Here's an article that I recently wrote. If you are interested in posting it on your site, feel free. I just ask that you include my bio at the end - thanks!
Many preschoolers are not particularly fond of sitting down at the kitchen table to ‘work’ on their ABC’s, or complete activities in the myriad of books available to help your child get that headstart in learning. Children learn through play, games, and modeling. There are lots of ways to incorporate early literacy into your daily lives, and to make it fun, easy, and inexpensive too.
1. Driving Around in my Automobile... Ever feel like you spend alot of time in the car with your little ones? Driving older ones here and there, running errands, taking them to classes, you know the drill. Rather than popping on that high tech DVD player to satisfy the boredom of the five point harness, here are some fun and easy games to play in the car with our little learners.
a. Pick a letter and see if they can count how many "A's" (for example) they can see on signs as you drive.
b. Have them try to find the letters of their name, or any other word, on license plates. Remember that one as a kid?
c. Guess the password - give rhyming clues so your child can guess the right word. "It rhymes with can, and starts with the 'fff' sound.
d. Recite favourite nursery rhymes together, have them do the actions (keep your hands on the wheel Mom!).
e. Make silly changes to rhymes they already know - Row, Row, Row your car, gently down the street.....
These ideas can also be used on neighbourhood walks, on the bus, in the mall or at the doctor's office.
2. Scrub A Dub Dub... Bath time is a great time to introduce literacy activities. You have a captivated, somewhat contained audience and literacy can easily become part of the bath time routine.
a. Have kids play imagination games and role play with bath toys. Is that sponge really a fish? A mermaid? A jellyfish?
b. Draw with bath crayons. Let kids write on tile and it washes right off. Or, write with your fingers on steamy windows.
c. Take the opportunity to learn the names of body parts. Can they wash in alphabetical order? Wash that ARM before your BACK or CHIN.
3. Penny Pinching... Using everyday items in your house, and found objects you can easily create some quick, fun and inexpensive activities for your kids.
a. Let your child play with letters and pictures cut out from newspapers, magazines, and flyers ... and you're helping the environment by using some of those flyers that would just be landing in the recycle bin anyways.
b. Encourage your children to use real life literacy items in their play. For example, grocery receipts, empty boxes, and coupons for playing store or a small notepad for taking 'orders' at a pretend restaurant or junk mail and old greeting cards as mail for the postman.
c. Make your own games such as match up by cutting out squares and writing a letter or word on one card (depending on child's age) with a corresponding picture on the other. Preschoolers can even help draw the pictures.
4. Tactile learning... What child doesn't like to get their hands into things... well, okay there are some kids who hold their hands in the air and say 'Ick' when they get messy. But many young ones are tactile learners and love to play and discover various textures and mediums.
Use sand in a box to write letters. Form letters using playdoh, plasticine, or cookie dough! Scraps of yarn and string can be manipulated to make letters. Add glitter or sprinkles to a shallow dish and ‘draw’ letters, shapes, or numbers with your fingers. Use plastic shapes such as Lego or Megablocks to form letters.
Many of these strategies make for fun, interactive and inexpensive learning experiences while helping promote early literacy in the lives of your little ones.
Lee-Ann O'Neill (B.A. Hons, B. Ed, M. Ed) is a mompreneur who runs The Little Stamp Co. which creates personalized Learn to Print stamps for little learners. She enjoys promoting early literacy ideas for parents and running a business www.littlestamp.com with a fun and educational focus.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Encouraging Preschool Writing Skills - the Fun Way!
What child doesn't like to get their hands into things... well, okay there are some kids who hold their hands in the air and say 'Ick' when they get messy. But many young ones are tactile learners and love to play and discover various textures and mediums.
My son isn't too interested in sitting down with workbooks, or flashcards to learn his letters. You kind of have to 'trick' him into learning - basically learning through play, not a terribly new concept, but sometimes we all need a little help figuring out creative and fun ways to do things.
Instead of sitting down at the kitchen table, drawing out letters and asking 'What's this letter?', we have been using lots of different methods to discover letters - here's some of them.
