Reading Games
FAMILY LITERACY DAY
Happy Family Literacy Day every one!
Here’s a fun idea to celebrate – find a well loved book that has the same number of characters as there are in your family and have a family play. It doesn’t matter if you have an audience or not, as I guarantee that most of the fun will be in the preparations. Costumes are a must, the best ones are scavenged from around the house.
I remember doing this as a kid. My much older brother landed the part of a bee (I seem to remember that it was the main protagonist). As his only line was to say “Buzz” he made a comic strip type bubble out of card and wrote “Buzz” in it. I thought that it was wonderful!
THE ART OF STORY TELLING
One great way of introducing a new skill, routine or activity with your child is to make a photo story book about it. I just made a “Day-In-The-Life-Of” story book as a bit of fun for my son. It was really easy, over several days (it would have taken a day, but I kept forgetting) I took photos of him doing the things he does during the day. For example: Waking up, eating, playing, bath time etc then I printed them and put them in a dollar store photo album. As he is the main character in the book he absolutely loves “reading” it.
This type of story book can be really great if you are trying to work on a routine. For example, if you are trying to instigate a bedtime routine to help your child go to bed more easily/quickly, take pictures of your child going through the parts of the routine. Enlisting your child to help put the photos in the right order helps embed the process as well as “reading” the story regularly. Just beware, once you do this, you won’t get away with making any variances from the routine!
Another fun thing to do with these picture stories is practice sequencing – a good thing to practice before your child starts kindergarten. Going through first, then, next and last with your child both using pictures and physically around the house will help your child understand typical instructions she will get from her Kindergarten teacher. For example: First hang up your coat, then wash your hands, and lastly sit at the table.
Photo books have a huge range of applications and are great because they are easy to make and kids love having a book written all about them. If you have any other uses for them feel free to add a comment.
COMPUTER AIDED LITERACY
There are some great computer or internet based literacy games out there. They are fun, interactive and quite amusing, small doses are a great way to add another dimension to your child’s learning.
A while back I spent a fair bit of time in a down town east side school here in Vancouver and one of the things I did was take the kids for computer time. Over a period of time I made a couple of observations which I’d like to share.
- Computer time is a really fun time, kids really enjoy it and do an amazing job of figuring it all out (usually before I have)
- Computer programs are very graphically designed. Kids can enjoy the games by clicking on lots of stuff but without reading the screen. If your child is just starting to read, it would be a good idea to sit with your child while they play computer games and encourage them to read the screen.
- Computer programs can be very controlling. Your child will often find the easy route through the games instead of engaging their brain. An example of this was a story that could be read, but if the child was stuck then they could click on the word and the computer would pronounce it for them. The kids I was working with didn’t realise that they were supposed to be reading the words themselves. Instead they were labouriously clicking on every word and waiting for the computer to pronounce it. Once your child is reading, keep an eye on them while they are playing computer games to make sure that they are using them in a way that has some educational benefit.
- Sometimes computer games can overstimulate a child to some extent. They begin to click away fast and change games without playing and finishing one. If this happens, you will need to step in and turn off the games for a while. Next time, you will need to direct your child into playing one or two games only.
TIPS TO KEEP YOUR KIDS READING THIS SUMMER
Reading like any new learned skill can get quite rusty after a summer off. Here are some tips to keep your kids in practice over the long hot summer months.
- Take a digital camera with you on a day out with your kids. The next day print off the photos and help your child make a book telling the story of the day out. This book can be read by your child when ever he/she wants to read it.
- A fun variation on this is for your and your child to spend the day photographing a favourite toy in various places and poses around your neighbourhood, you can build this into quite an adventure story!
- Check out your local library for events. There is bound to be lots of kid friendly activities on over the summer, while you are there spend some time together in the kids section and help your child pick out some books to take home and read. Don’t worry too much about trying to find books that are challenging. Kids learn a lot about the enjoyment of reading from books that they can pick up and read fluently by them selves.
- Cook together – and get your child to read the recipe. Even better – turn your baking into a pretend cafe and have your child make up some menu’s and signs.
- Any time you are in a restaurant together this summer, let your child read the menu and pick their own meal.
