My oldest daughter is starting down the road to reading and is part way through the wonderful Distar teaching reading book, "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons". It's right when I get in the middle of teaching this great program again, that I remember how helpful it is to mix things up.
It was when my son required extra materials that I dug out my old supplements from teaching in order to create our Phonics supplements. Many of you who follow along here on our blog, are aware that we already offer supplements for the first 50 lessons of the book with our Bundle seen here:
And our newly released second bundle, "After Fifty-Five Through After One Hundred", which is now available in our store.
But, I forget sometimes, to mention the other "tricks of the trade" that are helpful when you're trying to razzle-dazzle a kiddo who might need a little bit of something extra in order to help keep the interest up and perking. So, let's talk about those.
Let's Make That Sound with Your Body!
We just introduced the sound "n" here from Lesson 23. We thought it would be loads of fun to make that letter: and here it is! "Teach Your Child to Read is all about cozying up on the couch with Mom or Dad, but when cozying up loses its novelty, finding a way to make it all physical with body movement is a delight!
Fancy it Up
We also have gel coloring pens in this wooden box. These pencils are artist pencils and they are used on special occasions. So, when we get to use them, that makes it extra special. She is working on one of the little books from our Phonics supplements here. The story is goofy and silly, like most beginning reading stuff. And the pictures are silly, too. But getting to color them in with Mom's special colored pencils makes us go very careful and...
...feel super proud of our work when it is all done. She kept this little book of hers and she still has it. It is a book she can read and she is pleased with her coloring job here. This one's not getting thrown away which means she will go back to it and reread it. That's the goal!
Make Your Own Silly Sentences
I often have people ask me, "Can I purchase that font you use somewhere? The one that goes so well with 100 Easy Lessons?"
The font is called Gautami and how about I just give you the link to where you can download Gautami for free? The font does look very similar to the font in the book. Download it and make your OWN silly sentences for your kids to illustrate. You certainly can't do any worse than this one I made up in the photo above!
Use the BOB books!
These wonderful books, tie in very closely with the "Teach Your Child to Read" program. The first book in Set 1 (Seen Above), covers the sounds S, A, M and T, which are in the first 5 sounds introduced. By the end of Lesson 10, this book was able to be read out loud by my daughter. And it is very helpful for children to encounter the same sounds that they are covering in their daily practice in other materials.
Now since I am talking about our favorite reading program in this post, let's take a quick look at our latest bundle.
I've tried to keep things similar to what our fans are familiar with, so everything is in the packets that you have grown used to. We've given the covers a fresh look, but the crafts, the writing practice, the flash cards and the additional stories are all there to help you with those daily supplements.
In addition, we begin to give practice with our familiar favorites, using letters in standard fonts...
Kids will have the chance to see the words they read in that the font that they are used to in the program, and match that to words they can read which are in more standard fonts.
Let us know in the comments, which of these fun reading log pages is YOUR young reader's favorite!