Summer reading skills loss



Oh dear, I dropped my favorite
toy.

Find a 10 minute timer; use it twice a day. Morning is for skills work, afternoon is for reading a story. You will be more successful if you do not push for more time after the buzzer rings.

Take your child to the library or to a used bookstore. Let your child pick whatever: animal books, adventures, science experiments, Ripley's Believe it or not, joke books, etc. 

I like used books because your child can write in them.

You can assign Word Hunts for tricky look alike sight words: these, those, whether, which, though, thought, caught, brought, etc. You can get large print books at libraries and used bookstores.

Tip: Quit stopping to sound out; tell your child any unknown words. Tell your child to read the words he knows, slide over unknown words. Over time, this will reap better results.

All kids want to be great at reading but schools do not have enough time. 

Reading skills become lost when they are not used every few days: short and long vowels; adding ed and ing, changing y to i, vowel blocks ous, eous, ious, tial, tion, tious, tient, etc. Knowing chose and choose, lose and loose, bit, bite, rid, ride, and more.

I use eBay as my website, people trust it. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up for you to consider.  Help your child have fun reading. Mary Maisner

help child read




I am smart enough already!    Don't bother me!


 

Can a smart child be in school for three years and still be wobbly with letters b and d? Yes.

Again this Saturday, a smart, quick-minded eight year old was missing the Usual Suspects: b /d and p / q / g.  Please understand: it is not a child's fault. 

Research shows it is unclear instruction. Do not panic. 

Tip: quit stopping to sound out words, tell your child any unknown word, have your child keep reading. Stopping breaks the short-term memory loop, thus all comprehension is lost.

Tell your child to keep reading using the words he does know. Slide over any unknown word. At the end of the page, you ask questions - what is happening on the page, who did what, etc. Then go back to unknown words and help your child figure them out or tell him the word. In a few weeks, this method will give great results.    

Use my blog's search box - top left corner - put in backward b. Also, sight words. My new books are sold at eBay. Search Instant Reading Help. All my books will pop up, all include my contact info; email or call for help.

Have a great day, Mary Maisner

ready for kindergarten



My owls like to look at
all the animals in their forest.

Use a picture to help your child think about the letter sounds he hears at the start of a word, like tree, bird, branch. Then practice printing the letters within three parallel lines you've drawn equal distance apart on a blank sheet of paper.

Tell your child that the letters fit inside the parallel lines like his feet fit inside his shoes. You will need to be patient; it takes a long, long time to print letters without a wobble. Do not obsess. Only letters b, d, g, p, q need to be correct. 

Ignore all other backward letters, they will not slow your child's progress, will self-correct by mid-2nd Grade, and are very rarely dyslexia.  Get an ABC letter strip from Target, Office Max, etc. Teach each letter name and basic sound: Aa apple, Bb bear, etc.

Lots of point and name is great practice. 

Over time, explain that the ABC letters in a word sit next to each other, like the toes of his foot: not tight but side-by-side. 

Using your picture pick words to practice, like tree, bird, sky, owl - tell your child the correct letters or allow your child to try spelling. At this point do not worry about correct spelling, but do aim for the correct beginning sound: bird, feather, tree, etc.

Your next target is teaching that words in a sentence need space between them, like cars on a street - they must not bump into one another. Teach your child to place his pointer finger on the paper to see how much space to have between words. And, tell your child that letters and words always go this way >>.  5 minute lessons are good, short and fun is best. 

I use ebay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up for you. All include my contact onfo; email or call for help.

Have a great day, Mary

ready for kindergarten

My giraffe is not small.
My giraffe is very, very tall.

To make learning to print the ABCs more fun, find a picture your child will enjoy looking at for the length of a five minute lesson. Using a ruler or long magazine, draw three parallel lines completely across a blank sheet of paper. The lines need to be about equal distance apart but they can be an inch or 1/2 an inch apart. Start large.

After talking about the scene in your chosen picture, ask your child to name one item in the picture and tell you the letter sound he hears at its start. In my picture, he might pick giraffe, tree, leaf, sand, sky, horns, hoof - you see how this works.

Let's imagine he picked tree. You ask for the sound at the start of tree. (letter t)

Show your child how to make a capital T or lower-case t using the lines you have already drawn on the paper. Tell him the top line and the bottom line are like his shoes. His feet fit nicely inside his shoes. Ask your child to try to help the letter T fit nicely inside the top and bottom lines.

Lower-case t has a line that crosses right on the middle line. Capital T has a line which fits on the line at the top. Your job is to help your child work on this in a stress-free way. It takes every child's fingers a very long time to get control of a pencil. Your child's fingers will get tired - almost right away. 

Backward letters are not a problem; do not spend energy forcing your child to get them right. Help your child learn to point and name and say all basic ABC letters: Aa apple, Bb bear, Cc cat, etc.

But being wobbly with b, d, g, p, q will cause problems. Spend your child's limited energy mastering the names, sounds, and shapes of b, d, g, p, q. By early 1st Grade, be sure your child recognizes those letters even when the letters are inside words. Be sure your child is clear: old not olb and by not dy. Confusion within words of b /d and p / q / g causes a child to fall behind.

BTW, if your child is left-handed, please do not try to change this natural feeling.

I use ebay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up for you. Have a great day, Mary Maisner