- Planning a road trip? Make a bingo board out of road signs and place names that you think you will see on the way. When your child sees the sign then they cross off the matching words on the bingo board.
- More on that road trip – give your child a map before hand and let him/her plan the route.
- Do you have parents that live out of town? Have them email your child and let your child return the emails.
THE LETTER SOUNDS IN THE PHONICS ALPHABET
The phonics alphabet is just a posh way of saying. “This is the sound that the letter makes rather than the name of the letter” We teach kids the letters phonetically first because it is easier to remember “The letter a” rather than “Ay says a”…. yes it’s challenging to write this stuff down!
Here is a flawless example of the phonetics alphabet pronounciation by www.helpingtogrow.com
Here is a high energy example – but beware, some of the letters are prounced as bu, du, pu, cu etc. The correct way to pronounce them is softer and more breathy (as in the first video). This video courtesy of www.genkienglish.net
A FUN GAME
Here’s a great game to play and learn some new languge in the process…and it gets bonus points for being really easy to set up.
Find a paragraph or write a short paragraph – for example.
‘One very cold________an unfortunate farmer, to provide for his starving _______, had to slaughter all of his ____________; first his sheep, then his _________, then his cow. Meanwhile his ___________ had a good life under the ______, wolfing down the tidbits, gnawing on the bones. But when the last bit of cow was _________, the dogs ran off into the woods. “Mutton is good eating,” they said to________ “goat is not bad; cow is ______. And dog,” they concluded, “a man can eat dog if he is _______ enough.’
The aim is to find really funny “nonsense” words to put in the spaces. for example:
‘ One very cold August and unfortunate farmer, to provide for his starving canary…..’
Kids like this because it is lots of fun to do – teachers like it because it gets kids to be really creative with their langugage.
SOME GREAT FINDS AT TOY FAIR
While exploring Toy Fair it would have been impossible for me not to have fallen in love with some of the products available there. Here’s a run down on what I thought were the best of the best in educational and developmental toys in no particular order.
Cardboard Design www.cardboarddesign.com - Cathy Heneszy, President/ Creative Director has some amazing products for kids and adults alike. For kids check out the play houses, for adults check out the vases that change shape!
Hobby Bike www.hobby-bike.com – This is such a great idea! Research has shown that training wheels on bikes don’t actually help kids learn to ride that fast. It is better to give kids a bike that is low to the ground that they can push around with their feet. Hobby bikes not only do this, but they come with pedals and are fully adjustable to grow with your kid once they get coordinated enough to ride properly…not only that the bikes retail at $100 and come in a variety of colours.
Miniland Educational www.miniland.es - A large Spanish company just breaking in to the North American market. They have some great educational toys. We liked the lacing games where you sew clothes on dolls with a shoelace.
Grasshopper www.grasshopperpreschool.com – A new company that has designed a product that has some ethical similarities to Notch Hill. Their product helps preschoolers build the motor controls that they will need in order to learn to write. The president is a pediatric occupational therapist and has plenty of experience helping kids learn to control their hands. The product costs $200 retail and is beautifully presented.
Zillio www.zilliogames.com – A fun looking math tool for teaching tables.
Ultimate Spinner www.robbinstoy.com – I loved this wacky spinner game because it was so many games in one. At approx $50 retail it would keep your family entertained for several years.
Bridge Street Toys www.bridgestreettoys.com – If you have a kid who likes science then I whole heartedly recommend the hydrodynamics kits from this company. They come with the girder and panel kit to build a tower and a whole bunch of different valves to demonstrate all types of valves. The book that comes along with it is fascinating and takes kids from real life examples to understanding schematic drawings.
Crazy Forts www.everestwholesale.com – These are a fun modern take on the tents and forts we all built using our parent’s furniture as a kid. The kit comes with sticks and clamps which the kid can put together in a bunch of different ways. Then you add the blankets or sheets and a fort, spaceship, igloo or what ever is created. You can also buy lights that clip onto the frames to illuminate the insides of the structure.
And last but not least I loved Pencil Play Pals www.pencilplaypals.com – These harmless characters are a series of pencil toys and books written with much love and care. A simple toy but a lot of fun.