I designed this literature study for my 6th and 8th grade boys who love Doctor Who. Because my son wanted to do some kind of Doctor Who focused study, I looked around at what was available and considered our current needs. There is a study that focuses on the historical…
As I was considering which chapter books would work best as readers for my daughter this school year, I decided to go a different direction. There are so many great picture books that are designed to be read aloud by an adult that would work just as well. I went…
The journey into reading has been a bit unusual for my visual-spatial learners and I’ve learned some lessons along the way. I don’t know if there is a “typical” visual-spatial learner, but Linda Silverman sums it up quite well with this: “The visual spatial learner thrives on complexity,…
I’ve compiled a list of readers at the 2nd and 3rd grade level. I’m listing them in the order I plan to have my child read the books aloud. I looked up the grade level and the lexile level on the books by using the Scholastic Book Wizard. I wasn’t…
In the process of teaching reading, I’ve stumbled around once my child completed a set of early phonics readers. I’ve tried several things and wasn’t happy with many phonics-based readers and other readers tended to rely mostly on sight words. So many phonics-based readers were incredibly boring and my…
As a parent I had envisioned times where my son and I could cuddle together and enjoy books. From the time my son was small, he would run around and play and interact with other things around him as I attempted to read aloud. Some kids have the ability to…
Now that I’m teaching reading for the third time I think I’m getting the hang of it. Way back in my early years in college I took a class on how to teach kids how to read. I’m not sure why I took it since I had no interest in…
My daughter and I have had a bit of fun playing Alphabet World. Basically I get out our Melissa & Doug Upper & Lower Case Alphabet Puzzle along with my daughter’s stash of mini-figures. She loves her little figures and has been known to play with them for hours. My goal…
As we progress through the school year we get to enjoy more books. I prefer using actual books rather than basal readers. My younger son is reading through Sonlight’s Language Arts 1 readers while my older son is reading some chapter books. I selected his books based on his interest,…
For reading I typically keep things simple. Instead of using a reading curriculum with basal readers, we prefer actual books. My beginning reader went through the Fun Tales series last school year. This year we started the I Can Read It! books, but they were incredibly boring for him. I…
