Read this thoughtful blog post from a homeschooling mother who shares her experience with teaching spelling.
Share your thoughts.
Showing posts with label guest blogger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guest blogger. Show all posts
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Homeschool.com's "101 Things to Do This Summer"
Posted by Brian McCabe, Brian@AVKO.org
[From Homeschool.com]
[From Homeschool.com]
| 1 | Make a scrapbook of everything you do this summer The Basics of Scrapbooking http://www.scrapbookscrapbook. |
| 2 | Have a picnic Planning a Picnic http://www.the-picnic-site. |
| 3 | Learn how to play soccer How to Play Soccer http://www.ehow.com/ |
| 4 | Visit another country Lonely Planet Destination Guides www.lonelyplanet.com/ |
| 5 | Go to a ballgame Major League Baseball Team Schedules mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/ |
| 6 | Get a job (parent permission) Teens 4 Hire www.teens4hire.org/ |
| 7 | Become a photographer BetterPhoto for Kids and Teens www.betterphoto.com/ |
| 8 | Make dinner for your family Do-It-Yourself Dinner Party Project (PDF) www.reynoldskitchens.com |
| 9 | Compare a book to a movie Compare and Contrast Essay (PDF) www.csudh.edu |
| 10 | Write a poem 30 Days of Poetry www.msrogers.com/English2/ |
| 11 | Learn about fireworks How Stuff Works: Fireworks people.howstuffworks.com/ |
| 12 | Bake some cookies Science of Cookies www.bakingandbakingscience. |
| 13 | Take a boat ride Boat Safe Kids! www.boatsafe.com/kids/index. |
| 14 | Sketch a picture of your house from the outside Perspective Drawing www.artyfactory.com/ |
| 15 | Go to camp Smart Start to Business http://www.youthpreneur.net/ |
| 16 | Visit a farm 4-H Virtual Farms www.ext.vt.edu/resources/4h/ |
| 17 | Take a walk and record the sounds Listening to Nature www.museumca.org/ |
| 18 | Embrace Other Cultures Culture Quest http://www.ipl.org/div/ |
| 19 | Keep a journal of what you do during the Summer Keepsake Diary http://kids-indoor-activities. |
| 20 | Cut up an old greeting card picture and make a puzzle (parent help) How to make your own jigsaw puzzle tn.essortment.com/ |
| 21 | Start a band Make Music! Start a Band www.mustcreate.org/kid_home/ |
| 22 | Learn how to make a movie Digital Movie Making for Kids http://www.adobe.com/ |
| 23 | Blow up balloons, put notes inside and hand them out to friends Message in a Balloon www.nmhct.nhs.uk/pharmacy/ |
| 24 | Go backpacking The Beginning Backpacker www.backpacking.net/beginner. |
| 25 | Learn how to oil paint Free Art Lessons http://www. |
| 26 | Create a web site Lissa Explains HTML for Kids www.lissaexplains.com/ |
| 27 | Go camping Go Camping America Kids Pages www.gocampingamerica.com/ |
| 28 | Learn how to use Microsoft Office Free Tutorials for Microsoft Office http://www.baycongroup.com/ |
| 29 | Help an elderly person with house or yard work (parent permission) 20 Great Reasons to Volunteer www.volunteermatch.org/ |
| 30 | Visit the zoo National Zoo Animal Web cams nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/ |
| 31 | Learn a foreign language Free Online Language Courses www.word2word.com/coursead. |
| 32 | Make an obstacle course in your back yard How To Set Up An Obstacle Course www.ehow.com/how_3113_set- |
| 33 | Make a treasure hunt The Ultimate Treasure Hunt www.allthatstuff.net/ |
| 34 | View and learn about Modern Art Destination Modern Art http://www.moma.org/ |
| 35 | Learn about the Animals that live on our planet A Library of the World’s Animals http://www.learnanimals.com/ |
| 36 | Recycle bottles and donate the money to a local charity The Internet Consumer Recycling Guide www.obviously.com/recycle/ |
| 37 | Explore the Universe A Learning Center for Young Astronomers http://starchild.gsfc.nasa. |
| 38 | Build a tree house The Tree House Guide www.thetreehouseguide.com/ |
| 39 | Create a new world World Building teenwriting.about.com/library/ |
| 40 | Set up a lemonade stand Lemonade Stand Game www.coolmath-games.com/ |
| 41 | Learn how to make ethnic food Ethnic Recipes http://www.bhg.com/recipes/ |
| 42 | Attend a concert Buy tickets http://www.ticketmaster.com/ |
| 43 | Have family game nights What Game Should We Play? http://www.hasbro.com/ |
