For the second week in my Month of Series, I am going to share tips and tricks for early literacy development that you can do at home. I'll be sharing my favorite ideas and links to additional resources. I'm not an expert by any means, but I know what works for my kids might also work for yours. Of course, it might not. All of these ideas can be tweaked to meet your child's individual needs.
So, day one: JUST READ. Yeah, okay, you probably already knew that. Every child should be read to (or read, if they can) for 20 minutes a day. You can do it here and there throughout the day, or all in one sitting if your child likes to have downtime right before bed. The important thing is the cumulative amount of time you spend reading together. The more exposure our kids have to language and text, the more likely they are to be fluent readers. We talk to our kids every day, but time spent with a book is time teaching them that our spoken language is made up of a written language. Letters make words, words make sentences, and sentences tell us a story. There is no wrong way to read a book to your kids, but here are some suggestions to get even more out of your story time:
1) Look at the pictures and talk about them. Don't worry about the text, just take a "picture walk" through the book. If your child is old enough to discuss the pictures with you, ask them to tell you what is going on in the pictures. You can make predictions of what the story is going to be about and then check them by reading the text. Some books only have pictures specifically so that you and your child can make up the words to go with the text.
2) Alphabet hunt - If your kiddo knows his or her letters, ask them to find and identify letters on each page. You can also do this with familiar words or sight words, if your child knows any.
3) Trail your finger along the text as you read. This draws attention to the fact that it is the words that tell the story. As your kiddo learns words, you will be able to share in the reading of books. I always pause when I get to a word RJ knows and he reads it for me. It draws out the reading a bit, but it really gets him involved.
4) Have fun! Use character voices - a high squeaky voice for a mouse, a deep voice for a lion, etc. It adds to the "give and take" of the dialogue, and your child will love it!
Share your ideas on how you read to your kids below in the comments! Do you have a favorite book?
Showing posts with label kids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kids. Show all posts
Monday, July 9, 2012
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Make any wall a word wall!
If you have a wall with nothing hanging on it, and a preschool aged kiddo that loves books and language play, you have got to check out word walls. If you Google "word wall," all kinds of images come up. Word walls are exactly what they sound like - they are an area where you display words, usually. All you need is some alphabet cards and some word cards, and something to stick them to the wall.
I have done a different twist on it in my own classroom when I was teaching 2's. I used pictures.
The only words I used in this picture word wall were the kids' names. The rest were pictures of things that began with each letter's sound. We did short vowel sounds - A for Alligator, E for Elephant, I for Igloo, O for Octopus, U for Umbrella. With consonants we focused on the most common sound - for example, the hard "k" sound of the letter C.
RJ is three and is ready for sight words. Sight words are the most common words you see in print. Since the English language has some pretty complicated rules, "sound it out" isn't always an option for beginning readers. Just like we memorize addition fact and multiplication tables in order to speed up the process of doing more complicated math, we memorize sight words in order to built speed and fluency with reading.
RJ has been working with a great teacher all year, and I have been working with him this summer, so I decided to check out and see what sight words he knows and put those words on our word wall to start with. Boy was I surprised!
These are the words RJ knows so far. Most of them are sight words but he also knows milk, hit, and play. All together, there are 27 words on the wall! He knows many of the words on the Preprimer list of Dolch Sight Words.
We are using our word wall to reinforce the words RJ already knows, and then he is using those words in other learning situations. When we read a book, I trail my finger along the print and pause when I come to a word he knows, so we do a shared reading of the text. We take words like at, it, and in and play word addition - for example, c + at = cat. You write C, make the sound, write at, and say "at," then blend the word together to make "cat."
I love working with my beginning reader. He is so excited about his word wall, and I can't wait to see what words we add next!
I have done a different twist on it in my own classroom when I was teaching 2's. I used pictures.
 |
| Picture "word" wall |
The only words I used in this picture word wall were the kids' names. The rest were pictures of things that began with each letter's sound. We did short vowel sounds - A for Alligator, E for Elephant, I for Igloo, O for Octopus, U for Umbrella. With consonants we focused on the most common sound - for example, the hard "k" sound of the letter C.
RJ is three and is ready for sight words. Sight words are the most common words you see in print. Since the English language has some pretty complicated rules, "sound it out" isn't always an option for beginning readers. Just like we memorize addition fact and multiplication tables in order to speed up the process of doing more complicated math, we memorize sight words in order to built speed and fluency with reading.
