Here is a simple A4 poster to help kiddies understand the different rules when changing nouns from singular form to plural form. There are obviously always exceptions to every rule, however these rules apply in most cases.

Click below to download.
plural_rules_poster.pdf
File Size: 203 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

 
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A simple set of phonics flash cards for each letter or the alphabet. I have put these up on the wall in my "classroom" so that the girls can constantly look at them and remember these without even really trying.

Alphabet Phonic Flash Cards
File Size: 505 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

 
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I found these fantastic letter mazes on the www.education.com website. It makes your kids follow a path of make up of both upper case and lower case letters to get from one end of the maze to the other. 

This really helps with repetitive letter recognition.

I printed each page back to back (ie. A and B on one sheet of paper) and then laminated each page so that the girls can use them over and over again.

This is one of the things Jellybean is always begging to do.

To download these mazes free  from A - Z click here.

 
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Jellybean has suddenly started understanding that 2 letters together blend into one sound and she is now rapidly building words. She now also understands that every word must have a vowel after I explained that each word must have a yellow letter in it. This has helped make reading difficult words easier as she is learning that words can get broken down into sounds. 

I saw this on the net somewhere (if I remember where or I can find it again, I will post the link) but the one I saw was made up of post-it's. With the rate at which my girls manage to destroy things, Post-It's would never have lasted longer than 5 minutes, so I decided to make something a wee bit more sturdy.

To make this workbook, I used an orange file folder, self adhesive plastic, templates (laminated), self adhesive velcro strips and double sided tape.

I covered the orange file folder with the self adhesive plastic on both sides to make it sturdier and hopefully last longer. I then laminated the template pages and stuck to the folder with the double sided tape (not the thick puffy tape). I laminated the colour letters and cut each one out to fit onto the template. I then used the self adhesive velcro to attach each letter to the template so that they can be easily removed and placed back. In the "Make a Word" section, I placed a long strip of velcro so that the letters can be moved to build words.

Herewith template:

Make a Word Template
File Size: 11 kb
File Type: pdf
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Now that Jellybean is starting to read with phonics, I have noticed she is still battling with all her sight words and needs my help with reading those. I looked for a fun way to help her with learning sight words and came across a Sight Word Bingo here. I decided to re-type all of the boards as I had trouble downloading a few and also, with none of the boards being numbered or grouped, I wasn't sure how I would recognise which boards were which, so I made my own with titles.

I now have the list of words with me and get to call them out randomly depending on which set we are playing with. I like the fact that there are 6 boards per set as this ensures that she doesn't simply remember the place of each word, but instead had to remember the word itself. I have a set of 20 rather big buttons which I have used for markers, otherwise to make the game a bit more fun, we use sweets which she can eat after she wins!

I laminated each board so that it would be more durable and last for longer and have stored each board along with the markers in its own little box so as to keep everything together.

Herewith the downloads for the Sight Word Bingo Game in PDF format.

Sight Word Bingo Boards
File Size: 35 kb
File Type: pdf
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Sight Word Bingo Word List
File Size: 171 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

 
I have spent most of this last week on Google trying to find a reading programme to supplement that which will come with the Sonlight Curriculum. I guess I just feel that reading is so important and opens so many doors. It makes life just that much easier if you have a fantastic reading ability and more importantly, a great comprehension of what you are reading. 

I initially looked back into my own schooling career and remembered a programme that we used as kids in Primary School at Cliffview Primary. It was the SRA Reading Laboratory and I recall what an incredible programme it was. Living in South Africa however, with our exchange rate between the USD and GBP, makes it almost impossible to use this programme as it is just too expensive to purchase. I then looked at a few more reading programmes originating from Australia, but once again, the exchange rate does not favour this. Then I had recalled a South African based programme introduced to me by Juliette's current teacher -  Readers are Leaders

The reason I never really looked into it any further was because I have a love for books - real books - not the kind that are all computer based, and the Readers are Leasers is exactly that - a computer based software. But after really going through the programme in depth, I have realised that this is in fact, the right programme for me to be using for my 3 little angels. 

Time to face reality and realise that our kids are growing up in a time of technology where everything will be done on a PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone. Might as well embrace it and give them the advantage.