Teaching Children Their Own Personal Information Through Song

When Michael was little (as in still eating in a high chair little) I modified a nursery rhyme to teach him his full name. As he's gotten older I've added verses to teach him his address and his phone number. Song is a fun way to teach and learn and the children will beg to hear the song again and again because it is about them.

The names, addresses, and phone numbers used here are completely made up. Insert your own child's information (or student's information) as appropriate.

I use the tune for "Do You Know the Muffin Man?" (click on the link and hit play sample if you don't know the tune).

The original lyrics are:

First Verse:
Oh, do you know the muffin man,
The muffin man, the muffin man,
Oh, do you know the muffin man,
That lives on Drury Lane?

Second Verse:
Oh, yes, I know the muffin man,
The muffin man, the muffin man,
Oh, yes, I know the muffin man,
That lives on Drury Lane.

Here's the modified version for teaching a child's full name:

First Verse:
Oh, do you know Brian's full name,
Full name, full name,
Oh, do you know Brian's full name,
It's Brian Lewis Brown.

Second Verse:
Oh, yes, I know Brian's full name,
Full name, full name,
Oh, yes I know Brian's full name,
It's Brian Lewis Brown.

Alternately, you could sing:
Oh, do you know Brian's family name,
family name, family name,
Oh, do you know Brian's family name,
It's Brian Lewis Brown. (etc.)

This is how I sing the song when teaching their street address:

First Verse:
Oh, do you know Brian's street address,
Street address, street address,
Oh, do you know Brian's street address,
It's 44 Westing Estate.

Second Verse:
Oh, yes, I know Brian's street address,
Street address, street address,
Oh, yes I know Brian's street address,
It's 44 Westing Estate.

Alternately, you could sing:
Oh, do you know Brian's house number,
House number, house number,
Oh, do you know Brian's house number,
It's 44 Westing Estate. (etc.)

This is how I sing the song when teaching their phone number:

First Verse:
Oh, do you know Brian's phone number,
Phone number, phone number,
Oh, do you know Brian's phone number,
It's 123-456-7899.

Second Verse:
Oh, yes, I know Brian's phone number,
Phone number, phone number,
Oh, yes I know Brian's phone number,
It's 123-456-7899.

You could choose to leave out the area code if you live in an area where only one area code is commonly used. I also slow the tune down significantly when singing the 10 digits of the phone number to make sure each number is distinct.

Then put it all together.

And then you can string all three parts together for a "Song About You" - a six verse song that teaches your child's (or student's) full name, street address, and phone number. (You could also add two verses about city and state and another two about zip code if you are so inclined.)

Feel free to click on the image at the top of the post to open a one page printable to save to your computer. If you're using the song in therapy you might want to send home an example of what you're doing for parents to practice.

Catwings by Ursula K. Le Guin: A Series Review

The children and I have just finished an enchanting series of chapter books. The books are lovely and I will not be able to do them justice but I had to try.

Books written for children are a mixed bag. Some of them aren't very good, to be honest. Others are entertaining, beautifully illustrated, sweet, fun, or all of those. Almost all of them are written for children though. What I mean by that, is that in addition to the content of the book being directed at children, the prose is modified for children as well. Vocabulary is simplified, sentences are shorter and less complex. Effort is made to make the prose engaging for children. Often the modifications are necessary, appropriate, and well done. Some of my absolute favorite children books use rhythm and rhyme to make the text fun to read and listen to.

These books are different. The prose is exquisite. I feel like I'm reading a classic - or poetry and yet, somehow, the stories are still accessible to even very young children. Here is a short excerpt from the first book to illustrate: "So the children's wings were the least of Mrs. Tabby's worries. She washed those silky wings every day, along with chins and paws and tails, and wondered about them now and then, but she worked too hard finding food and bringing up the family to think much about things she didn't understand. But when the huge dog chased little Harriet and cornered her behind the garbage can, lunging at her with open, white-toothed jaws, and Harriet with one desperate mew flew straight up into the air and over the dog's staring head and lighted on a rooftop - then Mrs. Tabby understood."

Every two or three pages, there are beautiful, delicate, detailed illustrations that bring the story to life and help keep little ones engaged in the story. These books entranced my 3 and 4 year old children - a boy and a girl. They entranced my husband and I. I imagine that a young independent reader (1st-3rd grade) would enjoy them as well. Even a middle or high school reader could become addicted to this series.