RJ has been working with a great teacher all year, and I have been working with him this summer, so I decided to check out and see what sight words he knows and put those words on our word wall to start with. Boy was I surprised!
 |
| Sight Words Word Wall |
We are using our word wall to reinforce the words RJ already knows, and then he is using those words in other learning situations. When we read a book, I trail my finger along the print and pause when I come to a word he knows, so we do a shared reading of the text. We take words like at, it, and in and play word addition - for example, c + at = cat. You write C, make the sound, write at, and say "at," then blend the word together to make "cat."
I love working with my beginning reader. He is so excited about his word wall, and I can't wait to see what words we add next!
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
I stay at home, and I won't apologize for it!
The whole age-old debate: Who has it harder? Working moms or Stay-at-home-moms? WMs work all day and still have to pick up kids from daycare, make dinner, do all of the things an at-home mom does. SAHMs have a 24/7 job of house keeping, taking care of others before themselves, no sick days, no vacation days. Both have their perks as well. WM's have a career, hopefully a fulfilling one that provides extra income and makes the family comfortable. She has life outside of her home and family. A SAHM doesn't miss out on any of the big milestones of her children, because she's right there with them most of the time. I'm a SAHM and my sister is a WM. We each have things we envy about each others lifestyles. We each have things that we know we wouldn't be able to stand. Both of us work hard and have healthy, happy families to show for it.
Recently I saw this floating around on Facebook:
"Yes, my house can be a little messy at times, but I work a full time job, commute 4 hours round trip, and only have two days off a week. My husband works, too. If you work, and support your family, you understand. If you don't work, maybe you should get a job and see how the rest of us live, instead of making statements. Repost if you support the "real" working mothers out there!"
The first thing I thought when I read this was "Wow... I'm a measly husband-moocher-offer, and my house is STILL messy..." But the more I read it, the more it kind of offended me. "If you don't work, maybe you should get a job and see how the rest of us live.."
I don't know that it is possible for me to have more respect for working moms and single moms. I cannot imagine doing what I do plus going to a 9 to 5, or doing it by myself. But ALL MOMS WORK! My kids ARE my job, and I take them seriously. I work hard for them. That means that my house isn't always perfectly clean. That means that there are days where I am ready to drop by the time my husband walks in the door. I don't keep a crazy schedule. I don't try to line out my day. I have a 3 year old and a 6 month old. They are the schedule setters. Some days they give me an easy schedule - they nap, they entertain themselves, and they are happy. Other days they are sick, teething, don't sleep at night, are grouchy, and I spend my whole day hopping from one to the next trying to take care of what they need. When I'm sick, I suck it up, unless I happen to get lucky enough to get sick on a weekend (ha!) in which case I have help.
I kind of miss the 9 to 5, but I don't envy WMs. I know many of them get stuck with everything I just described, and more, on top of their careers. But I won't apologize for being a SAHM, and I will absolutely defend my "job." SAHMs may not get a comment on their messy house (ha, I would), but I have heard all of the following:
"You're JUST a SAHM??" (incredulous look of shock) Yup. I am, and I love it.
"How do you find your life fulfilling when you have no career to show for it?" Well I guess happy healthy kids just can't top a successful career or anything...
"Are you going to go back to work when they start school?" Funny, I didn't realize I had ever LEFT work....
"You're a SAHM and your child goes to preschool?! Don't you feel lazy?"Yup... giving my kids social interaction for a few hours a day, a few days a week.... running errands without hauling them both in and out of strollers and carts.. Yup, you can call me lazy, works for me!
I am happy for you if you are a working mother who is happy. I'm sad for you if you're a working mother that wants to stay home, because I know it sucks to be stuck doing something you don't want to do. If you have a career outside of the home, I applaud you. If you're a single mom, you rock! Just please remember - I don't provide "financial" support to my family, but I provide all kinds of other support. You support your family the best way you can, I will do the same.
Recently I saw this floating around on Facebook:
"Yes, my house can be a little messy at times, but I work a full time job, commute 4 hours round trip, and only have two days off a week. My husband works, too. If you work, and support your family, you understand. If you don't work, maybe you should get a job and see how the rest of us live, instead of making statements. Repost if you support the "real" working mothers out there!"
The first thing I thought when I read this was "Wow... I'm a measly husband-moocher-offer, and my house is STILL messy..." But the more I read it, the more it kind of offended me. "If you don't work, maybe you should get a job and see how the rest of us live.."
