Teaching Reading and Phonics

My life as a parent volunteer seriously went from busy to crazy busy. Missy A started kindergarten this school year, and parent volunteering kept me big-time busy. With the budget cuts in LA County schools, teacher aides were no longer sought for, and solely relied on parent volunteers for their daily crafts and activities. We were not required to stay for the most part of the day, but at least 2 hours would be highly appreciated.

I never thought kindergarten has the highest need of parent volunteers. It can practically take up your entire day to help, and still there's a lot more to come back for the following days.  This is one reason I'm grateful I was never a teacher in the public school. Or I'd probably find myself working 24/7. 

I have been a home educator to my 2 budding children for years.  My eldest is 9 and my youngest is 6. I have taught them phonics at an early age and were an emergent reader at the age of 3, and fluently at age 4.  Not that I'm bragging, but I made use of my time with the kids productively and fulfilling as an individual.  I didn't do it particularly to plan my kids' academic life. I considered it work for me.  More of a challenge, I guess. I love to challenge myself how far I could go.

Several months ago, I got a teaching job offer. I am not an ordinary teacher.  I am a Phonics and Reading Class for pre-K and K. It is a Kindergarten After School Program at The Book Club.  It was offered to me by a very good friend, who quit, to continue the class.  To make the long story short, I gladly took it without reservations.

Curriculum was to read book to a group of kids, followed by an activity that helps connect with the book. It's an hour class, bi-weekly.

As weeks passed, I noticed that I don't deliver quite well. I got bored. So I spoke with the owner and asked if I could change the curriculum.  I told her that parents pay a considerably high tuition for an afterschool program that they could get it for free at the public library.  I proposed to start an early reading program and phonics for pre-k's kindergartners, since most can't actually recognize a single word yet, when they're expected to at least read 3-letter words at the start of kindergarten.  I told her that it would be beneficial for the kids academically.  Then we get to keep the students the whole school year, and would pass to drop out in case the need arises.  Also we would be getting word of mouth referrals, which is good for the Book Club.  I got a YES.  And she appointed me to take care of the K-curriculum.

I purchased licenses for certain curriculums that I would be needing to teach my students.  I furnished them with printable short story books that showcased pre-K and K sightwords, while it introduces words by family.  We do an activity at the start of the class that practices all the words that can be seen on the book. At the end of the class, they could read the book aloud all by themselves with minimal prompts.  And they can read and identify rhyming words that belong to the same family.  All these in an hour.  But parents are expected to follow up at home by letting their kids to read the book aloud to them.  Taught the parents proper cues when their kids forgot the words.

After a couple of months, the older kids could read fluently confidently, while the younger ones continue to be given prompts, but getting better each time.  Familiarity is the key. Keep exposing them to words that they are having issues with. You can either chant the spelling of the words and say it at the end.  The kids love that. And they remember better when there's a game or a song that connects to it.

I decided to blog about the activities that I do with my kids to reach out to other parents who are looking to homeschool their pre-schoolers just before they start kindergarten.  Let me know what you need to know and I will try my best to create an activity that will help you with your child.

Also, I decided to blog about my life as an educator. And you will see this under the tab "Teacher's Corner".

Summer Reading Homeschooling

I know that I haven't posted much because summer has kept me busy with the kids being at home with me. I usually don't register them on summer classes because they opt to stay home with me and be home-schooled. That's better for me because we save tons of money.  But perhaps if I were working fulltime, my kids would be in summer classes as well to avoid the summer slide or the "brain-drain".

Picture courtesy of Teachers and Families

I must admit that I'm pretty much comfortable teaching my own kids with advance curriculum to prepare them for the coming school year.  My incoming 4th grader does a lot of reading at home, and we brainstorm every week just to test his connection with the book. Honestly, I am not a perfect mom.  I would also miss and get lazy at times.  What I do is have him retell the book.  I don't need to know the entire story. I get an idea on how he retells whether he got a good connection with the book. Sure he could make up some story lines, but that will be caught once I start brainstorming.  If I see no connection, I would suggest reading the book with him, and go over it chapter per chapter, if that works. I let him draw his favorite scene or plot of the story with a description of the setting, characters' name, problem and solution. I ask open-ended questions to help him build his essays. You know the 5 W's -where, when, what, who and why. We make use of numbered sentences, then he re-writes into a paragraph. With that, ideas starts flowing and a paragraph becomes 2 or more.

With my little girl, who's an incoming Kindergartner, I made use of the Starfall, Jumpstart and Headsprout Reading software to help spark the needed motivation.  Little kids need to have a more engaging and dynamic activities to encourage them to learn. Once the motivation is there, start adding worksheets and reading practices to instill what she had learned, and stay there for life. 

It's also a good idea that we develop the love of reading early on in life.  Right before she even learns to read.  Develop the love of books by browsing and looking at each pictures. Not reading to them but talking about what's happening in the picture. Once the child connected with the book, start reading out the words aloud. Take her cue. You don't need to finish the whole book to her. Take it slowly so as not to overwhelm the child.

Summer is here!

Today is the start of summer.

To celebrate, my fellow bento mom bloggers have done a Summer Blog Hop,

that loops from one blog to another. All you have to do is to either push the button

below or push the link to the next blog.

We're featuring creative Summer themed lunches for our children.

Something you wouldn't wanna miss, that will give you lunch ideas to send for school 

this Fall or to-go lunches on trips. 

Here's a book-inspired lunch by Healthy Eating Starts at Home.

Yes that's me!

And here's a few of what my fellows have made:

A beach scene by Bobbi's Bento, 

A crab lunch on a seashore by Bentoriffic.

A Flip flop Lunch by What The Girls Are Having.

Awesome, isn't it?

Want to see more?

Why don't you join the hop by pressing here, starting with mine.

Enjoy the HOP!

July Lowe's Build and Grow Clinics

 Lowe's Build and Grow Clinic has a new site.

It's easier to register for our children now.  

All you need to do is to sign up and create an account, where your necessary informations are stored safely.  This saves us the time to type in informations each time we sign our children up to their free workshops.

If you haven't done so, please create your account here.

July registrations are now OPEN!
Sign up early and reserve your spots now while there are still plenty of space.

Your child’s favorite movie characters are back at Lowe’s this July 14 weekend! Bring your child to Lowe’s and they can master building and Kung Fu with July weekend’s project; Kung Fu Panda Spinning Attack! 
7/14 at 10 am and 7/15 at 2pm.
Don't forget to pre-register to save your spot.

See you there!

Certificate of Appreciation

I know I haven't been blogging about my volunteer works in school. I was caught up by my hectic everyday life. My daughter graduated pre-K this June and so much had gone in preparations and all.  But I will soon continue and finish blogging about my pre-school Alphabet books, since they have finished the book already.  And I have them all at home now. I was thinking that on her Kindergarten years, I will be pairing it up with themed bento lunches to add a little inspiration for her to learn better. The school works will be posted here, but the bentos will be posted over at my lunchboxes page, Healthy Eating Starts at Home.

But there's one thing I'd like to post here. Before the end of year, I received a recognition award for all the volunteer services I've done for both schools. Little did I know that most parent volunteers have quit towards the middle of school year either because they have found work elsewhere, or work schedules have changed. So here's a little award I got that my children take pride of...and of course, ME too!

 Here's one from my daughter's preschool.

And another from my son's elementary school.

Both event I never get the chance to attend due to an earlier engagements set on the same dates.  Honestly, this was the first time of the school year, on both schools, that I missed. And it's sad.  Next time , I'll plan better to attend occasions such as this.

I love recognition, but I'm never good at accepting them publicly.

So, thank you from the bottom of my heart!

~Marie