Early Literacy
So, in my introductory post, I explained my desire to homeschool my then Kindergartener (Emily). I have 2 kids, Kathy (6th grade) and Emily (2nd Grade). Because of the events of 2020-2021 (the pandemic), I did not think it was beneficial for my child to begin Kindergarten in a virtual environment. I thought it was best to homeschool her instead. I mentioned that I was a Kindergarten teacher for ten years before I stopped to raise my family. I’ve been out of the game now for about 12 years, but it all started coming back to me as I was homeschooling my little one. I was a bit anxious about that decision and wasn’t sure I was up for the challenge with everything going on. However, now that my Emily is entering 2nd grade and thriving, I realized it was the best decision I ever made. Now I am here to give you tips and suggestions on what worked best for me. If your child is in school, this will also work as support to reinforce what he/she is learning in school.
By the time my kids started Kindergarten, they recognized and was able to write their capital and most of their lowercase letters (some they got backwards-very common), they knew how to count, they recognized the basic shapes, they knew simple sight words, were able to decode simple three letter words, and they were able to write their first names. Kindergarten has such a wide range of abilities. Some come in as a blank slate and some already know how to read. So I am going to back this up a bit and explain how they went into Kindergarten knowing a good handful of information. This blog will focus on language arts, primarily reading. I will do another blog focusing on math.
I didn’t start my children’s education when they started school. I started it from the day they were born. Anyone will tell you, early literacy begins at birth. Begin by reading to your baby every night. Sing songs and/or recite nursery rhymes. From about 6 months old, I taught my baby sign language. I did the motions and said the word at the same time repeatedly. Somewhere between 8 to 10 months, they started signing back. It was very exciting. But you need to be consistent for this to happen. You can’t sign to them a few times and expect them to pick it up right away. It may take months for them to sign back. Studies have shown that if you use baby sign language, they will communicate with you at an earlier age and start speaking sooner. I taught them the basics…..more, eat, drink, all done, mama, dada, please, sorry and thank you. They were able to sign all of that, but their favorite thing to sign was “more.” It still is. =D
As they got a bit older, I continued to read books and sing songs. Repetitive and rhyming books were my favorite. We also read many alphabet books. Once they were able to recognize their letters, I began teaching them simple sight words. Kathy learned all the capital letters around age 2 and Emily was about age 3. All kids are different and will develop at their own pace. The most important thing is to let it happen naturally. When they are ready, they will begin to soak in all of this information. Do not stop reading to them because you think they are not interested. As you know from my first post, I am a big fan of schedules and letting the child know what is expected of them. Set aside 10 minutes a day, roughly the same time every day, to read to them. That doesn’t mean you can’t sporadically read to them any other time. It just means you should try and consistently read to them at the scheduled time. My favorite time to read was bedtime, maybe after their bath. A nice and quiet, relaxing activity to keep them calm. That was also the best time to sing them songs. Their favorite songs were “Hush Little Baby” and “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”
As they are learning their sight words, read books with big fonts and simple phrases. I pointed out the words “I” and “a.” We did that for a few months until I was able to point to that word in a book and they would tell me what that word was. Then I slowly introduced other common sight words one at a time like “the,” “see,” “like,” & “and.” I spelled the word for them and sang songs to help them internalize the word. “T-H-E that spells the, T-H-E, that spells the.” Once they were able to recognize those words, after giving them tons of hugs and kisses, I moved on to the next word. Point to each word as you read so they know what a “word” is. Throughout all of this, I felt like I wasn’t doing much because it didn’t feel like work. My child was learning through the games I was playing throughout the day and the books I was reading at night. It wasn’t forced learning. A child learns best in a relaxed environment. Make it fun. Make up songs to help them remember. I didn’t really start “working” with them until they were around 4 and learning to write. Then, once she learned a handful or words, I made her flash cards. We would practice her new words a few times a week during reading time. When she began kindergarten, I made a word wall for her. I hung up all the words from the flash cards that she consistently knew. She was able to use the word wall as a reference when we worked on journal writing.
I used the words from the Fry Sight Word List. The Fry Sight Word List is 1000 of the most common words to appear in reading materials. By the end of kindergarten, they need to know the first 100 Fry words. I taught my child the words in the order it appeared on the Fry Word List. By the time I introduced the Fry Word List to her, in kindergarten, she already knew a good handful of words. You can download the Fry Word List free from my shop.