I don't know that it is possible for me to have more respect for working moms and single moms. I cannot imagine doing what I do plus going to a 9 to 5, or doing it by myself. But ALL MOMS WORK! My kids ARE my job, and I take them seriously. I work hard for them. That means that my house isn't always perfectly clean. That means that there are days where I am ready to drop by the time my husband walks in the door. I don't keep a crazy schedule. I don't try to line out my day. I have a 3 year old and a 6 month old. They are the schedule setters. Some days they give me an easy schedule - they nap, they entertain themselves, and they are happy. Other days they are sick, teething, don't sleep at night, are grouchy, and I spend my whole day hopping from one to the next trying to take care of what they need. When I'm sick, I suck it up, unless I happen to get lucky enough to get sick on a weekend (ha!) in which case I have help.
I kind of miss the 9 to 5, but I don't envy WMs. I know many of them get stuck with everything I just described, and more, on top of their careers. But I won't apologize for being a SAHM, and I will absolutely defend my "job." SAHMs may not get a comment on their messy house (ha, I would), but I have heard all of the following:
"You're JUST a SAHM??" (incredulous look of shock) Yup. I am, and I love it.
"How do you find your life fulfilling when you have no career to show for it?" Well I guess happy healthy kids just can't top a successful career or anything...
"Are you going to go back to work when they start school?" Funny, I didn't realize I had ever LEFT work....
"You're a SAHM and your child goes to preschool?! Don't you feel lazy?"Yup... giving my kids social interaction for a few hours a day, a few days a week.... running errands without hauling them both in and out of strollers and carts.. Yup, you can call me lazy, works for me!
I am happy for you if you are a working mother who is happy. I'm sad for you if you're a working mother that wants to stay home, because I know it sucks to be stuck doing something you don't want to do. If you have a career outside of the home, I applaud you. If you're a single mom, you rock! Just please remember - I don't provide "financial" support to my family, but I provide all kinds of other support. You support your family the best way you can, I will do the same.
Monday, June 25, 2012
Word wall surprise!
I am going to set out to write about word walls tomorrow, since I just put one up in my house. RJ and I have been working on sight words, and I have been surprised at how many he knows. I shouldn't be, because his teacher this year was ah-maaaaa-zing. He can write all of his letters, upper and lower case, and he knows all of their sounds. He is learning how to sound words out. He can count on and on and can identify numbers as high as 9,999. Actually he can do 10,999 because we are working on anything to the left of the column is thousands.
So after I put up the letters for the word wall today,I decided to start off by putting only the ones he can identify up on the wall. I took out my set of pre-primer Dolch words and started showing him each one. He identified about half of them. He identified four words from the primer set. He also knows words that aren't in my cards like ball, milk, play, etc. I made cards for those words. He also knows the "it" family - he know i-t says "it" and that if you put an s in front of it, it says "sit," etc. Sit and hit also went up in the wall.
When we got all the cards up there and counted them, we had 27 words all together. I texted his teacher excitedly. She texted back "Don't forget the it, at, and an families. He knows all of those. And his friends' names."
I think I am going to have to find a bigger wall....
So after I put up the letters for the word wall today,I decided to start off by putting only the ones he can identify up on the wall. I took out my set of pre-primer Dolch words and started showing him each one. He identified about half of them. He identified four words from the primer set. He also knows words that aren't in my cards like ball, milk, play, etc. I made cards for those words. He also knows the "it" family - he know i-t says "it" and that if you put an s in front of it, it says "sit," etc. Sit and hit also went up in the wall.
When we got all the cards up there and counted them, we had 27 words all together. I texted his teacher excitedly. She texted back "Don't forget the it, at, and an families. He knows all of those. And his friends' names."
I think I am going to have to find a bigger wall....
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Children's Place Monster Sale
Recently I said in a post that I never buy clothes for full price, or even for sale price only, because I only buy clothes where I can use coupons. Today, the hubs gave me an hour of mommy time and I spent it checking out The Children's Place at our local mall. Right now, they have their semi-annual Monster Sale going on. That's 50% off already reduced merchandise and many other special prices throughout the store. I needed shoes for school and underwear for my oldest. Here's what I found:
Brown lace up boot/loafer looking shoes. Original price $22.95, marked down to $18.99. 50% off already reduced merchandise, plus 20% off coupon, for a sale price of $7.99
I didn't do AS well on the underwear, it is regular $6.95/3 pack. It was on sale for $5.99 and with the 20% off coupon each pack rang up $4.81, for a total of $9.62/6 pairs. It's 11.99 for a 7 pack at Target, so I guess I did okay.
