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With the new Common Core Standards being introduced in most states across the country next year, in ELA (English Language Arts), you will start to see a HUGE push for your children to start reading many more non-fictional texts. Non-fiction [...]
One of my favorite children’s books is the “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” “If You Give a Pig a Pancake,” “If You Give a Moose a Muffin,” and “If You Give a Cat a Cupcake” books by Laura [...]
In my house we have more books than we know what to do with! I love children’s books and when I was teaching, I’d often order new ones or use my bonus points to snag some new books for my [...]
Environmental print is a great starting point for teaching children to read. Environmental print refers to the print we see in our everyday life. We’re surrounded by words and phrases on street signs, food packaging, billboards, candy wrappers etc. For many emergent readers, these words and phrases become their first attempts to “read” something. As adults we don’t consider this to be “real reading.” However, environmental print is the first print most children can recognize. Store and restaurant signs, cereal boxes and the label on your jar of peanut butter all provide opportunities for emerging readers to interact with print and the written word in their own environment.
Recognizing numbers can be a bit of a challenge for Preschoolers and Kindergartners. We spend so much time drilling the alphabet into these little guys and don’t exert nearly the same amount of effort with numbers. Sure, we count out loud to our kids, but do we teach them what a 7 actually looks like?
Parents are on the right track with counting aloud to their children. This teaches numerical order, as well as one-to one correspondence; the ability to match numbers to objects or object to object. Try some of these fun and easy ideas though and your child will get those numbers down pat too. The best part is, they won’t even know they are working!
Looking for some educational activities that will keep your children warm this winter? How about reading the story “Stone Soup” as a family? This story is about a couple of hungry travelers who stumble upon a village. They expect the [...]
Special occasions and holidays are a perfect time to teach children the art of writing a thank you note. Some people may consider it to be an outdated form of communication, but I just consider it to be good manners. Thank you notes incorporate so many different skills. Of course the obvious one is learning to be a considerate and gracious human being. It’s also a great way to teach your child about the different components of a letter; such as the
We all want the best for our children and are filled with hopes and expectations for them from the moment they are born. As they grow, it’s so difficult not to compare your child to their same age peers. My first son, Cody, who’s now six, was a very late crawler and walker. He did not crawl until 11 months and didn’t take his first steps until 16 months. Several of my friends and I were pregnant at the same time and it just so happened that we all had boys! It was very difficult not to feel badly about what Cody wasn’t doing compared to my friend’s babies. It would have been easy to brush it off and say he was just a late bloomer, but instead I wanted the opinions of professionals.
One of my favorite holiday stories growing up was, “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas,” by Dr. Seuss. Reading this book with your child would be a great way to not only incorporate practicing his/her literacy skills, but it is also [...]
Play is the primary means in which children learn about their body movements and capabilities. In early childhood, play is equivalent to work for a parent. Not only does play have a cognitive effect on a child’s brain, but it [...]
