The post ABC Recognition and Sound Letter Recognition Tips appeared first on Character Ink.

Tips for Using Word Cards in Reading Instruction

1) Don’t use word cards with words the student has never encountered. Word cards are for practicing words used in instruction, not for long lists of words never encountered before.

2) Create word cards with words from a reader or book that your student is working through with you right now. Reading words in context (with pictures, sentence rhythm, etc.) is easier than isolated words. I like to be sure my student knows the words out of context. You can test to see if the word needs added to your word card stack by writing the word on the board. If there is instant recognition, then it probably doesn’t need to go on a card. If there is guessing or cues needed, then it could go in the word card stack.

CLICK TO WATCH!

3) Once many words are added to your stack of cards, divide them into difficulty level so that the student has a pretty successful pack; a needs some help pack; etc. And don’t do all of them at once—this will be too many word cards at once and can get discouraging.

4) Add words from one family all to the same stack. For example, all at words in one stack together (as opposed to dividing into different stacks/collections). This gives the student a chance to practice the same family at once—and you have the one family all together to use as needed for further instruction.

5) Add sight words from the books you are reading. Do not add random sight words or too many at one time. We call these Remember Words because she has to remember them—but I still point out any phonetic components to them as we work through them. Give all the tricks, cues, and tools that you can.

6) I like to do the cards after she reads a book or two to me. (We are still in Bob Books for this student, so the books are short.) This way she has had success in context before using isolated words.

7) Develop a protocol for guessing words. In the video, I use my “punishment time” approach—which is a little joke that we have. When she guesses a word that does not at least begin with the first letter of the word on the card, I say, “Punishment time…what is this letter?” She has to say the letter then I say, “What sound does it make?” And she has to say the sound. BOTH things. This makes her not want to randomly guess the words because it annoys her to have to say the letter then its sound. It is a quick way to break a student from guessing the word—the student at least should guess a word that starts with that sound!  🙂 It’s not real punishment—just our joke. But if the word punishment bothers you (or your student), you could call it “First Letter Rule” or “No Guess Rule” or something like that. Guessing is fine, but if the student isn’t at least looking at the first letter in guessing, it can become a really bad habit.

Hope these tips help! What else can I help you with in your language arts, reading, writing, grammar, spelling, speech, or word analysis teaching?

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Five Tips for Avoiding the Terrible Two’s!

(1) Discern between wants and needs prior to the twenty-four month mark

(2) Mean what you say (“Don’t say no unless you’ll go”)

(3) Don’t sweat the small stuff—discerning between truly bad behaviors (behavior absolutes) and childishness

(4) Provide consistency

(5) Tell, don’t ask (unless it’s okay if the child disobeys or doesn’t listen).

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But here it is….let me know what homeschooling, parenting, language arts, writing, Plexus, and marriage questions you have….I’ll make you a *short* Wondering Wednesday video or podcast. 🙂

Be sure to check out the handout here!

Here’s the YouTube description: “In this video, Donna Reish, author of seventy language arts curriculum books, brings you thirty-two organizational and scheduling strategies from her thirty-two years of homeschooling experience. Donna explains the importance of using an ABC prioritizing system, having chore sessions in place, starting your morning out right, getting kids on board with cleaning and chores, meeting your family’s goals, and much more.”

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The post [Video] 32 Organizing and Scheduling Tips From 32 Years of Homeschooling appeared first on Character Ink.

This is funny….but you know this wise old mama of seven has to give advice to counteract:

(1) Tell, don’t ask. If you ask, expect and accept a no. You did ask, after all.

(2) Teach toddler to only say no to danger or people trying to harm him. Teach him to answer you yes after you’ve explained while making eye contact.

(3) Don’t use distractions (except for babies). Dressing is what humans do each day.

(4) Never permit any physical harm. He should never hit, bite, head butt, or harm another. (Getting rid of those behaviors is why we used cribs for a long time…toddlers who harm others should be separated for a bit.)

(5) Don’t give too many choices. “Today we are playing in the park so it’s play jeans and old tennies, but which play shirt do you want.”

(6) Don’t be afraid to explain things. That is how they learn and keep from getting frustrated. Just don’t let your explanation become a debate.

(7) Don’t let child run from you. Running is for playing. Again, use crib for runners.

I know it’s not easy…but it’s also not as hard as we make it. ?

The post How to Dress a Toddler appeared first on Character Ink.

If you have read my article about the Fun Factor in Homeschooling, you know that a lot of our homeschooling was hard work. Perseverance. Stick-tu-i-tive-ness. The daily grind. The day-to-day in’s and out’s. Teaching our kids contentment, work ethic, and study skills.

