Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Teaching a Child to Read.


"Can you read this?"   "No, I'm just looking at the pictures."

Hi, Friends......

I have a very special project to share with you today.....one that is very near and dear to my heart.  As you might know, my 5 year old granddaughter and her mommy live with us.  Since mommy works a lot, I get to be a full-time grandma.....a very intense but joyful experience!  (I totally see why God gives children to YOUNG parents!!  Ha.)

Our Little Peach has been doing a lot of pre-reading exercises of learning the sounds that letters make, etc..., but hadn't figured out how to hook them all up together to form words.  I hit on the idea of using some of my thousands of sticky alphas (that I rarely touch!) to make little flashcards of letters and letter blends for her.  I thought the bright colors and chunky fonts might be attractive and easy for her to use.  

As I got my supplies together, I remembered I had zillions of non-sticky perforated alpha sheets in loud colors and prints.  Hey, this would be a good way to use these!!!
Some of my barely-used perforated alpha sheets.

I somewhat reluctantly pulled out my closely-hoarded sticker maker.....(reminding myself that there is no more noble cause than using it to teach a child to read!).....and fed strips of the letters in to make a bunch of sticky alphas.

Here's a serpentine line of the alpha strips coming out of the sticker maker.

I pulled out some colorful scraps of cardstock from my stash and began applying the now-sticky letters, singly and in blends, and cut them into individual cards.  I made them double-sided for more letter options.

Put your shades on......these babies are bright!!!

My granddaughter came down for breakfast as I was making these and was totally enchanted!!  She wanted to play with them right away......and I let her do it, even before she ate!  :)  

Within 5 minutes of working with them, the door to reading was unlocked for her!!!!  WOWOWOWOWOW!!!  I don't know why the tiny cards helped so much, but they did.  I am just thrilled!!!

Grandpa working with her on making words.  Sweet!!
We all have had so much fun seeing her pick up on reading.  Even Grandpa has taken time out of his busy schedule to enjoy this milestone in her little life!!!


"Rrr - Aww - K.............ROCK!!!"  :)

Thanks for letting me share this wonderful and exciting happening in our home!  To me there is almost nothing as rewarding as teaching a child to read.  I treasure this opportunity I have with her.

I hope this project inspires you to use some of your neglected (or hoarded!!!) craft supplies and scraps in ways that you hadn't thought of before.  

Back to regularly scheduled Christmas craft projects next......

<3
Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering this project in the following challenges:
1.  Pixie's Snippets Playground Week #205 - Use Snippets
2.  Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes
3.  Amusing Challenge - Anything Goes
4.  DL.Art December Linky Party - Anything Goes

11 comments:

  1. This is so sweet. I love it. I remember the first time the words really made sense to me and I could read a complete sentence and understand it-- there was no going back from that, I was hooked on reading.
    Thank you for joining my DL.ART Thankful Thursday Anything Goes DECEMBER Linky Challenge. Have a blessed day
    DIANA L.

    DL.ART DESIGN TEAM MEMBER
    DL.ART
    http://dianamlarson.blogspot.com
    http://dianamlarson.ctmh.com

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  2. A Brilliant idea, and what a blessing for your sweet granddaughter!! Reading opens to world to us, how exciting for her to have gramma teach her the basics :)

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  3. Thanks for sharing a great story and a great idea!
    Take care!
    Michele

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  4. Wonderful - what a great outcome

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  5. FANTASTIC.

    Sounds like a wonderful experience and I just bet you're tickled pink by helping her so much. Reading is SUCH a fantastic magical thing to be able to do and opens up EVERYTHING . . . well done Grandma! xxx

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  6. That is a lovely story. Thank you for sharing. hank you for joining the DL.ART Thankful Thursday Anything Goes Linky Challenge. Katie-DL.ART-DTmemeber

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  7. Oh how wonderful, a really uplifting tale Janis - no wonder you're delighted! And, you used up some snippets along the way too - so a double win :) Well done.

    Hugs

    Di xx

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  8. What a thrill and how enriched her life will be forward...........Lis

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  9. What a fantastic idea Janis. I have a tonne of these sheets of letters you are speaking of from my old scrapbooking stash, that I will NEVER use. I have 2 young grandsons myself soon to be 4 & 2. The oldest knows all of his alphabet, numbers and counts to 30 and is a little sponge for learning. He would absolutely LOVE this and so would our daughter.We are BIG book worms and both boys are already hooked on reading. I will have to do this for them. I think I will actually laminate mine though so they will survive two boys. TFS your fantastic idea!

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  10. I dare say I have alpha sheets just like these tucked away in my stash and one reason I never used them was because you have to glue them one-by-one. Now I have no excuse not to pull out my own, hoarded Sticker maker and use some of these puppies. The photos of Little Peach showing off her reading skills to grandpa are priceless! Isn't it wonderful how just a small thing like using bright colors and giving her a personal set of letters sparked new interest?!! Love this!

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THANK YOU so much for taking the time to leave a comment. Your kind words encourage me so very much!!!

Have a lovely day!
<3
Janis