Saturday 21 August 2010
I love letters and sounds, and when it comes to alphabet-based resources I know exactly what I’m looking for. I want lowercase letters. I want clear fonts. I want letter-word relationships that demonstrate an understanding of phonics and awareness of the most common sounds. I’m not asking or much, am I?!
I was so pleased to find the Mm Is For Me wall stickers checked all my boxes. Ashleigh Hoyle has certainly done her research, and consulted with early childhood educators. Each letter is filled with images of an animal (many Australian) or object with the corresponding sound. ...
Tuesday 17 August 2010 -
13 Comments »
My little man watches his big sister construct all manner of creations with boxes, junk mail, scissors and glue. She can whip up anything from a bird to a robot in no time. The other day while watching her create some masterpiece, Mr-Almost-Two discovered glue. Glorious, magical glue.
I grabbed a junk mail catalogue and chopped out pictures of items he knows and can identify. Truck, shoe, camera, train, baby,...
Sunday 18 July 2010 -
20 Comments »
I was eavesdropping on my husband reading aloud to our daughter the other night, and I was very impressed. He was doing so many great read-aloud things with a familiar and much loved book. He paused to allow her to jump in with words she knew, he invited her to make predictions about the text, he encouraged her to investigate the illustrations for further clues, and he varied the volume and pace of his voice according...
Wednesday 07 July 2010 -
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I might have been born in Victoria, but I am a Queenslander at heart. Just for the next few weeks though I wish I was down south! Over the coming weeks, major libraries around Melbourne will host a series of special ‘Babies Love Books’ events as part of the State Government’s $2.1 million Young Readers Program. Now in its second year, the Young Readers Program has distributed free ‘It’s Rhyme Time’...
Wednesday 02 June 2010 -
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The fifth issue of Literacy Lava is now available, and I have again contributed an article to this free publication for parents or anyone who wants kids to love reading, writing and communicating. Download Literacy Lava 5 as a pdf here.
In the fifth edition of Literacy Lava, you’ll find ideas for helping kids develop spelling skills, ways to pair fiction and non-fiction read-alouds, ideas for letter writing with...
Tuesday 30 March 2010 -
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At a recent trip to the nursery I spotted a plant I had been eyeing off for a while heavily marked down. Something had been nibbling on one of its large, ornamental leaves but apart from that it was fine. What I didn’t realise was that I would be bringing the very-hungry-something home with us! The next day I noticed the second of the plant’s large leaves eaten, and by the following day the plant was...
Friday 19 March 2010 -
6 Comments »
Both of my kids love playing with toy phones (or old mobiles). They obviously see me on the phone a lot because they copy my stance and mimic phrases I often use in conversation! Sometimes my daughter tells me who she is “talking” to on the other end. Sometimes I pretend I’m talking to a real person too. This week though the game went to a whole new place.
We had just finished reading her kindy...
Tuesday 09 March 2010 -
15 Comments »
As an educator I have always had two loves: music and literacy. I majored in music, but could never bring myself to become a music specialist because I knew it would mean giving up the opportunity to help children fall in love with language! As a mother, it naturally follows that there is much music in my kids’ world. We sing as we work, we sing as we play, we sing during bath time and while we’re driving...
Monday 01 March 2010 -
7 Comments »
If you’re a parent with young kids, and you’re interested in raising readers – you’ll definitely want to check this out. Literacy Lava is a FREE publication put together by Susan Stephensen (aka The Book Chook) and a bunch of teachers, writers, bloggers and literacy advocates. I have contributed an article on Book Loving Boys to this issue, full of practical suggestions for reading aloud with...
Saturday 20 February 2010 -
9 Comments »
Backyard baking is so much fun. Props required? A bowl and maybe a large spoon. Your child might need a little encouragement to get started, but after that they will run with the activity for quite some time. If you have cooked with your child they will probably take to this activity more readily. Here are some open ended questions you can use to help the activity along if necessary:
What are you baking today?
What...
