by Donna | Sep 11, 2018
“I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.” ~Anna Quindlen, “Enough Bookshelves”
During my graduate studies (in Reading Specialist) at Ball State University, I did a master’s thesis about children who learn to read without any reading instruction. That is, the kids just suddenly started reading books without ever having phonics lessons, basal readers, or other “formal instruction.” It was a challenging thesis simply because there is so little data about it because of our “early school attendance age.” Seldom does a child learn to read “naturally” before age six or seven, and with kids going to school at age five (and often beginning reading instruction in kindergarten), the research was sparse concerning these “instruction-less” readers.
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by Donna | Sep 6, 2018
School is well underway for most homeschoolers—and there are lots of kinks to work out here and there. That is fine. Just solve one problem and then move on to another. Tackle the thing that is the most bothersome, then the next most bothersome.
Don’t do everything at once. And don’t expect perfection!
There are a lot of things that you can do to solve reading problems…here are my top several tips, but most of these tips are spread out in the blog posts, products, audios, and videos that I have listed below for a sort of “reading round up” for you. Hope this helps your reading struggles!
Be sure to contact me with questions—I can answer you via a blog post, a freebie product (!), video, or audio! I love to help homeschoolers!!
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by Donna | Sep 4, 2018
When my kids were little, we didn’t have electronics, etc. (except for our beloved GeoSafari and MathSafari!), so gift giving was a little simpler. We did, however, give a balance of educational items and fun items (just like I am doing with my grandbabies!). Our kids loved school and learning, so they looked forward to getting “school” things for Christmas besides the many wonderful toys we got them–for the most part. We had a couple who didn’t love school as much as the others (though we still had high expectations for them!), so I understand the need to make learning more fun for some kiddos! Enter my two readers/coloring books. I am excited about these print books (available from Amazon) as they have the fun of exciting, well-known stories and coloring pages AND text that can be used for reading aloud to the child or as a reader for them.
Above are some links to books I use and love. I am an affiliate for Amazon.com. If you click on the links I will earn a small commission. Thank you for your support of this blog!
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by Donna | Sep 2, 2018
September/October FREE IF WEBINARS—Choose the Date/Time That Works for You!
Thursday, September 26th @ 8:00pm Eastern Time
Sunday, September 29th @ 9:00pm Eastern Time
Tuesday, October 1st @ 10:00am Eastern Time
Wednesday, October 2nd @ 8:00pm Eastern Time
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by Donna | Aug 25, 2018
How’s your “back to school” productivity, scheduling, and prioritizing going? Mine is full on crazy with all of our new fall endeavors—but thanks to the many mechanisms and tricks that I learned from three decades of homeschooling and two decades of curriculum writing, I’m still afloat! 😜
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