concept of it. She loves to trick people, and I guess she feels that the 'e' on the end is a 'tricking' letter. Whatever the reason, she loves reading more now.

One Page a Day

2010-02-21T08:00:00.000-08:00

The first page in the Green Book

We have officially started in the green book and we plan on reading one page a day. There are about 60 pages, so I'm hoping Hannah will be in the blue Hooked on Phonics book by the middle to end of April. It only takes us about 2 to 5 minutes to finish a page and maybe 15-20 minutes to read one of the story books that are included with the set. It's just a few minutes a day, but I don't want to overdo it and wear her out. Hannah is sounding out the words very well and does a great job! We also do a few pages each day in workbooks that I bought at our local learning store or bookstore.

Scooby-Doo Phonics Books

2010-02-20T11:31:00.001-08:00

Scooby-Doo Books

Our friend let us borrow these books, and since Hannah LOVES Scooby-Doo, she was very excited to read these books. These books consiste of long vowels and blends so they match perfectly with the Green Hooked on Phonics Book. Hannah read one each night and did a great job. I only had to help her on a few words per book.

Valentine Panda

2010-02-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

Valentine Panda

Hannah brought this CUTE Valentine home from Preschool yesterda. I love that it's all made from hearts. The head is a large upside down white heart. The eyes and nose are small and smaller black hearts.

And the ears are upside down medium hearts!

"I Read it Myself" Labels

2010-02-10T14:54:00.000-08:00

Our Sheet of Labels

I used a sheet of Avery address labels and a template at Avery.com to create these labels. As soon as Hannah saw me putting them in her book that she read, she ran and picked out 5 more books to read to me. She put the labels in and I wrote the date for her.
Here's one of the books that was waiting for a label. "Duck is Dirty" is such a cute, funny book....
And the best part is that Ernest read this same book 9 years ago (when he was 4) !!!

Hooked on Phonics - Green Workbook!!

2010-02-09T14:50:00.000-08:00

Green Workbook and Reading Books

As of February 1st, we have finished the Red Workbook in the Hooked on Phonics. Hannah was so proud to put an "I did it" sticker on her chart!

There are many Silent E and blends in the Green Books, so we are going to take a couple weeks off from the Workbook and just play the "Magic E" game and work on our Blends.

Here is our Magic E game

Regular or short vowel side

Silent E or long vowel side
Here is our "Blends" pouch
Here is the blend by itself on one side
and the other side with a blend word

Beginning Reading Books

2010-01-22T16:25:00.000-08:00

Lots of Early Reader Books

Since Hannah is reading a lot more, I went through our books and pulled out the ones that she could read "all by herself" with the exception of maybe one or two words. I was glad to see we had some cute ones.

We love Little Critter!!

Lots of Biscuit books :)
"Step into Reading" Books

It seems that the ones that say "Phonics: ready to read, Step1" are the easiest for her. They have almost exclusively easy phonics words with no blends.

Here's a sample page. Perfect for Hannah!

All By Myself

2010-01-13T17:09:00.000-08:00

All by Myself by Mercer Mayer

Last night Hannah read the book "All by Myself" all by herself! Well, I did help her with about 5 words (such as overalls, hide, etc. we haven't covered the silent e yet). She was so pround that she could read a "real" book. I'm going to have to look at the books we have and pull out the ones that she can read on her own. I told her that we were going to put a special sticker inside the books that said "Hannah read this book all by herself on January 12th, 2010". She was excited for that!

Scrabble Tile Pendants

2009-12-25T22:05:00.000-08:00

Scrabble Tile Pendants

I decided to have Hannah made some Scrabble Tile Pendants for her brothers for Christmas. We decided to do Shaving Cream Art and pick our design from the finished picture.

Here is our finished art for Ernest's pendant.

Then I took a piece of cardstock and cut out a scrabble sized rectangle. We moved the hole around the picture until Hannah found a spot she wanted to use for the pendants.

Then we traced inside the rectangle and cut about 1" around it.

Here's our leftovers to recycle.

Here is the piece we are keeping. You want some around the edges so you can work with it easier.
Using tacky glue, glue your paper onto the scrabble tile and slice off the extra pieces of paper using an exacto knife.

Then we followed the tutorial from Make and Takes to get our finished product! The 1st two are for Hannah's brothers and the last one is for her!
And of course. the backside.

Playdoh Spaghetti

2009-10-30T22:40:00.001-07:00

Hannah with her Creation

Lately Hannah's loving Playdoh! She plays with it every other day and surprises me with what she can do. Tuesday she made all different kinds of food including this spaghetti on a green plate. Hannah wanted to to try some, but she made sure to whisper in a soft voice, "Don't eat it for real, it's just pretend". What a cutie :)

Our Homeschooler

2009-09-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

Ernest with his books.