When I was a teacher, I attended a seminar that gave me an idea for an alphabet book to help my students with sound recognition. When my kids were around the age of 4, I implemented this book with them. At this point, they were able to recognize all their capital letters and most of their lowercase letters. They also knew a good handful of sounds. This book helped them remember sounds if they ever forgot. A few months after they began preschool at age 4, they were able to decode simple words. I remember driving to the grocery store with Emily at age 4. She looked at a sign and said “ant.” I was confused because I didn’t know what she was reading. So, I asked her, “where do you see ant?” She pointed to the word “Giant” (our local grocery store) and said “A-N-T, ant.” I was so surprised and got so excited. She was so happy at my reaction that she read a few other signs. Of course, she had to spell the word she was reading for me since she was only reading parts of a word. It is the best feeling when you are working with a child for months or years, not doing much, just reading to them 10 minutes a day, playing a few learning games, and one day everything just clicks.
I am going to share with you my very special ABC Book. My children absolutely loved this book. Once I showed them how to use it, they started using it on their own. When we started writing journals with inventive spelling, they used this book to help them remember sounds. When you first introduce the book to them, let them explore the book. Go through the pages pointing out the letters and pictures. After they had the chance to look through the book a few times, sit with them and have them repeat after you. “A, apple, /a/; B, butterfly, /b/; C, caterpillar, /c/” and so forth. You should not be stopping in between letters. Try to incorporate this book into their reading a few times a week. Eventually, they will learn to associate the sound with the picture. Then when they begin inventive spelling, this book will help them remember sounds. What makes the /s/ sound? “S, snake, /s/.” S makes the /s/ sound.
This book is very simple to make. You can make your very own book using my format and following some simple tips. If you prefer, I also have printables you can purchase. Just print out the pages (preferably on cardstock), then you can bind them together and it’s ready to use. If you don’t have access to a binding machine, you can punch 3 holes on the top of the papers and bind it together with a ribbon or strong string. You can also get a ½” 3-ring binder and place the pages in the binder like a book. If you want the pages to last longer, you can laminate the pages. If you are using a binder, you can place the pages in a sheet protector.
This book is very simple and straight forward to make. Points to remember when making this book. When you choose the pictures for your ABC Book, make sure it makes the correct sound. For example, “C” should make a /k/ sound as in cat, not /s/ as in circus. “G” should make a hard /g/ sound as in gate, not /j/ as in giraffe, “X” should make a /x/ sound as in x-ray, not /z/ as in xylophone. Also, remember to use pictures associated with the short vowel sound. A – apple or alligator, not acorn. E – Egg or elephant, not eagle. I – igloo or insect, not ice cream. O – octopus or ox, not orange. U – umbrella, not unicorn. It is very important to choose pictures that make the appropriate sound. Once they have a strong foundation, they will learn to manipulate these sounds when combined with other letters. Below is a video of me using the book with Emily.
You can make this book through PowerPoint, or you can choose to make each page yourself by drawing the pictures, using stencils or a die cut machine, if you have access to one. If you choose the PowerPoint method, you need to make sure you choose the correct font for the letters. They need to be able to recognize the correct formation of the letters. Use the letters the children would recognize, not “computer” letters. And unless you have access to a binding machine, the easiest way to bind the books would be to punch 3 holes on the top and place it in a 3-ring binder with sheet protectors.
Again, to make it easy, I did all the work for you. I carefully choose the pictures to make the correct beginning sound of each letter, and I changed the font at times to make sure each letter is formed correctly. Just download the printables and it will be ready to go. Included is a set of capital letters and lowercase letters. Print it out on cardstock, put it in sheet protectors and place it in a binder. Or you can just punch holes at the top and place it directly in the binder. Whichever works best for you. I also made the same alphabet book in black and white in case you didn’t want to use all your colored ink in printing out the pages. You can have your kids color the pages if you want, or you can just leave it black and white. Again, whichever works best for you.
If you prefer to purchase and download my easy to put together ABC Book (in color or black and white), the cost is $5.49 each. You can purchase the books in my shop.
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