Now the only problem with this is I couldn't STOP once I got in there. I have a very cute 6.5 year old niece that LOOOOOVES her some Justin Beiber. And even though they only had a L (she wears a M), I couldn't pass this up:
Originally priced $14.95, marked down to $5.99. 50% off already reduced merchandise, plus 20% off coupon for a final price of $2.39. She'll love sleeping in it or even wearing it with leggings :)
And the baby clothes, oh my goodness. They didn't have anything I couldn't live without for T, but I have an 8 month old niece:
Total original cost of outfit: $36.95. Each piece was marked down to $5.99 so when you add the 50% off and the 20% off coupon, I got the whole outfit for $7.17. I bought it a size up and am putting it back for her birthday, but I also found this for right now:
Dress and bloomers, regular $24.95. Marked down to $11.99. With 50% off and 20% off coupon, I paid $4.81.
Had I bought everything for the marked price, I would have spent $113.70 before tax. Buying on clearance and sale, with my coupon, I paid $31.94 before tax. I saved $81.76 off the retail prices!
Granted there is no reason to ever pay ticketed price at The Children's Place, as they are very good about alternating their sales and they ALWAYS have coupons. But the Monster Sale is my favorite, at least until they put their jeans on sale in the next couple of weeks!
My mom shopped this sale earlier this week to get RJ some school clothes - while he doesn't have to wear a uniform until Kindergarten, I thought it would be nice and easy to buy him some interchangeable polos and easy on/off pants to be his "school uniform" for this year. My mom bought 3 pairs of pants, each regular price $14.95, and 3 polo shirts, which would have been $32.50 for all 3. Total bill would have been $77.35 for all of it, but the pants were on sale for $9.99 each and the polos were on sale for $4.99 each. With the 20% off coupon I gave her, she paid $7.99 for each pair of pants and $3.99 for each shirt. Total price before tax: $35.94.
This is why I never ever buy clothes without coupons! Tell me your favorite places to buy clothes for yourself or your kiddos! Do you use coupons?
Brown lace up boot/loafer looking shoes. Original price $22.95, marked down to $18.99. 50% off already reduced merchandise, plus 20% off coupon, for a sale price of $7.99
I didn't do AS well on the underwear, it is regular $6.95/3 pack. It was on sale for $5.99 and with the 20% off coupon each pack rang up $4.81, for a total of $9.62/6 pairs. It's 11.99 for a 7 pack at Target, so I guess I did okay.
Now the only problem with this is I couldn't STOP once I got in there. I have a very cute 6.5 year old niece that LOOOOOVES her some Justin Beiber. And even though they only had a L (she wears a M), I couldn't pass this up:
Originally priced $14.95, marked down to $5.99. 50% off already reduced merchandise, plus 20% off coupon for a final price of $2.39. She'll love sleeping in it or even wearing it with leggings :)
And the baby clothes, oh my goodness. They didn't have anything I couldn't live without for T, but I have an 8 month old niece:
Total original cost of outfit: $36.95. Each piece was marked down to $5.99 so when you add the 50% off and the 20% off coupon, I got the whole outfit for $7.17. I bought it a size up and am putting it back for her birthday, but I also found this for right now:
Dress and bloomers, regular $24.95. Marked down to $11.99. With 50% off and 20% off coupon, I paid $4.81.
Had I bought everything for the marked price, I would have spent $113.70 before tax. Buying on clearance and sale, with my coupon, I paid $31.94 before tax. I saved $81.76 off the retail prices!
Granted there is no reason to ever pay ticketed price at The Children's Place, as they are very good about alternating their sales and they ALWAYS have coupons. But the Monster Sale is my favorite, at least until they put their jeans on sale in the next couple of weeks!
My mom shopped this sale earlier this week to get RJ some school clothes - while he doesn't have to wear a uniform until Kindergarten, I thought it would be nice and easy to buy him some interchangeable polos and easy on/off pants to be his "school uniform" for this year. My mom bought 3 pairs of pants, each regular price $14.95, and 3 polo shirts, which would have been $32.50 for all 3. Total bill would have been $77.35 for all of it, but the pants were on sale for $9.99 each and the polos were on sale for $4.99 each. With the 20% off coupon I gave her, she paid $7.99 for each pair of pants and $3.99 for each shirt. Total price before tax: $35.94.
This is why I never ever buy clothes without coupons! Tell me your favorite places to buy clothes for yourself or your kiddos! Do you use coupons?
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
More nothing
I hate it when I am too busy to post. This post a day stuff is tough!! I hope that next month I will be able to post every couple of days and always have something interesting to write about.
The big news of the day is RJ got in to the private school we want him to go to! It's less important to me that he go to this school for pre-school, but I want him to continue there for elementary school and it is hard to get in. We have no family there, we aren't parishioners, and we aren't Catholic, so we had to wait for open enrollment. People got there at 2pm the day before open enrollment began to get in line. I did not, so we wound up on the wait list, but I called today and they had a spot open up! Their 3K program is 3 days a week, from 8:30 until 11:30. That's the least amount of "school" time RJ will see since we started at a MDO when he was almost 2. I am planning lots of activities and moving ahead with setting up a "school room" at home for him, so we can do some stuff at home together. I miss teaching, would love to go back to the program we were at before T was born, but it's on opposing days of the week from RJ's school and I don't want him to have to go 5 days...
