Teaching the Kid(s) How to Read

On my list of things to start on my maternity leave, I included the task of teaching my son, Leepo, how to read. I think we're off to a really good start, so I'll share what has worked well so far.

This is obvious, but we started with the ABCs. We sang the alphabet until it was memorized, then we went through this stack of flashcards as often as we could many months earlier. I just love the Eric Carle letters because they're so vibrant and display all different kinds of animals. I admit to using fruit snacks as an incentive, though I have mixed feelings about rewarding kids with foods (am I laying the ground work for eating disorders later on?).

Once Leepo mastered letter cognition with the accompanying sound, we moved on to this nifty paint chip idea I found, where else?, on Pinterest.

Here you see my son playing with word stems that contain a window view box (got these from Lowe's) on a color sheet that contains first letters (from Home Depot). We sound out each component first and then put them together. I think he's starting to grasp the concept now.

The only thing to warn you about is that since these are paint chips, and they're good quality paint at that, even permanent marker will smudge off. Also, be warned about unintentional curse words. The nice thing about using a fold-out book for the initial letters is that you can plan ahead and separate out Tr for truck and F for food if you know what I mean.

Some high yield word stems:

-it
-ig
-at
-oy
-ook
-oon
-ite
-ing
-ove
-ack
-ob
-eep
-ain
-est

Still Nesting, and it's Contagious

One of the things I hoped to accomplish before delivering was to set up a playroom where Leepo could do his thing and keep small toys (read: choking hazards) away from Beanie.

With all the other stuff going on (see the previous entry about storm damage), I thought this was a project we wouldn't touch for another few months, but seemingly out of nowhere Tim has conjured up the energy to jump right into this.

The picture you see below is actually an improvement to what we call "the messy room" after tossing out a lot of junk. I didn't take a 'before' picture for two reasons. First, it was physically impossible to get a good shot from a room that left no space to move within. Second, you can all use your imaginations to visualize what a room must look like after 7 years of dumping stuff into it when we were too busy with work/school.

Once we get things up and moving, we hope to clear out a lot of the toys that are seeping into our not-so-tranquil-right-now family room. This will also be the area where Beanie will play during the winter days, and hopefully where we'll have fun gatherings with other adults in the evenings (far away from the nursery).

Of course you didn't think I'd jump into this project without analyzing the layout and color schemes! Here I am, as always, looking at a few things in Microsoft Paint. I'm trying to find the perfect foam tile color and texture to go with my desired wall color: Mint Fizz by Behr.

I think we're going with choice A.

I've also been doing quite a bit of research on fostering learning at home based on this Pinspiration.

Stay tuned to how this all unfolds. I'm excited!

Pin It To Win It

Modern, simple bird bath

I'm going to confess something, I love my neighborhood birds. I am especially fond of cardinals. So when I saw this pin, I was inspired. All I did was hot glue a square piece of wood to the top of a wooden dowel and tape to it a little plate that I found at Goodwill. Now perhaps all the water evaporated in the noonday sun, but when I got home and found this bird bath dry, I had visions of birdies basking in modern design and loving it.

This brings me joy.