Language Lessons

Update on how we go about our spelling and reading activities at home.

We are wrapping up Consonant Blends this month.  I've added another set of activity sheets for our Consonant Blends and this is the Trace and Spell version.  If you have been following my blog, I have a version of this for CVC words as well.  Read about it here and here.

The file Consonant Blends Trace and Spell also contains list of words with pictures highlighting the blends' use.  Here we use Melissa and Doug magnetic letters to identify the beginning blends and the ending blends and how they are pronounced.

See how my son works it out.  By mastering the "sound" of the blends, he was able to spell the words perfectly.  He's just confused with 'sc' and 'sk' though, and the use of the double letters like 'll' and 'ss'.

You can purchase the file by clicking the picture below.

Now when it comes to reading, I have no problem with it for he's such a good reader.  He can read complicated words and my explanation to this is that he was exposed to reading early on.  I read books to him before he turned 1 yr old and by so much exposure I guess, he can now easily decode the words.

Since he is now five, I wanted to train him how to understand what he reads.  It's not good enough that he knows how to read.  I think that he should also learn how to understand what he is reading and be able to grasp and absorb the concepts.  I came across this English workbook in a local bookstore and thought that it would be a good material for reading analysis.  I can't say it is the best, but it's good enough to have something like this to practice on.  This worksheet is for 1st graders actually but he likes it and never gets bored as it challenges him.

It has activities on it as well.  He loves working with words :)

For more learning materials, please check Pinay Homeschooler Shop or the FREE Downloads and FREE Learning Materials page.

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Updates on Math and Language

And so we've been doing language and math seriously this summer.  So here's what we have accomplished so far:

Language.  Initially we were working with kindergarten workbook, but he finished it in no time and seems bored so I upgraded him to a first grader workbook (bought it in a local bookstore) and so far he is liking it.  He loves the challenge and the work book got lots of reading comprehension exercises which I really really like. 

And we are also working on digraphs using my Consonant Blends Worksheets. He has no problem identifying the consonant blends (beginning and ending) but when it comes to filling up the missing digraph, he's still a little bit confused in some areas.

Math.  We are still on Booklet 2 and Addition Chart 3 of Montessori Addition.  We will proceed with Charts 4 and 5 once we're done with Booklet 2.  You can read about Montessori Addition here and download my addition booklets from Pinay Homeschooler Shop and Downloads.

Lastly, I we're using Singapore Math workbook (K1).  Compared to the workbooks here, I love the scope of Singapore Math.  It covers graphing, logic and more.  I ordered this book from my friend lives in Singapore and they can usually be bought here: Popular Bookstore.  They're very affordable, the only problem here is shipping cost.

             

 

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Consonant Blends Activity Sheets

I can't believe that it's August already and school will be starting in a month!  I hope everyone is enjoying the last few weeks of their summer.  Weather here is back to normal, cold and rainy.  But I've been on bed rest for a while, reason why I was visible in the blogging world for days.  While on bed rest, I kept my son busy by working on these activity sheets I prepared for him a few weeks ago.

I have a CVC version of this and this is a follow-up on our language lessons and spelling as well.  You can read about them here: Beginning, Vowel and Ending Sound Worksheets, Working on Spelling, and CVC Word Trace and Spell Worksheets.  But this one is aimed for kids learning two letter or three letter consonant blends.

Working on Spelling

My son is currently obsessed with these Trace and Spell Worksheets that I made for him.  He's been working on them for days and loves to do them all over again.

I first gave him just four sheets to work on, but when he's done he said "Are there more of these Mom? I want to do them all!"


The file is available here.

I don't want to tire him so he worked on with the rest over the weekend.  I'm surprised he did very well with the CVC spelling. We're impressed! Husband said that I should give him the 4 letter words or the blending consonant words.  We might do that next month!

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Alphabet Sound Cards and Tracing Cards

I am often asked I did I teach my son to read.  As some of you who might follow my blog religiously, I mentioned that at 3.5 yrs, he started reading books on his own. 

Well, there's no shortcut really.  It was a long process and I will give details on it if I have the time.  But I also advice my friends to read books to their kids and by the time they'll learn about the alphabet, expose them to gazillions of phonic activities.

My son's favorite was sorting objects/sound cards according to their beginning sounds.  Well we sorted with printable cards at first. I came across printables that were free but they were all in cartoonish form which I didn't think was appropriate because some of the images were difficult to identify.   I really prefer "real" images.  So what I did was make my own.

