Learning the Alphabet before starting school

Children’s minds are like little sponges, soaking up anything and everything they are exposed to in the early years. There are so many ways to introduce them to the letters of the alphabet in their leading up to formal schooling. They will, of course do a lot of this in their first term of school, but being familiar with the alphabet will give them that little head start.

Now I’m not suggesting to bombard them with worksheets and make them write their letters ten times over – if you’ve been following me for a while you’ll know that I’m all about play based learning and I have done so many alphabet posts before (just search “alphabet”). I also want to advise you not to put pressure on your child or yourself that they “must know every letter before they start school”. Some children take longer than others, and some will be ready before others. These days there is also a huge age variation among Reception/Prep classes. Some children might be four and a half, some children might be approaching six years of age. Today’s post is more about proving a print rich environment using some of the fantastic products from Bright Star Kids.

This is a sponsored post as part of my Brand Ambassadorship with Bright Star Kids.

222

Learn and Grow with the New Officeworks Range

Don't you just love wandering the aisles of Officeworks? All that pretty colour coded and matching stationery makes me feel like I could be the most organised teacher ever. Miss M shares my love of pretty stationery and is always so excited to simply just buy a new pen or notepad, but Officeworks recently launched their new Learn and Grow range, opening up a whole new world of kid's products and I'm sure it will fast become one of their favourite shops too!

Please note, this is not a sponsored post, although we were lucky enough to be invited to the launch of this new product range which included a very generous goodie bag! I couldn't help but show you some of the products in more detail here on the blog. 

27

10+ Ways to Learn Numbers with a Hundreds Board

The hundreds board is one of the most fundamental mathematics resources for Junior Primary. It perfectly demonstrates the base 10 number system to young children, encourages counting and makes number patterns easy to find and identify. There are so many ways to use them so I've rounded up my favourites to share with you today!

Sponsored by Teach Starter as part of my Brand Ambassadorship. 

8

What Type of Learner is Your Child?

We know that all children learn differently, but did you know that there are four (possibly even more) distinct different learning styles? In today's guest post we discuss the four main types of learners to help you identify which category your child falls into. Once you figure that part out, then you can aim to specifically teach them or guide them with their learning in the way they learn best, thereby giving them the best possibly outcome. 

23

My Epic Fail {Growth Mindset Guest Post}

Growth mindset. There's a lot of talk about it amongst schools and workplaces at the moment. We are being encouraged to train our minds to embrace challenges, look on the positive side, find solutions and problem solve. The simplest example that comes to mind is to add the word "yet" at the end of the statement "I can't do it". 

Today's guest blogger is Bec from Square Peg Tutoring (you know that expression - square peg round role?). Well Bec is all about helping those square pegs to learn in their own way and at their own pace through her tutoring business. She's sharing a really personal story from her past experiences in the classroom - her "epic fail". Something I'm sure we have all found ourselves doing at one stage or another. I applaud her for so bravely sharing and for allowing me to publish her story here and share it with my community of teacher types. 

Welcome Bec.

6

Following Up With The Sunshine Collective {GIVEAWAY}

Since I went back to work, Miss M has been super interested in "school work". She wants to know what the kids do all, day. I bring home spare worksheets for her to colour in and our dining table has quickly been taken over by "art". Endless pieces of paper, mini books, crayons and pencils, scissors and glue. And the best part is that she wants to learn! Her pictures are really starting to look like actual things with more detail. She explains what she's drawn and writes her name and numbers. She draws treasure maps and then we go on adventures in the back yard, and tick things off our scavenger hunt list as we go.


And she's almost four! It really is an awesome age!


Do you remember this product review I did for The Sunshine Collective? In particular we worked our way through the Preschool box, ideal for Miss M's age. Well on Friday afternoon we zipped to the post office before they closed to pick up our Foundation (reception/prep/first year of school) box to try out. Keep reading to find out how you can win one tailer made for your child.




10

Teacher Types Top Tips for Back to School

Not long to go now and the kids and teachers across the country will be getting back into school mode ready for another big year of learning! (Did you see my best back to school products post last week? You still have time to order some of these goodies!). Seems that some states go back earlier than others do... hmmm. Anyone know why they do this? We here in SA are back on the 30th of Jan :)

I've teamed up with a fabulous group of Aussie parenting bloggers to bring you the Aussie back to school blog hop! 11 awesome articles on a variety of back to school topics - we've got you covered (all links will be at the end of this post). Be sure to check them out and show them some love :)

As for me, I'm giving you my TOP TIPS for heading back to school

17

Keeping up with the Kid's Learning During the Holidays

You might not even be contemplating or thinking about this yet (in which case please save, bookmark or pin this post for later in January). On the other hand you may be fresh out of a parent teacher interview or you've read your child's report and want to know how you can keep up with their learning during the long summer holiday break. (You'd be surprised at how many parents would ask me for 'activity books' and worksheets to be sent home with their child during the last week of Term 4). 

10

Bridge to Learn Educational Resources {Product Review}

It's always a joy to find and a pleasure to share educational resources that parents can use at home to help their children with early learning. Just a short scroll through my blog and you'll find some of my previous educational product reviews...

Bridge to Learn is a fun and engaging learning program targeted at children from birth to 8 years comprising of a series of storybooks, toy kits and learning books. The main character 'Ollie the Octopus' seems to always be off on new adventures with his sea creature friends. Key concepts such as shapes, numbers, colours and beginning sounds are introduced to the learner and woven through the 'under the sea' theme. The resources are developed, made and printed in Australia and aligned with the Australian Curriculum and Early Learning Years Framework which gets a tick from me!