(Textbooks, workbooks & novels - all 14 of them!)

Ernest started his 8th grade school year at Cortney Jr. High. For 6th and 7th grade all of Ernest's classes were Honor's classes, but this year Cortney cut out every single honors class & art! Ernest was so unhappy in school! We talked with the school office, counselors & principle to see how Ernest could be challenged, but no one had any solutions for us. The teachers (except for one) would not give Ernest harder work to do, and Clark County School District refused to let him skip a grade. We decided that homeschooling would be the best option for him. With the K12 homeschooling program Ernest can work at his own pace and at a higher level. Also, if he completes 8th grade by January, he can even start 9th grade classes.

Last week we received a computer, printer, school books, teacher guides, CD's, art supplies and a chemistry set (all for free!).

Some of Ernest's textbooks
Box of art supplies and chemistry set

Cd's

Ernest is VERY happy, loves homeschool and is finally learning :)

Library Activity - "at" Words

2009-07-09T10:45:00.000-07:00

Supplies

Here is another fun library activity from "Bright Beginnings". There are 5 pictures with different "at" words on them (cat, bat, mat, hat & rat). There are also die cut letters: 5 a's, 5 t's & one of each b, c, m, h & r. The first step is to lay out all the cards and sound out each word. Then place the letters under each card.

Like so.

Inside each card is the correct spelling of the word for self-checking.

Perler Beads & Pegboard

2009-07-03T12:57:00.000-07:00

Perler Beads Set

My sister bought this Perler Beads set for Hannah from Walmart. Hannah loves to do these and she says it's great for rainy days (which we get about 2 of a year!). The beads fit onto the pegboard, then they are ironed so the beads stick together. This set came with 6000 beads and 5 pegboards (square, heart, circle, star & hexagon). They had other sets, but we like this one the best.

This is a cute heart that Hannah made for her brother yesterday. Of course, I was the one who ironed it.

Library Activity - Numbers with Odd & Even

2009-07-02T10:27:00.001-07:00

Numbers and Bear Paws

I signed Hannah up to attend a library program called "Bright Beginnings". Her teacher was awesome and had some great ideas. This is the number kit they passed out to each child. There are die cut letters from 1 to 10 and bear paws in 10 different colors. There is only 1 white paw, 2 black paws, 3 brown paws, etc.

1st you lay out the numbers from 1 to 10.

Then pick a color (it doesn't matter which one) and count how many paws there are of that color. Place your paws under the correct number. Line them in groups of 2.

Like so.

Now each number that only has pairs is an even number.

All numbers that have a paw by itself in a row is an odd number. You can also point out the pattern that your number line makes. Odd, Even, Odd, Even....

You can also stack the paws to see the difference in height between numbers.

Looking between 6 and 7, there isn't much of a visual difference, so with younger children, you could show an example like this.

Eye Patch and Reading

2009-06-10T11:00:00.000-07:00

Working that eye!

Last month we found out that Hannah has an astigmatism in her left eye (meaning her cornea is shaped like a football instead of a circle), and she had been doing most of her "seeing" with her 20/20 right eye. This made her left eye weak. Per doctor's orders, Hannah must wear this eye patch on her right eye for a half hour everyday, forcing her left eye to do all the work and get stronger.

We've been doing this for a month and Hannah just went in for her re-check on her eyes. The doctor said that it's working and she has improved one line level on the eye chart. We need to keep doing her eye patch work daily for the next year.

We use Hannah's "eye patch time" to work on workbook sheets and to do our daily Hooked on Phonics reading. This way we get 2 things done at once!

Red Book!!

2009-06-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

Red Book!

We are now officially in the Red Workbook in the Hooked on Phonics program. The orange book took a lot longer than I thought. With the yellow book (1st book) we would read several pages a day, but with the orange book we only did one page a day. Hannah is so excited to be in a new book and we have passed the orange book onto her friend to start.

Summer Reading Programs

2009-06-05T23:14:00.000-07:00

We LOVE books and we LOVE reading! Here are some great programs that we are participating in this summer.

Barnes and Noble (grades 1-6 only) - 1. Read any 8 books. 2. Kids use the Summer Reading Journal to tell us their favorite part of each book. A parent/guardian signs it when it's complete. 3. Children bring their completed journal to a Barnes & Nobel Store between May 26th & September 7th, 2009. 4. We'll give them a coupon for a FREE book! They choose from a list of exceptional paperback titles. **If you don't like the books they have to choose from, donate it to your school library!