- sand in a box to write letters
- playdoh or plasticine to form letters, cookie dough works too!
- yarn or string to make letters
- glitter or sprinkles to trace letters
- placing megablocks/ lego together to form letters
I'd love to add to this list - if you have any great tactile ways of introducing letters to your children, please post it here.
My son isn't too interested in sitting down with workbooks, or flashcards to learn his letters. You kind of have to 'trick' him into learning - basically learning through play, not a terribly new concept, but sometimes we all need a little help figuring out creative and fun ways to do things.
Instead of sitting down at the kitchen table, drawing out letters and asking 'What's this letter?', we have been using lots of different methods to discover letters - here's some of them.
- sand in a box to write letters
- playdoh or plasticine to form letters, cookie dough works too!
- yarn or string to make letters
- glitter or sprinkles to trace letters
- placing megablocks/ lego together to form letters
I'd love to add to this list - if you have any great tactile ways of introducing letters to your children, please post it here.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Thanksgiving Ideas for Our American Friends
Up here in Canada we celebrated Thanksgiving back in Oct, but for our American friends, here's some quick and easy ways to have fun and incorporate literacy activities for your little ones at Turkey Time.
Aunts, Uncles, Grannies and Grampas love receiving homemade items. Your child can easily make a 'turkey' with some paint, piece of paper and the poem below.
1. Paint your child's palm and thumb brown, and each finger a feather colour (red, yellow, orange etc). Press hand onto paper to create the turkey body.
When dry, paint the tip of the index finger red and put on thumbprint for the turkey’s waddle. Use orange marker to make beak and feet and black marker for eyes. Add this poem beneath the turkey handprint:
This isn’t just a turkey,
As anyone can see.
I made it with my little hand
Which is a part of me.
It comes with lots of love
Especially to say:
I hope you have a very
Happy Thanksgiving Day!
2. Have little ones practise their printing by decorating and printing names on cards for the dinner table. Use stickers, cut out Thanksgiving pictures from magazines or flyers.
3. I am Thankful Turkey
Attach a turkey body to a construction paper background. On the body, write, ”I am thankful I can read these words.” Write words on feathers. Glue on feathers of words they can read. Kids can also (with help) write phrases of things they are thankful for (food, family, shelter etc) and draw a picture.
Some of these ideas are courtesy of http://www.littlegiraffes.com/thanksgiving.html where there are lots more Thanksgiving ideas.
Gobble, Gobble !
Aunts, Uncles, Grannies and Grampas love receiving homemade items. Your child can easily make a 'turkey' with some paint, piece of paper and the poem below.
1. Paint your child's palm and thumb brown, and each finger a feather colour (red, yellow, orange etc). Press hand onto paper to create the turkey body.
When dry, paint the tip of the index finger red and put on thumbprint for the turkey’s waddle. Use orange marker to make beak and feet and black marker for eyes. Add this poem beneath the turkey handprint:
This isn’t just a turkey,
As anyone can see.
I made it with my little hand
Which is a part of me.
It comes with lots of love
Especially to say:
I hope you have a very
Happy Thanksgiving Day!
2. Have little ones practise their printing by decorating and printing names on cards for the dinner table. Use stickers, cut out Thanksgiving pictures from magazines or flyers.
3. I am Thankful Turkey
Attach a turkey body to a construction paper background. On the body, write, ”I am thankful I can read these words.” Write words on feathers. Glue on feathers of words they can read. Kids can also (with help) write phrases of things they are thankful for (food, family, shelter etc) and draw a picture.
Some of these ideas are courtesy of http://www.littlegiraffes.com/thanksgiving.html where there are lots more Thanksgiving ideas.
Gobble, Gobble !
Friday, November 14, 2008
FREE HOLIDAY SHIPPING
Consider it our little gift to you - The Little Stamp Co is offering free holiday shipping for Canadian and US Residents. Check out www.littlestamp.com and use the coupon code 'freeship' for your holiday order.
What a great gift or stocking stuffer - teaching a child to print their name in a fun and interactive way with the Little Stamp Co.'s Learn to Print 'My Name' stamps.
