learning

Raising a Reader Part 2. Toddlers.

Jj is for Jottings 62.  Raising a Reader Part 2.  Toddlers.

Continuing from the previous article (here), you cannot overestimate the importance of reading with a child at the toddler stage – for intellectual, social and emotional development.  They take in everything: vocabulary and language structure, numbers and math concepts, colours, shapes, opposites and many other language concepts, animals, manners and all kinds of useful information about how the world works. What’s more, when you read out loud, Continue reading →

Raising a Reader Part 1: The Baby.

Jj is for Jottings 61.  Raising a Reader Part 1: The Baby.

There are various things parents can do to maximise their child’s chances of becoming a reader (i.e. someone who is proficient at reading, reads for pleasure and has no difficulty in using reading for information-seeking and the school curriculum.)  We can divide this topic into 4 stages: Baby, Toddler, Emergent Readers and Early Readers.  Question: What stage comes before the Baby stage?  Continue reading →

More Minimal Pairs: Voiced vs. Voiceless

Jj is for Jottings 59.  More Minimal Pairs: Voiced vs. Voiceless.

 

I was reminded a couple of days ago that there is more to say on the subject of minimal pairs ( see Jj is for Jottings 47.  Minimal Pairs: Voiced vs. Voiceless.  You may wish to read/re-read this before continuing), when an intelligent, well-educated adult fell into a common trap – thinking that the letter s (frequently a plural at the end of a word, but sometimes in the middle) is always pronounced as /s/, whereas in fact it is often pronounced as /z/.  Continue reading →

Should I Correct My Child’s Speech?

Jj is for Jottings 54.  Should I Correct My Child’s Speech?

This is Linguine, Kieran’s Murray Darling carpet python. The pic I really wanted was too blurry. Shikha caught a 23 cm long baby brown snake last week and brought it to the front door step to play with. Having just stepped out of the shower I snatched him inside and dressed hastily. When I returned it was nowhere in sight. I found it wriggling around in David’s boot, on the step below! Taking photos inside boots doesn’t work too well. Great composition – reared up with its mouth gaping open – but blurry. Linguine said he’d be happy to stand in (and he’s beautiful and harmless).

 

Many parents these days are concerned that they will somehow damage their child’s psyche if they correct their speech and language Continue reading →

Reading to Children – Some Statistics.

Jj is for Jottings 52.  Reading to Children – Some Statistics.

Even the alpacas are worried about current trends.

 

Here are some disquieting (but not unexpected) statistics and comments quoted by the guest, who is very experienced in education, at the launch of “Aa is for Alpacas”:

Research by Angela Emher in 2013 of 1263 parents discovered that only one in four of them or 25% read to their children daily.  They claimed that making dinner and doing housework, work commitments and exhaustion all interfered with the nightly routine of reading and sharing books with their children.  From this same survey though 20% of parents though were worried that their own children read less than they did at a similar age.  Is the bed time story being sacrificed because of busy lifestyle and at what cost to our future? Continue reading →

Rhyming, Climbing, Miming… (Part 2).

Jj is for Jottings 51.  Rhyming, Climbing, Miming… (Part 2).

Shanti says:
“When learning to rhyme just relax, like me,
Play games and have fun: it’s easy – you’ll see.

 

How do we explain what a rhyme is?  I usually say that rhyming words sound the same at the end, and follow it up with plenty of examples.  However, be prepared for some children to think that you are talking of only the last SOUND.  You might have some extra explaining to do.  The most important way Continue reading →

Rhyming, Climbing, Miming… (Part 1)

Jj is for Jottings 50.  Rhyming, Climbing, Miming… (Part 1)

Geisha had a little cria,
But in this pic you cannot see ‘er!
(With thanks to David for this one.)

 

Children are not often introduced to nursery rhymes, these days, and in fact most seem to have little exposure to rhymes in their early childhood.  People seem to think that the old-fashioned nursery rhymes are silly and don’t make sense Continue reading →

Children or Feet? Using the Right Root.

Petra’s foot after David had done her toenails (ped=”foot” + filed her toenails. They’re actually cut rather than filed, but I couldn’t resist the pun.)

 

Jj is for Jottings 43.  Children or Feet?  Using the Right Root.

I’ve decided it’s time to air one of my pet language peeves because it crops up so frequently both in conversation and in the media.  I begin with a question: Do pedophiles love children or do they just love feet (which would be odd, but harmless)? Continue reading →

Sticky Post

Welcome.

educatingalpacas.com supports the book “Aa is for Alpacas”.  See Why This Book?

Welcome to my blog – Educating Alpacas.  Does this mean that we are educating the alpacas – teaching them to count and so on – or are the alpacas helping to educate people?  Although we do a little bit of educating the alpacas (see blog post “Halter-Training April), it is mainly that the alpacas are involved in helping to educate both adults and children. The starting point for this blog is my book “Aa is for Alpacas”, written out of desperation at being unable to find an accurate alphabet book which measured up to my standards and which I could recommend to parents to help teach sound-letter links i.e. the sound made by each letter of the alphabet.  You cannot rely on this happening at school and, even if it does, children need to practise at home.

It is not only the lack of knowledge of sound-letter links which is tripping up children in the early stages of learning to read, but there are many other issues which I have observed during more than 35 years of working as a speech pathologist in education – issues which have arisen during this time and which are contributing to a decline in literacy in Australian children.  These concerns are shared by experienced teachers.  Via the medium of the blog and its accompanying Facebook page I set out to bring up issues which are affecting children’s learning, many of which may not have occurred to parents; some strategies for parents to implement with their children at home; pictures and anecdotes about the alpacas and their animal friends and neighbours; and any other vaguely-related issues which I feel moved to bring to people’s attention.

Since “Aa is for Alpacas” was the starting point for the blog, there are references made to both the animals in the book and to the information presented in the User Guide.  This is the only alphabet book that I am aware of which has a comprehensive guide for adults reading with the children, and it also has a book-reading (click on the Video button at the top of this page) so that adults can check whether they are saying sounds correctly and not confusing the children with letter names.  The book is aimed at 3-7 year olds, but can easily be used as a remedial tool for older children.

The Book Launch. This was in an educational supplies shop, Chalk and Chat, in Albury (New South Wales). Our shearer and his wife very kindly brought along two young, very well-behaved, alpacas for the children to meet.

 

 

A Listening Exercise.

Jj is for Jottings 40. A Listening Activity.

If you have read the introduction to “Aa is for Alpacas”, you will be aware that I have flagged poor listening skills as a growing problem in this increasingly visual world. Children who are poor listeners are limited in their ability to learn in many areas of life, but particularly at school, since teaching will usually have both visual and auditory components (and sometimes auditory only). Continue reading →