Borders (Kids 12 and under) - Read any 8 books. List the books you've read on the Reading Challenge Worksheet. Have a parent/guardian sign the completed worksheet. Bring your completed worksheet to any Borders or Waldenbooks store between May 26 and August 31 to save 50% or more on selected items.

Henderson Library (all ages) - Sign up online or in the library. You get cool prizes for reading!

Las Vegas Library (birth through grade 5) - Download your reading guide online and earn cool prizes!

Chuck E. Cheese - Reading rewards calendar. Read every day for 2 weeks and get 10 free tokens!

Coffee Filter Art

2009-06-05T22:47:00.001-07:00

New Art Project

Tuesday mornings we have a library class with songs, stories and art. This past Tuesday they made this cute flower. They bought it at Lakeshore Learning, but basically it's a thick coffee filter type paper. I thought we could re-create this at home with our coffee filters.

You'll need: coffee filters, markers & water in a spray bottle.

Flatten out the coffee filter and let the kids color all over the coffee filters with markers.

Mist them with the spray bottle and let them dry. It's pretty cool to see how they will turn out. Our colors weren't as bright as the one from the library class, but I think that's because we have cheap coffee filters. The paper from Lakeshore Learning is heavier and better quality.

Here's one that I did in NON-washable markers. I wanted to see if the colors would be brighter.

They were, but not by much.

The kids thought this was a lot of fun. I also saw this same project at Family Fun, but they suggested using paintbrushes with water on the filters instead of a spray bottle.

Mini Stickers

2009-03-30T09:15:00.000-07:00

Page from the Orange Hooked on Phonics Book

Since the Orange book has longer more difficult words, reading is going slower. Instead of doing 3-4 pages a day (like the yellow book), we are doing 1 page a day. I bought some mini stickers to help Hannah see her progress in the Orange Book. Each time we read a section, she puts a sticker on it. She LOVES stickers, so this has helped a lot. We also can find our place easily on our workbook.

Here's the stickers - cute little stars :)

New Video!

2009-02-25T11:06:00.000-08:00

Hannah helped me make a video for one of our older posts. It is for the Stop & Go! alphabet game. Check it out here.

Numbers 1-100

2009-02-24T12:52:00.000-08:00

Leap Frog Numbers 1-100

Since we've gotten into a rhythm with reading, I've decided to add the numbers 1-100 into our daily learning. Hannah already knows 1-20, but doesn't know any of the other numbers. I'm not sure how we will play with these, but I'm sure I'll figure something out :)

These numbers are from Leapfrog and are the size of a deck of cards. the numbers 1-50 are on one side and the numbers 51-100 are on the other. If Hannah was younger, I would have tried to get flashcards that only had the number on it (no pictures). I think it's less confusing for a younger child if there are no pictures on it.

Counting Bears

2009-02-23T11:18:00.000-08:00

Counting Bears

Hannah loves her counting bears. When she was younger she would sort them by color into little containers or her muffin pan.

Of course counting bears are great for (just) counting too :)

Helper Words

2009-02-21T13:16:00.000-08:00

The Orange Helper Words

Here are the orange "Helper Words" from the new level that we are on. Helper words are sight words (words that can't be sounded out, such as "gone, the, have, one") and words that are in the Hooked on Phonics stories that we haven't learned how to sound out (such as words with the silent E and other blends we haven't learned yet).

These words are taught as a whole word (no sounding out involved). We have 2 zipper pouches (.97 at Wal-mart) that we keep these in. The purple pouch is for all the words that she knows very well. The teal pouch is for words that she doesn't know yet or struggles with.

This is our "game" that we play with these words. Each day she gets to hold the purple bag and I hold the teal one. I'll pull out one word at a time and if she reads it right away, she gets the word to put in her purple bag. She loves it when I act upset when she gets to keep one of my words from the teal bag.

Another way to teach the helper words is with the "Mixed-Up Whole Word" Game.

Orange Book!

2009-02-20T13:01:00.001-08:00

Orange Workbook

We have finished the Yellow Workbook (Kindergarten level) and are now in the Orange Workbook (1st grade level) in the Hooked on Phonics program. Hannah was so excited! This book has mostly blends. Hannah already knows a lot of her blends from this game that we play, so I was able to skip that step in the orange book.

Here is the First Grade box (half is orange and half is red).There are 2 workbooks in this box. The first one to work on is orange, then red. I'm not sure why they divided it into 2 books, maybe so the workbooks weren't too thick.

