A Guide To Boys Reading Ages 5-7

Yikes, readers I 100% apologize! How on earth did this week start up and I am already behind!? Field trips, meet ups, movies and friends have had us in a whirl-wind. This should have been on Monday's blog. Oh well I will play catch up now and you will just have to deal with my ramblings! The weekend was so jam packed, I truly feel as though we were on a 1 week long vacation where we truly had to SEE IT ALL!! WOW! Okay anyway...on with the post. My boys were struggling readers, they learned to read quickly, can do their work with ease and the like, but as far as free reading goes? It takes too much to get them into ANYTHING...Try as I might, I was failing with everything I picked up. What did I decide to do then? Take them to Barnes & Noble, head to the reading level appropriate shelves and we grabbed books. FIRST NOTE that I would only grab books that were part of a series. This was done intentionally so that they could continue reading books without have to look for more every week or so! We took the first books of many sets and had a seat in the corner of the children's section. I read the back of the book and if it got a thumbs up, we read the first chapter together. If it worked it went into the YES pile and if not, we put it back to be restocked. After narrowing it down, we wrote down the title and author of each YES book  and then I let them pick out which series to begin with. Today's thread is all about my 7 year old and the book series' that he has fell in love with since he was 5!

1. Magic Tree House by Mary Pope Osborne, this series is something he fell in love with at 4 when I would read to him and when he started reading. By 5 he was on his own and in love with the stories.

2. A-Z Mysteries by Ron Roy, this is perfect for that wannabe crime solver, easy to read but tackles fun subjects that the kids learn as they go.

3. Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney, Add in typical boy humor, comic book like pictures and hilarity ensues. This is a series that he has gone back to multiple times

4. Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey, once again that boy humor comes in to play. He loves to read portions of these books aloud and then laugh and laugh.

5. Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown, these adventures make for an easy read that can be finished in no time, by even a slower reader. 

6. Geronimo Stilton by Geronimo Stilton, more comic type photos in these books along with all the adventures Geronimo finds himself on make this series a must read for any age, there is a girl version by Thea Stilton but girls would love these just as much and boys would love the others as well!

7. LEGO Ninajago Graphic Novels, I know that these are not full on books, with more pictures taking over but they are excellent in my book if my kids sit down with them!

8. Goosebumps by R.L. Stine, these not-so-scary but a bit odd books seem to keep boys wanting more as they delve deeper into the series!

9.  Capital Mysteries by Ron Roy, he has hit our list twice but these books are spectacular for the problem solving mind!

10. Imagination Station by Marianne Hering, these books had my son from the first line. These are Christian books that are similar to the Magic Treehouse series. 

Hope these are enough to get your started! Enjoy every minute my friends!!

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Sight Word Tracker

The weekend is near, I can feel it! Something this family loves to do, is read! With our youngest starting the world of reading, I truly enjoy tracking his progress. It's a great way for him to grow confidence as he sees how far he has come!

*I started by making up an awesome game board to make the tracking progress seem like a game as opposed to just a plain chart or checklist. I wanted to theme to be travel related as opposed to racing, because I wanted him to feel as though he were taking a leisurely stroll through the words, as you would do on a trip and it was not a RACE TO THE FINISH. I do not like putting undue pressure on them. 

**After creating the board, I filled it in with some sight words that came from his next set of phonics readers that he is moving on to. I saved the blank template, so that I could change the words as needed. Each time he fills the board, he gets to pick out a special literacy field trip for our group (Library, Book Store, Story time).

As Roman completes each group of words, he colors the block and adds a sticker to it. This is his way of visually tracking all that he knows and since we sit and do it together, I can hear how he sounds out the words (he was born deaf in one ear, so I have to make sure that it does not affect his speech).

Enjoy every minute my dear friends and remember that we have been given one more day, so make the most of it!

*Blank Board Template can be found HERE*

**Filled in Board can be found HERE**

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Literacy & Learning Fun!

Tuesday came rather quickly! When that alarm went off this morning, I certainly wanted to curl back up and keep sleeping comfortably. Sometimes I often wonder what would happen if I decided to spend the day in bed? They could fend for themselves for a day, right? Hahaha...ahhhh, the dreams of a mother that is on the job 24 hours a day. Today is a post on what we have going on in the classroom in regards to literacy and learning!

I have a beginning reader that makes me prouder than words can say, as he begins his launch into the reading world, I like to build his confidence. He often time wants to give up when he opens a book and identifies just ONE word he does not know. To prevent that, I slip the book into a page protector and hand him a marker. I have him circle the words that he knows by sight alone and then sound out the others. If he still does not know it, he just crosses it out. Seeing everything he knows, makes him realize that there is more that he does know than does NOT know. This is one of his favorite things to do!

My baby reading his first book all the way through! You know those moments right? They bring tears to your eyes, you can even hear me sniffling in the background. I have each child reading their first book on video and it's amazing to see them all then and compare it to now.

One tip I can share with you, is when you get workbooks super cheap like these from TARGET's Dollar SPOT, pick up multiples. They allow you to use any good pictures for cutting out and using in poster boards when the kids have to do a report. They are also great for fact sheets if you are making a subject notebook, instead of the kids using their own handwriting in every single page.  

Reusing games is huge in my book. I get so much more out of them when they can be used for multiple things. These frogs come from a Cranium Game that we have and I just pulled them out and placed them on the floor with some sight word cards. This way he would flick the frogs and whatever card they landed on, if he could read it, he could keep it! He loved this game and wanted to play it all the time. It's amazing how kids will be drawn to learning if you just keep it fun! If you don't have that Cranium Game, head on over to Oriental Trading for a total STEAL on these frogs! 

What's Gnu is a FABULOUS game that my children LOVE! When I had the opportunity to purchase just the slider and 72 letter tiles for .25, I knew exactly what to do with it! This became our new writing center for my youngest. He slides a word and then he sounds them out. Next, he says the word and then writes it out as he spells it! Fun for him and perfect for me!

My children also love working with Geoboards. Something fun that they enjoy doing is making their own cards for their siblings to be challenged by. These are some designs that they started making on the computer. I also just keep the plain paper printed out at the center, for them create their own as they play.

Everything can change in an instant. Enjoy every minute that we have!

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Book Page Table Runner

It's FRIDAY! It's FEBRUARY! Time to get my act together. Here is another Free Book Project! We made a book page table runner as decor for our book exchange party. This one was so easy and has the most impact. It's wonderful. We plan on tea staining it in the near future but for now, it's beautiful. 

As I stated last, a free book goes a long way! This book was old and already had lost pages and many loose pages hanging out. As much as it hurts to do this to a book, I knew this one was destined for the trash as it was missing too much but I knew this would extend its life a little more. 

This project is so easy, even the Littles got involved. All we needed was a roll of craft paper cut to length, torn pages and a glue stick! Once your Kraft paper is all cut out, just have the kids start gluing. The reason this is so perfect for children is that they do not have to be glued on in any order or direction AT ALL! Just glue and pat down. 

When we were finished I laid it all out on the floor and had the children walk all over it, hop all over it and even sit on it to make sure the pages laid flat and stayed secure on the paper. 

We put it on our dining room table to see how it looks and it's perfect!!! I cannot wait to see it out as decoration for our party. So much fun and excitement with all these new projects that one little book can make.

I still have more projects to post, I have just had a sick Little at home and he is passing it through the family. One day, I hope we will all be healthy at the same time!!!

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