| 44 | Learn about science Latest Science News http://www.sciencedaily.com/ |
| 45 | Make a collage from magazine words and pictures Collage pbskids.org/zoom/activities/ |
| 46 | Create a terrarium How to Make a Terrarium www.ehow.com/how_9374_make- |
| 47 | Learn how to help the environment Environmental Kids Club http://www.epa.gov/kids/index. |
| 48 | Discover new games to play Nature Games http://www. |
| 49 | Go to a museum Find a museum in your area http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ |
| 50 | Make a fire plan Home Fire Safety www.usfa.fema.gov/kids/flash. |
| 51 | Make up bubble solution and have a contest Casey Carle's "Secret" Bubble Solutions www.bubblemania.com/faq/ |
| 52 | Find a pen-pal (parent permission) Pen Pal Directories www.stonesoup.com/main2/ |
| 53 | Plant something Gardens for Beginners www.geocities.com/ |
| 54 | Learn about Plants and our Environment ThinkQuest http://library.thinkquest.org/ |
| 55 | Host a yard sale How to Plan a Yard Sale www.ehow.com/how_137461_yard- |
| 56 | Build a sandcastle Sandcastle Tools www.sandcastlecentral.com/ |
| 57 | Donate some of the toys and clothes you no longer use How To Donate Toys www.ehow.com/how_10124_donate- |
| 58 | Research your family tree Free Genealogy Information http://genealogy.about.com/cs/ |
| 59 | Fly a kite Professor Kite and the Secret of Kites www.gombergkites.com/howgen. |
| 60 | Invent your own board game Design Your Own Board Game la.essortment.com/ |
| 61 | Make your own comic book Comic Creator http://www.readwritethink.org/ |
| 62 | Create a book cover for your writing projects Book Cover Creator http://www.readwritethink.org/ |
| 63 | Act in a play So You Want to Put On a Play? www.writewords.org.uk/ |
| 64 | Learn to Cook Introductory Cooking Lessons http://www.kids-cooking- |
| 65 | Make a bird feeder Easy birdfeeders for young children http://www.care2.com/ |
| 66 | Organize a bike safety clinic Bicycle Safety Command Center www.state.il.us/kids/isp/ |
| 67 | Spend time with your grandparents 10 Great Activities www.education-world.com/a_ |
| 68 | Learn how the Internet works Learn the Net http://www.learnthenet.com/ |
| 69 | Dig for fossils Dinosaur Dig www.sdnhm.org/kids/fossils/ |
| 70 | Write a song Notes on Songwriting www.robinfrederick.com/write. |
| 71 | Tie-dye some t-shirts How to Tie-Dye iaia.essortment.com/ |
| 72 | Make your own banana split Yum! http://parentingteens.about. |
| 73 | Create a themed dinner Theme Dinner Ideas http://www.kids-cooking- |
| 74 | Tour the World Google Earth Style http://earth.google.com/tour. |
| 75 | Throw a pajama party Make it a success http://www.ehow.com/how_ |
| 76 | Learn some new outdoor games Games Kids Play www.gameskidsplay.net/ |
| 77 | Make something from recyclables Crafts from Recycled Products www.makingfriends.com/recycle. |
| 78 | See a movie with a friend In the theatre or on DVD http://www.movies.com/ |
| 79 | Make homemade ice cream Kitchen Theater Science in a Scoop www.carnegiemuseums.org/cmag/ |
| 80 | Build a time capsule For the entire family http://www.ehow.com/how_6637_ |
| 81 | Get a magazine subscription (parent permission) Magazine Listing www.magsonthenet.com/chilmag. |
| 82 | Organize a scavenger hunt Outdoor Scavenger Hunts www.lovetheoutdoors.com/ |
| 83 | Go swimming Video Clips of the Swimming Strokes wellness.lattc.cc.ca.us/real/ |
| 84 | Paint a portrait of your best friend Draw Your Friend www.arts.ufl.edu/art/rt_room/ portrait_friend.html |
| 85 | Start a collection How to Start a Collection www.ehow.com/how_10563_start- |
| 86 | Write a fairy tale Fractured Fairy Tales http://www.readwritethink.org/ |
| 87 | Travel in time Odyssey Online carlos.emory.edu/ODYSSEY/ |
| 88 | Stargaze and track the moon phases Moon information http://www.moonconnection.com/ |
| 89 | Learn how to sew Learn to Sew http://cyberseams.com/ |
| 90 | Visit a National Park National Park Service Guide www.nps.gov/parks.html |
| 91 | Rent a video of a ballet Easy to Read Profiles of the Histories of Ballets classicalmusic.about.com/od/ |
| 92 | Roast marshmallows How to Roast a Marshmallow www.ehow.com/how_1164_roast- |
| 93 | Watch the birds Tips on Getting Started with Bird Watching www.birdwatching.com/tips/ |
