As a classroom teacher, I taught many children that could add, subtract, multiply and divide with ease.  But, the minute you place a word problem in front of them…they FREEZE.  “This isn’t MATH!  This is READING!  I don’t like READING!”  Ahhhhh…when it was time to teach the word problem chapters in the math textbook, I...Read More

Summer is coming to an end.  No more playing until the street lights come on (Is that still a THING?), catching fireflies at twilight, or just staying up super late.  Now that kids are back in school, we, as parents, need to bring back school year routines and structure.  One way I eased my kids...Read More

Writing is a skill that takes time and perseverance to cultivate.   As a classroom teacher, I loved my Writer’s Workshop time.  I would model a piece of writing for my students and then give them time to write on their own, in their own private space in the classroom.  I would also continue to...Read More

Ahhh, to memorize, or not to memorize…THAT is the question!  Is it important that kids memorize their math facts?  I believe the answer is YES.  In this blog I am going to explain why math fact memorization is important and give you some fun ways to help your child improve their math fact fluency.   Let’s...Read More

If you have been following the blog for the past several weeks, you have learned A LOT  about phonemic awareness.  So far, in this phonemic awareness skills series, we have discussed rhyming, syllables, onset and rime, sound isolation, phonemic blending, and phonemic segmentation.  This final blog is about phoneme manipulation, the most sophisticated of all...Read More

Children who are able to segment and blend sounds will be able to apply this knowledge to spelling and reading more easily than those that have not yet mastered these skills. First, let’s define the two processes.  Phoneme segmentation is the process of breaking a word up into its individual sounds.  For example, saying the...Read More

Sound isolation is the ability to isolate a single sound from within a word.  Children usually master initial sound isolation in the middle of kindergarten, and final and medial sound isolation at the end of kindergarten or early first grade.  Phoneme (sound) isolation is a very important step in early literacy development. Kids that have...Read More

Rime or rhyme?  What’s the difference?  Rimes rhyme, but not all rhymes are rimes.  Easy peasy, right?  (See what I did there?) Rimes are word parts that refer to a specific spelling pattern, and rimes of the same word family will rhyme.  Rimes begin with a vowel sound and end before the next vowel sound. ...Read More

Segmenting ….. Blending….. What is that?  Aren’t these things the same?  Early literacy skills are so important for academic success, but many times parents just expect their child to read or write a word.  They often times forget that there is a lot of groundwork that needs to be laid before a child can pick...Read More

Are you looking for some Valentine’s Day activities to do at home?  Check out some simple activities you can do at home as well as a free math printable for your child to complete! Write Notes of Kindness Valentine’s Day is about being kind to one another and spending time with the people you love. ...Read More