For the Love of Art: Our Favorite Art Projects this Year

Art was not a reason I set out to homeschool two years ago, but it is one of the many areas in which growth in my kids has surprised me and opened my eyes-- particularly in my oldest. 

W didn't lack good art teachers in school. He had two good ones during his time in school; I was always impressed with the things they'd study and cool projects they'd do. But he didn't like art class and struggled with it, for a few reasons I think. For one, he would often rush to finish because art class was within a tight 45-minute time frame and at a certain point you have to just finish. When emotions are high or he is rushing, the project at hand becomes even more difficult. The teachers would need to help him with the trickier techniques, when they could get to him, and he didn't feel much ownership. Often he would finish off a piece of work with globs of paint, scribbles, or silly doodles-- to cover up his frustration that he couldn't quite get the effect he'd been trying to achieve, like some of the more sophisticated artists around him could. As in all things, he compared himself with others, and in art it made him feel worse and try less hard. He also struggled with attention in school and didn't have the strategies then that he has since found to help with that (and of course had more distractions in school). 

At home he can keep at a project for as long as he wants. He doesn't have others to compare himself to (except his sister, who is at a completely different stage and to whom he is very encouraging in art), so he's become very focused on his particular creations for what they are and for the process. In the past he complained that his paintings looked babyish, but one thing we've done at home is some specific step-by-step painting tutorials (see below). Those have resulted in pieces he's so proud of, he started feeling more capable and more eager to paint in general. Similarly, W always wanted to draw people but felt he was bad at it so avoided it. We've done various online drawing lessons as well as purchased books on how to draw thing like soldiers and military vehicles, and he's also gotten interested in tracing and in drawing images he finds in books or online. The space to pursue his own interests through art, including historical scenes and people in battle, has had major impact. He is driven to do it and has done it more and more of it of his own volition and his skills have grown-- he is so pleased with the way he can draw muscles and bent limbs in action now. 

While there is no one thing I can claim that we've done that has been the ticket, two years of doing art at home, in his own way, in his own time, has really worked wonders for both his abilities and his self esteem. Now seeing himself as a good painter and a good drawer, a creator of incredibly detailed birthday cards, and seeing the effect that all his patient practice has had, his relationship with art has evolved dramatically, and he is more open and positive about any creative opportunity that presents itself. It makes me so happy to finally see him find joy and skill and focus in art.

Onto some favorite projects! 

My kids do plenty of artistic, creative, crafty things all on their own, from M's color-by-number pages and glued-together sculptures and woven potholders, to W's drawings and stop-motion animations and new whittling hobby. But I also enjoy finding a wide range of art projects we can try out together once a week or so. It's a chance to work together as well as learn a new technique or discover new materials. 

I am definitely not an art teacher and that is why I like to share often about the art projects that we do (here and here are some things we enjoyed last year); I can deeply relate to the need for ideas and advice! Here are some highlights from some of the more "official" art projects we've done together over the past year: 

Polymer Clay Crafts

I loved a unit working with Fimo polymer clay in high school, so I bought this set and with the help of some YouTube tutorials, relearned a few techniques with the kids. One big concept is how to make a cane-- a long rod of different colors and thicknesses of clay that, when you slice it, shows a flower or whatever design you've built into it. It's magical! You bake your creations in the oven (on a foil-lined pan, with some good ventilation because it's a little smelly) and when they've cooled fully you can make them into necklaces, earrings, and more. 

(One note: I have done every project on this list with both my kids and this one is truly the only project that I found to be a bit too tricky for my kindergartner (or at least it was early this past fall when we did it). She still had fun playing with the clay, but would have had as much fun playing with Play-Doh, which is softer and easier to sculpt.)

Quilted Pillows

My mother and grandmother made a lot of quilts when I was growing up, and I've made my share of them as well. I was successful teaching my son to knit last year and I wanted to introduce my kids to sewing with a needle and thread this year. I thought making a simple quilted pillow cover might be the way to do it. I got out this quilting book I own, which provides the patterns for many different classic quilt blocks, and let them each choose one they liked. W chose Log Cabin and M chose See Saw. Then they chose whatever colors and prints they wanted from my collection of fabrics and scraps. I helped them pin the cardstock shapes onto their fabrics and cut them out. They laid out their pieces like a puzzle according to their pattern. After that, over several short sessions on many different days, they have pieced together their quilt block, stitch by stitch. They had to learn the concept of right sides together and how to try to avoid tangled threads. I did most of the tying off for my youngest, but her stitches were neat and even! Now they each are very close to having a new pillow.