But we also had fun. A lot of fun. Not every subject. Not every hour. But in balance, we had fun in our school.

I pray that your family can find that fine balance between fun and just plain hard work. Homeschooling is a long, sometimes lonely, and always challenging endeavor.

As I have mentioned before, if we try to make it all fun and games all the time, our children will miss valuable lessons. However, if we omit fun from our homeschool entirely, we risk making everything else look better to our children than home.

Here are a few ways we made homeschooling fun:

1. We always started our day with Bible reading/character reading together–and ended that reading with a fun chapter book that we worked through together. (This was after each person’s morning routine and chore list, usually, and was sometimes during the kids’ breakfast eating.) Everybody looked forward to our continued chapter book readings. I read quite literally hundreds of chapter books aloud to the kids this way, and these are some of our most fond memories of all of homeschooling.

2. While we tried to get curriculum that fit each child’s strengths, interests, learning styles, etc., and I (Donna) did the bulk of the choosing, for extra things, we took the kids with us to smaller conventions (or let them look in a catalog to choose), and they picked out their fun “extras”–including chapter books they wanted to read that year, educational coloring books, audios to listen to, etc. (Yes, we spent a lot on our kids’ school. We live in a very old, tiny, non-fancy house with used furniture and old vehicles with lots of miles. We financially (and time and energy-wise) prioritized our kids’ education and family times over everything else.)

3. While we did many weekday field trips, we didn’t limit our field trips to school days. It wasn’t uncommon at all for us to take a Saturday to go to museums and zoos with Dad or to plan a long weekend vacation museum-hopping in Chicago. The kids knew that their education was important to both Dad and Mom–and wasn’t just something that Mom did, thought about, planned, and carried out.

4. In addition to our morning chapter book, I usually had chapter books going with various kids. I would have one that I read aloud to each of the three olders–plus another that we did as a family with Dad. Everybody worked hard so we could do our reading.

5. I should say after the #4 reading one that we did not have access to television stations or even computers with our olders. We had a big old television hooked up to a vcr–and we limited everybody’s watching to five hours per week (usually together). I need to include that here because when you don’t have television or computers, reading aloud together becomes a fun activity. While I don’t think we should run away from our society (not have a computer, act like technology doesn’t exist, etc.), we recommend highly limiting and controlling it so that the little things in life become sweeter. (See The Fun Factor in Homeschooling.)

6. Read the book/watch the movie. We didn’t do this formally, but we did it quite often. With so many book/movie combos out today, I would make this a homeschool tradition!

7. Add fun subjects. Our kids always got to do extra things they enjoyed like art, music, pottery, sewing, science kits, etc. We tried to expose them to different fun things to see what they were good at and where their interests took them.

8. Make PE a family affair. We tried to do a lot of our kids’ PE at home together. We had other families over to play. But we also just played as a family. We loved making up new games with various sizes and styles of balls!

9. Get cool school supplies. We didn’t do back-to-school clothes shopping, but we did let them pick out their binders, pens, crayons, etc. They weren’t limited to a list from a school with boring “16 Crayola crayons–no more, no fewer”—any style or color or pattern of school supply works at home! 😉

10. As our kids got older, we let them plan their subjects for the next year–and sometimes even choose the books.

11. Also, as our kids got older, we let them plan their school schedule/order with us for the year. As long as it worked and they completed their lists, they could continue to make choices about these things.

12. School with another family. We often did field trips, activities, unit studies, days away, etc. with another family or two of kids. We got together to do gingerbread houses and crafts, etc., every Christmas.

13. Do anything different than what kids around you are doing! Our kids loved the fact that they didn’t have to get on a bus early or they didn’t have to stay inside at a desk if it was nice out. Or we could go to the park for lunch and some PE on any given day. Point out the fact that homeschooling affords us so many activities and opportunities that those in school can’t do or enjoy.

14. Take fun field trips! If you have heard us speak or follow our blog, you know that our older kids are extremely proud of the fact that they (along with Mom and Dad) slept at the top of the jungle gym at Science Central, in the snake room at the zoo, and on the soldiers’ “cots” at the fort. Go for the unusual, and they will remember them and love homeschooling because of them.

15. Do story time from birth. There is nothing like shared picture books with little kids. And there is definitely nothing like the memories of reading picture books every afternoon with momma for ten years. I’m telling you–this is what memories are made of.

I could go on forever and ever about how much we love homeschooling; how we tried to make it fun (but not so fun that normal wasn’t enjoyed!); how we put our time, money, strength, and energy into raising our children in this homeschooling lifestyle–and how much they, as adults, are grateful to us for it.

