Archive for August 2009
I met Amy Gates aka The Crunchy Domestic Goddess in Chicago at the annual BlogHer conference. Before that I had only read a single post about separation anxiety leading up to that conference, neither she nor I had left our boys for long before. Wow was I missing out! Crunchy Domestic Goddess is a fantastic site, it’s filled not just with ways for your family to live an eco-friendly life but with awesome articles about natural childbirth, breastfeeding, eco friendly crafts and about her struggle with anxiety. One of my favorite things that I hope to participate in soon are her Green Challenges, she challenges her readers to being more green by nudging them to do things like ditch the disposables, take 5 minutes showers, reduce food waste and more. I don’t know how I haven’t been reading this blog daily for years, somehow it didn’t make it onto my radar, but I don’t want you to miss it, it’s awesome!
I have to start off by saying when I opened the package I knew there would be flash cards included and had to giggle when my son only wanted to play with them. He’s never seen flash cards and I had a good laugh that I’d be reviewing something that included them on my blog that is devoted to learning with out them. So I am going to address this before I get into the nitty gritty. I don’t think flash cards are inherently evil, I just don’t think they are the best way to learn, they get results but the results are usually pretty shallow, they are memorized not understood and often used in such a static way that children are missing out on learning to the depth that they need, and in a way that they will make true connections, which in my opinion is through play and discovery. This picture is one of my son matching up rhyming words like cat and hat, spoon and moon and tree and bee!
That said sometimes flash cards are appropriate and the way that this system uses flash cards is in a dynamic and engaging way. They are used in games , kids are not sitting down and being flashed a letter with the expectation to label it and move on to the next. They are used for matching, for rhyming and as a tool for learning not memorizing. This made me very happy to see, and my child much like the vegetarian’s child who naturally gravitates to steak was happy I didn’t banish them, he loves them!
The system itself is set up for parents to use the workbook as a guide not as worksheets, when you open a lesson you are met with all different ways to introduce , reinforce and play with the letters. During our “virtual coffee” with Hooked on Phonics many of the parent bloggers as well as I suggested they include more sensory and kinetic activities for the lessons. 
They listened! Here you see my son making a C on the floor with his body. Not only did he love doing this , for days he was asking me to make all sorts of letters with his body. This simple activity sparked his interest and was a launchpad for even more learning!
There isn’t just one option for each letter either, here you can see three o the many for the letter B our button B
( which used fine motor skills to do) as well as one we made on the floor with bean bags ( which used gross motor), 
and tracing the letter with your finger to learn the shape.
I suggest parents pick and choose which things will work best for their child, and the beauty of this system and how easy it is , is that there are so many options you can tailor it without any added effort.
Other than the workbook you also get story books and a DVD. My son has loved every book and don’t even get me started about the DVD. He is oddly attached to it. I have to admit I am absolutely impressed as well, the production quality is much higher than I expected, the songs are awesome and the concepts used for it like a art museum guard finding letters in various masterpieces is right up my alley! I enjoy watching it as well which is important since this should be a family affair, I can support my son’s learning much better if I am a participant as well. Thankfully it’s so well done, I enjoy watching with him, talking about it as we do and don’t groan when he asks for it again a few days later! The other thing that seems small at first but is really very important are the star stickers that are used as a way not only to celebrate finishing a lesson but also as a reminder for your child that they can do it. My son loves choosing which color star to pick out at the end of each lesson.
We’ve been doing the system now for a few weeks and it’s shocking what he’s learned, his phonemic awareness has greatly improved and what’s delighted me the most has been his rhyming skills and seeing them develop. I wasn’t expecting to start teaching rhyming for a while but did a few lessons with him thinking they’d go over his head – they didn’t and we’ve been rhyming ever since!
Over all I am genuinely impressed, both with how the lessons are presented and the results I have seen in my own child. I have to admit before being contacted by the company to participate in the discussions about literacy and learning I was not planning on ever buying this product to use in my own home. I wouldn’t have discouraged a family from it, but I didn’t think it was right for my child. I was wrong. Turns out my child craves this more structured learning and with the short lessons – each is under 20 minutes or less, it still fits my personal belief that adult directed learning should be minimized for preschoolers.