There is just one "I did it!" chart, although the 1st half is orange and the 2nd half is red.
The books are so cute in this level. There are only 4 books for orange and 4 books for red, but they are illustrated in full color.
Here is a sample page from Skip & Spin "Swim with Dolphins"

File Folder Games

2009-02-19T10:42:00.000-08:00

New File Folder Games

Last week I went through all our file folder games. I put away the alphabet, numbers (1-10) and colors. Hannah knows these, so for her I picked out, numerical order, blends (sh, ch, wh & th), alphabetical order, days of the week and (simple) addition. She loves the addition and can do that with her counting bears, but I need to help her with the others.

Here is how we store our File Folder games. Very simple :)

Hannah - February 3, 2009

2009-02-03T13:15:00.000-08:00

Yellow Workbook

After teaching Hannah all her letters, numbers, sounds (of the alphabet), colors, shapes, etc with all the games that we played, I started her on the Hooked on Phonics set. We went very slow at first (maybe about 6 months ago) and then Hannah hurt her tongue (resulting in stitches), We got sick, then came Thanksgiving, Christmas, Birthdays, more sick, etc. So we really haven't done too much in the way of reading until last week. I pulled out the Hooked on Phonics and decided to not play any games with it (just read straight out of the notebook) and see how it went. Hannah LOVES it!! She asks me every day and every night if she can learn new words. I am thrilled with this.

One of my major goals this year was to teach her how to read before she turned 4 (she is 3 1/2 and turns 4 in April). Not just reading a few words here and there, but really reading well. I wasn't sure how it would go, but she is loving the Hooked on Phonics. Best of all (for me) is that there is no prep work.

We started the 1st workbook (which is yellow) last week Monday and she is already on page 70! She will read 3-5 pages in a sitting and we usually work on it 2 times a day. She loves the little "comic strip" type stories in the workbook. It's great because all the stories only contain words that she has already learned.

Hooked on Phonics also has little books that you can read and color (the inside is black and white). She will read these books to her brothers when they come home from school and also to her dad, when he comes home from work. I love this part because it reinforces what she has learned, by repeatedly reading the same words again and again. Luckily it doesn't get boring for her!

I think her favorite part is the sticker chart. There is one chart for each color workbook & this is a picture of the yellow workbook's chart. She gets to put a sticker on each section when she reads the story or "comic strip". Hannah loves stickers, so she really loves this part.

Space Mudd

2009-01-27T14:05:00.001-08:00

Space Mudd

Hannah made Space Mudd (or Silly Putty) today in Preschool. She loves it and it's really easy to make.

Space Mudd

2 cups white glue

1 1/2 cups water (room temperature)

food coloring

2 1/2 TBSP Borax

1 cup HOT water

Bowl 1 - Combine glue, water and blend. Add food coloring.

Bowl 2 - Mix borax and HOT water until dissolved.

Slowly pour glue mixture into the 2nd bowl, stirring constantly. Knead until liquid is mixed and not sticky.

Hannah - December 29, 2008

2008-12-29T08:00:00.000-08:00

Hannah's cutting skills have improved dramatically since she started preschool. I don't know how they did it, but this is what she can do now!

Here's the original picture.

Fizzy Tub Colors

2008-12-22T23:39:00.001-08:00

Fizzy Tub Colors

My sister introduced me to these when she was visiting over the summer. Hannah loves these! They are little tables in 3 different colors (red, yellow & blue). Place them in your bath water and Viola! you have colored water! They fizz up and dissolve under water so they are cool to watch too. Hannah loves to make purple and orange (she hasn't asked for green yet) by using 2 different colors in the water. Bath time is much more fun with these.

Our Game Closet

2008-12-04T23:09:00.000-08:00

Our Game Closet - November 2008

Hannah LOVES to play games and put together puzzles. I've rearranged our game closet so that Hannah can have the bottom 2 shelves and floor for all her games and puzzles. I think we have about 15-20 games and 15 puzzles that Hannah loves to play. The top 3 shelves (not pictured) are all the games for ages 8 and up. Since I love to play games too, I'm very excited that we can play together, since the boys never got into the "games" thing.

Her favorite games right now are Guess Who and Pokemon Sorry. She understands how to play these games really well and frequently beats me when playing. She doesn't understand the strategy concept, but does understand all the rules of the game. With the Guess Who game she tries to sound out the names of the people in the game, which is pretty cute. Pokemon Sorry plays just like the classic Sorry game, with just a few added twists with some Pokemon characters.

A few of the games I bought when the boys were little, some where bought new, but most of the games we've bought from Goodwill/Garage Sales for $1 or $2 dollars.