| 94 | Arrange a bouquet of flowers Learn how to make a beautiful display http://interiordec.about.com/ |
| 95 | Learn to blog (parents’ permission) How-to http://learn2blog.pitas.com/ |
| 96 | Re-decorate your room Decorating Gallery http://www.hgtv.com/topics/ |
| 97 | Learn to play chess Chess is Fun http://www.soyouwanna.com/ |
| 98 | Adopt a pet (parent permission) http://www.petfinder.com/ |
| 99 | Keep your brain going Brain Teasers www.brainconnection.com/ |
| 100 | Teach someone to use email How eMail Works www.learnthenet.com/english/ |
| 101 | Create your own holiday A Month With No Holidays? Make Up Your Own! .educationworld.com/a_ |
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Handwriting Resources
Posted by Brian McCabe; Courtesy of Kate Gladstone
Kate Gladstone was gracious enough to pass along some handwriting resources that she thought everyone could appreciate and use.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Monday, July 13, 2009
A New Material by Kate Gladstone of Handwriting Repair to Come Out Soon
Posted by Kate Gladstone of Handwriting Repair
A good friend of AVKO, Kate Gladstone, has an upcoming product launching. Since many of AVKO's members have problems with handwriting (and/or dysgraphia), and since Kate is a pre-eminent handwriting specialist, we are excited to share this new product information with you. We will keep you posted with updates:
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If "handwriting can't matter" in the Cyber Age ...
... why does the SAT exam now include a timed, handwritten essay?
... why do most employers still require applicants to complete one or more forms by hand?
... why do hundreds of blog entries and Twitter posts daily describe the blogger's or poster's poor handwriting or complain about the poor handwriting of others?
Computers will never completely replace other writing tools -- not unless someone can invent a computer the size of a pencil or pen, costing the same as a pencil or pen, and needing no electric power supply. (After Hurricane Katrina, millions of teachers and students who had supposed that "handwriting can't matter" learned otherwise when they had to spend a school year without computers.)
Computers and cell-phones haven't eliminated handwriting -- they have merely tempted people to stop teaching and learning the subject. This may change in September, though. As millions of schoolchildren head back to the classrooms, expect AVKO.org to announce a startling new product that may forever change the way we think about teaching, learning, and using handwriting.
Stay tuned ...
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Friday, July 10, 2009
Brain Rules by John J. Medina
Blog by Gloria Goldsmith
I was tickled pink when I stumbled across Medina’s website. I bought the book the very next morning. I was delighted by the 12 brain rules he has come up with though his scientific inquiry. Mind you, he is a developmental molecular biologist focused on the genes involved in the human brain development. He insists on his research being published in a peer-review journal and successfully replicated before he included the study in the Brain Rules book. That means the information he shares with us isn’t just theories that he has invented, it is real science, and I am delighted to say, presented in a meaningful and extremely readable manner. Plus, the biggest clincher for me was the fact that it parallels all the methods of teaching that we, at the AVKO Foundation, have been encouraging parents and teachers to use, recognize, and perform for over 35 years. It is great to see it confirmed in another form of scientific tests.
Attention | Rule #4: We don’t pay attention to boring things. What we pay attention to is profoundly influenced by memory.
One method AVKO advocates which helps a student concentrate is ten to fifteen minute lessons. AVKO even encourages the use of a timer when doing lessons. Medina goes on and on about how humans need something to grab our attention about every 10 minutes in order to keep us interested. AVKO promotes that after any academic lesson students need some form of physical release. Exercise!
Exercise | Rule #1: Exercise boosts brain power. The greatest predictor of successful aging is the presence or absence of a sedentary lifestyle.
