Reading fun with my little ones

My four and six year old have worked diligently at learning to read this school year. They have definitely shown greater interest than any of my older kids did at this point.


But, that doesn't mean we still can't mix it up now and then with some fun.


For most of our daily lessons I use Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. All of my kids have successfully learned to read with this book, and I cannot recommend it enough.


We do like to supplement with other fun pre-reading, phonics, and reading activities. One of our favorites involves letters on the floor.


First, write out all the letters that they know on separate pieces of paper and spread those papers around the floor (once you have written them, the kids can spread them out):


Then, you call out letter sounds and the kids hurry to put their foot on the paper with the corresponding letter. I say, "b, b" and they both hurry to the "Bb" paper. Then "Sh, sh" and off they rush to that one.


Perfect for just one or two children. With two kids they encourage each other and often one remembers a sound that another forgets and vice versa. In the process, they both learn a little bit and have a lot of fun.


In the summer this works great with chalk letters on the sidewalk. If it was not below freezing, we would definitely take this outside.

After we finish, the kids pick up all the papers and they store neatly in a folder until the next time we play. And, you can easily add new sounds as you learn them.

Some other simple variations:
- Instead of saying just a sound say a complete word and have the child stand on a certain part of the word. This way you can work on beginning sounds, ending sounds, and vowel sounds.
- Say a letter name and they have to say the sound as they find it.
- Have the child say a sound and you have to go to the paper. Obviously this doesn't help them too much, but they usually get a kick out of seeing you run around, too.
- For more activity, have the child hop or crawl or baby step to the letter they need to find. The letters can be more spread out around the room or multiple rooms for this if you would like as well.

Be creative. I often find myself improvising on the fly with activities like this. Once you have a simple idea to work from, it can have a variety of uses and applications.

Phonics fun . . . definitely works for me!