We probably play Guess Who about 4 times a day right now!

Calendar Idea

2008-11-30T22:38:00.001-08:00

Our Calendar

Hannah loves our calendar and will remind me every morning that we need to update it. Here is a fun idea that Hannah loved. Her aunt and uncle came to visit this month, so I found a picture of them, made a copy, cut it the same size as her calendar numbers and laminated it for durability. Their picture took the place of the 20th (the day they arrived) and each day Hannah added a new date, she would count how many days left until they arrived. The calendar also came with special dates like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Birthdays, etc. Hannah loves to count down to these special days also.

I am sorry for anyone who is checking for updates on our blog, since there haven't been any in a long time. We are so busy right now and I haven't had the time. We will be posting more staring the 2nd week in January :)

First-School Preschool Activities & Crafts

2008-10-12T13:12:00.000-07:00

First School Preschool Activities & Crafts is a great website that has LOT of FREE printables and other fun activites for your child.

They also have some great "Sister Sites" also:

Coloring.ws

KidsRCrafty

KidZone.ws

The Most Common Words in Written English

2008-10-12T12:57:00.000-07:00

Here is a site that my friend told me about. It lists the most common words in written English from 1-200 in order of use. This is a great list to have for your little ones when learning to read. I'm going to copy and paste the list here, but it's probably easier to read from the link :)

Here are the Most Common Words in Written English

Words 1-20
the of and a to in is you that it he was for on are as with his they I

Words 21-40
at be this have from or one had by word but not what all were we when your can said

Words 41-60
there use an each which she do how their if will up other about out many then them these so

Words 61- 80
some her would make like him into time has look two more write go see number no way could people

Words 81-100
my than first water been call who oil its now find long down day did get come made may part

Words 100-120
over new sound take only little work know place year live me back give most very after thing our just

Words 121-140
name good sentence man think say great where help through much before line right too mean old any same tell

Words 141-160
boy follow came want show also around form three small set put end does another well large must big even

Words 161-180
such because turn here why ask went men read need land different home us move try kind hand picture again

Words 181-200
change off play spell air away animal house point page letter mother answer found study still learn should America world

Thrifty Thursday

2008-10-11T09:07:00.001-07:00

Leapfrog Phonics Super Center

Today I went to a community garage sale and found a few great deals. I bought this Leapfrog Phonics Learning System for $2.00 (because it was missing the "H"). It comes with 5 different levels of learning cards that you slide into the tray. There are different levels of game play too, like "Quiz", "Spell", "Read" & "Learn". The sound is VERY annoying, so we are going to use it without any sound at all.

There are extra pieces that store underneath the desk, which include the Silent E and Blends.

Here is one of the beginning cards (short vowels). I will be hiding/saving levels 1-5 for later use.

Slide the card in, pick out your letters and "read" the word. Since there is a picture, I think that's cheating a little, but you can see there are other "et" words on the side that can really be read.
I also bought this Disney Princesses "Spinning Wishes" game and all the books in the next picture for $3.00

Shaving Cream Art

2008-10-10T19:29:00.001-07:00

Today Takeshi will be demonstrating Shaving Cream Art for us.

You will need:

Shaving Cream
Food Coloring (liquid works best)
Toothpick or Skewer
White Cardstock
Black Sharpie
Scissors
Black Cardstock

Step 2...

Now it's Hannah's turn...

Just finished scraping off the shaving cream...

Then outline with a black sharpie...
Cut it out, mount on black paper and you have cool art!!
What a great looking dragon!

Here's Hannah's. I think she did a great job with the outlining!
Takeshi cut Hannah's out for her, she's not very good at cutting yet.

Thrifty Thursday

2008-09-18T15:44:00.000-07:00

I went to a garage sale on Saturday and came home with a bunch of things. These were the best "learning" finds. The top one is a velcro shapes "creator" You can put the shapes on pictures that are almost done (like the fish)...

...or you can create your own with this brown board and shapes. There are 4 cards that show different "animals" you can make. We had fun making this bird.
We also bought this Magnetic Creations "Baby Dress Up". The little eyes, ears, mouths, clothes, etc. so you can create baby and bunny any way you want. I bought both for $1.00!

Preschool Printables (dot) Com

2008-09-16T15:53:00.000-07:00

We are doing a service project for church making File Folder Games. Hannah loves her games, so this was a lot of fun for me. Of course Hannah got to play with these too, before we turned them in. We went to PreschoolPrintables.com and found these awesome free file folder games to print. The link is to "Numbers in Bloom" and there are more free file folders to print on the left yellow bar.

