Many of us find ourselves home with our kids even more than usual due to the COVID-19 situation. With libraries closed, co-op classes on hold, and friends and family kept at a distance, you may feel like you don’t have enough books and resources to really be able to teach […]
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Mission: revamp the way we look at grammar! I would not have thought this possible if I had not become an ESL teacher myself. Years ago, when I embarked upon my teaching journey, I thought teaching grammar had to be taken seriously. No fun or games. I was so wrong. […]
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“Grammar? Argh!” Have your children ever moaned those words? Completing endless pages of grammar exercises often elicits that very response. Direct, sequential grammar instruction is important for helping students to understand sentence structure (and thereby to improve as readers and writers), but that doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun […]
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Sometimes as homeschool parents we can unwittingly value our kids’ reading for themselves as more important than them being read to. Sometimes when we emphasize kids reading independently we can unwittingly devalue the importance of reading enjoyable stories together. We spend so many hours on letter sounds and sight words […]
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Copywork is the practice of writing a passage, a sentence, or even a word from another writer’s example. It is powerful teaching tool that honors the natural way children learn, can be used by students of any age, and enables you to cover multiple subjects in a single lesson. If […]
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There are many ways you as a parent can support your child’s growing literacy. Here are some strategies you can use with your family to help your kids see themselves as readers. Read every single day. You can start when your children are infants. Create special times of day that […]
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“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” So much wisdom from good ole Dr. Seuss. As homeschoolers, reading is the most foundational and important skill that we will teach our children; however, we must think beyond […]
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1. Start Small, but Read Often! Establishing a routine is key to read aloud success with little ones. If your kids are young, or haven’t had much read-aloud experience, keep it short. Ten to fifteen minutes is a great place to start. Set apart a consistent time in your day […]
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Your child may be frustrated from constantly being corrected. You may be frustrated from constantly correcting your child. Your child is going to make some mistakes; that is part of learning to read. Some children are used to being corrected so often that they look up after every word to […]
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I have a confession to make. As a homeschool mom, I was a total curricula nerd. Introduce me to a new resource or program, and I would devour it as I would a thrilling novel. Every year, choosing curricula was the highlight of my spring. Yes, I need to get […]
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