Here are a few books/websites in a few different areas that might be of use to you at home with your children and their education.  They could help out with homework, or attitudes.  Or if you want to start home schooling here is some help.

Youth Change Your problem-kid problem-solver    

Ebooks and printables

Click Here!

Tension strategies

Click Here!

Home school road map

Click Here!

The A patterns and sounds

Today we are going to talk about the vowel a.

The patterns that it has and the sounds it makes. (Note: the "_" means that there is a consonant there.)


 
Here are the patterns

          a_ (can)         a_e (bake)           ai (paid)       ay (hay)     
           ar (car)        all (call)               aw (saw)


 

 
The sounds that "a" makes, well there are a few. The basic two sounds are the short and then the long sound. The short "a" says its sound while the long "a" says its name.

Pattern                  Words

   
Example: short "a" as in            a_                    cat     ran    cap      back

                 sat     man    nap    snack

   

Long "a" as in               a_e                    bake   name   gave    take

 

these are not long "a"

but make the same sound        ai                     rain      wait       tail      train

   

or                                  ay                    day      say       pay     may

 

A few of the other main

sounds are                             all                    ball        all        tall         hall

   

 aw                 saw        paw       jaw    draw

 

   There are a few others but these are the main ones. Hoped it helped. Remember your child's homework and education are some of the most important things that you can give your child.


 

 
Great learning to you and your kids.


 
Wes

 

The 44 sounds of English

I guess before we really get into the sounds that the vowels make I would like to give you all the sounds that are in the English language.

You may think that there really are more sounds than these but this is really all that there are.

Take the g, it makes a hard and soft sound; /g/ and /j/. This is every sound that there is.


 
So here goes.

Consonants Sounds	Vowel Sounds
/b/ (bat) /d/ (dog) /f/ (fan) /g/ (gate) /h/ (hat) /j/ (jump) /k/ (kite) /l/ (leaf) /m/ (mop) /n/ (nest) /p/ (pig) /r/ (rock) /s/ (sun) /t/ (top) /v/ (vase) /w/ (wagon) /y/ (yo-yo) /z/ (zebra) /ch/ (cheese) /sh/ (shark) /zh/ (treasure) /th/ (thumb) /th/ (the) /hw/ (wheel) /ng/ (ring)	/ā/ (cake) /ē/ (feet) /ī/ (bike) /ō/ (boat) /yōō/ (cube)̂ /a/ (cat) /e/ (bed) /i/ (fish) /o/ (lock) /u/ (duck) / / (alarm) /â/ (chair) /û/ (bird) /ä/ (car) /ô/ (ball) /oi/ (boy) /ou/ (house) /ōō/ (moon) /ŏŏ/ (book)

# 11 on the vowel side  is an upside down  "e".  It is called a schwa.  I could not find it within Microsoft.   (that is why it is blank.)   I will keep looking for it.  sorry.
 
Great learning to you

  
 
Wes

coming tomorrow

Due to an unforeseen problem, my post from today will be posted tomorrow.   Look for it.  "The 44 sounds of English".   don't forget to ask me some questions.

Great learning to you
Wes

Sight Words

There are words in the English language that just can't be sounded out to say them right (well ok some you can), but we all need to learn to read them by sight. These words are called sight words. These words we just have to learn to recognize them when we are reading and know what they are, hence Sight Words.


 
Here are some of the first words that really need to be known by sight.


 
a                  are            who                                       

and              be             have                                      

look            came          out                                                 

me              do                                                                   
my              get                                                                 
said            no                                                             
the             like                                                              

to              our                                                              
we            saw

you          there




These my be repeats but are High Frequency Words.    Which are the same as sight words.
High Frequency meaning that they will come across these words a lot when they read, so they really need to know them.

 it              on           is           red          or            to 
and           for          no          so           mom        in 
with         dog         not         like          not          said 
love         will          my         we          dad          big
by           was         do          look        here

There are many sight words but here is the most common ones that are learned or need to be learned.


 
Great Learning to you


 
Wes

Each Vowel Has Different Sounds

The English language is probably the hardest language to learn. Why is that, well it breaks its own rules way to many times. Then it just has rule after rule. Where as many other languages has a rule and they stick to it.