So that's what's new here today. I hope anyone who reads this has a wonderful evening!
The big news of the day is RJ got in to the private school we want him to go to! It's less important to me that he go to this school for pre-school, but I want him to continue there for elementary school and it is hard to get in. We have no family there, we aren't parishioners, and we aren't Catholic, so we had to wait for open enrollment. People got there at 2pm the day before open enrollment began to get in line. I did not, so we wound up on the wait list, but I called today and they had a spot open up! Their 3K program is 3 days a week, from 8:30 until 11:30. That's the least amount of "school" time RJ will see since we started at a MDO when he was almost 2. I am planning lots of activities and moving ahead with setting up a "school room" at home for him, so we can do some stuff at home together. I miss teaching, would love to go back to the program we were at before T was born, but it's on opposing days of the week from RJ's school and I don't want him to have to go 5 days...
So that's what's new here today. I hope anyone who reads this has a wonderful evening!
Monday, June 18, 2012
World's Sweetest Dad - Father's Day Project
I am always looking for something crafty for the kids to do around holidays. It's always hard to decide what to do for my husband. I want something that a guy will like, but want the kids to put their special touches on it. This year I came up with something particularly brilliant (in my opinion).
That, friends, is an automatic candy dispenser from The Sharper Image. Stick your hand under the sensor, it drops a handful of your favorite candy into your hand. My hubs has a huge weakness for M&Ms, so I thought this was very clever.
I painted RJ's hand and did a stamp pad on T's foot. I did these on sticker paper - you can buy it at the craft store, usually used to print your own stickers. I cut them out and peeled off the backing and put them on the candy dispenser.
I added scrapbooking stickers and put the names on the hand and foot prints, and added a saying to the front. Filled it up with M&M's and put batteries in it. Ta-da!
World's Sweetest Dad! He says he's going to have to fill it up with peanuts or something because he'll burn through a bag of M&M's a day hahaha. He'll have the popular office, that's for sure!
Hope everyone had a wonderful Father's Day!
That, friends, is an automatic candy dispenser from The Sharper Image. Stick your hand under the sensor, it drops a handful of your favorite candy into your hand. My hubs has a huge weakness for M&Ms, so I thought this was very clever.
I painted RJ's hand and did a stamp pad on T's foot. I did these on sticker paper - you can buy it at the craft store, usually used to print your own stickers. I cut them out and peeled off the backing and put them on the candy dispenser.
I added scrapbooking stickers and put the names on the hand and foot prints, and added a saying to the front. Filled it up with M&M's and put batteries in it. Ta-da!
World's Sweetest Dad! He says he's going to have to fill it up with peanuts or something because he'll burn through a bag of M&M's a day hahaha. He'll have the popular office, that's for sure!
Hope everyone had a wonderful Father's Day!
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Early literacy with preschoolers
My whole world revolves around being a mom these days. I love it that way. There was a time, however, when I did things other than be a mom. I worked several jobs and got a college degree in Education. Graduated with honors, actually (yes, I am bragging, but it was hard work!). I graduated in December and before I could get a job, I was pregnant with my first. Now that my son is three years old, I felt like it was time to start flexing those rusty teaching muscles. We did a week long lesson on a book, where he progressively took over reading the book for me. When I posted the end of the week video on Facebook, people were impressed with my kiddo "reading" the book. He really more memorized it, although he does remember certain words from the book if I write them down and ask him what they say.
Here's how we did it. First, he is in a summer program with a wonderful teacher and one of her sight words of the week was "it." I looked through his Brand New Readers and picked out a book that had the word "it" in it multiple times. It was a very repetitive story - the little girl does something to get the ball moving, the dog catches it.
Day 1: First I wrote down the word "it" and put it in our pocket chart on the wall in the kitchen. He loves having words in that chart. He very quickly learned that i-t- spells it. When I introduced the book for the first time, I showed him the pictures and read the description on the inside cover of the book (all Brand New Readers have this, it's a great tool). We talked about the dog and the little girl and what they were doing. Then I showed him the word "it" in the book and asked him "What does i-t spell?" When he answered correctly I said "Good! Every time you see the word it, I want YOU to say "IT!" We read the book through twice, with me pointing to the words as we went.
