When it comes to teaching letters and sounds, I should really be saying ‘sounds then letters,’ because teaching sounds actually comes first! The ability to hear and manipulate sounds is called Phonological Awareness, and it is the first step in teaching a child to read. In fact, phonological awareness is even more important for later…
Reading Activities: Name in a Jar
An oldie but a goodie for you today, my friend. A flashback to 9 years ago when I was beginning to teach letter sounds to Sam. Spoiler alert—it worked! Here is that post on how to teach letter sounds from all those years ago… We are playing our way to learning to read! My little…
A Bandaid Letter Sort!
Are you ready to dive into some name letter learning? Or maybe matching uppercase and lowercase letters. Or perhaps counting, adding, or multiplying? Or maybe you are just here for the ‘sticky’ puns. No matter what you are after, this awesome name letter activity has it! Norah has recently become fascinated (completely obsessed) with bandaids. Bandaids…
10 Week Summer Learning Bundles
When did the idea of ‘school work’ become bad? I mean, why is it so frowned upon to have children do schoolwork in the summertime? I suppose I might be coming at things from a different angle since we homeschool and ensure we live a very balanced life in regard to schoolwork. As you might…
Preschool Card Games: ABC Go Fish!
Get ready for the very best of the best preschool card games! When my little ones get to be about 3 or so, they get to start joining in on some of the board game and card game fun that happens around here (oh yes, it’s a wild home we have, friends!). I really do…
Awesome Alphabet Activities for Preschoolers
I thought it was time to share some alphabet activities for preschoolers. Alphabet activities and How Wee Learn definitely seem to go hand in hand! I have shared with you oodles of letter activities before AND a (rather lengthy) post about why I don’t actually suggest teaching letters in ABC order. But I have not…
Teaching Letter Recognition – What Order to Introduce Letters
Wondering about the order for teaching letters to your little ones? I’m on it! I feel as though I am always writing about waiting to teach letter recognition. Wait and let little hands get strengthened by other activities. Wait until little minds have had ample time to hear different words and sounds. But a day…
What is Phonological Awareness? From Rhyming to Reading
As you likely know, I am a huge proponent of waiting until children are developmentally ready to learn skills. It is not developmentally appropriate to teach most 3-year-olds to read. But it is developmentally appropriate to teach most 3-year-olds to rhyme. And rhyming is the very first phonological awareness skill that little ones should learn!…
The Science of Reading: What parents need to know
Have you heard of The Science of Reading? This is a recent document that has been released that is transforming the way we teach children to read. This research has taken place over many decades and involves professionals from all different areas of child development. Thanks to this in-depth, longitudinal research, we now KNOW how…
What is Phonological Awareness? And How Do I Teach It?
Get ready, my friend, because today we are diving into one of my FAVOURITE topics: What is Phonological Awareness? And why, the heck, is it one of Sarah’s favourite topics? Phonological awareness, in a nutshell, is the understanding of how sounds are put together and can be manipulated and changed in oral language. It includes…