Fun with Words

Reading Flashcards and Reading Strips

My son is one of those learners that does not want to learn anything unless it is his idea. So everyday, I let him choose a word he would like to learn. He chooses a lot of animal words, i.e monkey, lion, tiger, dog. This concerned me a little. I thought there is no way he's going to learn these words, but he picked them up no problem. (I added a few words that every beginner reader needs to know, like "and" & "the".) These were much harder for him to master.

Everyday, I add one new word because he is a fast learner. Since every child learns at their own pace, some children may take days to learn a new word. This is normal.

In additon to the flashcards, I make little strips in which I string a few of the words together to make a fragment sentence. This not only introduces him to the early stages of reading, but helps him understand the correlation between words.

We make a game out of learning new words. Sometimes I will hold up the word and say "don't let it disappear" as I start sliding it away, so he has to guess quickly. Sometimes we make a "good" pile which are the words he knows, and a "bad" pile of words he doesn't know. He came up with this idea.

Today he wants to add the word "zebra".

Happy reading!