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Welcome to another Wondering Wednesday!

Because we are swamped writing and editing our new Peter Pan and Jungle Book writing books. And because we have had a lot of great posts, freebies, etc., about chores, I thought I would do a sort of round up for you today of podcasts that might help you with chores, schedules, home management, and more!

So here you go….

PODCASTS FOR CHORES AND MORE

You can download our cute printable posters, “Age Appropriate Chore Posters”  at our store by clicking on the picture below!

Let me know what you would like to hear more about and how we can help you!

Love and hope,
Donna

The post Podcast Roundup: Chores & More appeared first on Character Ink.

Welcome to Part II of II about story time. I have been answering questions for some young moms, and these posts are those answers. (You can read part one here.)

Before I dig in to the rest of my answers, I want to give you my podcasts that have references or even more answers about story time and structuring your toddler’s and preschooler’s days over all:
 
(1) Room Time
(2) Turning Preschoolers into the Darling Angels They Were Meant to Be
(3) Solving Common Preschooler Behavior Problems
(4) What Should I Do With a Kindergartener?
(5) How Do I Prepare My Child to Learn to Read?
(6) Summer Reading Help
(7) Toddler Troubles
(8) Story Time

(1) If your two year old isn’t ready even for the easy part of story time, I would do the short story time alone with the two year old and one year old.

I mentioned earlier that a “private story time” in Mama’s rocking chair for toddlers (twelve to twenty months, usually) was the beginning of weaning for my littles. Basically, I replaced a nursing with stories, songs, and rhymes. And yes, it was absolutely wonderful and blissful. Enjoy every moment, young mamas!

(2) If the two year old is ready, but the only problem is interrupting too often with questions, I would consider any of the following ideas:

a. Let him choose the first book and tell him this is his “question book.” For this book only, we can stop a lot, answer questions, etc. (Oh…those interactive books that the two year olds had to do everything to…..brutal!) This is his story, and you can use it as a quality teaching time for him.

b. For the rest of the books that he stays for, tell him he can have one “excuse me.” This is one time that he can have you flip back, answer a question, etc.

c. Let him take the books that he has the most questions or that you know he wants to know more about to bed with him—and tell him after his nap he can bring the book to you for more questions.

d. If he can’t do the one “excuse me,” just let him be interactive on the first book only until he can handle it. (Always match privilege with responsibility in all aspects of parenting.)

(3) While you are trying to find what is comfortable for your family, always keep in mind the olders.

Don’t let story time turn into something they dread or something that they do not benefit from by letting littles (even though they are amazing and sweet) monopolize it.

The trickle down effect of what you teach and do with your olders is astonishing. Toddlers who run the home (or even run story time!) can really disrupt this process.

So definitely spend lots of time with your littles; love them; read, rock, sing, and play. But do not let them take over unit study times, story times, etc., and detract consistently from what you are doing with your olders.

Hope this helps!

I have to end with a cute story time story.

When Joshua (our oldest) was around ten, he decided that he was too old for story time. (They never outgrew unit studies but eventually did story time.) So on the day he decided to not come to story time, I was lying in bed with four other littles reading away when I heard a noise in the hallway. He was sitting on the floor in the hallway listening. I told him he could join us, but he said he was just resting. Next thing I knew, he was sitting in the doorway. Then on the floor beside the bed. The, of course, across the foot of the bed! The next day he joined us for quite some time thereafter! 🙂

The post Story Time Questions and Answers Part II of II: Story Time With Toddlers appeared first on Character Ink.

I have been receiving questions again lately about story time, so I want to write a couple of posts addressing these questions specifically. Before I do, however, be sure you check out my podcasts that have references or even more answers about story time and structuring your toddler’s and preschooler’s days over all:

(1) Room time
(2) Turning Preschoolers into the Darling Angels They Were Meant to Be
(3) Solving Common Preschooler Behavior Problems
(4) What Should I Do With a Kindergartener?
(5) How Do I Prepare My Child to Learn to Read?
(6) Summer Reading Help
(7) Toddler Troubles
(8) Story Time

Now on to the answers!

I treated story time much like I treated unit studies (or “subject reading” as Joshua used to call it when he was five!).

Some Basics:

(1) Story time is a privilege that is earned…not something you automatically get to do (as were unit studies).

Thus, there was a readiness that was needed in order to join story time: the ability to lie in the bed with everybody without moving too much, getting up, etc.