- Gather your materials. You will need a large piece of construction paper, popsicle sticks, glue, construction paper ( for tree leaves) , water colors, water dish, paint brush and glue.
- Start by drawing a barn and tree with the glue. My son and I decided to make a square and triangle .
- Add your popsicle sticks.
- Rip the paper into leaves for your tree.
- Add more glue on the branches of the tree.
- Add the leaves.
- Grab the watercolors, and paint. With older children give them the challenge to paint the sticks without getting it on the paper, but I wouldn’t limit them to that after the challenge, allow them to paint it how ever they want. The Challenge is just that a challenge not a limit on their creativity.
- Let dry.
Books
“Cowboy ABC’s” by Chris Demarest is a great book for any cowboy enthusiast. From Buckaroo to Tumbleweed, Guitar to Lasso this book take s readers through some common and some not so common cowboys terms and accessories. I liked it because it’s not your everyday alphabet book, with the same words used for letters over and over.
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We made this craft ages ago, from time to time a craft will be made and shelved because I’ve posted a similar one, or one that used similar materials or in this case because I forgot about it. I am always looking for something to do with these applesauce containers besides using them in our play kitchen as bowls. Of course I snuck in a color mixing lesson and if I had more felt I would have made a few flowers with different color mixes like orange and purple.
- Gather your materials. You will need some white and red felt ( these are less than 50 cents a piece) , some red and white paint, glue, scissors and of course an plastic single serve container ( like applesauce, fruit cups etc…) .
- Start by pouring your paint into your cup.
- Mix the two colors, while your child is doing this make sure to ask about what’s happening.
set aside to dry.
- Cut out a large flower from the red felt.
- Cut smaller white petals.
- Add glue to the red flower
- Add the petals, be sure to count them. Don’t worry if some are upside down.
- When the cup of paint is dry add glue around the edge.
- Glue in the middle of the petals. Let dry.
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- Gather your materials. You will need a composition book, a few sheets of fun card stock/ paper, fine tipped markers, teacher/school themed stickers, double stick tape and scissors.
- Start by making your front page. I layered some card stock and wrote a title noting the date and grade.
- Now it’s the fun part for the first page I wrote out some basics, like School and teacher names, and what they liked and do not like about school.
- The other pages were devoted to different subjects- I matched stickers to the themes like reading, math and phys. Ed. I only wrote on the right hand side leaving plenty of space for writing.
- Use open ended questions often but having fun true or false questionnaires included is fun too. Remember that this is supposed to be fun, and a tool to talk about your child’s day so don’t make it work. If they have a favorite subject, devote a little more time on that so that there is a lot of positivity, but don’t shy away from asking why they don’t like something else, what they need to work on or about the social aspects of school too.
- Do not forget to add pages that ask your child to share something they are proud of.
- Keep it somewhere accessible, if it goes to their bedroom it may never come back.
Books
“Miss Mingo and the First Day of School” by Jamie Harper is a delightful book. Miss Mingo is a flamingo and teacher who wants to know about her students on the first day of school. She starts the exercise by sharing some fun facts about being a flamingo , like why she is pink, and before you know it the whole class of different animals are sharing. This book not only shows kids that it’s okay to share about themselves but it is full of fun facts about animals in the fine print. I learned something I never knew about a Narwhal! It is a bit long for a toddler but each page highlights new animals and it’s easy to skip a few for those that aren’t ready for a book of this length. This is going on my buy list!
“The Kissing Hand” by Audry Penn is an absolute favorite . Chester is a raccoon who like most of us doesn’t like change. In his case it’s starting school. He wants to stay home with his mama and play with the friends he already has instead of going to school away from her and his friends. So his mama explains to him the magic of the kissing hand . The real magic is the message that we have to do things that scare us sometimes but that the love of our family is always with us to help us through. Go get this book.