Here is "Numbers is Bloom"

All done!
Here's the envelope that we laminated on the back to hold the pieces. I cut off the flap, laminated it, sliced open the envelope with an x-acto knife and then taped the flap back on. It works great and is very sturdy.

Thrifty Thursday

2008-09-11T16:41:00.000-07:00

Ship Shapes

I love the thrifty deals that I see on other blogs (Chasing Cheerios, & Sew, Craft, Create), so I thought I'd share my own good deals. I bought both of these at Goodwill for .99 each! I have been looking for the Geometric shapes and a lacing toy, but didn't want to pay full price. I am so excited. I think the thrift stores will be a regular shopping trip while Hannah's in preschool.

This lacing toy you can lace the sheep by itself or onto the board.

You can see the holes on the back line up with the holes in the sheep.

Hannah - September 9, 2008

2008-09-09T16:38:00.001-07:00

My Preschooler!

Today Hannah started Preschool. It's only 2 hours and 2 days a week, so I'm not going through withdrawals yet. Hannah loved preschool and had fun showing off her artwork when she got home (actually I had to bribe her to take this picture!)

Hannah - September 8, 2008

2008-09-08T16:20:00.000-07:00

File Folder Games

Today we organized all of our learning materials. We have taken such a long break from reading due to injury and vacation. Now that Hannah will be starting Preschool I really need to work with her again.

I pulled out these File Folder Games for Hannah to play with. They are all from Finch Family Games. Hannah loved playing with these and kept asking for more! I guess I need to get busy!!

Cute Lunch Idea

2008-08-21T12:22:00.000-07:00

Muffin Tin Lunch

Here is such a cute lunch idea from Chasing Cheerios blog (her whole blog is awesome!). Of course her lunch looks much cute and it probably healthier (since it's organic foods), but Hannah loved it anyway despite it's flaws. She also loved the single M&M in the tiniest "pocket" for her dessert. Of course she ate that first and asked for more. She did get a couple more after her lunch was gone :)

This is a plastic "muffin tin" that I bought from Lakeshore Learning for $1.75. You can't bake it in, but it's great for crafts and cute lunches!

Hannah - July 9, 2008

2008-07-09T22:11:00.001-07:00

Our Metal Board

I have a metal board that I wanted to paint with chalkboard paint. However. things didn't go as planned. The paint wasn't sticking well (since it's a metal board and not wood) and I didn't feel like sanding the board, priming the board and THEN painting the board. So I just painted it a light purple (same color as Hannah's room) and bought this calendar set. Since we aren't writing on the board and are using small magnets for the backs of these calendar pieces, the paint is staying on without the sanding and priming.

I love this frog calendar set, it's so cute! Hannah doesn't really understand the whole calendar concept yet, but it's fun to play with. Every day we say "It's Wednesday, July 9th. Today is Wednesday, Yesterday was Tuesday and Tomorrow is Thursday" We change the days of the week each day and check to see what the weather will be like from our "Weather Frog".

This is what our weather is going to be like for the next 2 months...

Hannah - July 3, 2008

2008-07-03T13:50:00.000-07:00

The boys brought over a bag full on balloons for Hannah today. They wrote all her "an" words on them. She had a lot of fun playing with them.

Hannah - July 1, 2008

2008-07-01T14:15:00.000-07:00

Do-a-Dot Art

We went to Lakeshort Learning today and Hannah got to do a free "Do-a-Dot" project. She loves doing these. You can use the Do-a-Dot brand or you can buy bingo markers at Walmart. The Do-a-Dot brand is washable which is worth every penny in my book.

Here is a closeup of the marker
The Do-a-Dot company also sells workbooks, or you can check out this great site for some free coloring pages!

Hannah - June 29, 2008

2008-06-29T22:41:00.000-07:00

Our Bookshelves

Tonight Hannah picked out some books from our bookshelves and found "The Cat in the Hat" She was so excited because she could read the whole title!

Hannah - June 27, 2008

2008-06-27T20:42:00.000-07:00

Hannah - Copying the title from "What Moms Can't Do"

We will be taking a break from reading for a few days. Yesterday Hannah jumped off of her brother's bed and bit her tongue - HARD! The cut was 3/4" long and about 1/4" deep. The cut went down to the muscle, so she had to have stitches. She was a trooper, but I still think we'll be taking a few days off. Our good friend Bridget gave Hannah a movie and a book called "What Moms Can't Do". Hannah was so excited she could read the word "do" and immediately wrote the title on her dry erase board. I tell you, this girl loves to write!