What a great gift or stocking stuffer - teaching a child to print their name in a fun and interactive way with the Little Stamp Co.'s Learn to Print 'My Name' stamps.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Scrub A Dub Dub
Bath time is a great time to introduce literacy activities. You have a captivated, somewhat contained audience and literacy can easily become part of the bath time routine.
Here are some great ideas from www.pbskids.org
1. Keep books and magazines available in the bathroom. Your home should have reading matter everywhere. Show kids that you read and that books are available all around them. Help kids read the words on the toothpaste label and the instructions on shampoo.
2. Sing songs together at your kids' bathtime. Be as loud as you can be! Make up new songs.
Have kids play imagination games and role play with bath toys. Is that sponge really a shark? A mermaid? A pirate?
3. Try bath crayons. They let kids write on tile and it washes right off.
4. Take the opportunity to learn the names of body parts. Can they wash in alphabetical order? Wash that ARM before your BACK or CHIN.
5. Chat to your kids in the bath. Can you think of a better time when they have your attention? Conversation is really important as your kids learn to read, write, listen and speak. You are their primary model.
6. Write with your finger on steamy windows.
7. Use the bathroom mirror to experiment with reading mirror-writing.
Take that one step further, and try to write in mirror-writing so that you can read it in the mirror.
Lee-Ann O'Neill is the mompreneur behind The Little Stamp Co. where big ideas for little printers such as our Signature Stamp for learning to print engage active and curious kids!
Here are some great ideas from www.pbskids.org
1. Keep books and magazines available in the bathroom. Your home should have reading matter everywhere. Show kids that you read and that books are available all around them. Help kids read the words on the toothpaste label and the instructions on shampoo.
2. Sing songs together at your kids' bathtime. Be as loud as you can be! Make up new songs.
Have kids play imagination games and role play with bath toys. Is that sponge really a shark? A mermaid? A pirate?
3. Try bath crayons. They let kids write on tile and it washes right off.
4. Take the opportunity to learn the names of body parts. Can they wash in alphabetical order? Wash that ARM before your BACK or CHIN.
5. Chat to your kids in the bath. Can you think of a better time when they have your attention? Conversation is really important as your kids learn to read, write, listen and speak. You are their primary model.
6. Write with your finger on steamy windows.
7. Use the bathroom mirror to experiment with reading mirror-writing.
Take that one step further, and try to write in mirror-writing so that you can read it in the mirror.
Lee-Ann O'Neill is the mompreneur behind The Little Stamp Co. where big ideas for little printers such as our Signature Stamp for learning to print engage active and curious kids!
Monday, October 27, 2008
Early Literacy Ideas That Don't Cost a Dime
In fact, these tips won't cost you anything! Using everyday items in your house, and found objects you can easily create some quick and fun activities for your kids.
Here's some tips for fun and learning on a shoestring budget (or for those of us saving for that new pair of shoes we 'soooo' need).
a) Let your child play with letters and pictures cut out from newspapers, magazines, and flyers ... and you're helping the environment by using some of those flyers that would just be landing in the recycle bin anyways.
b) Encourage your children to use real life literacy items in their play. For example, grocery receipts, empty boxes, and coupons for playing store or a small notepad for taking 'orders' at a pretend restaurant or junk mail and old greeting cards as mail for the postman.
c) For a sensory experience, spread glue in the shape of large letters on a page. Sprinkle with sand, shake off excess and let dry. Let your preschooler 'trace' the letters to get a feel for the shapes of the letters. Encourage tracing in the correct formation (left to right, top to bottom).
d) Make your own games such as match up by cutting out squares and writing a letter or word on one card (depending on child's age) with a corresponding picture on the other. Preschoolers can even help draw the pictures.