AVKO encourages exercise of some kind, many times during the school day, especially for ADHD kids. We think a 15 -20 minute break helps to drop the anxiety levels some humans feel when attempting to learn something difficult. Coming back to a lesson after a refreshing energy boost pause, makes it easier to tackle. According to John Medina, ALL humans perform better with some form of daily exercise. Our memory is better with cardiovascular fitness.
Survival | Rule #2: The human brain evolved, too. There is no greater anti-brain environment than the classroom and cubicle
Homeschoolers, you may well have a deeper connection to the truth of this rule than most parents whose children are in public school. It wasn’t just our bodies that adopted from swinging in the trees to walking on the savannahs, our brain also had to evolve to survive, solve new problems, learn from mistakes, and create alliances with other peoples in order to survive. Humans now rule the world because we learned to cooperate and formed teams with our neighbors. Yet if we do not feel safe with our neighbor, boss or teacher, we may not perform as well under their leadership. Isolation in learning does not create an open learning environment in which questions are welcomed.
Short-Term memory is Rule #5: Repeat to remember. The human brain can hold about seven pieces of information for less than 30 seconds!
If you want to prolong the 30 seconds a few minutes or a few hours, you will need to re-expose yourself to the information again and again. Memories are so volatile that you have to repeat to remember. This fact has long been a staple in AVKO’s Sequential Spelling program. The presentation of word families (same sound/same spelling) teaches the student to recall using the logic of spelling patterns (in, pin, sin, spin), as well as the repetition of sequentially spelling the base word plus a different tense each day (pin, pins, pinned, pinning). AVKO also encourages parents to revisit the target word in The Patterns of English Spelling, Word Families in Sentence Context, and use the patterned approach of Let’s Write Right, or Individualized Typing. We encourage parents to let the student practice their spelling words in word games by going to SpellingCity.com where the student can type in current spelling words and Spelling City forms them into several different word games. Fun and repetition! AVKO supports all of these review methods which re-exposes the student to the target word repeatedly, just as Medina advocates for short-term and long-term memory to take place.
There are 12 brain rules. I won’t go over all of them here, but I do encourage you to get the book, and read this fascinating subject for yourself. I know it will create a clearer understanding of how people learn and what you can do to effect faster learning and how to avoid things that impair learning. John Medina also has a web site (www.brainrules.net) that explains a lot about his book. It is deliberately done in a very amusing style, because as he said, we recall things better when they have made an impression.
Grammar Untied -- A Featured Website
Posted by Hajira Khan, AVKO Volunteer
Grammaruntied.com, formerly known as Tongue Untied, is a great website! It covers a wide range of topics, and offers instructions related to basic grammar, sentence structure, and word choice, as well as rules for punctuation. It covers all the aspects of English language and is an excellent online guide.
This website was originally developed for students who want to take Journalism as a major at college level. However, it can be used by people of all ages whether young or old.
The website’s layout is simple but effective, making it appealing. The website has information you need in a design that is easy to read and understand. This information can easily be navigated by using the clear instructions present for the users. There are two menus on the home page of the website; one is on the left side of the page and the other on the top of the page. The left menu provides links to explanations in each of the major components of English grammar while the top menu offers links to quizzes, curriculum, and discussion. There are seven tabs on the top menu, each one directing the user to another page that contains more information.
For each concept covered, it starts with a brief description of the theory and provides excellent examples and interactive quizzes. For example, the page on adjectives tells you what adjectives are, followed by a practice exercise on adjectives, and an interactive quiz. By doing such quizzes, the users can find out how proficient they are in English language. A very interesting element present on the website is an image that reads “Grammar Warning Ahead”, by clicking on this image the user is directed to a new page with topics like “Top Ten Most Commonly Confused Words.”
There is a ten week curriculum on the website. Each week a topic is extensively covered, with its explanation, and its types followed by homework and example quizzes. If this curriculum is properly followed, it can produce meritorious results by the end of the tenth week.
The website is very impressive and is recommended to anyone teaching, learning or polishing their English. The content is exceptionally good, and everyone can benefit from the enormous amount of material on it.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Less is sometimes more…
by Guest Blogger Rebecca Messmann of www.dysingaround.com
Yep, we are being inundated with messages that tell us less is more and often I advocate that this is crazy, that we are teaching our children to stifle themselves. We are limiting their potential, limiting their creativity, and on and on. I can really get on a soap box about it.
Then, as always, there is something that brings me back down to earth and reminds me that sometimes less really is more. That is what has happened with the whole left and right thing at our house.