 

Pastel Tulips

I got the idea for this from Projects with Kids. We did this on a nice day outdoors in two steps. The first was to draw the outlines of our flowers on black paper, go over the pencil with a line of glue, and allow that to completely dry overnight. The next day we shaded and blended our choice of chalk pastels to color them in, the hardened glue providing a nice boundary kind of like stained glass. They came out beautifully and we still have them hanging in the house. 

Pressed or Pounded Flowers

This is another great project for a beautiful spring or summer day. Half the fun is walking around the yard collecting specimens. It causes you to really look and realize how much variety in plant life is around you in wildflower petals and leaves-- even if, like me, you don't have much for intentional flower beds. After collecting, we've made either pressed or pounded flowers. 

For pressed flowers, we laid out a piece of contact paper sticky side up and placed each specimen face down on it. Then we pressed a piece of construction paper onto that so it stuck to the contact paper. We placed the whole thing under a big dictionary for a day or two to help it stick well and the plants to be nice and flat, then trimmed the excess off the edges and displayed. 

For pounded flowers, we placed a piece of white construction paper on a cutting board, taped down at the edges. We laid our flowers and leaves face down on the paper (or so the side with the most pigment was face down), then placed a piece of waxed paper over the top of it. I taped the waxed paper at the edges too so it stayed in place. Then we whacked it with the flat end of a toy hammer (any flat mallet would work) to try to get the pigments to rub off on the white paper. It takes a fair amount of whacking to get the whole shape of a plant to show up. Then we discarded the flowers and checked out the prints we'd made on the paper. Some of them did better than others and came out quite pretty. It was as much a fun science experiment as an art project.  

Pressed flowers

Pounded flowers and leaves

Color Wheels

There are lots of kids' books and activities about the color wheel and color combinations, such as Mouse Paint. But it was fun to get out only the three primary colors of our tempera paints and literally do the mixing to make all the colors ourselves. On a large piece of white paper, they each used a compass to first draw as large a circle as they could, then used a ruler to draw a nice straight line across the middle, and more lines as needed based on the number of sections. I had M make a simpler color wheel consisting of primary and secondary colors, while W made one that had tertiary colors as well. 

Younger kid version: M made a color wheel with six sections in all. She began by painting red, yellow, and blue sections, leaving a blank section between each set of primary colors. Then she mixed yellow and blue in her paint tray, and painted the section between yellow and blue with the green they created. She did the same with the other combinations of primary colors for the other two blank sections and ended up with a wheel that showed red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. 

Older kid version: W split his circle in the beginning into 12 sections total. He also began by painting sections in each of the primary colors, but he left three blank sections between each pair of primary colors. When he then mixed his blue and yellow to make green, he painted the green he made in the middle of those three blank sections between blue and yellow. Next, he used a bit of that green he'd created and added more yellow to it and put it between his green and yellow sections. Then he took some more of his original green he'd created and added more blue to it and painted his blue-green between his blue and his green sections to result in a color wheel with lots of gradations. It was a super-simple project, but they were delighted with seeing real color mixing at work. 

Color wheel for older kids

Color wheel for younger kids

Acrylic Pour Paintings

My sister first did this with her kids and we were so dazzled by their paintings we had to try it. She pointed me to the fact that there are many YouTube videos about how to do acrylic pour painting. Here is a simple, very slow-paced video about how to do it that I watched for background info. We used a canvas and painted it with a base coat of watered-down paint. We painted it black, but white would also be good. Then, while the base coat was still wet, we mixed little cups of watered-down acrylic paints-- liquid enough that it pours easily but not too watery. My kids each chose three colors they wanted. (Dixie cups or plastic shot glasses work well for the paint cups.) We poured some paint onto the canvas and tipped and twisted the canvas around to make the paint run in different directions. You can pour the paints on in whatever amounts you want (err on the side of less at first because you can always add more). You can pour them all in the same spot or near each other or far from each other. You can use a straw to blow at the paint and make it move around, and all sorts of other techniques you can Google or just experiment with. (Here is an article just for some ideas of the many different techniques you can use when pouring.) Almost whatever you do, it makes striking abstract art. 

