Sunflowers in Bloom
Sight Word Of The Week {Crew Review}
For this review, we were gifted a digital copy of Crafty Classroom Sight Word Of The Week program. Sight Word Of The Week is a curriculum pack for Pre-K to K4 but also makes a great review for older kids. It is designed with short lessons that are easy for children to complete but fun as well.
Sight Word Of The Week comes as a PDF file download. It is 386 pages in length. It is full-color and easy to follow along. It does need to be printed for your children to complete.
I got this pack to use with both Jack and Laycie. Jack is learning sight words and I used it as a review on sight words for Laycie who struggles with reading. It worked great for them both.
The colorful pages are fun and capture your child’s attention easily. There are plenty of pages to complete in the sight word pack as well. Not an overwhelming amount but enough to ensure your child is learning the words they need to be.
The program breaks down to cover 40 key sight words in 40 weeks. It also provides a mini book to help your student see the words in print form so they can test their knowledge and you can see how well they are learning. This is a fun bonus for you both.
There are also 40 Sight Word Early Readers included with this pack to help your child show off their reading skills. These are great little books that your child will enjoy.
There are 8 activities for each sight word each week. The suggested schedule is for Monday – Thursday. There are additional activities as well.
Some of the activities are an ASL sign chart, Playdough mats for hands-on fun, sight word searches, fishing for sight words which was a favorite for Jack. There are also Dab and Dots, cut and paste activities, and touch and read activities to do. Assessments are also included as well.
A list of suggested resources and materials is also included. Some of these suggestions include letter magnets, snap cubes, a composition notebook to practice writing the new words, ABC stamps and Bingo Daubers for the Dot activities. These all bring in hands-on learning to help engage the student in developing a love for reading while learning these sight words.
I like that the program starts each week teaching the ASL for the word being taught. ASL is a great second language that everyone should know in my opinion and my children enjoy learning new words this way. We began with baby sign language with our little years ago so this program really helped us continue to develop this skill. And the kids really enjoy learning it too.
The Playdough mats are also fun and my Jack LOVES playdough. So does Laycie. So it was great to be able to incorporate these with our learning. I chose to laminate these mats so they could work on them using dry erase and repeatedly to help encourage learning the word. It was a fun activity they enjoyed.
Fishing is a huge thing in our house thanks to their Dad so both kids really liked the Fishing for Sight Words activities as well. They’d compete to see who could find them fastest and create different crazy fish to cover the words. It was really fun for them.
Jack really loved the Sight Word Sticker Chart. He liked putting a sticker on the words he learned. We love using stickers and charts to teach and to reward him for doing things he is able to. So this was perfect for him as well!
The games were pretty fun too and allowed the kids to play and learn together. They enjoyed seeing who would win and played again and again. It was also something we could do with the older kids to help encourage better relations between them. A win all the way around!
We really liked Sight Word Of The Week from Crafty Classroom. Her products are always wonderful and this one was exactly what we needed to boost our reading to the next level. I look forward to using more products from Crafty Classroom in the future.
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Wordless Wednesday
SUDEP Awareness
There is a little discussed topic in the Epilepsy community that only some of us know: SUDEP – Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy.
SUDEP is very real. It happens to 1 in 1000 adults with Epilepsy and 1 out of 4500 children each year. It is the leading cause of Epilepsy mortality.
The only cure for SUDEP is seizure control which many patients do not have or struggle with.
Recently, a beautiful artistic soul, who had a wonderful career in Hollywood passed away and the event has placed SUDEP in the forefront of the Epilepsy community. We, as a whole, do not discuss this tragic truth enough. We bury it away and are shocked when it happens. Our medical leaders do not wish to speak on it more than necessary for the widespread panic that it could create.
I was personally, blissfully unaware of what SUDEP actually is until my second child with Epilepsy. It was then I discovered the information about this occurrence through Epilepsy awareness websites. It wasn’t until much later that our neuro mentioned it personally.
I learned more about SUDEP from organizations that help families like mine to prevent SUDEP from happening to families like mine. Organizations started in memory of loved ones, children who passed away from this very real condition. Organizations whose hearts were broken but strive to help save children like mine every day.
