read-aloud learning

Sometimes, simple is better.  Sometimes, more choices make us more confused. If Maddy, Owen, and Cora were shown an amazing pallet of face paints and were able to choose anything in the world they wanted designed on their cheeks or …

    We have been putting in a lot of pool time lately, but we’ve also been spending a boatload of time indoors–staying cool in the comfort of our ac, eating popsicles and ices, playing games, Wii, and reading. Even …

    I’m not going to lie–some summer days, I really think that if it weren’t for the 15 minutes of Adult Swim, my kids wouldn’t stop moving all day long. Even the rest times that I once relied on …

Sometimes it’s very easy for teachers and parents to feel impatient with emerging readers. It’s hard to listen to kids sound out every word on a page and get through only five words a minute. It’s hard to know what …

We are huge weather fans over here. Looking at the day’s forecast has become a regular part of our morning ever since the kids were really little. Though our family may be a growing minority of people who are still …

According to Rachel and Mary Gabriel, the “schema theory tells us that prior knowledge is essential for comprehension of new knowledge and that learning difficulties can often be traced back to insufficient background knowledge” (Gabriel & Gabriel, “Power in Pictures: …

My kiddos are huge fans of popping pop beads, stringing beads, connecting nuts and bolts, and just sticking things together. Not only are these great activities to help develop kiddos’ fine motor skills, but it shows how connecting–putting things together–is …

By sharing our love of words and talking about new and exciting words, we are teaching our children to become Word Conscious. Word Consciousness is an integral component of language development and one of the early predictors of success in …

Many of us have taken a moment now and again to encourage our children to find pictures in the sky on a cloudy day, right? No matter if it’s a turtle, a shoe, a bunny, or a Cheerio, it always …

      It seems that Maddy’s leveled out a bit with her reading this year. She’s doing great with her spelling, she’s made huge strides with decoding, but she’s stuck on one particular level and needs to stretch her …

  With  three overly-tired kids and three pumpkins full of Halloween candy, I knew that I had to be extra creative if I wanted Maddy, Owen, and Cora to do anything other than moping around and asking to eat another …

20 fun ways to learn spelling words | sight word games | spelling word games | best ways to learn sight words | teachmama.com

    Read-alouds are the perfect time to sneak in a little bit of learning, whether you’re talking simple reading comprehension strategies, concepts of print, or word recognition. Tonight, we rocked our nighttime read-aloud with a few more thought-provoking and …

    We’re pet sitting for the next few days, and Maddy, Owen and Cora are loving it. Nothing cuddly or furry, but these little guys are certainly entertaining if you ask my three kiddos. We’re fish-sitting, actually, for what …

    Lately, we’ve been so busy. May flew by, like it always does for us–a blur of end-of-school activities, yard work, picnics, park dates, and now pool time. So I’ve tried to sneak in what I can, when I …

Several times over the last few weeks, Maddy, Owen, and I have played Sight Word Memory. It’s an easy game, fun, and certainly worthwhile. And the cool thing about it is that it can be as long or short as …

    The Gardener, by Sarah Stewart and illustrations by David Small, is honestly one of the most beautiful children’s books I have ever read. The story takes place during the Depression and is told through letters that Lydia Grace …