Here's some tips for fun and learning on a shoestring budget (or for those of us saving for that new pair of shoes we 'soooo' need).
a) Let your child play with letters and pictures cut out from newspapers, magazines, and flyers ... and you're helping the environment by using some of those flyers that would just be landing in the recycle bin anyways.
b) Encourage your children to use real life literacy items in their play. For example, grocery receipts, empty boxes, and coupons for playing store or a small notepad for taking 'orders' at a pretend restaurant or junk mail and old greeting cards as mail for the postman.
c) For a sensory experience, spread glue in the shape of large letters on a page. Sprinkle with sand, shake off excess and let dry. Let your preschooler 'trace' the letters to get a feel for the shapes of the letters. Encourage tracing in the correct formation (left to right, top to bottom).
d) Make your own games such as match up by cutting out squares and writing a letter or word on one card (depending on child's age) with a corresponding picture on the other. Preschoolers can even help draw the pictures.
Is handwriting a trivial skill?
We all know it's important to introduce early literacy to young children. Many experts advise that we read to our children at least 20 minutes a day. It's seem obvious that a child who is read to will develop a larger vocabulary and have a greater chance of being engaged in book reading as they grow. But what about printing?
Why Handwriting is Important
Handwriting is important for a number of reasons:
- if printing is challenging for a little learner than valuable mental resources are being used for what may be perceived as an arduous task. This takes the focus off the higher level literacy skills such as writing, attention to content, elaboration of details, and organization of ideas.
- poor handwriting can effect note and test taking, classroom and homework - almost every area of academic school performance
- if a child views handwriting as a challenging task they are less likely to be motivated to write
- handwriting in the younger years is linked to early reading and spelling achievement. When a child learns to print, they are also likely learning the letter sounds. They areas of handwriting, reading and spelling are linked.
So what can parents do to help their little learners?
Without a huge time investment, 10 or 15 minutes a day can really help prevent later writing problems. Early habits are hard to break so it's important to start them off on the right foot - I guess that should be hand!
Here are some helpful hints:
-encourage printing from top to bottom, left to right
-teach children to print with one continuous stroke when applicable
-emphasis the consistency of the letter formation rather than the size of legibility
-start with large motions, such as forming letters in the air with their whole arm
- teach similar formed letters together i.e. c, a d.
- separate reversibles such as b and d. Children seem to do better when they have mastered one of the reversibles before introducing the second.
-use arrow clues
- aim for speed in addition to legibility. Once a child can form the letters correctly and from memory then you can work on the speed
The information above came from an article at http://www.ldonline.com/ written by Louise Spear-Swerling, entitled "The Importance of Teaching Handwriting"
Lee-Ann O'Neill is the mompreneur behind The Little Stamp Company, which produces Learn to Print 'Signature' stamps for little learners to stamp, trace and learn to print their names.... Correctly !
Why Handwriting is Important
Handwriting is important for a number of reasons:
- if printing is challenging for a little learner than valuable mental resources are being used for what may be perceived as an arduous task. This takes the focus off the higher level literacy skills such as writing, attention to content, elaboration of details, and organization of ideas.
- poor handwriting can effect note and test taking, classroom and homework - almost every area of academic school performance
- if a child views handwriting as a challenging task they are less likely to be motivated to write
- handwriting in the younger years is linked to early reading and spelling achievement. When a child learns to print, they are also likely learning the letter sounds. They areas of handwriting, reading and spelling are linked.
So what can parents do to help their little learners?
Without a huge time investment, 10 or 15 minutes a day can really help prevent later writing problems. Early habits are hard to break so it's important to start them off on the right foot - I guess that should be hand!
Here are some helpful hints:
-encourage printing from top to bottom, left to right
-teach children to print with one continuous stroke when applicable
-emphasis the consistency of the letter formation rather than the size of legibility
-start with large motions, such as forming letters in the air with their whole arm
- teach similar formed letters together i.e. c, a d.
- separate reversibles such as b and d. Children seem to do better when they have mastered one of the reversibles before introducing the second.
-use arrow clues
- aim for speed in addition to legibility. Once a child can form the letters correctly and from memory then you can work on the speed
The information above came from an article at http://www.ldonline.com/ written by Louise Spear-Swerling, entitled "The Importance of Teaching Handwriting"
Lee-Ann O'Neill is the mompreneur behind The Little Stamp Company, which produces Learn to Print 'Signature' stamps for little learners to stamp, trace and learn to print their names.... Correctly !
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