Take our vowels, they each have a sound that they make. A has a short sound-- a --as in cat, hat, pat. Then it has a long sound-- ā -- as in day, fate, bake. Like when a word has an a followed by an consonant then an e (vcv=vowel consonant vowel), it changes the vowel sound. In any of the vowels this happens

Then when an-- r -- is right after an vowel it changes the sound of the vowel as well. Our language is truly amazing and hard to learn, but we all have done it, and I bet some of us have learned some of the rules and we didn't even know that it was a rule, or a rule breaking another rule. Yes you are truly amazing learners.

So for the nest month I want to go over some of the rules that dictate how our lovely language is read and spoken. And yes there will be more than what I share and help teach, but what I want to share it some hints and helps that will help you help your child with their school work, and over all improve their reading ability.

Here is a little hint. Short vowels say their sound, but long vowels say their name.

Short a --cap, tack, van

Long ā -- fade, take, baby

 
 

 
 

Great learning to you.

 
 

Wes

Martian man

Here is an activity that you can use to help your child develop their Phonemic Awareness better. The grade level is k-1st; this would work for older students that struggle as well.

 
 

This is called Martian Man. You will need a puppet to help you out with this, because the puppet speaks (stretching out the words) and your child will translate what the "Martian Man" said. If you don't have a puppet a simple one made out of a small paper bag will work.

 
 

1st you need to introduce the puppet to your child and tell them that he/she speaks a different language but that they will be able to speak the language soon.

 
 

2nd the "Martian Man will say words that are exaggerated and stretched out. For example: Man—the Martian Man will say

 
 

MMMMMMMMMMMaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnn.

Make sure that the sounds that the letters make are really pronounced well.

 
 

Your child will then quickly say the word, man. This will show that your children know the sounds and able to blend them together. This activity may be done in school, and that is ok because the more reinforcement your child gets the better.

Remember to use smaller words at first and words that your child knows. Words that have 2-3 sounds are great words to start with.

 
 

Here is a list of some simple words that you can use.

 
 

Man can cab dog cat sat ran up at had van car jar fat mad ball hall drag

 
 

Have fun.

 
 

Wes

 
 

Rhyming short vowels

The biggest thing that I, as a parent and teacher, think is most important in reading is knowing the sounds that each of the letters make. And yes it can get very confusing at times. But there are a few simple rules that can make it easier. So here are some of the letter sound and rules that govern them.

 
 

Short a, e, i, o, u All have their basic sounds

Short a --     cat rat pat ran tan back tack tap sap

Short e--     pet let met set pen men ten sell well bell

Short i--     hit bit fit tip trip dip flip chin fin bin

Short o--     chop mop top hot not dot rock sock lock block

Short u--     bug rug dug hug truck suck duck bump jump pump

 
 

Yes there are some other rules like ou, oo, aw, ow , bossy "r" and others but I want to leave those to another time.

 
 

The thing that has helped my son a lot, with his reading ability, is having little words like the ones above on flash cards and having him go through them. I had him just start out with 4 different groups each vowel has at least 4 of its own groups. Once he has mastered that group then grab a new one and start incorporating it into the circulation. These first group of words needs to be rhyming words, it really does make a difference.

 
 

Here is a couple groups from each short vowel.

 
 

short a--

-at: cat, mat, sat, pat, rat, flat, hat

-an: man, can, van, ran, fan, pan, plan, tan

 
 

short I--

-it: hit, sit, fit, pit, kit, bit

-ig: big, fig, wig, dig, pig, twig

 
 

short o--

-ot: hot, pot, lot, not, got, dot, spot

-op: top, pop, cop, hop, mop, stop, drop, chop

 
 

short e--

-et: pet, net, set, met, wet, let, jet

-ed: red, led, bed, fed, shed, sled

 
 

short u--

-ut: cut, nut, but, hut, shut

-ug: bug, hug, dug, rug, jug, slug, mug, plug

cat	mat	sat	pat
rat	flat	hat	man
can	van	ran	fan
pan	plan	tan	hit
sit	fit	pit	kit
bit	big	fig	wig
dig	pig	twig	hot
pot	lot	not	dot
spot	top	pop	cop
hop	mop	stop	drop
chop	pet	net	set
met	wet	let	jet
red	led	bed	fed
shed	sled	cut	nut
but	hut	shut	bug
hug	dug	rug	jug
slug	mug	plug

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

I hope this helps with your child with getting better at reading. This is not the first step that you need to take. Learning the letters and sounds is first. But once they know the names and sounds of letters this will help a lot.

 
 

Happy learning

 
 

Wes