Day 2: I showed him the cover of the book and asked him if he remembered the title. He said "It says 'CATCH!'" *smarty pants* I asked him if he remembered what they were playing, he said they were going to play catch with a ball. Ball was repeated every other page, so when I started reading I paused at that word and asked him "Do you know what that says?" He said "Ball?" I said "Yes, so every time you see b-a-l-l, you can read it!" Catches was also repeated, so we did the same with catches. We read it twice through, this time with me holding his hand and trailing across the words while we read.
Day 3: My little smarty pants was able to read the book to me. He trailed the words with his fingers like a pro and looked at the picture if he came across a word he didn't know. My hubby said "He just memorized it." Well... yeah, he did to an extent, but that's the point of sight words (which was the main focus). So I made a game with the text of the book. I wrote out the whole book in sentence strips. RJ and I used them as a puzzle to put the story together. I would read him a line, he would decide where it went in the story. We built the story from title to end, then read it together. I would pop-quiz him on the more common words.
Day 4: I went out and bought a pocket chart to put our story puzzle into. We ordered the story - this time, RJ was able to tell the difference between the action words throw, hit, and kick by using his beginning letter sounds. He was able to order the story himself. I then gave him a pointer and had him read the words. I am going to try to upload a video below showing how he did:
Hopefully the edits will work and the video will turn right side up hahaha. He loved doing this every day. The words he has retained from the story are "it" and "ball." The repetitive nature of the story gave him the confidence to read fluidly, and he loves using the pointer. I can't wait to start the next book with him!
Here's how we did it. First, he is in a summer program with a wonderful teacher and one of her sight words of the week was "it." I looked through his Brand New Readers and picked out a book that had the word "it" in it multiple times. It was a very repetitive story - the little girl does something to get the ball moving, the dog catches it.
Day 1: First I wrote down the word "it" and put it in our pocket chart on the wall in the kitchen. He loves having words in that chart. He very quickly learned that i-t- spells it. When I introduced the book for the first time, I showed him the pictures and read the description on the inside cover of the book (all Brand New Readers have this, it's a great tool). We talked about the dog and the little girl and what they were doing. Then I showed him the word "it" in the book and asked him "What does i-t spell?" When he answered correctly I said "Good! Every time you see the word it, I want YOU to say "IT!" We read the book through twice, with me pointing to the words as we went.
Day 2: I showed him the cover of the book and asked him if he remembered the title. He said "It says 'CATCH!'" *smarty pants* I asked him if he remembered what they were playing, he said they were going to play catch with a ball. Ball was repeated every other page, so when I started reading I paused at that word and asked him "Do you know what that says?" He said "Ball?" I said "Yes, so every time you see b-a-l-l, you can read it!" Catches was also repeated, so we did the same with catches. We read it twice through, this time with me holding his hand and trailing across the words while we read.
Day 3: My little smarty pants was able to read the book to me. He trailed the words with his fingers like a pro and looked at the picture if he came across a word he didn't know. My hubby said "He just memorized it." Well... yeah, he did to an extent, but that's the point of sight words (which was the main focus). So I made a game with the text of the book. I wrote out the whole book in sentence strips. RJ and I used them as a puzzle to put the story together. I would read him a line, he would decide where it went in the story. We built the story from title to end, then read it together. I would pop-quiz him on the more common words.
Day 4: I went out and bought a pocket chart to put our story puzzle into. We ordered the story - this time, RJ was able to tell the difference between the action words throw, hit, and kick by using his beginning letter sounds. He was able to order the story himself. I then gave him a pointer and had him read the words. I am going to try to upload a video below showing how he did:
Hopefully the edits will work and the video will turn right side up hahaha. He loved doing this every day. The words he has retained from the story are "it" and "ball." The repetitive nature of the story gave him the confidence to read fluidly, and he loves using the pointer. I can't wait to start the next book with him!
Monday, June 11, 2012
Parking lot panhandling
My heart hurts for people who are going through hard times. My family is amazingly blessed and I try to pay it forward whenever possible. I don't usually hand money to the guy holding a sign on the street corner, but if I have a snack or a drink I haven't opened, I am glad to share. I am compassionate to a fault, according to my husband. I get suckered into things that make him roll his eyes. Yup, we're that family that buys something from every kid that knocks on our door and hands us a fundraiser packet. I can't help it (neither can he but shhhh, don't tell him I said so).
That said, I hope the following paragraphs don't come off as too harsh, because I really am struggling here. Our town has about 66k people and is the hub for an area population of about 300,000. Our homeless population is in the hundreds. One side of town has a median income around $31k while the other side has a median income of around $54k. There are definitely people struggling. In Houston and Austin, you see people panhandling out on every major intersection in certain parts of town. Here, you only see that every once in awhile. When I lived in those bigger cities, intersection panhandling bothered me a bit. I was raised by cautious parents who taught me to be kind, but cautious. I was mostly alone in my car and having a man I didn't know walking around my car was always a little unnerving.