I figured this would be a pretty quick project because of the nature of it, but they were at it a surprisingly long time, tipping and twisting and completely absorbed trying to get it to look just so. This would make a fun project for a party or for any age (and would be another great outdoor one, although we did it in the winter).  

Scribble Drawings

We watched a great live online talk with illustrator Jason Chin on Earth Day. In it we got a simple, liberating idea: make a scribble or a fast little doodle on a blank piece of paper. Then, put your pen down and look at it. Turn the paper all around and see what you can see in your scribble. Does it look like a balloon? A hand? The flame of a candle on a birthday cake? Choose what you see in the scribble and then make the rest of the drawing based on that. Chin demonstrated this a couple times and it was amazing how by the time he was done each time, the once-random scribble didn't look like a scribble any more but looked like an intentional part of the fun drawing it became a part of. I thought this was a great activity that was less a one-day art project and more a lesson to always carry with us: it's okay to make mistakes, and anything can become art with imagination and multiple ways of seeing.   

Tissue-Paper Flowers

We've made tissue paper flowers a few times. They are so colorful and last forever! All you need is tissue paper and pipe cleaners. Sometimes we use a Klutz book and kit we have that provides directions on how to make various types of paper flowers from simple to complex. Recently we tried following the online directions from The Craft Patch to make simple, large, bright, showy flowers. Pictured is an in-progress wreath made by wrapping our paper flower stems onto a wire coat hangar.  

Papier-Mache Bowls

This is messy. It also has to happen over the course of several days because of all the drying times. But it's a rewarding, colorful result and a good skill to know. I posted all the materials and steps for it in this blog post. 

Step-by-Step Painting Tutorials

I've enjoyed a few paint and sip experiences myself and we've enjoyed the kid version as well over the last couple of years. Step-by-step online tutorials, both in video form and in written form, have been a game changer when it comes to painting, especially for my oldest (my youngest still gets a lot of enjoyment out of the act of painting, regardless of the results). Painting something that looks good, in which he did multiple steps he wouldn't have necessarily thought of himself, makes him feel so proud. And while the kids are following a guide, they also have the freedom to omit or add portions they want to their paintings, as well as choose their particular colors and other details. Even when we all paint the exact same project, they all come out so different and with so much personality. Painting tutorials have also taught us some useful techniques that have carried over into other painting projects. One favorite site is Step by Step Painting, which has a bunch of tutorials that are simpler so specifically aimed at kids. We've also had some luck just searching and choosing tutorials on YouTube when there is a specific subject we want to paint, like recently when W wanted to paint a lighthouse in a storm.   

Traced Portraits

We looked at some striking portraits by artist Kehinde Wiley, who creates vibrant botanical backgrounds. Then I printed off a photo of each of my kids. They traced the photo, which was more challenging than tracing a drawing with distinct lines; they had to really study facial features and decide what to trace in Sharpie, what to trace in pencil, and what details to fill in later. Then we copied their tracings onto regular white paper and they colored them in, being especially creative with floral and leafy backgrounds-- we picked things around our yard to inspire the backgrounds. (We borrowed this project idea from the Park Hill School District's online art curriculum.) 

Holiday Crafts

We made a few fun things around the holidays: cranberry chains, snowflake ornaments made from toilet paper tubes and glitter, Christmas tree tree ornaments made from popsicle sticks and from ribbons, and our annual gingerbread houses.  

Sharpie Pop Art

We learned a little about Pop Art (including this quick video intro about it from Tate Kids) and then made these Andy Warhol-inspired Sharpie creations. We each chose our own object to repeat in four quadrants on a square piece of paper, outlined in black Sharpie, and colored in different, bright colors. Fun and easy. 

