Common Sense Parenting is Uncommon ?
Like my sister in law who has two children and thinks she got a PhD for parenting told me: what do you know about parenting since you have no child.
Well, I do know a little of common sense, like if your children are sleeping late, they aren’t going to be able to get up earlier, and they aren’t going to focus well in school. If you simply book the Hilton Head rentals and bring your children for a vacation in the middle of school, your children will think it’s alright to skip class when they feel like it. Apparently, not many people know that. So, my mother is right, common sense is not very common this days. :-)
One of the most frustrating experiences I have running a preschool is having to deal with tardiness. Children walk around like zombies because they had too much fun staying up late the night before. It’s most prevalent on Monday, these children are so blues they just want to do nothing!
And yet the parents expect miracles, some how their children will go to college if I am not such a lousy teacher.:-)
Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (4)What are phonograms?
Since I mentioned I taught preschooler penmanship and phonograms in my previous post, a few people emailed me and asked me what are phonograms?
A phonogram is a letter or set of letters(multi-letter) which represent a sound.
For example:
- ay is a 2 letter phonogram which says /A/ as in day
- s a single letter phonogram which says /s/ as in sit or /z/ as in has
- ch is a two letter phonogram which says /ch/ as in chair and /k/ as in christmas and /sh/ as in chef
- igh is a three letter phonogram which says /I/ as in high
I am using what commonly known as Spalding Method to teach children spelling their way to writing and reading. I do not use the The Writing Road to Reading by Mrs Romalda Spalding but Spell to Write and Write by Mrs Wanda Senseri, which I feel is more user friendly. Contrary to popular belief, most of the preschools do not teach phonics, or at least not proper phonics, Mrs Wanda Senseri listed out this pseudo phonics program in her Senate Speech. The popular Smart Reader Program has all three elements of Phony, Pokey and Fickle phonics in it.:-)
List of the Phonograms
These are the original 70 phonograms that Romalda Spalding used in her work in the 1950’s
| a | b | c | d | e | |
| f | g | h | i | j | |
| k | l | m | n | o | |
| p | qu | r | s | t | |
| u | v | w | x | y | |
| z | ai | ar | au | aw | |
| ay | ch | ci | ck | dge | |
| ea | ear | ed | ee | ei | |
| eigh | er | ew | ey | gn | |
| ie | igh | ir | kn | ng | |
| oa | oe | oi | oo | or | |
| ou | ough | ow | oy | ph | |
| sh | si | tch | th | ti | |
| ui | ur | wh | wor | wr |
How Phonograms Work
In spelling, each sound in a word is represented by a phonogram. Let’s take the word plaster. Pronounce the word slowly to hear the individual sounds, and you will hear six different sounds: /p/ - /l/ - /?/-/s/ - /t/-/er/. For each sound, a phonogram is written down: p l a s t er
That was an easy example. Here are some more examples:
- The word kid has three sounds (/k/-/i/-/d/) and three phonograms (k,i, d)
- The word match has three sounds (/m/-/a/-/ch/) and, therefore, three phonograms (m, a, tch)
- The word high has two sounds (/h/-/I/) and, therefore, two phonograms (h, igh)
So you can see that the number of letters in a word doesn’t necessarily correspond to the number of phonograms. Why? Because of the multi-letter phonograms. One sound is represented by one phonogram, but that phonogram may have two or more letters.
The focus is on teaching spelling, the foundation for reading and writing. Children learn seventy phonograms and write, from dictation, the high-frequency Ayres words in a spelling/vocabulary notebook. They learn to reinforce the phonograms and provide oral and written phonogram reviews and spelling dictation.
* * * * * * * *
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Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (1)Penmanship for Preschoolers
My preschoolers learn cursive handwriting from the beginning and can write in beautiful cursive after a couple of months of of training.
From the beginning, they are taught to see the phonogram and say its sound, then they are to write it without seeing it. Both”writing” and “reading” the phonograms are vital and should be learned from the start. Many preschools have children practice tracing the letters. I am not opposed to doing this in early stages, but the physical dynamic of learning to shape letters is more important. Children may have the graphics of the letters in their memory like you store digital pictures in the xd picture card, but writing out the letters from memory requires them to recall the mechanic of producing these letters . That’s why many cannot write out the letters from their memory even after they have trace them in the workbooks many times, they only remember the graphic, but their muscles do not have memory of the mechanical process!
While many young children do not have the motor skills for pencil and paper work but they can be given preliminary exercises in writing that use big muscles. If a child holds her dominant arm straight (no bend in the elbow) and points with two fingers, she can use her whole arm as a big pencil and learn to make the shape of phonograms in the air as she says their sounds.