6

A Tutor in a Box {The Sunshine Collective Review}

As teachers, a child's learning is obviously our top priority, and for most parents, it's their top priority too. Parents are always asking me for ideas they can do at home to support what their child is learning at school. Not only if they are struggling in a particular area, but just to give them some extra help along their learning journey. You'd be surprised at how many students actually enjoy homework and want extra worksheets to keep them busy!!

Tutoring is one option that many parents consider, but what if that tutor could be packed into a box and delivered to your home throughout the year? A tutor in a box that would cover all areas of the curriculum and cater for a range of learning styles from Preschool until the end of Primary School.

Opening and unpacking our Brilliant Box! The mini paints are just the actual cutest!

Yes that's a sticker on her t-shirt #kidlife

15

Terrific Teaching Resources from Twinkl

I have two go to websites when I'm looking for new teaching resources, or something for a particular topic, lesson or activity.

Teachers Pay Teachers and Twinkl (actually three if you count Pinterest. Teachers - what did we DO before Pinterest?? LOL!).

At Twinkl you will find so many amazing resources (much more than just worksheets, but I'll elaborate on that in a minute). The website is easy to use and navigate with ages, learning areas and various headings. My favourite feature is the 'save' disc icon. At first glance you may think this means to save the resource to your computer, but it's like a 'like' button, where you can save something to your profile to download later allowing you to continue to browse.

During my browsing, I found play dough recipes with all sorts of creative combinations of colours, scents, flavours and textures like strawberry sparkle, coconut cloud and ocean marshmallow! Plus, great play dough activity mats to go with these recipes as well. Just print, laminate and play! We practised making letters and numbers on ours (obviously these come in colour - but we don't have a colour printer!!)

6

Help Your Child Learn Number {+ Yellow Bean Learning Review}

I've written a lot of posts in the past about Literacy. How children learn the alphabet, learn to read, book reviews, spelling ideas, sight words tips etc...and I've done the occasional posts on Number and Shape, but not as many as I would have liked.

Yellow Bean Learning is helping me to change that!

In the average classroom, children spend double the time on Literacy (10 lessons) than they do on Maths (5 lessons). Parents spend time after school hearing their child read and practising their spelling words - but maths is not often included in nightly homework.

Many educational professionals believe that 'Early Number' is all about cognitive understanding and representation of number, i.e. seeing a group of 4 counters and knowing right away that's what 4 of something looks like (otherwise known as subitising). It's also important for children to recognise the numerals before they write them. Writing numerals is a handwriting skill - not a mathematical skill. Young children need to look, touch, play and count in order to develop a good foundation of their mathematical understanding.

Here are some of my favourite resources for teaching number 1-10. It's a beautiful mix with visual appeal and lots of opportunities for hands on, play based learning.

• Pebbles 1-10 (I just got these from Bunnings)
• Lego Duplo
• My First Numbers Book
• Number Cards + Gems (printables available here)
• Yellow Bean Learning Resource Kit
• Number Puzzle

36

Helpful Hints to Learn Sight Words

This post is being published in conjunction with Your Kids OT.

Many parents are looking for new and interesting ways to help their children learn sight words at home, so today I've compiled a list for Cindy and her readers (I hear Cindy's son is getting close to the learning to read stage!).

Firstly, I just want to explain a bit about how the whole 'learning to read' process happens. Basically there are three skills a child needs, alphabet knowledge, sight word recognition and a general understand of print (eg left to right, look at picture clues, repetition, making predictions of what comes next etc). The English language is a tricky one for little people to master - words like 'they', 'said', 'put' and 'was' are not simple to sound out simply by using your alphabet knowledge. Hence, sight words (or tricky words as we call them when using the Jolly Phonics program) are a vital part of the learning to read jigsaw puzzle.

Each school or teacher may have a different system for teaching/learning sight words, however generally speaking your child will probably be given a list of words weekly or fortnightly to learn, and once they master this list, they move up to a new one.

Here's a few examples of 'word building' - which is the skill of putting letters together to sound out and make words. Children love using hands on materials rather than just looking at words on paper.

For more info and explanations of these activity ideas - visit the full post at Your Kids OT.

--------

Still want more ideas? Look no further than Childhood 101 where Christie has compiled two HUGE posts worth of activity ideas for learning sight words. Try here and here.

I hope you found these ideas useful whether it be for school or home!
Lauren

5

Helping with the Homework

Today I'm over at my friend Sarah's blog Working Mums Collective with some tips for (not just) working mums to help their kids with homework.

As a working mum you may find it a struggle to sit down with your child when you get home from work and do their reader, sight words, alphabet or whatever it is they need to do each night. It may be late when you all get home, they may have been in after school care, they may just want to play – and you may just need to cook dinner! As Sarah said, maybe you aren’t always there to do the school pick up and chat with the teacher about these kinds of things.

So here are a couple of suggestions from me (please note this is just from a teacher’s perspective, I don’t have a school aged child of my own. Thought that should be stated from the get go).

1. Routine, routine, routine

2. Try a rewards system

3. Make reading fun!

4. Learn from your environment.

5. Ask your school about their homework policy

6. Most importantly, if the nightly homework ritual is like pulling teeth and stressful for all involved, ask for some advice from your child’s teacher and try some different strategies until you find something that will work for your family. It is so important that children still have time and opportunities to play in their free time after school and that you get to enjoy time together as a family.

Read my explanation of these tips here at Working Mums Collective.

Lauren x

1