The books are fantasies in the sense that they are about four kittens who were born with wings. Other than that fact, though, the books take place in the perfectly ordinary settings of a city and the countryside. While appropriate in content for even very young children, they are not all sweetness and light. The kittens encounter hunger, fatigue, injury, and the danger of discovery by humans. These topics are integrated seamlessly into the stories and are part of what make the stories so engaging for the children.

The first book in the series is Catwings by Ursula K. Le Guin and illustrated by S. D. Schindler. Four winged kittens are born to a perfectly ordinary alley cat under a dumpster in the city. When the kittens are old enough to fly the mother sends them away to find a better place to live in the country. Eventually the kittens find a better home.

The second book in the series is Catwings Return. Two of the catwings decide to return to the city to visit their mother only to find her missing and the old alley being demolished by the humans. They discover a lost black, winged kitten who needs to be rescued.

The third book in the series is Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings. The youngest catwing makes a new friend and although she helps him in the beginning, he is able to help her in the end.

The final book in the series is Jane on Her Own. The youngest kitten goes off on her own in search of adventure. She learns some lessons before finding just the right place to settle.

I cannot recommend this series of books enough. They are a perfect read-aloud introduction to early chapter books for young children. The books are five short chapters each with enough illustrations to keep children used to picture books interested. These books could even be read over the course of a few weeks in 5-10 minutes per therapy session. Use them as a "reward" for good therapy behavior and know that they are perfect for increasing listening comprehension, expanding vocabulary, and exposure to advanced syntax at the same time.

Bottom line: Highly recommended.

Printable Pattern Block Activity Sheets

I wanted to do some structured activities with the pattern blocks other than simply having them build a picture with them so I made a few activity sheets. Here they are if anyone else can use them.

1. Size it up. Fill in the larger version of the shape using only the smaller ones. Once they finish the sheet, have them count. Help them observe that all of the larger shapes were built from nine of the smaller ones. Optional extension activity: leaving the first sheet intact, place a second sheet of blank paper and ask them to make medium sized shapes using only four of the individual pieces this time.

2. Colored Hexagons. Create hexagons with pieces of these colors. Once they finish have them count the pieces. Talk about 1/2, 1/3, and 1/6. Take away a piece from each hexagon. Have the child ask for the pieces back by requesting a whole, half, third, or sixth in order to rebuild their hexagons.

3. Hexagon Variations. This is mostly free play/fine motor practice. Once the child is done, ask point to two hexagons at a time and ask what is the same and what is different about the pair. Point out that one blue is the same as 2/6.

4. Pattern Path. Set this activity out along with a small toy (squinkie, lego minifigure, etc.) Tell the child the toy wants to get to the end of the path, but it is filled with water. They need stepping stones. Have them cover the pattern, and then continue it until the end. When they are finished they can help the toy hop along the path from the beginning to the end. (I haven't made a blank path yet, but doing the activity a second time with a blank path and encouraging them to create their own pattern would be a nice follow up to this one. You could make one by just tracing over this printable and leaving out the pattern I put in.)

Fun With Pattern Blocks

After watching the children have so much fun with the colored tiles that came as part of our RightStart Math kit, I decided that they needed more shapes to play with. I found this set of pattern blocks on Amazon for about $5-10 less than all the other sets. It shipped quickly and the quality is great. I don't know why it costs so much less, but I'll take it.

Then I found an amazing set of printable patterns at Prekinders. She has the patterns in color version and in black in white. I printed them in black in white. It is a bit more challenging for the children and saves color ink.

When we first started the children were really frustrated because their pattern blocks kept sliding around. I cut some large pieces of contact paper from a roll I got a while back and taped them sticky side up in front of each child. This allowed me to slide the patterns under the contact paper. They could build their designs and then slide the pattern out from underneath to see the pattern. You can also just slide blank paper under the contact paper and let them make up designs of their own. I played too. We all had great fun and our kitchen table has been taken over for two days now.

Mini-Bingo Strips - Phonics or Speech Game

The reading program we're using (which I will review soon - promise) wants us to practice reading words that begin with the letters d, h, p, b, r, and s followed by i or a and ending with t, p, n, m, g and d. They provided a flip book format for that practice, but I wanted to do something a bit more creative.

First I made the word wheel which is fun, but only gets you so far. I wanted to make a game. I decided to make a kind of mini-bingo game.

I made strips with five of the six beginning letters on them. Then I made several sets of all twelve possible word endings. Finally I took colored dots to match the six colors of the beginning letters and stuck them on a die.

