Lesson 6 - April 17, 2015

Oh Jacob Jacob. He was in a "whatever -- I don't wanna do this" mood.

Kids are sorta moody sometimes. (Not like that changes when you are an adult.... )

1. I started by testing his retention from the words I have taught him so far. (Just showing him words, no pictures.) He remembered 2 out of 10 of them. So 20%.

It sounds rather disappointing, but his mom assures me it's normal.

After this he was visibly annoyed. He knew he wasn't getting them, and he was mad. And his brain was really really tired.

He needed a brain rest.


2. We took a beak and got snacks and talked. Suddenly he was happy! :)


3. I had the premonition that connecting Pictures --> Words --> Sounds is what we needed to talk about. Instead of a whole speech about it, I just interjected bits of the idea while we were doing the rest of the lesson.

Jacob fully grasped the concept. That words represent pictures, and that sounds are how we figure out what a word is.

(Seriously, how do kids get this idea quickly? It's so weird.)


4.I introduced Jacob to the Alphafriends.

Basically, they are all the letters attached to an animal/thing with a name. It helps them learn phonetics.

Like "Andy Apple --ahh, ahh, ahh" and "Benny Bear --buh, buh,buh" and so on.


Here is a link to a printable.

This is how my boys learned their letters and sounds in Kindergarten.

I loved their teacher. She not only taught them, she HAMMERED phonetics. She is sort of a Kindergarten Miracle for Boys. I wish Jacob could be in her class.





Here is a link to the Alphafriends song. 


Over the period of 20 minutes, we took one letter at a time, went over its sound, sang the song (JUST the part of the song with that letter) over and over, then introduced another letter.



We kept adding letters because Jacob loved it! He seems to be really "in the moment" sometimes. Wish I could tap that or stretch it out a little longer. :)

So we got to five letters: A, B, C, D, E

5. I mixed up those letters to spell some simple words and let him try sounding them out.

Some words were fairly easy for him to sound out. Some were harder.

Any word with B and D in it made his head spin. We talked about how B and D are SO CLOSE that it makes it hard.

But did pretty dang well. He sounded out at, cab, cat, bat, dab, bed, bad. (Yes we added in the T but he likes T and remembers the sound.)


6. Two lessons in a row now, Jacob has told me: "I wish writing wasn't invented, because then there wouldn't be school, or reading....."

I responded with:

*There would still be math! And history, and..... so yes there would still be school.
*God gave us the scriptures and technology and so many things.... why?? Words must be important.


7. That led into what we are each good at.

Jacob: I am good at using a bow.
Carrie: I am good at words, but I don't know how to use a bow.

So we are going to trade! Reading for archery.

Sounds like a good trade, huh? :)