Hannah - June 24, 2008

2008-06-24T15:31:00.000-07:00

Our Dry Erase Board

1. A silly sentence (like so)

2. A sentence out of a book that Hannah is going to read.

This sentence is from the book "Just Like Dora".

Don't worry if your child doesn't leave the sentence up. This is what our dry erase board looks like 5 minutes after she reads her sentence and words.

Hannah - June 23, 2008

2008-06-23T13:58:00.000-07:00

We just added the "ad" words from Hooked on Phonics. So far she knows all the 3 letters words that end with "at", "an", "ap" and "ag".

Since Hannah is learning her "ad" words we read "I Was So Mad" by Mercer Mayer (since the title contains an "ad" word).

Hannah - June 22, 2008

2008-06-22T21:25:00.000-07:00

Hannah loves to see the words that she knows in print. She'll see the word "and", "the", "me", "like", "do", etc. in our bedtime stories and yells "My Words!!" "That's one of my words!!"

Now when we read stories, I'll point out words that we have learned. It's my little way of having a daily review.

Hannah - June 21, 2008

2008-06-21T22:36:00.000-07:00

Hannah's Flash Cards

Hannah loves to write! She wanted to make her own flashcards and her is what she did. She didn't ask for any help and spelled her words from memory!

Hannah - June 20, 2008

2008-06-20T22:10:00.000-07:00

Hannah loves our Mixed-up Word Game. I take our flashcards and lay them out 3x3 as shown above. Hannah read them once and then I say "You can't read them if I mix them up!". I quickly rearrange them...

...like so

and she reads them again (of course). I pretend to be upset, and Hannah laughs every time :)

Hannah - June 19, 2008

2008-06-19T18:32:00.001-07:00

I also went through all our books that we own, and picked out the ones that Hannah would be able to read soon using the "Whole Word" method. There are 18 different books that we own so I think that's a great start. I will be teaching her the words individually, then teaching her the words together as sentences and THEN give her to book to read. Hopefully that's a fail safe method so she won't be overwhelmed.

Hannah - June 18, 2008

2008-06-18T22:11:00.000-07:00

Today Hannah read "Cat" from Hooked on Phonics and was so happy to put a star on her reading chart.

I've decided to give myself a "Plan of Attack" for teaching Hannah to read. I've just been doing odds and ends with her and working a lot on the blog, so I need to write down what we will be working on each day to make it the most effective. Here is my plan:

Work on one set of phonics words (from Hooked on Phonics) for 2-3 days, 1-2 days when she can read them faster.

Add one new word to our "Sight Words" each day

Make sure to start making short sentences with her sight words so that she can start reading "real" books. This will help reinforce the words she already knows.

Hannah - June 23, 2008

2008-06-17T22:20:00.000-07:00

This is our Mixed-Up Sight Word game. Hannah loves to play this!

Hannah - June 16, 2008

2008-06-16T15:11:00.000-07:00

I am replacing the words "on & me" with "Dora & Hi" She knows these words the best. I guess I'll have to start making more word cards soon :)

Hannah - June 14, 2008

2008-06-14T16:11:00.000-07:00

We found this great Super Why! website. Full of fun games to play on the computer! Hannah LOVES Super Why!, so she was playing this a little too much today :)

Hannah - June 13, 2008

2008-06-13T15:09:00.000-07:00

Hannah is loving the whole words and even made her own flashcards with cardstock. She only likes me to show her the word cards if I say "Don't read my words!" and make a game out of it. Her 1st flashcards are:

me
on
like
Sam
sad
follow
you
and
the
then

Hannah - June 12, 2008

2008-06-12T14:52:00.000-07:00

We are now doing whole words in with phonics. We borrowed "Just Like Dora" from the library (it has about 39 new words). I haven't shown Hannah the book yet, just teaching her the words. Once she knows the words for the 1st sentence, I'll put that up on our dry erase board and she can read the sentences individually before she reads them in the book.

I am using Glenn Doman's method for teaching whole words. You get 5-10 words and print them about 1-2" tall on flashcards. My flashcards are 3 1/2" tall by 8 1/2" wide and are made out of card stock. You show these words for 5 days (3x a day) and then start adding 1 new word a day after that.

Hannah - June 11, 2008

2008-06-11T21:36:00.001-07:00

We went to the library today and got some Bob Books. It's hard to find books that only include the words that she knows (which are few right now) so we are going to start teaching whole words again (in addition to phonics) so that she can read some easy readers. For Hannah to read the "Sam" book on top she only needs to learn 6 new words (and, Sam, sad, on, the, end). Hannah already knows her "at" words which make up the rest of the book.

