I've been getting excited thinking about homeschooling. Obviously with my oldest being only 20 months, I may be getting a bit ahead of myself. But I decided that if he is capable of recognizing that a word that I say is associated with a physical item like "blanket" or "cookie" (which he is), then he would probably be able to begin associating a shape with a sound, such as the letter "a" with the sound it makes. I don't expect him to make leaps and bounds in reading, but I figure I can go ahead and be teaching him in play and whatever he happens to pick up is great.
Yesterday we did the letter "a" with play dough.
I decided not to tell him the name of the letter for now, but just to focus on the sound it makes since that's what is important for reading. He can learn the names of the letters later. I also am going to just start with lower case letters until he masters them since the majority of text is made up of lower case letters. I tried to think of things that start with the sound "a" to make out of play dough. I thought my apple was very good.
Believe it or not, this is the same playdough that I posted about with the recipe here. I only used it that once right after I made it and since then it's been in the refrigerator in a washed and reused cottage cheese container. It's over two months old and it is just as soft and pliable as the day I made it.
Modeling clay is used with kids with mild learning disabilities such as dyslexia to help them interact with what they are learning to help them remember it and use their "innate picture thinking ability to their advantage." (Davis Dyslexia Correction) I would think it would help anyone to remember things if they are challenged to interact with it.
The day before yesterday, we coloured and I wrote "a"s on the page, each time making the sound the "a" makes. I was experimenting with other ways of drawing an "a" at the bottom. It's too bad that when we write, we make a different "a" than the one that appears in text. A written "a" is a circle with a tail or a line at the side. But an "a" in text is like an upside down "e" or a backwards "6". I don't think I've ever seen anyone write their "a"s this way.
I definitely used to write my 'a's like that. Oh the days of middle school's, "my writing is prettier than yours!". Playdough is a good idea :) another way to let him try to do it himself is create a template on Word with a GIANT 'a' on the page and let him try to mould the playdough over the template. You can use words, too, like his name.
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