Here, though, we have a whole different breed of panhandler. We have people who hang out in parking lots and walk up to you while you're getting into or out of your car. Most of the time these people are men, of every age and race. Most of them keep a fairly respectable distance, a few have walked right up on me. They always have a story and need money for something. Last week a guy wanted to follow me to the gas station and have me put gas in his truck. Today a guy approached me as I was getting out if my car wanting to sell me something (he said he didn't feel right taking hand outs). I always listen politely, tell them I don't have any cash, and continue on. Most of the time, they are polite and walk away. One guy got nasty but thank goodness he was one that approached my husband and me together.
My problem is this. I am a mother, who doesn't ever leave my youngest at home. I always have at least one child with me. And I am almost always alone with them. I hate it when these men just come walking out from between cars and start talking to me. Part of it is the stigma, I will admit it. Particularly the guy today - he was either not quite all there mentally, or he was on something. People are unpredictable and can be downright crazy. As a mom, it is my job to keep my kids safe, and stranger danger definitely screams in my head when these situations come up.
What do you do? Carry something for self defense? Call the police? Call the store and report them? It's so hard to imagine doing any of those things, because in my heart I feel compassion and pity for someone who has come to this method of trying to get what they need. But it is a war inside of me, because I have these beautiful, innocent children. I believe they are the reason I get approached - either people see I am a mom and hope I have a big heart, or they play on a mother's fear of having strangers around her chidren. My husband is a concealed carry license holder and wants me to go that route. I don't have the guts for it, although I may invest in pepper spray. I don't want to be afraid of these people, I want to live and let live, but I am afraid that a first time of someone being aggressive about it is probably still one time too many.
Tonight I will be saying extra prayers for those people out on the street. I pray they will have enough food to not be hungry and that they find a comfortable place to lay their heads. But, starting tomorrow, I am probably going to start calling stores and warning them when they have guys approaching people in the parking lot. I hope that doesn't make me a terrible person.
That said, I hope the following paragraphs don't come off as too harsh, because I really am struggling here. Our town has about 66k people and is the hub for an area population of about 300,000. Our homeless population is in the hundreds. One side of town has a median income around $31k while the other side has a median income of around $54k. There are definitely people struggling. In Houston and Austin, you see people panhandling out on every major intersection in certain parts of town. Here, you only see that every once in awhile. When I lived in those bigger cities, intersection panhandling bothered me a bit. I was raised by cautious parents who taught me to be kind, but cautious. I was mostly alone in my car and having a man I didn't know walking around my car was always a little unnerving.
Here, though, we have a whole different breed of panhandler. We have people who hang out in parking lots and walk up to you while you're getting into or out of your car. Most of the time these people are men, of every age and race. Most of them keep a fairly respectable distance, a few have walked right up on me. They always have a story and need money for something. Last week a guy wanted to follow me to the gas station and have me put gas in his truck. Today a guy approached me as I was getting out if my car wanting to sell me something (he said he didn't feel right taking hand outs). I always listen politely, tell them I don't have any cash, and continue on. Most of the time, they are polite and walk away. One guy got nasty but thank goodness he was one that approached my husband and me together.
My problem is this. I am a mother, who doesn't ever leave my youngest at home. I always have at least one child with me. And I am almost always alone with them. I hate it when these men just come walking out from between cars and start talking to me. Part of it is the stigma, I will admit it. Particularly the guy today - he was either not quite all there mentally, or he was on something. People are unpredictable and can be downright crazy. As a mom, it is my job to keep my kids safe, and stranger danger definitely screams in my head when these situations come up.
What do you do? Carry something for self defense? Call the police? Call the store and report them? It's so hard to imagine doing any of those things, because in my heart I feel compassion and pity for someone who has come to this method of trying to get what they need. But it is a war inside of me, because I have these beautiful, innocent children. I believe they are the reason I get approached - either people see I am a mom and hope I have a big heart, or they play on a mother's fear of having strangers around her chidren. My husband is a concealed carry license holder and wants me to go that route. I don't have the guts for it, although I may invest in pepper spray. I don't want to be afraid of these people, I want to live and let live, but I am afraid that a first time of someone being aggressive about it is probably still one time too many.
Tonight I will be saying extra prayers for those people out on the street. I pray they will have enough food to not be hungry and that they find a comfortable place to lay their heads. But, starting tomorrow, I am probably going to start calling stores and warning them when they have guys approaching people in the parking lot. I hope that doesn't make me a terrible person.