Just to clarify - Hooked on Phonics does include books that use only the words that she know, but I do want to expand our "library" of reading books. That is why I will be teaching "whole words" also. Plus Hannah doesn't "get" the whole sounding out phonics thing yet, and I'm helping her a lot with that :)

Hannah - June 10, 2008

2008-06-10T21:33:00.000-07:00

We've taken some time off because we were out of town... but have now gotten back into reading again. We started the "ap" words today and Hannah was so excited when I showed her "map" (she loves Dora the Explorer)

Hannah writes her "at" words every day. I don't ask her to, or help her at all. She just loves writing. The boys never did, so this is new to me :)

Hannah - June 9, 2008

2008-06-09T19:42:00.000-07:00

We have started our "ap" words today

(from Hooked on Phonics)

Hannah - May 27, 2008

2008-05-27T21:07:00.000-07:00

We bought a Leapster for Hannah with 1 game (PetPals). She loves it. The next few days we will not be working as much with our reading games because we are going out of town. I am bringing the "Brain Quest" and a Dot-to-Dot coloring book so she is still "learning" :)

Hannah - May 26, 2008

2008-05-26T21:13:00.000-07:00

Hannah has started "writing" words. Not real words... her words. She writes "A" "H" "N" and then says "Look, I wrote a word." "What does it say?" .... "It says, TAN".

I'm not sure what to say, except that at least she's writing?

Hannah - May 25, 2008

2008-05-25T21:09:00.000-07:00

Hannah's grandparents bought her "Brain Quest" for her 3rd birthday and she loves it!! I am amazed at how much she likes it. We went through 30 questions and she still wanted to play more!

Hannah - May 23, 2008

2008-05-23T07:24:00.000-07:00

Today I took out some of the games we've been playing with to take pictures for previous posts. Hannah said she wanted to write her own shopping list (for the "Shopping Game"). She wrote (almost) all the "an" words!

Hannah - May 22, 2008

2008-05-22T22:16:00.000-07:00

Tonight we played more "Grocery Shopping" game. Hannah also read her "Fat Cat" story to the boys. She was very proud of that!

Hannah - May 21, 2008

2008-05-21T23:17:00.000-07:00

Today we played "Word Muncher" a few times. She wanted to do ALL the "at" and "an" words, but it was a little too much (about 17 words). We started a new game (which the boys would NEVER play). It is the shopping game! I got out her Leap Frog shopping cart, taped all her "an" words to the food and went shopping for them! I made a grocery "list" on our small white board and set the food around the loft. Then she went shopping for them. She raced around looking for all the words/food and she had so much fun. We probably played it 5 times!

She still can't sound out the "an" words on her own and needs help. I don't think she understands the whole concept of phonics yet :)

Hannah - May 20, 2008

2008-05-20T23:01:00.000-07:00

We have now added "an" Words

Super Why" (TV show on PBS kids) they showed the "at" words. Hannah was SO excited and SO happy that she could read the words!

Tonight we played more "Word Muncher" with the "an" words and the "at" words.

She read the 'story' (more like a cartoon strip) "Fat Cat" to us tonight. She wasn't too excited about it, but I sure was :)

We also played the Phonics Game Jr. "Fat Cat" game. Hannah loved it. She can really only read the "at" words, but I sound out all the other words for her. It only has 3 letter simple words, so it's just the right game for her.

Hannah - May 19, 2008

2008-05-19T21:58:00.001-07:00

Today Hannah got out the "Blocks" game all by herself, filled it up with Cheerios and yelled, "I'm ready to play my game!" Hurray!! Hopefully she'll like this game enough to keep playing it a lot.

We also played "Word Muncher" (aka Chore Chomper). Hannah thought he was so funny, especially when he burped or when he spit out the word "rat".

We played a few file folder games that aren't directly related to reading. One was a nice guy/mean guy game and the other was a opposites game.

Hannah - May 18, 2008

2008-05-18T21:52:00.000-07:00

Hannah is 3 years and 1 month old.

Since Hannah knows all of her letters and letter sounds, we are going to start the "Hooked on Phonics" reading program. We are going to follow the book lesson, but without the "lesson" part. Since she's only 3, we are going to be playing games, (just like we did with learning the alphabet) with her new words. We are starting out with the Yellow Workbook and are learning the "at" words first.

Today we played the "Blocks" Game. I sounded out most of the words for her until she knew how to read them. It only took a couple of times playing the "Blocks" game. She took most of my turns too (just so she could eat my cheerios!) We did modify the "Blocks" game and played it with "My Little Pony's" instead of blocks. I also put post-it notes on each "section" with one at word each.