My preschoolers also enjoy taking a slightly damp sponge and making their phonograms on the blackboard. The damp impression of the letter they made was visible when they finished. We would also do letters with finger paints. Before they ever did pencil and paper work, they had many hands on opportunities to shape letters using big muscles. We used chalks to write on the floor/sidewalk, we write on the sandpaper letters, write on the sand with their index finger. I would shape phonograms on their back and they have to guess what I wrote. Something happens mentally when the child goes beyond simply seeing a phonogram, or even tracing a letter, to when she can actually form the letter by herself. An exposure to forming letters independently is of first importance.
I have a reluctant writer who just transfered here after 2 years in a traditional preschool. Since she had to write and trace tons of workbooks with weak muscle in her former preschool, she hated writing and would avoid it at all cost. For the first four months, she would just do PLE and Sensorial. Starting May, I had her started with big muscle formation of letters, she is happily producing two or three pages of writing work on papers right now. This weekend she even asked to bring home writing work to do over the weekend. Which I obliged, but told her mummy just let her do it if she wants to, but don’t force her to do if she changes her mind.
I will be sharing with you in the next few posts on how to teach penmanship with big muscle movements and upload some pictures once I got a digital camera. I hope to upload some pictures of their handwriting to share with you. I am very proud with the neat handwriting they are able to produce and I think you will be impressed with 5 years old who can write original sentences in cursive.:-)
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (1)Ideas for Practical Life activities
These are some practical life activities that we have in the classroom. Some are displayed on low shelves as “shelf work”. Some are just part of the community activities i.e. children do that as part of their routine, they wash hands before meals, spread jam/peanut butter on bread, wash the dish/spoon/fork and put back them back, they stack the chairs, clean the table and wash their hands.
The rational for practical life activities
Exercises that use the “Whole Hand”
(1) Objects - Transferred
(2) Syringes
(3) Sponge Squeezing
(4) Paper Punch
(5) Large Tongs
(6) Sifter
(7) Sushi Press
(8) Rubber Bands around Dowel
Exercises that use “Wrist Turning”
(1)Dry Pouring
(a)Two identical pitchers
(b)Pitcher and wide neck
(c)Pitcher and narrow neck
(d)Two narrow neck bottles and
(2) Wet Pouring
(a) Two identical pitchers
(b) Pitcher and wide neck
(c) Picther and narrow neck
(d) Pitcher and Narrow Neck with funnel
(3) Scooping
(4) Turning Lids with Frying Turner
(5)Sweeping
(6)Pencil Sharpener
(7) Large Plastic Pipe Pieces
(8) Grater
(9) Grinding
(10) Whisk/Egg Beater
(11) Tools
(12) Lids and Jars
(13) Lids and Boxes
(14) Cutting Paper - scissors
(15) Folding
(16) Turn Book Pages
(17) Dusting
(18) Rolling
Exercises that use “Three Finger Grasp” /”Pencil Grip”
(1) Spooning
(2) Medicine Dropper
(3) Tweezers
(4) Clothespins
Exercises for Care of Indoor Environment
(1) Sweeping
(2) Scrubbing/Washing
(3) Dishes
(4) Mopping
(5) Polishing
(6) Pets care
(7) Plants care
Exercises on Care of Outdoor Environment
(1) Plants
(2) Sweep
(3) Workbench
(4) Pick-up
(5) Rake
(6) Clean
Exercises on Care of Self
(1) Dressing Frames
(2) Braiding Board
(3) Hanging Sweater/Jacket/Rain Coat
(4) Shoes
(5) Cleanliness
(6) Rolling Socks
(7) Folding
(8) Personal Property
Exercises for Cutting Preparation
(1) Salad Tongs
(2) Boiled Egg Tongs
(3) Escargot Tongs
(4) Chopsticks
(5) Shower Curtain Hooks
(6) Meat Baller/Cookie Baller
Exercises on Writing Preparation
Exercises on Food Preparation
(1) Cutting
(2) Crack/Peel/Shell
(3) Break
(4) Spread
(5) Skewer
(6) Whip
(7) Juice
(8) Measure
Exercises on Handwork
(1) Sewing
(2) crocheting
(3) Bookmaking
(4) Pasting
Resources for this activities:
http://www.ux1.eiu.edu/~cfsjy/mts/life/_link.htm
http://homepage.mac.com/montessoriworld/mwei/praclife/pltoc.html
http://homepage.mac.com/montessoriworld/mwei/Handwork/hcontent.html
