Mama’s Getting Help From The Learning Library

October 31, 2011 by

I’ve been reading to my daughter since she was growing inside my womb and until now, not a day passes by without us reading a book together. At her very young age, she has already shown great love for literature and a knack for weaving stories of her own. When dear Mama is cannot read a book for her, she often narrates her own version of a storybook based on the pictures.

I have tried to teach her how to read on her own but have only managed to help her recognize letters and their sounds. We’ve been stuck at AT and AN words for weeks now and I’m pretty much the one who’s getting frustrated. You see, my Mom taught my sisters and I to read before we even reached three years of age. Jade is three years and four months now and I feel that I may not have enough skill to teach her the basics of reading.

Since she herself has been clamoring to go to school and has shown signs of being ready for more challenges, we agreed to check if she could be enrolled in a Reading Program. The nearest establishment that offered such a program was The Learning Library but when I inquired, they said that they only accepted children who are already in school. After reasoning out that my little girl was already used to answering worksheets and knew how to follow instructions, they did schedule us though for an assessment.

Our first visit to the center proved how ready Jade is for school. She easily warmed up to the teacher and had no qualms going off with the teacher by herself. It felt kind of sad that she left poor Mama within five minutes of arriving at the center; but, I am proud of how independent and driven she is.

How did the assessment go? It went fairly well with Teacher Erica informing me that Jade was very quick with her answers.  Although she missed several questions, her Reading level was still above-average for her age. Most importantly, she showed readiness to learn and behaved well during the assessment.

We’re starting Level 1 of their Reading Advantage Program this November. I really thought we’d be on Level 2 already as she already knew all of the letters and sounds, could identify beginning letters, and read a few cvc words. However, it turns out that she had to be able to identify middle and ending letters also before she could proceed to Level 2. And she is also still unable to segment words phonemically.

She is very excited to go back to The Learning Library and learn how to read. We’ll see how it goes the first month and if she wishes to continue the program then we’ll do so.

Filed Under: BookWorms, Mom's Corner, PLAYhouse preSCHOOL Tagged With: , , ,

Affordable Workbooks for Toddlers and Preschoolers

August 26, 2011 by

 The toddlers are so used to seeing other children studying in our home that the word “worksheets” is very common to them. At their very young ages, they themselves are often the ones to ask dear Mama for some worksheets. To them, studying and answering worksheets is part of everyday life. Aside from the fun they have “working” with their Kuyas, I do believe that this gives the toddlers a sense of being “big kids”.

I admit to not being a super mom so there are really days when I am unable to prepare worksheets for them. So during trips to the mall, I do try to squeeze in a quick visit to the bookstore to purchase some workbooks. I’m more often drawn to workbooks with colorful pictures and glossy pages but these are the ones which are usually beyond my budget. Instead of these, I purchase affordable workbooks that still serve the same purpose.

Among my most recent purchases are two ETL School and Home Workbooks. I bought these two weeks ago yet Jade is already half way done with both workbooks. These workbooks are given to Jade when she asks for them after playtime in the afternoon.

These ETL books are only Php50 each.

Jade can pretty much work on these on her own.

There are days when the workbooks won’t cross her mind, but these are very few. Always eager to imitate what his Ate Jade is doing, our little boy now also tells us that “I want to work po.” And so, Papa bought them more workbooks to “work” on. These ones were bought for Php250/set of four. The pages are in full color and of good quality. I won’t be giving them to the toddlers until they finish the current workbooks they are using.

Filed Under: BookWorms, Miscellaneous, PLAYhouse preSCHOOL Tagged With: ,

Reading and Writing Books

May 26, 2011 by

Right after breakfast, the toddlers started our Thursday Talkies. We started off with a couple of their reading books which I read to them. To check their comprehension, I would ask them some questions after a couple of pages. Jade is usually able to answer my questions while Jakei often just parrots what his sister says.

We then moved on to our workbooks.  I bought three different workbooks fo Jade to use: English Workbook for Kindergarten, Learning Horizons Beginning Sounds, and Little Genius Learning Writing for ages 2-4.  She can already identify all the letters of the alphabet and their corresponding sounds.  She’s able to match the pictures with their beginning letters in The Learning Horizons Beginning Sounds workbook.  She can write yet though so I write letters on sticker paper which she uses to fill in the blanks in some of the activities.   Both the English Workbook and the Little Genius Workbook have great activities for practice writing although the toddlers love the latter better for its colorful pictures. The English Workbook has the most varied activities which include writing skills, phonemic awareness, matching words with their beginning or ending sounds, comparisons, and vocabulary building.

I just usually print out some worksheets for Jakei to do as he doesn’t really have any interest in answering the acivities in the workbooks yet.  He’s quite happy just doodling or smashing crayons onto his sheets of paper. Sometimes, he asks for the Little Genius Workbook and names the pictures he recognizes or asks for the names of the ones he doesn’t recognize.

We’ve been trying to practice his pencil grip but he’s really quite stubborn about it. Since he’s not yet even two years old, I just let him do what he wants anyway.

Filed Under: BookWorms, Kids At Work, PLAYhouse preSCHOOL, Products We Love Tagged With: , , , ,

Jade Can Read!

May 5, 2011 by

On the 5th of May 2011, a couple of months shy from her third birthday, my daughter read her very first words sans help from Teacher Mama.  It doesn’t make her a genius or a child prodigy but, still, those first words were like music to my ears.  And for reading bat, mat, hat, rat and cat all on her own, my daughter deserves all the praise and accolade this mom can shower her.

The bookworms we’re cultivating are making good progress. We still have a long way to go but I am just so proud (isn’t it obvious?!) of what my little girl can accomplish at such a young age.

 

Filed Under: BookWorms, Kids At Work, PLAYhouse preSCHOOL Tagged With: , ,

Online Resources for Toddler Activities

April 5, 2011 by

The level of boredom and the degree of hyperactivity in toddlers are directly proportional to each other.  The greater the boredom, the more hyperactive toddlers become.  I have two toddlers in my care and hyperactivity is definitely something I dread!  It has happened a couple of times, and believe me, running after them trying to figure out which one is in danger of getting hurt or hurting the other is a pretty nasty sight.

Good thing moms like me are able to get great help from the web.  There are now plenty of sites that we can go to for ideas on how to keep our toddlers entertained while learning at the same time.  Here are four of this mom’s favorite go-to sites:

PreKinders, a site with resources for Pre-K Teachers, has plenty of activity ideas that can be used not just in the classroom but at home also.  There are also free printables available.

Starfall is the toddlers’ most recent favorite site.  The toddlers are still on the first level which is ABC Getting Started to Read.  They have both showed great progress in letter recognition and phonemic awareness since we started using the site a month ago.

Fisher-Price Online Games and Activities has dozens of games and activities for infants, toddlers and preschoolers.  My toddlers’ favorites include Shapes + Colors, Who’s at the Door?, and Learning about Opposites.

For printables, I go to Wholesome Toddler Food.  Aside from providing nutrition facts and recipes, this site also has links to hordes of great printables for introducing letters, numbers, colors, and shapes to toddlers.

 

Filed Under: Kids At Work, PLAYhouse preSCHOOL Tagged With: , , , ,
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