When my oldest son was a baby I kept a running monologue of what we were doing. “Ok, Baby, we are going to the kitchen, we go down this hall and turn left into the kitchen.” As he got older I would point out the horses on our left and the cows on our right (we lived in Texas, after all). Now, I give him directions; turn right at Nicole’s house, left at the school to get home. Then one day I asked him which is left and he raised his right hand.
Frustration, anger, more frustration, it is a simple thing is it not to tell your left from your right? It is the foundation for getting yourself anywhere, for reading a book, for driving a car, it is the foundation for goodness sake and no matter what I do, how much more I do neither of my boys can consistently show you left or right correctly.
I have tried; honestly, I have tried everything under the sun to teach them left from right. Then the other day I noticed that other kids were wearing these really cool looking bracelets. I had my own private “Eureka” moment – I bought two bracelets and placed them on each boy’s left wrist. Bingo! Problem solved with the least amount effort. Ask my boys which is left and which is right now. Go ahead, I dare you.
Don’t be afraid to use a simple, less complicated method to get our dyslexic kids to learn – sometimes less really is more.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
The Wide World of Words
by Guest Blogger Rebecca Messmann of www.dysingaround.com
Do you ever wonder how to make words come alive for dyslexic kids? It is so hard when the words just seem to float around in space. Well, there is a nifty way to bring them back down to the ground and tether them in some reality for our kids. My family calls it the Wide World of Words and it is so simple to do.
First, buy a cheap photo album. I buy the ones that are about 4”x8”. Check out your local dollar store for one. Next, charge up the digital camera and give it to your child. Join them in a photo tour of your home, your neighborhood and anywhere else you can think of that is “real” to them. Your ideas for photos will need to be a bit dependent on the age of your child but some ideas would be the mailbox, the flowers, the school, the grocery store, and anything and everything along the way to these places. Let them snap those photos till they are blue in the face.
Come back home, pop the disc in the computer and print those photos out. I just print them out on regular paper, not photo paper. You can usually get about four photos (4”x5”) on and 8 1/2”x11” piece of paper. My sons write down the words on another sheet of paper.
When you file the photo and the word in the album do so with the photo on the left hand side and the word on the right hand side (most of the time their eyes will fall naturally to the right hand page first).
Now, when you study sight words (download a free PDF here!) you have something concrete to use with them and it lots of fun to make!
Another idea I am working on with this concept is directions for my oldest son. He will be walking to school alone next year and is scared he will get lost. I am thinking about taking photos of his way to and from school so he can check to see if he is on the right track.
Be creative and let the world of words open to your child so they are not just these random symbols floating around!Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Homeschooling: Then and Now
by Guest Blogger Rebecca Messmann of www.dysingaround.com
There is a group of parents that I originally thought I would be a part of. This was before I had children and before I mentioned homeschooling to my in-laws and received the “not with my grandchildren” look.
I have to admit that when I considered homeschooling my friends and family looked at me as if I had stepped right out of the 1960’s. Somehow I had magically transformed into a flower child that was bucking the system. I wasn’t really bucking the system; I just wanted what I perceived was the best for my child. But, then like I said I had children and realized that I would be a poor educator. I could partner with a public school which is what I like to call what I do but I could not be the only one responsible for my child’s education – if so we would be counting Froot Loops and watching Oprah all day.
While I don’t homeschool I have many, many friends that do and it is amazing to see that what I and my in-laws thought about homeschooling is such a small part of it today. Today, parents have become organizers of their children’s education. Gone is that “kitchen-table” mentality and in its place is the “well-rounded” approach public and even private schools can only dream about.
I see my friends who home school not as folks in isolation but rather as folks who have found a niche in small groups. They get together with each other and even us public school folks. They don’t limit their child’s educators to just themselves, they search out experts. They go on field trips. They live the education!
Homeschooling is no longer the taboo is was when I first considered it. It is an industry in and of itself today producing valid, sustainable results with children. It is something that should be on the list for consideration when you have children, right next to public and private schools.
And, now as the “school year” winds down they are looking ahead to next year and conventions are popping up everywhere! Check out the AVKO schedule of conventions to find out where we will be at and definitely stop by and say hello.
It’s a funny thing to miss something you never had but often I find myself missing that life. If you are at all considering homeschooling one of these conventions would be a great place to stop by for lots of information. And, if you can’t make one of them do a search in your city for a homeschool association, you might be surprised to find that your city is home to lots of homeschoolers!