Even with these organizations, there isn’t a lot that can be done in the fight for Epilepsy. Spreading awareness of Epilepsy and of SUDEP is the best way to help others. There is no real way to prevent a seizure or death from a seizure. There are devices, pillows and other things that can help create a safer environment for our loved ones but they are not fail-proof.
Every year that my daughter goes with limited seizure control and struggles with medications puts her more at risk for SUDEP. It’s a very real fear in our household and why we choose to continue medication for her. Her Neuro is hopeful that once she finishes puberty that her seizures will stop but there is no guarantee for that and no reason why she continues to have them. We can only hope that the safety precautions and devices that we have in place, along with her medication will keep her alive and well each day.
I strive as a blogger in the Epilepsy community to help others better understand what we live with and how Epilepsy affects our lives. The challenges and struggles we face, SUDEP being only one of many. Learning more about seizures, about Epilepsy and about SUDEP may help you to save a life in the future.
Learning Dynamics {Crew Review}
Teaching a child how to read can sometimes be a struggle, especially for Homeschooling families. Reading is the most important part of a child’s education because it is the basis of all learning. Learning Dynamics and the Learning Dynamics Reading Program is here to help!
For this review, we were gifted the Learning Dynamics Reading Program which comes as a boxed set. It’s not a super huge box but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in product. This box is packed full of everything you need to teach your child to read. It is for ages 4-7. Your child can be reading in 4 weeks with this program.
Inside the box you will find over 50 full colored books that your student will work through as they learn to read. These are thin and small books that won’t stress your child out as they learn to read with them. They fit well in a child’s hand and are not heavy. They are well-written in simple language your child can easily understand and work with as they use the program.
There is also a Lesson Manual packed in the box. It is actually two lesson manuals in one so you will find info for both in this one booklet. The entire manual is 144 pages long. Manual one stops at page 110 and Manual two finishes the booklet. There are 41 lessons in the Manual One section and 14 in the Manual Two section.
Why are there two sections to the Lesson Manual you ask? Section one covers the Lesson Letters. It teaches every letter needed to read and teaches important reading skills while section two covers the blends which are also important for reading. The blends are covered after the letters are learned so it lessens confusion for the child learning to read.
Lessons themselves take around 15 minutes and are paced out to 3 days a week so your child is not overwhelmed and neither are you. The lessons should not be stressful and should be easily completed to encourage the child and make reading fun. There are additional tools to help you with lessons which I will discuss next.
In the box, is a kit filled with additional tools to use for the lessons. Here you will find several sets of flashcards. There is a blend card set, a plain letter set that just features the letters, a larger set of cards that feature images related to the letter and sounds, and a set of character cards that are to be punched out to use for different activities with the program.
You will also find a CD of music that will help you encourage your child to develop a passion for reading. The music CD features the Alphabet Song, a letter song for all the alphabet, the vowel song, extra songs to teach vowel sounds and a song for the two vowel rule. These are fun and help your child memorize the letter sounds they are learning.
The box also includes a student workbook. It is easily held in your students hands and contains around 53 pages to use with lessons. This workbook is consumable and expected for use with one child. You can purchase extra workbooks through the company. The activities are simple and easy to complete as well.
The entire kit works together to really help your child learn to read without a great deal of stress for either you or the child. It’s easy to follow along with and complete the tasks each week. And with a 3 day a week lesson plan, it’s not too much to follow along with in order to complete.
There are over 50 readers in 4 sets of books. The Blue Set is the first set that your child will learn to read with. It’s very easy to follow. Set 2 is Red and a bit harder, beginning blends for reading. The Third Set is Yellow and further builds on learning blends. The Fourth Set is Green and the most difficult of the readers.
This program was perfect for Jackson who is just learning to read. He is full of energy all the time with his ADHD so it’s difficult to get him to sit still for lessons of any kind if they don’t truly interest him. This program’s length allows us to work on reading without taking forever which often stresses him out. He loved the fun songs and completing the short activities was not difficult for him. We will keep working on it to help him continue learning to read.
You can purchase Learning Dynamics Reading Program online for $149. I noticed they also have a payment plan for purchase as well.
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Wordless Wednesday
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