 

Abstract Popsicle Stick Art

This was another bright, easy project, fun for any age and for making collectively. We began with jumbo rainbow popsicle sticks, and each painted a bunch of them in whatever abstract patterns and designs we wanted. When they were dry we sorted them out by color and arranged them into squares, then glued them on a large piece of cardboard cut to size. I got the idea from Preschool Powol Packets. 

Aboriginal Art Prints

This is my favorite example from this year of the value in simply trying out some brand new materials and techniques. The kids were so excited when I told them we were going to try printmaking. First we learned a little about Aboriginal Art (YouTube of course), then each sketched our choice of subject. (Most of the art we'd looked at had animals as the subject, so I chose a fish. My kids were much more creative-- W drew multiple animals heading toward various destinations while M drew Elsa and some snowflakes.) Next we copied our drawing onto scratch-foam board-- we etched the picture right into the Styrofoam using a wooden stylus, but a pencil would also work. Then I poured some block printing ink out (into a large plastic take-out container lid), and rolled a brayer (small roller) in it, then on our scratch board to cover it completely with ink. Then we pressed a large piece of construction paper over our inked scratch board and rubbed over the back of the paper with a flat, heavy object to make sure every area got printed (a rolling pin might have also worked). It was a thrill to slowly peel back the construction paper and see that we had indeed made a print. Now that we've learned some basic steps of printmaking, there are a lot of cool projects we could do. (This project idea we also borrowed from the Park Hill School District's art curriculum online.) 

Tie-Dyed T-Shirts

Recently my daughter and I each tie-dyed a t-shirt (my son opted out of this project). We've used this Tulip kit several times and it works great; you only need to have white clothing or other things on hand to dye. The kit includes instructions and ideas for different techniques of tie-dying that yield different results. The gloves included in the kit are definitely worth wearing from the moment you open the package, because there is dust from the dye that somehow gets all over your hands even before adding the water. (Speaking of mess, perhaps this is obvious, but tie-dying is best done standing at a table, outdoors, wearing a smock and gloves on a nice day!) After the shirts have spent the night wrapped up in rubber bands and plastic, it is so much fun to unwrap them and find out what you've created. 

Developing a Sense of Time in Young Kids

Timeline of her life so far

I've observed so many instances of young kids being confused in regard to time:

~ When my son was younger, he never knew when he woke up whether it was morning or after nap. 

~ My daughter, for the longest time, constantly mixed up the words tomorrow and yesterday; morning and afternoon; breakfast, lunch, and dinner.   

~ In many conversations with my first-grade students, they seemed unclear about when their stories from their lives had happened. Some events, like a big family trip or their last birthday, stood out, but otherwise time was an abstract, and they often had trouble sequencing and remembering, much less describing coherently. 

~ Currently M loves babies-- her doll babies, real babies, and hearing stories of when she was a baby. But babies aren't just an interest; it's like she's on a quest to understand. Frequently she'll ask a question about how she ate/slept/talked as a baby or she'll crawl around the house pretending she was "just born today." I have realized her sense of babyhood is black and white without gradations. She knows only that once she was a baby, and now she is big. 

Most young kids can't tell time on a clock, but their sense of time is also developing on a larger scale-- lack of clarity about when events happened in the past or will happen in the future, imagining all babies as crawlers who use baby talk, not recalling or understanding their own growth and development, not having an internal sense of what time of day it is or how long it takes to do things. This developing sense of time seems to be part of the package with young kids, even if they show it in different ways. I've been thinking about this idea more and more this year, spending a lot of time with a kindergartner as I do. So I thought I'd share some strategies (and a few particular activities) that I think have helped a bit.   

Calendar 

In our homeschool we don't do calendar time. (I did traditional calendar activities in the classroom for years. While it helped with rote memorization (days of the week, months of the year, counting) and was a good way to build in a lot of other math skills, I never felt it was very useful in helping kids develop a real sense of time.) But having a calendar on the wall as a visual is useful, each day in its own box. I try to write down the things of relevance to the kids on it-- appointments, birthdays, sports, family visits-- and we try to point out what day it is and talk about what is coming up. My son was ten before he had the order of the months memorized, so in trying to prevent that for M, we do sing the days of the week and say the months in order now and then. But just like the difference in math between being able to rote count vs. actually having a sense of numbers and quantities, I want her to not just be able to sing the days and months, but also to have a sense of where we are in the week or the year. We talk about each month and the types of happenings associated with it to help give it meaning and its own identity-- May, for example, being Mothers' Day and her grandfather's birthday and baseball and working in the garden and those little white wildflowers that bloom each year in our yard...  