Editor's Note: Homeschooling conventions (and indeed, resources "for" homeschoolers) needn't only be used by homeschooling parents. School educators are under a lot of the same pressures as homeschooling parents (time constraints, budget--or lack thereof, lack of a support system, inadequate training in all domains, etc.). School teachers should take advantage of opportunities like homeschooling conventions, homeschool blogs, and all of the free and low-cost resources and downloads that these places have to offer. Educational resources do not discriminate!
Read the Rest of the AVKO Blog | Visit the AVKO Website
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Partnering in Public Schools
by Guest Blogger Rebecca Messmann of www.dysingaround.com
See also: Dyslexia information | On Dyslexia Testing
See also: Dyslexia information | On Dyslexia Testing
Both of my children are in public schools. It can be the best and the worst of situations depending on how you look at it. The worst is when it comes time to accommodate for their dyslexia.
Every state has some sort of “legal” wording in their educational requirements that deals with dyslexia as a learning disability. The accommodations that are frequently included are things like: extra time to complete assignments, having non-reading subjects read to the child, preferential seating and things like that.
Believe it or not the hard part is not getting the accommodations assigned to your child, which trust me, is hard enough. Nope, the hard part is getting teachers to actually “accommodate” your child appropriately. That is where all or your diplomacy and micro-managing comes into play.
For example, I don’t like anything read to my children right off the bat. I want them to try it first and if they get stuck to ask for help. That means that their hands could be raised several times in the course of reading one passage and that one passage could take them forever to read. It never fails that a teacher will get frustrated and just read the passage to them.
Can I fault the teacher? Yes, to some degree. It is her job to teach my child and not every child learns the same way. She should accommodate based on his needs. But at the same time this is public school we are talking about and she has about 19 other children in her class that also need her attention. Can I expect her to just focus on my child to the exclusion of the others? No.
The best in the world of public schools is to develop a partnership with your child’s teacher. Get in there; let them know you realize it is extra work to accommodate your child but emphasis the importance of it. Then develop a plan that works for everyone. Our plan includes our children bringing home work they do not get completed in class that same night. We do not assist them with that work at home but provide the time for them to finish it on their own. A few times of doing this and the child showing their work or still making mistakes builds the trust with the teacher that we are truly not helping them.
Another plan might be that you spend time in the classroom assisting your child and others that might need it. Sometimes, that extra hand in the classroom can make all the difference for the teacher.
You might also ask if the child can have a buddy that helps him with the reading so he does not have to ask the teacher each time. Be creative and not afraid to get in there and suggest some changes. The bottom line is that the teacher needs to know the accommodations, they need to know how you want those accommodations administered, they need to accommodate to give your child a fair chance at success, and they need to know that you are backing them 100%.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
The Dyslexic and the Dictionary
by Guest Blogger Rebecca Messmann of www.dysingaround.com
See also: Information on Dictionaries and Other Reference Materials | Instilling Curiosity to Learn New Words
See also: Information on Dictionaries and Other Reference Materials | Instilling Curiosity to Learn New Words
Sometimes in today’s world of technology and instant gratification we forget the rewards of doing things the hard way. Until this year I think it has been at least ten years since I picked up an actual, real life dictionary. Oh, I looked words up for sure; I just used online resources instead of actually dragging out the dust covered door stop of a dictionary.
Then my oldest son entered 5th grade and started bringing home this wonderful sheet of paper called “Mountain Language.” I have no idea if his teacher designed this herself or if it’s a standard worksheet somewhere in the halls of education, that’s another blog. Today, I want to mention just one piece of that work sheet. (See also the Worksheet Works website for dictionary word placement worksheets).
There is a question on there that says what word fits between the guide words? Two words are given: blue and broke. Then three choices are given: black, break, brush. I have simplified it a bit to show you how to do it.
The child then figures out which one goes in between the guide words and I sing a chorus of halleluiahs. Because now I have a nice easy way to introduce the dictionary to my dyslexic son! Now, I don’t have to send him blindly looking for “how to spell wonderful.” I don’t have to give him nightmares of turning page after page around the “one” words.
This is a simple activity that can introduce the dyslexic child to the dictionary in a very low stress way. The words are there, they just need to match them up with what they find in the dictionary.
I take it one step further and have him define the word he chooses. This just reinforces how I want him to use the dictionary – to find the meaning of words, to find the tenses of words, etc...
Try it and let us know what you think. Do you have any ideas and suggestions on using the dreaded dictionary with dyslexic children?
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