I roll the die and call the color. Anyone who has that color on their strip gets to pull word endings out of the cup (and practice reading the word that is made when the beginning letter is combined with the word ending) until they find one that makes a real word. We repeat the process until someone has made words for all of their letters and calls "Bingo". They win the game and then we get to start over. The game is simple and the strips are colorful. The game goes quickly enough so you can play several times and everyone gets a chance to win.

It seems like you could use this same game for speech practice by putting initial or final consonants you want to target on the strips and making your word endings (or beginnings) simple sounds that the child can produce easily. You'd just need to be working with children who are at least early readers. I'm sure their teachers would love the bonus phonics practice. If I wanted to use this game with Michael for speech, I'd make the beginning sounds /f/ and /s/ on different colored rectangles. I could use the same word endings I've already printed. Even if the words turned out to be mostly nonsense words it would still be great speech (and phonics) practice.

Networking on the behalf of preschoolers

Our neighborhood is full of boys. Without thinking too hard, I can think of 6 boys besides Michael between the ages of four and six. At least three of them will enter kindergarten with him. Well, if I decide to send him to kindergarten they'll go off together.

For a complete contrast, there are no other little girls in the neighborhood. On the occasions when Ava finds a great playmate at the park or in a playplace, I so enjoy watching her bond with other little girls. I really do need to find a regular playmate for her. Completely by coincidence, we ran into a preschool classmate of hers at McDonalds a couple of weeks ago. The girls played together beautifully and we lingered well longer than usual to let her play. I made a point of introducing myself to her parents and exchanged email addresses with her mother. We met once more a couple of weeks later, but I haven't heard from them since.

Yesterday we ran into twins (boy/girl) from Ava's preschool class at the park. Again, I made a point to introduce myself to their mother and exchange email addresses. I dutifully sent an email expressing our openness to setting up a playdate.

To be honest, the entire process feels a little artificial and awkward, but I do it anyway. I want Ava to have the opportunity to develop friendships and this feels like a first step. If I decide to homeschool, I'll need to reach out to a new community of people and try to provide opportunities for my children to interact with other children in settings other a traditional school. I suppose this is good practice. I just wish it felt a little more natural though. A bit of ongoing success would be nice too.

Project Round-Up

Without further ado, here are several random projects from this week.

Project 1 - Word Wheel

I was getting ready for a reading lesson (the one homeschooling curriculum I have not reviewed yet, but intend to get to soon) and was inspired to make a word wheel. Our lesson called for reviewing 12 different word endings and I didn't want to make 12 different spinners, so I modified her design a little and came up with this. Six additional word endings are hidden under the smaller paper plate, but are revealed as you spin. You can practice by matching each of the 12 word endings with a single initial consonant or by sliding all 6 initial consonants by the same word ending.

Project 2 - Glass Gem Suncatchers

The children wanted to "do art" with some decorative glass gems I had around for playing on the light boxes. I remembered a project I saw at Play At Home Mom. I set the kids up with inexpensive frames on their light boxes. I slapped Mod Podge all over the outer surface of the glass and let the children stick glass gems to it. After they were dry we hung them in the windows. They are quite pretty.

Project 3 - Pattern Strips

The RightStart Math kit came with some great colored square tiles. The kids were having a blast playing with them. We used them as pattern blocks to make houses and other designs. We made patterns. We built towers. We made paths for squinkies to walk on. The kids were having so much fun playing with them I decided to make some pattern strips to add to the mix.

I spent about 90 minutes during nap one day making pattern strips. I couldn't wait to show the kids. They played with the strips for about 90 seconds before deciding they were quite boring. Guess every project can't be a win. :-)

RightStart Mathematics-Level A: Review and Printable Progress Chart

I became intrigued slightly obsessed with the concept of homeschooling and decided to try a little bit of homeschooling during the next year and a half of preschool to see if we like it. Since Michael has a bit of an affinity for math that was one of the curriculum areas I looked into.

Months ago a homeschooling mother mentioned RightStart Math on a blog I read. Since I adore good concept based curricula I clicked through her link to check out the program and fell in love. In fact, I'm pretty sure the seed for my current fascination with homeschooling was planted right there. A couple of months ago when I decided to take things to the next level RightStart Math was high up on my list of programs to investigate.

RightStart Math focuses on building a strong conceptual understanding of math concepts rather than memorization of facts and strategies. The program is extremely hands-on and involves heavy use of manipulatives and multisensory learning. The core tool of the program is a special abacus that is grouped into fives and tens for quick visual recognition of quantities. The program is divided into five levels A through E that correspond roughly to taking a child through a grade school math curriculum. They recommend you start Level A at age 5 or sooner.