Daily Schedule

I write out a basic schedule each day of the things we will do. I don't put time of day on it because we aren't that specific about it, but it is a list that shows the basic plan and order of school subjects and other activities. (M beelines to it every morning, full of comments and questions, and it has absolutely helped her with learning to read this year.) Some kids and some people in general need/appreciate schedules and routines more than others. My kids have both made it very clear to me that they like having this daily list and knowing what's to come. W often asks me to put things he wants to remember to do on it. M even asks us sometimes to write the schedule on the weekend-- and while we don't usually have as clear an agenda on a Saturday or Sunday, we honor her request by writing down any plans or hopes for the day in this same central place.  

Talk, Talk, Talk 

Both my kids benefit from the preparation of talking about an event before it happens-- what time of day we will need to leave, who will be there, what we'll do there. Talking with kids about things past, present, and future as well as taking the time to explain things and answer their questions honestly is probably the most important thing on this list. Recently, M asked me, "Did I draw like this when I was a baby?" and did a curly scribble on a paper. I told her that when she was first born she couldn't pick anything up so she wouldn't have made any marks with a crayon. The conversation grew from there and she was fascinated, asking about different ages and trying to recreate examples as I described the colorful scribbles she'd made at two, the people with just a head and legs she'd drawn at four, and the detailed expressive pictures she makes now. We've had a similar conversation regarding different stages of other abilities as well-- eating, walking, bike riding-- and she always seems to eagerly soak it up, like an anthropologist studying her own past.   

Photo Albums

Whenever M asks to look at a family photo album with us at bedtime rather than just reading a book, it takes a lot longer because she discusses every picture and asks so many questions. But she is earnestly studying photos of the past and trying to mentally put things together, and these conversations are so important for her. (Also, since she constantly wants to hear baby stories about herself, the photos help us remember specific anecdotes to tell.) A couple of times this year, I have also gotten out some much older photos-- from before our kids were born and even from our own childhoods. We had all sorts of conversations about those photos, too. I think older photo albums of people in her life help to provide a rare visual of how people grow and change (since in the short lifetime of a young kid, grown-ups are always grown-ups and kids are always kids), and also to help develop a bigger sense of past and present.   

Artifacts from her Own Life

While some of M's memories (and those of other young kids I've known) are so vivid and specific, I am always amazed at how little she remembers of other times from her life. She told me the other day she couldn't remember what her preschool looked like-- and her memories of daycare when she was two and three, at least that she can relate to us, are even more vague. (The daycare before that, up until she was two, seems not a part of her memory at all.) But I guess in the span of her life, even a year ago is a long time and what is current is much more real. One thing we've done is to save and/or display the things that were important to her at different ages-- the photo album her daycare provider gave to her on her last day, preschool artwork, her first practice chart documenting 100 days of practicing the violin, her own writing pieces from earlier this year. It's nice to look through these artifacts from time to time and talk about them. While they may not cause her to remember those times of her life fully, they are physical evidence of her growth over time, and maybe help fill in some gaps so she can connect the dots of the story of her life so far.

Compare Lengths of Time to Known Quantities

Time is tricky and even if I spoke in specific minutes and referred to the time on the clock all the time, I don't think it would sink in till she was a bit older. Often when I say we'll do something "in five minutes" or some other length of time, M will ask me, "How long is that?" because she really doesn't know. (This may also explain why telling her we need to leave in one minute doesn't seem to have any effect in causing her to move any faster.) When saying a length of time, I try to think of something she has a good sense of to compare it to. If something is two hours, it's the length of a drive to visit grandparents; if it is twenty minutes we compare it to the length of an episode of Daniel Tiger; two minutes is the length of time to brush your teeth. After hearing an analogy like this, she nods and I see a sense of understanding.

Projects about her Own Growth and Stages 

The two fun projects below are things I incorporated into M's homeschool day over recent months.

