Happy Thursday!

Hi everyone!

It's Thursday, and hard to think where the week has gone! I bet you feel that way from time to time, too. I've kept busy with my work, added two new literacy clients and one new student this afternoon. It'll take the rest of the week just to catch up on writing the reports LOL! I hope your week has been productive and pleasant, as well.

I'm working on an article about creating games to teach phonics, so here is a sample:

Make cards that have one word on each. You'll want at least five sets of four rhyming words. Shuffle the cards, and play a game similar to Go Fish. Deal the cards out to the players, about five each. Put the rest face down to be the Fish Pond. Players take turns asking for rhymes that match cards that they hold, "Do you have a word that rhymes with hat?" for example. As in the traditional game, the other player either gives up a word that rhymes with hat or says "Go Fish!" If a rhyming word is acquired, the player can take another turn. Have fun!

Plunging in

Ready for the rollercoaster ride? It's Monday, and I bet we're all poised for a hectic week. I hope yours is productive and happy, and filled with fun with your children.

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Try some calendar math! Challenge your child to add up all of the Tuesdays or multiply the first Wednesday by the last Saturday. You can really practice a lot of math if you make up problems like that. Yours is too young for that kind of work? Cut the dates apart from an old calendar page and use them like a number puzzle!

How Are You Today??

It's Sunday, and I'm off to help with a Girl Scout activity then to a GS leader appreciation outing. It's going to make things a bit tight getting my writing and minimal housework done, so I'm feeling just a smidge stressed today. I hope I can relax and enjoy the girls!

And I hope tomorrow is a better day!

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Play a cool food pyramid game with your preschoolers! Cut out lots of pictures of single foods from magazines (casseroles can be tough to categorize!). Make a giant picture of the food pyramid on a paper or poster board. Pass out the food pictures and challenge the kids to put them onto the pyramid in the correct places. Make things a bit more challenging if you want to by only allowing the correct number of servings in each area.