Lexy’s Journey into Reading

Shining Our Lights Preschool has just started a new linky for all those posts about teaching our children to read. We have been doing lots of reading activities around here lately, so I decided to join up this week for Teach Me To Read Thursdays. If you’re teaching a little one to read, hop on over there to glean some wonderful ideas!

Lexy began her journey into reading about 6 months ago. She had known her letters and sound for a long time and had started blending them a little on her own. So, since she was eager to learn and seemed ready, I began by introducing her to word families. We played many games from Happy Phonics and some that I printed off from various websites.

Since that time, we have started Kindergarten. The curriculum that we are using, Heart of Dakota, recommends Reading Made Easy for our Phonics lessons. However, Lexy is hit or miss on whether she enjoys the lessons. So, I am not pushing the formal lessons. I am eagerly awaiting All About Reading Level 1 to come out mid June. In the meantime, we are working on sight words and reviewing word families.

We recently made our very own Phonics Reader. I wanted to find some phonics readers that went right along with what we were working, and since I wasn’t able to find anything…We made our own. It turned out to be LOTS of fun. I had intended for Book 1 to take a week for us to create. Lexy enjoyed it so much that we did it all in one day.

Book 1 is titled: The Man and the Cat

Author: Mommy (once we get used to doing this, I’d like Lexy to start writing the stories).

Illustrator: Lexy

After I wrote the words to the story, Lexy would read each page and illustrate it.

The last page lists the sight words and word families used in our story.

Lexy has been reading her first story everyday this week. It has definitely increased her confidence in reading! She’s already asking to make Book 2.

Reading Made Easy introduces sight words into the phonics program. However, we are also using the sight word printables found on the You Can Read program on 1+1+1=1.

We used the Sight Word Puzzles to cut and glue onto paper.

Her favorite activity (sorry no picture) from these printables was finding the words she knew in sentences. She realized that she new many of the words that were not her sight words, and the few she didn't she was able to use picture clues. She found great satisfaction in being able to read the whole page!

As we are doing this program, we are adding the sight words to her caterpillar.

I am also planning on adding in some sight word activities from Home Grown Hearts. There are so many great ideas here! We have used these ideas in the past, and Lexy always enjoys them. The more sight words Lexy knows, the greater her confidence in reading!

Teaching reading has been almost as much fun as reading! I’m looking forward to reading many more great ideas in the coming weeks on Teach Me to Read Thursdays!

Also, to see what other preschoolers are up to, be sure to check out the Preschool Corner.

Weekly Update: April 12-16

We had a very random, yet busy, week this week. I was busy planning for a Mommy and Me class that we hosted at our house. The planning and the class took up several mornings, but we still fit in some "school" time in the afternoons.

Math: We finally got around to playing with our homemade Math Fries. Lexy really enjoyed this. We took turns ordering fries and counting the correct number to put in each box. We will continue using these to practice counting. I'd like to begin working on numbers above 30.



Also, I decided to try some books that were recommended over at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns. I went to the library and checked out every MathStart Level 1 book that they had! I spent several days looking over them myself before I introduced one to Lexy. I REALLY like these books, especially since Lexy enjoys reading so much.



The first book we read together was Beep, Beep, Vroom, Vroom! This book focuses on recognizing patterns. It is about a little sister that likes to play with her big brother's cars. Throughout the book, the cars are lined up in patterns. After reading it, Lexy played with her little brother's cars. She made patterns of her own.

To continue working on patterns, we played with Sequencing and Counting Bears from Learning Resource. These come with pattern cards that have four different levels of difficulty. She enjoyed finishing the pattern.

I plan to continue with the MathStart books. I'm not sure if I'll do one a week or every few days. I'd really like to get our own copies that way they can become a part of our home library.

Another book that was recommended by Natalie was "Missing Math: A Number Mystery" by Loreen Leedy. I checked this out and added it to our library basket to read whenever she felt like it. She really enjoyed this book and asked for it several times throughout the week. I found her following Josiah around on several occassions trying to read it to him or sitting by herself reading it and talking about the missing numbers.

Science: Lexy has recently been asking a lot of questions about bodies. So, we checked out more books from the library about the human body. I'm putting together a unit as we go. I plan on doing a seperate post about the specifics. But basically, the big ideas that I'm wanting her to come away with from this unit are:



1. We were created uniquely and with wisdom by God in His image

2. Our bodies are made up of parts we can see (external) and parts we can't see (internal)

3. Each part has a specific function (We'll talk about these, but I'm not sure how much she'll retain)

4. We need to take care of our bodies by eating healthy foods, exercising, and getting lots of rest

5. Our senses help us discover the world God created



I am getting many ideas from the Human Body Unit at Refined Metals Academy. Again, I'll post more specifics in a seperate post.



Here is Lexy filling in her body that I traced with chalk on the driveway.

Phonics/Handwriting: We are continuing to work with "Get Ready for the Code." She knows all her sounds and is very good at determining beginning sounds/letters. So, most of this is review. I'm debating on whether to skip ahead to "Get Set for the Code." I've been sticking with it, because it does have a lot of handwriting practice which has been helping her.



At this point, I just want her to enjoy writing and completing the books. So, when she wants to do it with a giant rainbow crayon...I'm okay with that :)

Sensory Tub: It's been awhile since I've posted about our sensory tub. I haven't switched it out as often as I would like. They have enjoyed this month's tub. It is filled with seeds, shovels, rakes, pots, and fake flowers. I bought two big bags of bird seed and squirrel feed, because other seed was much more expensive. However, I did buy some individual packets of some vegetable seeds and scattered them in. I left the packets there that show what those seeds look like. Lexy enjoyed looking through the seeds to find specific types.



Other: We hosted a Mommy and Me class at our house which was lots of fun. If it didn't take so long to get pictures on here, I'd add more. Here is one of Lexy painging a Spring picture. Many of the kids enjoyed painting on the easel!

Bible: My husband does our Bible planning now. To go along with our Science unit, he is doing a Bible unit on God making each of us special. I'll do a seperate post with more specifics about this when we get into it more.