Education resources for parents and teachers
For each letter of the alphabet I share an idea for fun sensory play. My kids have loved helping their Dad in the garden, so I knew that they'd enjoy making their own garden in a box. It's a great summer boredom buster too! (This post contains affiliate links.) As I thought about a sensory play idea for letter G, I thought about a few possibilities. Grapes? No. Grass? Maybe. Garbage? Definitely ...Read More
How do you feel about history? Boring? Interesting? Something you study for school and then forget? I actually love history. In college I majored in Elementary Education, but "social studies" was my concentrate. Unlike most of my peers, I enjoyed the ancient history lectures by our 75-year-old professor. But my love of history didn't begin until high school, when an ...Read More
Do you know a child who claims to be a "bad writer?" One who is so convinced of his lack of ability that he can hardly begin a writing assignment? Today I'm sharing how to help young children be confident writers from the very beginning. We've made it to the the tenth and final lesson in the Preschool & Kindergarten Writing Lesson series between This Reading Mama and me! We've talked about important ...Read More
This is the progression we like to follow when learning to write letters: Fill a printed block letter with objects or stickers. Create the letter using straight or curvy objects from around the house. Use small manipulatives to make the letter. Write the letter using a finger. Use handwriting pages in three levels of difficulty. First I printed a giant letter O (get yours by ...Read More
有时小learni偷偷的最佳方式ng is in unlikely places. How about teaching some math at the park or in your own backyard? Here are some outdoor math ideas for kids. After a long cold winter, it finally feels like summer! My kids have been spending a lot of time outside, so I've put together this list of ways that we've done some math in the great outdoors. Outdoor Math ...Read More
What do you know about invented spelling? I find that it's a concept which is often misunderstood. To help clear up the confusion I'm sharing invented spelling guidelines for parents. (This post contains affiliate links. Click here to see my full disclosure policy.) Welcome to Lesson 8 in the Preschool & Kindergarten Writing Lesson series from This Reading Mama and me! So far we've shared a variety of tips ...Read More
We are planning a very long drive this week. We're hitting the road before sunup and driving until way past bedtime. As a survival strategy I've prepared a giant set of road trip activities for kids. (This post contains affiliate links. Click here to see my full disclosure policy.) In just a short while our family is going to be taking a road trip. A very loooong road trip. As in, start driving at 3 ...Read More
Today I'm sharing a free letter O printable that we like to use with our letter of the week activities. (This post contains affiliate links.) Free Letter O Printable I created these for young preschoolers as a way to help them learn to recognize a letter and have some fine motor practice at the same time. My little guy (just over two years) loves to work on my dot sticker pages at the kitchen ...Read More
Today I'm sharing the final set of long vowel Read 'n Stick Mats. Teach your child to read long u word families with these six free printables! (This post contains affiliate links.) I created this set of picture mats for my Five. By reading the accompanying word cards, he's learning to read the following phonics patterns within long u words: ew u-consonant-e ue oo ui I call these my Read 'n Stick Mats because ...Read More
I created this set of picture mats for my Five. By reading the accompanying word cards, he's learning to read the following phonics patterns within long i words: i-consonant-e (as in mice) i-consonant-consonant (as in ind) igh (as in flight) y (as in fry) I call these my Read 'n Stick Mats because you can laminate the pages and attach Velcro dots for extra fun matching. (Gotta love that rrrrip!) (The ...Read More
