All About Spelling

I had heard much positive feedback about this program from other homeschoolers, so I decided to give it a try. I purchased Level One at the beginning of the school year, and Rylan and I have been working through the program since then.

I can safely say that it lives up to the hype! This is a very well thought out, easy to use, easy to teach program. The multi-sensory approach to spelling (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic) is also a big factor in the program working for Rylan. He gets bored with monotony, so the fact that we sometimes work orally, then with magnetic tiles, or writing (and I change the materials we use with writing – dry erase board, chalk board, paper and pencil, paper and markers, etc) to practice spelling words keeps the interest level up and utilizes multiple skills.

~some of the different media we use~

Each level comes with a teacher’s manual (all you need to do is open the book and follow the instructions and steps which are clear and simple, couldn’t be easier for the teacher/parent), several sets of flashcards which are used for teaching and review (a box and dividing cards are provided to make it super easy to organize the cards and keep track of what skills are mastered and what needs to be reviewed), magnetic letter tiles, tokens for word segmentation, a phonogram CD-rom, progress charts, and a completion chart.

The thing I love the most about All About Spelling (apart from the fact that it is teaching Rylan how to spell, of course!) is that it takes a subject with the reputation for being boring, and makes it enjoyable and very straight forward to follow.

An old classic: the Lite Brite

The other day we were over at my sister’s home, and since she has grandkids (yes, her grandkids are the same age as my kids, I was a late comer in my family!) she has a stash of toys in her house that my boys love investigating while visiting her. This time she pulled out something new for them – a Lite Brite, which she had just picked up from a garage sale.

When I saw it, it brought back a flood of childhood memories! I remember spending hours creating pictures and patterns on this toy. It was an equally huge success with my boys. They laid down on a rug and created together on the Lite Brite for the rest of our visit there. Since it uses small pegs to create an image it is excellent for practicing the pincer grip and fine motor coordination in general. And the reward when you switch off the lights and see your image colorfully glowing in the dark is bound to be a hit with the little ones. Win, win.

My sister had picked up an old style one at a garage sale, which was like the one I used when growing up. Does it look familiar to you?

When I got home that night I did an online search to see if they still made them. Sure enough they do, but they have been updated somewhat.

The newer one has a smaller board than the original one, which is a shame, but it still works nicely. It has a convenient little peg holder built into the board, so the pegs stay with the board all the time. It is also battery operated, so it does not need to be plugged into the wall, like the original ones. We bought one, and the boys have enjoyed many hours of creating on it! Me too! ;)

Super fun (and green) water toy: Yookidoo Flow ‘N’ Fill Spout

Do your kids love to play with running water? Mine definitely do, but I definitely don’t like the water bill that goes with it (in Hawaii everything is expensive), or wasting an important natural resource for that matter. But kids are definitely mesmerized by flowing water and it is a great tactile form of play for them. Enter the Yookidoo Flow ‘N’ Fill Spout – it has a little battery operated pump that you submerge in water and then recycles the water to keep the faucet flowing, it also comes with a few fun water toys that work with it. You can use it in a bath tub, a kitchen sink, a big plastic tub, etc. We have been using it for two weeks now and the boys love this thing, especially Damian. He cannot wait to get into the bath every night to play with it.

I purchased this product myself and am sharing it with you because we enjoy it. Amazon link is affiliate.

Fun learning books: The Cat in the Hat Learning Library

I am not saying these books should replace the more scientific and serious books you will use as resources for learning with your children, but these are certainly a fun thing to add to your reading selection on a variety of subjects. We have used many of them, they are factual, and filled with the usual Dr. Seuss styled rhyming fun (though, they are not written by Dr. Seuss himself). And why not add a little humor to learning?I often stick them into our reading selection on a particular subject, usually as a lead in to the topic because they are a lighthearted way to start, and Damian finds them appealing and easy to follow as well. I have purchased a couple packets of these books from Costco (they usually come in bundles of three for about $10.99, if my memory serves me correctly), but they are also available from Amazon, and probably your local library. They cover a large selection of subjects: various animal families, weather, maps, the human body, money, the solar system, plant life, etc so they are easy to work into many topics of learning.

I purchased these books myself and am sharing them with you because we enjoy using them. Amazon links are affiliate.