Rapture May: unschool

Showing posts with label unschool. Show all posts

Learning To Read

Showing off his new phonics set.

My 4 year old son has been asking me to teach him to read for awhile now. I put some feelers out back in January and most people I asked said that was just too young.

Since unschool is child-directed and he just didn't let it go, he asks every night during his bedtime story, I decided to pick up something at the bookstore. We went to the phonics section and he picked a set that he liked. It's pretty much 12 regular childrens' books with several "vocabulary" words highlighted.

I've decided to read each book to him at least twice a day repeating each book for a week. I'm also going to print out "worksheets" with the highlighted words on them so that he can practice writing too.

One thing I've noticed since he's been writing & identifying words is that he mixes the letters up. For instance instead of writing "Julia" he'll write "ilJua." He always includes the correct letters, just in a different spot each time. Likewise, when he 'reads' to me (spelling a word he sees) he says the letters out of order, sometimes completely backwards.

This brings me to a question for all of the educators and home educators out there; is this a phase or cause for concern? I know what dyslexia is, but I don't want to jump to conclusions when this may be a normal develeopmental stage (similar to his ADD like behavior which, it turns out, is perfectly normal for a 4 year old who has never been made to sit criss-cross-applesauce in a circle on the floor. ;)

Chime in below and let me know what you think. Thanks to all of my wonderful readers for the help.

Namaste,
Ani

Wordless Wednesday: Finger Puppets

My son loves to play pretend, so of course we had to get these adorable finger puppets during our recent trip to IKEA. So much fun. :)

A Few Environmental Documentaries for Earth Day

One of the things we're doing for Earth Day 2011 is watching and talking about a few environmental documentaries. Here are some of my favorites that you can view for free on Hulu.

Earth Keepers -- People spearheading innovative projects to improve the future of society.
Flow: For Love of Water -- A look at the looming global water crisis.
Gas Hole -- A look at the history of oil consumption and some possible alternative fuels.
The Future of Food -- A look at our food production system and where it's heading.

Hopefully you get to watch at least one of these movies as they all have great information about the sustainability issues we're facing.

Namaste,
Ani