The school is great, the classes are small (14 kids) and they are sending some of the kids - including Liam - for extra one on one help a couple of times a week.
The thing we found odd about this conversation is that he seems to do just fine with homework. The school sends home 3 books a week, beginning readers with only a few words per page. We also do "Mama homework". It seems more of a case of Liam knowing his stuff, but not wanting to strut his stuff at school.
Either way we've kick Mama homework up a notch! Almost a year ago I posted about Liam becoming a reader, reading Dick and Jane. We hadn't read these in a while so we pulled them out this week. He stumbled on a few words, had to sound some out, but over all was reading it. We've also started using a great website for reading, Starfall.com The have games and on-line books, where you can click on a word and it sounds it out for you. I don't think computers can be a substitute for books when it comes to reading, but it is nice to have different options that are fun as well.
But our favorite reading strategy? Bathtime reading! While I run the water for Liam's bath, I use a washable marker and write the words we are working on on the tiles. Yes, that's right, I use markers on my bathroom walls! Liam gets in the tub and as he reads the words he gets to "erase" them with a water squirting toy. It's very motivating for the 6-year old crowd!
Any reading strategies that work in your house?
4 comments:
Kiddo likes to play "school" with her various stuffed animals/dinosaurs/safari animals/princesses......
She uses her sight word flash cards (they get 4-5 new sight words a week) and either Daddy or I play the teacher and she's in the "class" (and answers for whichever critter we call on, so basically she's answering ALL the questions) or she will be the teacher and still is asking and answering all the questions.
She used to use her chalkboard, too, before it went into storage. Now she uses a pad instead.
Also, she likes to play "spy" which means she creeps around the house and watches whatever anyone else is doing, then writes a note about the activities she's seen and then gives it to us and reads it to us. Things like "Mommy is washing dishes" or "The cat is sleeping in the window" or whatever. Spelling doesn't "count" in this game; she will tend to spell her sight words correctly (and those are the only words we'll correct) but she spells the rest phonetically. So it actually would say "The cat is sleping in the windo" or something like that.
Lastly, she loves to write books and read them to us. She staples together lots of pages and then writes an illustrated story. Again, very simple and phonetic spellings but she gets the point across. She makes up things like "The elefunt in my bakyard" or writes stories like "Mommy and me play mario krt we" about things we've done. It gets her practicing her words, reading *and* handwriting (which she gets lazy and scribbly about, according to her teacher and last report card) and yet she is having fun so it isn't work - just like your fantastic tub toy/wall word plan!
:)
OH MY! That's an awesome idea! *smacks head* what did I think about this?! We've used soap suds, but never markers! Zilla is starting to read, and it's so exciting watching and listening to him. Way to go Liam!
Let me think...
I found some books that Ben adores (Captain Underpants) and he'll read them over and over again. Before that, tho, he wasn't much of a reader. It was like a lightbulb went off over his head when he realized how much he loved to read.
I love the writing on the tiles. That's such a smart idea.
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