I decided to get the deluxe starter kit for Level A (pictured above) which includes the Level A teachers manual, student book, and all accessories necessary to teach the complete lessons in the book. I got two abacuses so that both of my children could use an abacus at the same time. Check out a sample of the RightStart Level A teacher's manual. Everything arrived promptly nicely packaged in a large box. So far, I've only unboxed/unwrapped the items I've needed for the lessons we've done so far.

So far we've done the first five lessons (the first four are included in the sample pages you can check out for free and the first four only require items you can find around your home if you'd like to check the program out before purchasing). Each lesson is a two page spread in the manual and the lessons have been easy to follow so far. I read through the lesson ahead of time and gather any materials I will need to teach the lesson and make some notes. Here's the next lesson we're about to do in the teacher's manual and some notes I made about modifying the lesson.

Now, due to an early childhood where I was taught to NEVER make marks in books I still can't bring myself to write in books so I make copies of the lessons and keep them in a single binder with the lessons for other things we're working on. I also keep the progress chart I made for RightStart Level A in the binder along with other random supplies we need for our lessons. After we do each lesson I make notes about how it went and move it to a finished section in the binder. Feel free to download and use the progress chart if you happen to be using RightStart Math Level A with a student (or students).

I've taken to keeping all the supplies for our math lessons on a single tray so that when the time comes for a lesson all I have to do is grab the tray and my lesson binder. So far, the lessons generally take about 10-15 minutes and then I let the children play with the manipulatives on the tray as long as they like. I use that time to make notes, read through the next lesson, and stock the tray with whatever I'll need for the next lesson. The kids love the math lessons and are excited every time I pull out the math tray.

In summary, I'm extremely pleased with RightStart Math. The children adore it and look forward to math time more than anything else we are working on so far. Now, we've only done 5 lessons at this point, so this review is based upon my initial impression of the program and its materials and the initial responses of my children to the first five lessons.

Handwriting Without Tears: Review and Printable Progress Chart

Michael is starting to write. However his grip is awkward and he draws his letters rather than writing them using a consistent sequence of lines and curves. I've been wanting to do some homeschooling, so I chose a handwriting program as one of the first curriculum programs to try with the children.

I chose Handwriting Without Tears (HWT) for our handwriting curriculum. It isn't the prettiest printing style out of the many options for handwriting styles. I chose it because I like how it is taught. The program was developed by occupational therapists. It teaches uppercase letters first because they are develpmentally easier for young children to write. All of the uppercase letters can be written by writing big lines, little lines, big curves, and little curves.

The program is well structured. Rather than teaching the letters in alphabetical order, the letters are grouped by the way they are written. The first 8 letters taught are F, E, D, P, B, R, N, and M. They are called "frog jump" letters because your pencil has to hop back to the starting corner after making the first big line. After learning those letters children learn the other uppercase letters that start in the upper left corner. Finally they are taught the letters that start in the upper center spot. After learning all the uppercase letters, the first lowercase letters learned are the ones that are exactly the same as their capitals, just smaller.

I also liked the way that they begin teaching letters without using a writing implement at all. They start with blocks (big line, little line, big curve, little curve) and play dough (roll the shapes and combine to form letters). The wet-dry-try method on a small chalkboard is brilliant because the child must develop a tripod grip in order to do it and they think it is so much fun. In the wet-dry-try method you write the letter in chalk on the chalkboard first. They take a tiny sponge and trace over your letter mimicing the strokes necessary to write the letter. Then they take a tiny ball of paper towel and trace the (now wet) letter a second time drying it in the process. Once dry, you can still see where the letter used to be on the slate. For the last step they try writing the letter themselves on the slate with a small piece of chalk. By the time they are done, they've observed once, and "written" the letter three times. My children often continue the cycle wetting again with the sponge, drying again with the paper towel, and writing again with the chalk at least 2-3 more times before becoming bored.

The teacher's manual for the Kindergarten level is wonderful. It educates you about the handwriting process. It talks about readiness and gives examples of many fun activities you can do with pre-writers to develop readiness skills. It describes multi-sensory ways to teach handwriting (music, movement, blocks, wet-dry-try, door tracing, imaginary writing, magnet board, roll-a-dough/sensory tray). It covers posture, paper, and pencil skills. All of that is covered before it starts on the actual lessons covered in the kindergarten curriculum. In the back of the manual there are tips for addressing issues with handedness, pencil grip, and pencil pressure.

