Stars and Beyond 

Imagine a child knows that m says /m/, a says /a/, and t says /t/. They know all three sounds, but if they don’t know how to blend those sounds together, they still can’t read the word mat. Reading isn’t just knowing sounds—it’s knowing what to do with those sounds. This is actually a very common stage of learning. It doesn’t mean they aren’t ready, or they have a learning disability. In many cases, it means they need more practice with phonemic awareness—especially blending

Why This Game Works Learning to read is a life skill, but kids learn best while having fun! This is a quick game that you can play anywhere that helps build foundational reading and writing skills. If you have played the Secret Word Car Game, then your child is already learning that words can be pulled apart and squished together. This is a fun game to help them break up words. How to Play: Sound Stomp! Give your child an easy three sound word, and have them “stomp” out each

I’m so excited to share that the Sam Learns to Read series will be launching soon! To celebrate, I’ve created a FREE Sight Word Reader to help your beginning reader build confidence before the series arrives. Learning to read takes practice, and short, engaging books are one of the best ways to help children develop fluency and recognize high-frequency words. Whether you’re a teacher, parent, or homeschool educator, this printable reader is a fun way to support early literacy

A fun game to learn reading basics in the car!

Sam is a snake that wants to learn how to read like his friend Max. He is beginning the adventure of learning to read, but he’s going to need some help and will probably make some mistakes on the way!

For those of you who know me, I am a huge astronomy nerd. In college I was part of a campaign that got the Hubble telescope updated and...

This is an demonstration/lab I have been doing with my kids since I taught 6th grade the very first time. I really want to give credit to...

One thing that I know many people struggle with is finding good books for their kids to read. It's a complicated process because every...

During the early months of the pandemic, I was looking for things to get students excited about science, and I came across NASA's virtual...

As you may know, I am classroom teacher turned homeschool teacher. In the classroom, I had kids take notes every lesson, so that they...

If you have been following my posts, you know that the first step in beginning to teach someone to read, is to teach them the concept of breaking words into sounds and putting them back together. Once they have mastered this step its time to start introducing the letters! But, before you start, we need to address 3 common misconceptions and how to fix them. Misconception #1: You need to know the names of the letters to read Most people are more comfortable teaching the letter

Reading. It's a life skill. Something everyone needs to learn to do in their early life. Some families start teaching their kids to read the day they are born. Other kids don't start learning to read until school. But eventually everyone gets reading lessons. In this series of blogs, I will give tips and strategies that I use to teach beginning readers. There are two main theories behind teaching reading. The first one is called “Whole Language” and the idea is that if you re

While we may be able to visit Mars sooner than we might expect, it is still a bit too far to take your class on a fieldtrip, unless you...

1. Fablehaven by Brandon Mull This is a wonderful book series about a brother and a sister finding themselves in a magical world....

We had just as much fun with the second Notebook of Doom book as we did with the first. My students are excited to keep reading books in...

Last year, I started using the Notebook of Doom in my classroom as part of my language arts program and I absolutely love it! Troy...

Getting kids excited about reading can be one of the most challenging parts of parenting or teaching. Fortunately I have these wonderful...