word cards for reading help

Homeschooling is always an adventure. You get into a rhythm and figure out where one child's sweet spot is and how they learn...and then you have to start all over again with subsequent children.

Like I said, an adventure.

Sarah learned to read quickly and fairly easily. It was like one day a switch just flipped in her brain, and she got it. She took off and has been reading fluently ever since.

It's been more of a process with Natalie. We've tried a few different things, and none of them really "clicked."

We're making progress now--slow progress, but progress nonetheless.

These cards are helping.

My grandmother found them at a yard sale years and years ago.

These are old and musty, and I doubt you can still find them (except at yard sales). But they'd be fairly easy to make, I'd think.

The initial consonant sound just folds over to make each word.







 You can make them very simple with just easy sounds like "m" or "b," or you could get more complex with blends like "sw" or "ch." These cards do a bit of both. Natalie is doing well with both so far.

Kids Central and Splash Dance

For some reason my iPod didn't want to give up my photos. I've been trying for days to get the rest of the Fun Fest posts up, and I just couldn't get the pictures to upload properly.

But everything seems to be working finally, so hopefully better late than never. :)

Natalie climbed up to the top and then was too scared to slide down the other side. Sarah had to go rescue her.

Bouncy castles are always fun!

Legos are always a hit.

She liked this slide better.

The slip 'n' slides at the Splash Dance

Soooo much spray

Seriously, a lot of spray. There are no spectators here--adults standing off to the side still get wet. Fire hoses mean business.

Farm Fest

Today was Farm Fest, and it's always one of the girls' favorite Fun Fest activities. We missed it last year because we had all come down with hand, foot, and mouth, so we were especially glad to get back to it this year. We thought at first the weather might render us unable to go, but the rain stopped just in time.

Farm Fest takes place at the Exchange Place, a "living history farm." Some of the activities are the same from year to year (touring the historic home, walking through the garden, etc.) Some change--there wasn't a dulcimer this year or as many animals. But it's always good fun.

Fun Fest

Yesterday was the official kickoff for this year's Fun Fest, but we didn't start our participation until today. Today we headed to the "Paleorific Kids Fest" at the mall.

Before we headed to the dinosaur-themed activities, we stopped by Auntie Anne's table. They were letting kids roll out pretzel dough and attempt to shape it.

Sarah can shape a pretzel FAR better than I can

Then we headed to the game section they had set up.

Silliness while waiting in line

As close as I'll ever come to having Instagram probably

For the games they tied kids' arms to their sides. This was to emulate the shortish arms dinosaurs have and make it a bit more challenging and fun.

Natalie actually got a ball in one of the cups

Sarah's shot went completely wild

 Next came a bowling game.

And a bean bag toss.

Okay, allow me just a bit of a proud mama moment. This was a large dinosaur puppet type thing. The line to see it was long. The girls had no interest in standing in line to see a fake dinosaur.

But they spent several minutes at the display set up by the Natural History Museum with real dinosaur items. 

There was a fun "dinosaur dig" set up.

And finally a scavenger hunt: each girl had a chart with dinosaurs to find. They were on pictures hidden in various spots around the mall. Sarah spotted them for us, but I thought it was a great activity for Natalie, having to match the picture and name of dinosaur on the wall with the name and picture on her chart.

All in all, a fun day and a great kickoff to the week.