Friday, June 8, 2012
Puddles
I
got that from my in-laws this past birthday. I need another one that
says something about moms and sick days. I was miserably ill today. My
poor boys had to go to the doctor with me, and then to fill my
prescription. RJ had a hard time waiting. He didn't want to wait for the
iPad. He didn't want to walk nicely in the store. He didn't want to
wait patiently for our lunch in the Target food avenue. We made it
through lunch, picked up my meds, and headed for the front door, only to
find it pouring down rain. We waited it out, because the last thing
this sickly mom wanted to do is get wet trying to buckle the kids into
their seats.
About 15 minutes later, we headed
through the wet parking lot towards the car. RJ, of course, stomped at the first puddle he could
find. I said "Oh no! You aren't going to jump in every puddle you see,
are you?" He said, "Oh.... Sorry mommy..."
That's
when I realized that I was being THAT MOM again. The harried,
frustrated, snapping mom. Trust me, anyone who has had a 3 year old boy
probably understands. We all have a little bit of THAT MOM in us, but I
like to think I'm in control of that most of the time. I save it for
moments like the Buc-ees story.
Sickly
mommy often turns ino THAT MOM way too easily. And RJ really is a great
kid. And puddles are fun. I looked at my sweet boy, and said "You know
what, jump with both feet when we get to this next one!" The look on his
face was priceless, and the gleeful laughter made me feel better. For a
moment.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Rubber-made kids
I swear children are made of rubber. How else could they bounce back so fast from illness?
Really, my 3 year old has been sick for almost a week. He woke up Monday with a scratchy throat and one red, swollen, goopey eye. He had a trip to the pediatrician for some antibiotics and decongestant and we put him back on Singulair. Singulair is a miracle drug for him and for me, but at $165 for a 30 day supply we don't buy it unless we have to. Mommy is currently doing without it, as a matter of fact.
Fast forward to Friday and he's got a snotty nose and a yucky cough. I was hoping it was everything drying up and going away. Then last night at dinner, "the change" came over him. "THE CHANGE" meaning I watched as his eyes slowly took on that glazed over sick look, then the color gradually drained from his face. He wound up laying down with his head in Daddy's lap, his dinner untouched. It was then I realized pretty much everything I'd given him to eat that day had gone untouched. Uh oh.
Sure enough, we get home and he winds up puking. He then promptly fell asleep. We let him sleep in our room, both of us ears open for any more puking sounds. The baby also has been congested and was coughing a lot so I wound up sleeping with him in the bed with me, so it made for no sleep for this mommy.
At 5:30 this morning, the big one emptied his stomach. I put the baby down in his bassinet to help Daddy with clean up duties, so of course he woke up and wanted to nurse. Got everything cleaned up, got everyone back down, and bam - more puke. We gave up at 6:30 and the whole family got up.
At 7:15, he puked again. Caught his breath, looked at Daddy and said "I'm hungry, can I eat now?" Of course your parental instincts scream "NOOOO! You're puking, no food to puke up!" But there's something about this kiddo. When he asks to eat, it generally means he's done puking.
It's now 10:15 and he's had applesauce, plenty of water, cheerios, and goldfish, and he is running around like a banshee. Daddy and I are slumped in our chairs, eyes glazed over from exhaustion, just watching the show.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Test post and introduction
Testing? Testing??
I think we're good!
I'm starting this blog because, well, I'm hoping it will be interesting to some. I'm a stay-at-home-mom. I like to think of it as being a domestic engineer, although my "for real" engineer husband says I just want to be an engineer because they're cool. I have a beautiful family that I love taking care of. We're very blessed that I can stay home with our kids and take care of them and our home. Staying at home is a big job in the sense that you take care of the kids and run the household. I have my ideas of what I "should" do as an at home mom, and one of those things is I try to find ways to save our family money. My wonderful husband, Matthew, supports us very well, but every little bit I can save us is spending money in our pockets. We can work on our house, take our family on vacations, etc. and have extra spending money if I'm saving us money in other places.
I scour the web for coupons, I check the sales ads at the stores, and I shop around. I've recently begun to actually cost-compare stores by making a list and going "shopping" at two different stores, where I write down the prices of everything and then compare my totals. I recently posted my first cost-comparison to a Facebook note, and I'll probably re-write it and post it here just because.
Another thing I've been very interested in lately is product reviews. That's a whole post in of itself, for sure.
I'll probably post little blurbs here and there about my life - having kids is like free entertainment, people, I'm telling you.
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