I have had several friends ask me what I have done with my kids to get them ready for school. I have complied a list of my favorite products and how to use them. The other ideas for helping your kids become literate can be found in my weekly blog posts under brain power ideas.
Reading is NOT complicated to teach. I know, everyone makes it seem like it's SO HARD to do, but it's not. You've kept your kids alive, right? So teaching reading can be a breeze. It just helps to have the right materials.
Read daily. I read during meals, at bedtime, and often in the afternoons we have a reading break. Also to watch TV, the kids have to read to me. Instead of a TV in their rooms, we have reading lights. After a bedtime story, the kids get reading lights until they are ready to fall asleep. NO TOYS, reading lights and books are it. What kinds of books? Anything your child is interested in. We like DK books, Star Wars, Fancy Nancy, and National Geographic Kids. We also go to the library often for some variety. If you have a beginning reader you can try Leapfrog Tag books. Exposure to literature is the key.
Here is a list of some great books to read aloud to your child, and have in your home library. My daughter likes the books with naughty themes or characters, so there are lots of those below.
Potty Animals
Hansel and Gretel
Dog
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
No Fighting, No Biting
Frog Prince Continued
Stinky Cheese Man
The War Between the Vowels and the Consonants
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs
The Three Pigs
How Are You Peeling?
The Oak Inside the Acorn
You are Special
Falling Up
Gumbrella
Dumpy the Dump Truck
Where's the Poop
The Bunnies Are Not in Their Beds
Oliver Who Would Not Sleep
Knuffle Bunny
If your child is ready to start reading on his/her own, then starting with a series like the BOB Books, or the Sight Word Readers. Currently my four-year old is in the first box of BOB Books and has read most of the Sight Word Readers. The BOB books are silly stories that follow a pattern of ending or beginning sounds with very few added words. The Sight Word Readers are more complex words, but repeated over and over throughout the book. Either of these series will offer your child the chance to read a real big kid book and be successful.
Phonics instruction is so important. Some schools teach direct phonics, and some don't. If a child has a strong foundation of phonics, learning to read and learning other languages will be much easier. The best phonics books I have found are from Modern Curriculum Press. My kindergartner is on Level A and my preschooler is on Level K. We do between two and four pages a day. They are quick activities that reinforce phonics.
Writing can be very frustrating to teach. My daughter picked it up quickly and easily. My son struggled to form letters and write quickly. There are two books I suggest for writing. Handwriting Without Tears is a phenomenal program aimed at the kids that normally hate writing and feel overwhelmed by letter formation. If your child is writing, then using Writing With Ease, you can not only practice writing letters, but punctuation, grammar, and narration. Writing With Ease can be done in 5-10 minutes daily. My son is now a fluent writer, and really understands punctuation.
Spelling is something that is best learned by patterns at a young age. Word study programs aim to teach children to sort and categorize words based on patterns. I love Words Their Way. If you are looking for a wonderful program to get your kids reading and spelling simultaneously, the check out the word journal linked above.
Math is something I do spur of the moment with my kids. They ask questions and we investigate. We play a lot of math games around here. Shut the Box, Dominoes, and Mancala are three favorites. Shut the Box teaches your kids how to read numbers on dice, and add numbers in different ways. Honestly after playing this game a few times, my daughter was able to roll the dice and quickly call out the numbers and add them. Impressive. Dominoes are a fun way to learn high and low numbers, or how we can connect two numbers with patterns. Mancala teaches counting and strategizing. My daughter loves this game. For my kindergartener we also work on a Sylvan math workbook. This book has quick, easy exercises that he can do alone, but they reinforce all kindergarten learning standards.
Another idea for combining math and reading is by building Lego sets. Legos will feel like a punishment to you, but only for a little while. Once you teach your child how to read the booklet and have completed a few sets, then he/she will be ready to do it alone. Then you'll have so much free time you can start blogging too.
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