(We used to do a two hour story time in bed followed by a two hour nap…even me! For real! Amazing, huh? Ray worked twelve or thirteen hours a day, and I seldom went anywhere…plenty of time to get everything done, read for hours, AND take a nap! LOL)

This pretty much eliminated anybody under two joining our regular story time. If these guidelines were not met, the child just went to bed for his nap (with books in his bed and one side of a story tape), and he could try again later in a few days (not a bunch of back and forth and in and out)….this takes me to my next “basic.”

(2) We always taught to the oldest.

Everything we did at first was based on our oldest two kids—the others could always join, but we emphasized our older kids for sure. This is often opposite of what families with untrained littles do. They often do not see how they can focus on the olders when they continue to let one, two, and three year olds be too high need. Just my two cents….:)

(3) In light of always teaching to the oldest, we wanted unit studies and story time to be the most effective that they could be for the older kids.

If we allowed a two year old (or one year old) to monopolize that time, this simply wasn’t happening.

(4) That is not to say that we did not do things with the littles or that we didn’t consider their needs.

But we didn’t let their “wants” keep us from meeting our older kids’ needs (educationally, spiritual training, fun times, etc.).

Specific Tips for Story Time:

(1) Children who were not old enough (i.e. not “ready”) to join story time every day had their own story time.

Those older kids that we spent so much time with and on cleaned the kitchen after lunch each day while I rocked, read to, and did rhymes and stories with the toddler. (This was actually the beginning of weaning for us—replacing the noon nursing with the toddler’s own story time!)

This allowed the toddler to learn to enjoy reading without interrupting the olders’ story time. It also signaled a change in schedule, slowing down, etc. And it provided routine so that the toddler knew what was next. (After his story time, he got “dropped off at the bus stop” (carrying the bus stop approach to unit studies into the story time example)—his crib for his looonnng (three to four hour!) nap. (How else was I going to do a two hour story time and two hour nap for myself!?) Note: This was ten minutes long tops.

(2) Children who were old enough gathered their books.

Whoever’s day it was did the following: (a) get the book basket with our ongoing books (Family Bible Library or whatever ongoing Bible study that we didn’t already do for unit studies—I did two a day besides devoes; chapter book; poetry or hymn books; longer picture books (especially our Answers in Genesis picture books, which were longer), nature book/magazines, sometimes biographies, but these were usually done in the mornings, etc.); (b) got two books from the bookcase or library basket; and came to my room with those things.

Everybody else got their one book choice. The person whose day it was got to sit closest—and his books were the first and last read. (Who says you can’t make things special when you have so many kids or do things more “individualized”????)

(3) We always kept book markers (or “picks” as my kids called them) in our ongoing books and just picked up where we had left off the day before.

Eventually, we got through tons of chapter books, nature books, etc., using this method. As in hundreds of chapter books….one of my greatest accomplishments was reading these chapter books aloud to my children. The memories and affection resulting in these chapter books were worth all the time.

(4) If a child was able to come to story time but necessarily for the whole two hours, we used the “bus stop approach” that you have heard me talk about with our unit studies.

In that way, we would do all of the picture books first (shorter books with pictures like the Five in a Row books, children’s classics, whatever they picked.

Then, just like in unit studies, the two or three year old would be dropped off at the bus station (i.e. beds for naps). More often than not, they would just fall asleep before we got to the harder books. If we did story time on the sofa, I would send them to bed for their naps when they were getting too fidgety or tired. (And they could have one side of a story tape once they got there.)

Note: For unit studies, I did the same thing—started with easy materials then moved to harder ones. At a certain point, the littles could be dropped off at the bus station—but instead of going to bed for naps, they could stay in the room and play quietly on the floor, which they almost always chose to do. (At some point in unit studies, the littles would often have room time that we had set up ahead of time.)

(5) Then once the littles were asleep or in bed, we would move onto the ongoing books and chapter books.

I tried not to make it a repeat of unit studies, but my kids often picked the creation books, nature books, etc. I did try to save the more fun books for story time, generally speaking.

The post Story Time Questions & Answers Part I of II: General Story Time Tips appeared first on Character Ink.

