Explore books to the max!

Favourite books can be a great source of early projects. Making a favourite book the focus of a topic is so much fun. This along with favourite nursery rhymes was a key teaching tactic when they were little. They would decide how long we spent on it. 

It remains a popular teaching method with them. A few years later and they still randomly choose a book and research it.

One of the first books the girls gravitated towards for this purpose was 'The Three Little Pigs'. 

- They listened to me reading the story. 

- They recalled the story in their own words. 

- They created a picture depicting the houses, pigs and the wolf.

- They learnt the properties of the materials discussed in the book. 

The science behind the story has always been of particular interest to them. 

We have studied the science behind a number of nursery rhymes and books and it really makes the story come alive for them.

They also loved studying the 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. 

This cute little topic lasted three days. This was before the days of reading and writing. It was Mummy reading the book on repeat whilst they were busy with their stickers, drawing and scenes.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reading with ADHD

Image
Experience through me, a typical reading session with a toddler with adhd and hyperlexia.  Give yourself forty-five minutes for the session.  Wait for ten minutes for her to stop performing flips and tricks, bearing in mind she will have asked for this activity. Another five minutes for her to get snuggly in your lap, and have a giggle because she is purposely holding the book upside down. She will then flawlessly read a page of a Peter and Jane book.  Then point out that the next page is pretty much the same as the one before so why does she have to read it?  You refocus her.  She reads the next page flawlessly.  'Oh look I have a bellybutton', poking at it and giggling.  Refocus.  Next page read flawlessly.  'Mummy, I'm Kira Morris, what's your name?' (saying her name frequently is part of her torrettes).  Refocus.  Next page read flawlessly.  A screaming fit, 'Sophia's looking at me!' then launching straight into another fla...
Read more

Lockdown space

Image
  "We haven't got the time. We haven't got the space" Let's look at the space situation, shall we? Enjoy the following story. It was during the time of the first lockdown. We lived in a tiny terraced house....with three toddlers.  Our living room, besides hosting the traditional furniture for this room, housed the toy chests, a huge wardrobe, and two fridge freezers (the kitchen was tiny). Alexander was working hard on his physiotherapy in the hope he would one day be able to sit, stand, and walk unaided. Thus, our remaining standing room housed his specialised seating and walking equipment, which we tripped over on a reular basis. There was no official table due to lack of space. The children had a toddler picnic table with attached benches for their learning space, that stood upright against the wall when not in use. We moved the furniture round, depending on what was being used. We had no storage space for their work, so it adorned the walls and the fridge free...
Read more

Building engagement

Image
How do you get someone's attention when  they're just three years old? How do you reach them when they're autistic and living in their own little world? How do you excite a love of reading when they're so young?  You observe.  Kira has hyperlexia. She could read any word without being taught and knew what many of them meant. She did not like to snuggle down and listen to traditional stories. She did not tune into life unless her sister was nearby, until she was introduced to educational YouTube channels. She became alive, spun around and rocked her toddler days away singing educational content. She learnt a song and the meaning of the contents within a few times of hearing it and could talk to you about it. So back to reading. She could perform the technical skill to an incredible degree, reading level of a seven year old months after starting to read. She was not emotionally connecting with content however, no matter which story books I was presenting to her.  I bro...
Read more