Every night we would go out and watch her make her trap. When she was done, she granted us the privilege of seeing, first-hand, this masterpiece. We all stood in awe at the beauty of it! After a week of this we never saw her again. I guess she thought we had seen enough or she just simply got tired of us watching her.
We just became members of our church this past Sunday and with that, came many questions as to how and why the church does certain things. One thing that is interesting about our church is that they take communion on Wednesdays instead of Sundays. I found this to be interesting so I asked why this was done this way. The women who lead the new members class told us that communion is encouraged not only to be done in church but at home with your own families. When she said this I thought "What a great way to take Communion, with your family at home. I love the idea!"
There are some days when you wonder when you will see spiritual fruit in your kids, and then there are days you are in amazement at their level of faith. Today, I got a beautiful glimpse at that fruit in Rebekah, and it was....Oh! So Sweet!
One of the subjects we do for school is a Nature Study, where we pick one area of interest each week and we learn a little about it and we record our finding into what we call our "nature journal". Usually I try to pick something the kids are interested in for that week. But this week I decided to choose sunflowers simply because we have a few growing in our backyard.
Books you will need:
You don't have to use this one in particular, but we use Pathway Readers by Rod and Staff. We LOVE these readers! I highly recommend them! They are readers that are not fancy but children learn great moral and spiritual values. The stories are set around an Amish community so you get a good feel about how they live. You can learn more about them here. They are a progressive reader, by that, I mean that each story builds on the new words learned the lesson before. So it makes it very helpful to practice the new words just learned. I have not used them yet, but I am told that the workbooks are great to use as well.
We use Phonic Pathways by Dolores G. Hiskes. It is very easy to use and great for children who struggle with reading. It teaches all the rules in a easy way, so it is not intimidating for those who are not sure how to teach phonics. It is very kid and mom friendly. You can purchase this at Amazon or any bookstore.
This is not necessary, but for us, adding hand motions to our reading was a "make it or break it" experience, especially for Brianna. I figured since we were using lots of hand motions, why not learn sign language as well?
Once you have all you need, you are ready for the reading lesson.
1. First, you will need to look over the story from their reader and chose any new words they will encounter or words you know they will struggle with. Be very careful not to overwhelm them with to many new or difficult words. Your reading lesson should not take more then 30 minutes, total each day.
2. Write one of the words on the dry eraser board. This is where some phonics rules come in to play. Point out any special sounds that are seen in the word, if there are any. Some words just don't follow any special sound patterns, that's OK.
Here, I wrote the word "play" for Brianna. I told her that the "ay" letters make an "A" sound. I also told her, there are many other words that end in these letters and that they will also have this same sound.
3. Next, have them look at the word until they think they have it memorized. Erase the word and have them spell the word with the magnetic letters. If they are having problems, write the word on the board again and have them look at it until they are confident they have it memorized. Erase it once more and have them try again spelling it with the letters. This step is important for those children who need a multi sensory approach to reading.
This step is important for Brianna. She has an opportunity to not only read and hear the word, but feel it as well. I had Brianna spell the word by memory using her magnetic letters. She got it the first try!
4. In this next step you will have them write as many new words as possible using the word they just spelled. (It's important that they only spell real words, not silly words. ) For instance, with the word "play", I had Brianna take the "pl" out and she used the "ay" to make many new words. She created and learned the words: ray, pay, say, day etc. In only a few seconds she learned over 10 new words! And after this short lesson she learned that "ay" is a sound pattern to look for in other words.
This is Brianna's favorite part. She gets to create a bunch of new words that she didn't even know two seconds ago! I love seeing her face light up with joy. And I love hearing her say "Oh, watch mommy. I can make another word!" It's music to my ears!
5. Follow these same steps with each word you selected for them to learn. Again, remember, that overwhelming them with to many words will not be beneficial and will only discourage them from wanting to read. If they seem frustrated, try making the lessons shorter. If the lesson took longer then expected, it's OK to come back to the reading later.
6. Now it's time to practice those words! Time to read. If there are days where they seem to struggle more with the reading, have them read the story again the next day or for more days if it's necessary. Remember, reading is not a race. I've had to remind myself of this, many times!
Brianna read the story with only a few problems. She did great!
6. One thing that helps Brianna tremendously is the use of hand-motions. We try and use sign language when possible. This really does help them remember words. Interestingly, Brianna tends to remember the hand-motions before she remembers the sound of the word. It seems to help trigger her mind to recall certain words she can't remember.
Phew! Got it all! Well, I hope this helps someone in the future. I know it was a lot to read but I hope others can benefit from our own learning experiences in this area. A quick word of encouragement, don't give up! I know the whole reading process is a lot of work but with patience and lots of practice, I promise you will see results. May God Bless you in this great journey of educating your own children. There is nothing better!
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