I. Getting the Disney Dining

A. Disney Dining plan

a. I recommend you get one
b. Counter Service Plan

i. 2 Counter meals (like really nice fast food)
    1. Ribs, fish etc.
ii. 1 Snack
    1. Can be 5-7 Dollars
iii. I recommend you buying this if you have small kids who might not be interested in 90 minute sit down experiences
iv. 43 and 17

B. Standard Disney Dining

i. One sit-down meal
    1. A nice restaurant
ii. One counter meal
iii. One snack
iv. Costs 62 for adults, 21 for children under 10 per day

b. If you are going to eat at Disney this is worth it

i. You can eat two counter meals in one day
ii. Four snacks in one day

c. Saves you a little bit of money if you buy it

i. You don’t have to think about food
ii. More than enough
iii. Huge portions
iv. Might have a few snacks
   1. Though we usually have leftovers

d. Tips are not included

C. What is Free Disney Dining?

a. Free Dining

  i. The Dining plan was free
    1. In a normal trip you would only pay for hotel and park tickets
  ii. Last year if you stayed at a value resort you got the quick service
    1. With an option to upgrade to Standard for $20 a day
  iii. If you stayed at a moderate or luxury resort, you got the standard plan
    1. Essentially, all of our food
  iv. It is exciting to go to one of our restaurants and see a bill for $700 dollars and know it is free
  v. It is Disney’s best deal by a long shot

b. Limitations

  i. Cannot be packaged with other special deals
    1. Not with 25% off
    2. Normal rate for that time of year
    3. Normal cost for tickets for the number of days

  ii. They only offer it for certain weeks
    1. Recently it is only in the fall and early December
    2. Not Halloween, Thanksgiving, Labor Day etc.
    3. When they announce they will announce which weeks the deal is for
               a. You have to go during one of those weeks

 iii. It is only for certain resorts
    1. The one’s they need to fill in those weeks
    2. Though it is for most resorts
    3. There are sections and whole resorts that don’t count

  iv. It is very limited
    1. And is getting more limited all the time
    2. First come, first serve
    3. When they are out of free dining plans, you have to hope that someone cancels

II. Booking Everything

A. When

a. Plan on going during the fall and not during a holiday
    1. Pick at least 2 or 3 weeks that will work for everyone at least by the first of March
    2. We planned on going the first week of November
               i. Disney didn’t offer free dining that week
               ii. They did offer it the second week of November

B. Pick at least 3 hotels that you want to stay in at least by the first of March

   1. Our first choice was Art of Disney Animation
   2. We needed to switch to Coronado Springs
   3. You won’t know which resort is offering the deals

C. Check every day in March, April, and May for Free Disney Dining Plan

    a. Details

    i. Dining is usually April or May
    ii. They don’t tell you
    iii. You won’t know until they announce
    iv. Just type in free Disney dining 2016
         1. If they’ve announced, it should be all over the place
    v. Just 30 seconds a day
         1. I checked two or three times a day
         2. It was worth about $7000 for our family

b.  You can book your trip for your first choice week
     i. They will let you switch rooms, dates, or just apply the discount if you are on an eligible date and in an eligible time

c. When they announce call Disney and book your trip
   i. It will be an hour wait
   ii. Do not wait
         1. They will be gone in less than 24 hours
   iii. Know your possible dates
   iv. Know your possible resorts
   v. You can do it online
        1. If you catch it early enough

d. If you miss it, keep trying
   i. People book too many rooms or their trip gets canceled
   ii. So you still might have a chance

D. Fast Passes
   a. 60 days if staying on Disney
   b. Magic Bands

E. Extras
   a. Don’t do them
   b. Hotel, Food, Tickets

III. At Disney: Scheduling the most out of your days

  a. Four types of touring days
  b. All Day
     i. Best: You can do everything in a park in one day
        1. If you do them at the right time
        2. And aren’t there during peak time
    ii. Worst: Can be very tiring
        1. Only do this a few times unless it is a short trip (four or five days or fewer) or your family has a lot of stamina
        2. Do not overestimate how tiring Disney can be
            a. 7 miles plus of walking per day
    iii. Strategy
      1. Start in a land with attractions with longer lines
          a. Do the longest
      2. Move to second level lines through late morning
      3. Eat lunch at 11:30
      4. Mix in fastpasses from 12:30 to 3:30
          a. Three big attractions
          b. Then get more
    5. Do shows and low line level rides
c.  Go early, Leave in the Afternoon, come back in the evening
           i. Best

Listen to the podcast by clicking on the picture below!

Links:

Disneyworld.disney.go.com
Disneyfoodblog.com
Disney Junkies FB page
Other RKWC/CI Podcasts
RKWC/CI blog
Plexus to Feel Great Blog
What is TriPlex?
Keep Kids Close Coupons
Affirmation Cards
Age-Appropriate Chore Posters
Consequence Pies
Meaningful Composition Writing Program
Character Ink Store
Write On, Peter Pan (and coming soon—Mowgli!) books
The Plastic Wrap Ball

The post Podcast Notes for “Part II – Trip Tips to Planning the Perfect & Money Saving Disney World Vacation” appeared first on Character Ink.