As a Experience Early Learning (EEL) Blogger, I receive the EEL Preschool Curriculum in exchange for my honest opinions and authentic stories about our experiences using the curriculum. All opinions and thoughts are completely my own
When I thought about what my family would be like before even becoming a mother, I always imagined reading aloud. I could see myself and my little one cuddled together sharing a good book. It was one of the things I looked forward to the most in becoming a mother, and that is why even when they were just months old, I read books to my kiddos.
Sitting with my kids reading is one of my most precious joys, and now being able to TEACH my girl how to read has actually become a privilege and huge responsibility. She is about five and a half right now and has always loved reading and words. We take our reading lessons very slowly as I want her to ENJOY it always. We’ve been using 2 curriculums to help her learn to read, Experience Early Learning (sight words, letter sounds) and Learning Dynamics (letter sounds, blending, reading books)
Our Experience Early Learning box comes with an I Can Read book each month filled with sight words, along with sight word pointers and punchouts.
So while my boy napped, my girl and I cuddled up on the bed and went over her newest sight words- see, run, and jump. I keep all her pointers on a key ring so she can point to all her sight words, and I put magnetic tape on the punch out words so she can build sentences. You can read all about that here.
This book in particular not only works on sight words but also incorporates a variety of sentences types in its few pages. Kids practice inflection based on the punctuation. Reading aloud often helps with kids being able to hear these changes in your voice. I get so tickled when she sees a question mark and I can hear the inflection of her voice change. Here’s a video of her reading aloud.
After reading through the book, she went through and boxed her sight words in matching colors.
I love how we have only 3 sight words to cover a month with our Experience Early Learning. When kids can read a few sight words and read a book, they feel so proud and want to keep learning and keep reading. And for me, that is what I want for my kiddos…. students who love to read and love to learn. The possibilities are endless then.