I ordered the teacher's manual, student workbook, roll-a-dough tray, magnet board, slate, chalk, and sponges. I haven't touched the student workbook yet. . My children are little (3 and 4 years). They still need to develop some fine motor readiness skills before working with writing. I read through the entire teacher's manual. I intend to go through all of the "frog jump" capital letters just using the manipulatives first before having them use pencil/crayon/paper. So far we've done E, F, and D. The children love the wet-dry-try on the slate, the roll-a-dough tray (which I use by finger tracing with salt), and the magnet board. I use the slate for every lesson and switch between the magnet board and tray. One child uses the slate while the other uses the tray/magnet board and then they switch. I wish I had bought two slates.

Once the tripod grip is more natural and they're completely comfortable with the frog jump letters I'm going to try having them write the letters using tiny pieces of crayon on construction paper rectangles I cut to fit the sensory tray. Then I'll switch to a piece of regular paper with 6 rectangles on it. Then I may pull out the student workbook and start having them do the workbook pages.

I made a progress / reinforcement chart for the kids because they love putting stickers on a chart, and they like seeing how much progress they've made over time. Feel free to download it and use it with your own children/students if you happen to be using the Handwriting With Tears Kindergarten program yourself.

Each "lesson" only takes us 10 minutes although I allow the children to continue to play with the manipulatives as long as they like. The more they "play", the more they develop those fine motor pre-writing skills. I couldn't be happier with the program and with our first foray into homeschooling.

Contemplating Homeschooling

I have two children who are only a little over a year apart. From late 2007 through late 2010 I fantasized about sending my children to school. It was going to be the best thing ever. I would first spend a year at home regaining my sanity and then consider going back to work part or full time.

I like my profession. Becoming a parent also gave me a whole new perspective. Becoming a parent of children with speech issues gave me new insight. Getting back into the schools as an SLP would be wonderful. I itch to exercise my skills with children who need help (other than my own). I want to use my professional skills. I want interact with other adults. I want to make a difference in the lives of children.

And yet, a little over a year ago I found myself beginning to daydream about homeschooling. My children were outgrowing their toddlerhoods and entering into the preschool years. We were able to start doing some structured activities. Michael began learning his letters, letter-sound correspondences, and how to read practically by himself. It was all exciting and fun. And I was following some blogs of homeschooling parents. And so the occasional daydreaming began.

There are so many advantages. We would get to dictate our own schedule rather than having it dictated to us. We could visit family without worrying about missing school. I could customize content and pace of learning to each child individually. It is more efficient. We could accomplish in 2-4 hours a day what a school takes 7 hours to accomplish (not counting the homework time schools involve on top of school hours). My children could have stimulating, individualized education and still have time leftover to spend with family, pursue independent activities, play, and just be kids.

I feel like homeschooling could be a gift. It is a gift to the children. They get to learn at their level and pace with time leftover to spend with family and just be kids. It is a gift to our family. Instead of yanking everyone out of sleep and rushing out the door in the morning we can determine a schedule that works for us. Instead of picking kids up from school and doing homework until dinner, dinner, bath and bedtime we would have time for recreation, exercise, activities, and play. When we get invited to a special family event in Louisiana (ex. Easter Crawfish Boil/Birthday Party) we could go because we wouldn't have to be back at school on Monday.

On the other hand, it wouldn't all be roses. It is expensive. We'd need curriculum materials and we'd be giving up my salary indefinitely. I'd give up the opportunity to practice my profession. That's huge.

Another challenge... Hmm. How do I put this? It's an awful lot of together time. I love my children, but I know myself. I need a certain amount of "by myself" time in order to stay sane and happy. That's just who I am. I get that time right now during the two mornings a week the children are in preschool. If we went to full-time homeschooling I would need some way to get a minimum amount of time to myself, in my own home, to stay sane.

I also have to remind myself that in daydreams everything is perfect. The children are always perfectly behaved. Learning is easy, seamless, and fun. Lesson plans and materials magically present themselves to be used at just the right moment. Meaningful friendships and socialization for the children develop easily through some as yet to be determined activities/homeschooling groups. There are rainbows and unicorns. No one ever gets sick. You get the idea. I know that reality will be different.

And then I start browsing potential homeschooling curriculum materials. Oh, bliss. I love browsing curriculum materials. There are so many good options out there. I have already decided on some. You know, if I were to homeschool, I would use... Just theoretically.

I haven't made any decisions. Michael has one more year of preschool before he'd be starting kindergarten so I have time to decide. I'm thinking of getting some homeschool materials and trying them part-time in the meantime to get a feel for it. (Hello Rightstart Math Level A!... Hello Handwriting Without Tears preschool curriculum!)