(Please click the image for the link)

The file includes:

• 8 pictures per vowel (only 4 pictures for letter u)
• 8 pictures per consonant (only 4 pictures for letters q,x,y,z)
• 26 upper letter cards
• 26 lower letter cards
• 26 tracing cards for upper letters
• 26 tracing cards for lower letters
• FREE ALPHABET PICTURE BINGO CARDS

Here's how it looks like in action.  I still have them and my son still loves using them!

(Laminated sorting cards)

And because tracing cards are so pricey, I also created my own version.  Here I printed them on an ordinary paper, put them on a cardboard and covered it with a contact paper.  Then I purchase a bunch of dry erase marker to use with my homemade cards. (Please click either of the images for the link)

                 

This is how I made him practice writing aside from using the sandpaper letters.  Hmmm which reminds me to share how we do about our language and writing lessons when he was just about 2 yrs old!  Will definitely do that one of these days.

Green Series Picture Sorting

We’re wrapping up our Green Series (Montessori Language) this month and we're doing a little bit of review.  I can’t think of anything else so I made him “sort” the pictures according to its phonogram (phoneme).

We started with “th, sh, and ch”.  For the child to correctly sort them, he or she has to say out the name of each picture and properly pronounce three digraphs.

Then we proceeded with “i_e, a_e and o_e”.

The “ee” and “ea” challenged him.  Well to tell you frankly, it’s difficult for a 4 yr old to tell the sound difference between “ee” and “ea”.  Even I cannot explain the difference.  Ideas and inputs from you will be greatly appreciated!

I’ll be creating worksheets soon so we can do lots of practice on this one.  We’ve just finished our CVC Worksheets (Pink Series Montessori Language) and will soon move to Blue Series, practice spelling and review digraphs.

If you are interested with my CVC Worksheets you can check it out here.

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Green Series

We finally moved on the Green Series!  We started with sh, ch, and th... my son did well with these sets.

I kept them on an envelope.

And we moved with a_e and i_e combination.  This is something new to him, so he’s a little challenged at the moment.

We'll still revisit the Blue Series for spelling lessons.

For my materials, I got it from a very generous source, The Helpful Garden. Thank you so much for sharing!

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Beginning and Ending Sounds (FREE Worksheets)

Before starting our Montessori Green Series, I gave Mavi some Pink and Blue Language worksheets for assessment.



Well, I was disappointed for he wasn’t challenged at all!  He finished both sets in less than 10 minutes.



Well I might as well think of another way of challenging him.  For now, if interested, here’s a link to my Montessori Pink Series and Montessori Blue Series worksheets.

For ideas on the materials to use for learning how to read you can check this post, Beginning Reading: Language Objects and Activities.

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Spanish 101

We started learning Spanish last week.  Here, he’s learning numbers and colors in Spanish.  Since he knows how to read, he can easily match the labels both in English and in Spanish with the numerical number.

 

For colors, he already knows his verde, azul, amarillo and rojo.  The rest he still needs to learn them yet. So these days, we’re using Spanish whenever we talk about colors so he can get the hang of it.

I am surprise that he knows a LOT of Spanish words, thanks to Dora maybe LOL.

B4FIAR: Ask Mr. Bear

A few weeks ago, we rowed Ask Mr Bear and pull out a Farm Animals themed as well. My son loves this book to pieces and he can almost memorize it.  There were times I can here him do a monologue using his animal figures (Safari Toobs) basing on the story.  
Here are some pictures that best describes the activities we did to go along with the book.

Story sequencing. To make it more interesting I added the objects the animals offered to Danny as a gift for his Mom.  This printable was downloaded from Homeschool Creations.

Identifying beginning sounds using the printable pack which I downloaded as mentioned previously.

Where’s the Birthday Cake game which has the same mechanism as Where’s the Easter Card game.   Another favorite math game!

 
Oh and this is exactly the reason why I seldom have time to post.  This is out of topic, but we really really love playing outdoors.
Animal farm family matching game.  The cards can be downloaded here.  Well this is just my version, I made this because I was inspired by My Montessori Moments who has a COMPLETE set of animal families for download.   

Lastly, we sort zoo and farm animals. 

I am looking forward of rowing this again, and hopefully by then I have enough idea, resources and time to carry out additional activities.
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