At the time of this writing, I have a 9yo, 7yo, 4yo, & 2yo. As with history, I believe science in the elementary years should be geared toward awareness and interest rather than the acquisition of a testable bank of particular knowledge or facts. So far this has served us well, mostly because I do…
My third-born child just turned 5 last week and my fourth-born will be 3 next month. I am in my second round of pre-k now, and although I have a plan, it doesn’t resemble a conventional preschool or kindergarten scope and sequence or curriculum. I liken the pre- and beginning-reading years to the pre- and…
Denise Eide’s Uncovering the Logic of English made it to the top of my to-be-read stack because I wanted to see what she had to say before I get started with real reading instruction for my newly-five-year-old daughter. Thankfully, my conclusion confirmed on every page was that the best thing to do was continue with…
My mom taught 6 of her children to read with Teach America to Read and Spell, and I have so far taught 2 with it. It is a simple and straight-forward “vertical” phonics method where you memorize all the sounds of each letter and letter combination (phonogram, like th) at one time. The program includes…