Making Books: 

We read a few stories that had a theme of growing and memories of the past. One good one was Birthday Presents, by Cynthia Rylant, which tells the story of a young child's growth through her parents' descriptions of her birthday celebrations each year. Another was When I was Little, by Jamie Lee Curtis, which follows a basic pattern of "When I was little..." on one page followed by "Now..." on the next page. 

Both of these books were written in a patterned format, and I had M borrow the patterns from them to write about her own life. She especially seems to treasure the book she created about her birthdays. I printed out a few photos from the day she was born and from each birthday since for her to choose from, then cut and arrange on a page and use to spark her writing and memories. We spent quite a while making it and discussing all the photos. (It was fun to let her play around with some of the photos before putting them in the book and try to put pictures of herself in age order, too.) The other book she made is equally sweet, with lines like, "When I was little I crawled. Now I can walk and dance." She chose the topics about which she wanted to compare then vs. now and they were things like making music, skiing, and the length of her hair. 

"When I was born I was too too too cute! I had a bath in the sink..."

"When I turned 1 I stayed home from daycare. I had a pink and white raspberry cake."

"When I was little my hair was teensy."

 

"Now my hair is long."

Timeline of her Life so Far: 

This past winter I tore some paper off her art easel and I laid it out across the floor. I drew a long line and helped mark out sections, and label each mark with her ages in years. I had M name some important things that had happened in her life so far, and then I told her where to put them on the line. It was neat to hear her observations while making it. It makes a cute thing to display in her room, and hopefully helps her understand her past. 

No doubt M will develop a more mature sense of time on her own, one way or another, as all kids do eventually. But she has such an interest in her past right now, so we've had fun capitalizing on that with some of these activities and conversations over the last several months. 

The Best Parenting Books Ever

You know how once in a while you read a book that is so good, it changes you? That's how I feel about How to Talk so Kids can Learn at Home and in School by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish. 

I was first introduced to How to Talk so Kids can Learn as a teaching intern. The strategies in it were eye-opening, and felt so real and sensible. It awakened in me a consciousness of my words and tone, and the fact that choosing them wisely could make a big difference. In a way, it altered the course of my teaching life, causing me to have conversations with supervisors, and enroll in courses all about intentional teacher language and classroom structures that would care for students' social-emotional learning-- before I'd even set foot in my own first classroom. Over the years, my classroom was not always the idealistic community that I'd visualized as a newbie (far from it) and yet I was a much better teacher for having had that teacher-language approach as my foundation and center. 

Now as a parent I appreciate the book in new ways. It is the best parenting book, and one of the most affecting non-fiction books, that I've ever read. I think every parent and teacher should read it (an opinion evidenced by a peek at my past Amazon orders, which reveals that I have purchased this book at least five times to give as a gift for baby showers and gift exchanges). 

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Must-Read Parenting Books

Years later, as a parent, I eventually read two more books by the same authors as How to Talk so Kids can Learn: How to Talk so Kids will Listen and Listen so Kids will Talk and Siblings without Rivalry: How to Help your Children Live Together so you can Live Too-- all three long titles for books that manage to teach exactly what they promise to teach. Faber and Mazlish have co-written a number of other books too. Their different books might have different focuses (siblings/little kids/teens or school/home) but they all are written in the same encouraging, down-to-earth style and embrace the same philosophies around adult language strategies and the effect they have on kids. The three I own and love are described below.   

How to Talk so Kids can Learn at Home and in School-- Problem-solving with kids instead of for them. The importance of and strategies for naming their feelings. Using alternatives to punishment that actually help children learn from mistakes/misbehavior. Describing kids' actions and accomplishments so they can come to their own conclusions and grow instead of evaluative praise (fantastic/you're a good girl/you're so smart) which can cause self doubt. These are some of the huge mental shifts that this short and sweet book introduced me to and I highly recommend it.  

How to Talk so Kids with Listen & Listen so Kids will Talk-- This book includes all the same pointers as the one above but has additional priceless sections such as that on how to encourage autonomy (I've been trying to let my kids have control over more of the many small decisions in their lives, among other strategies, ever since I read that).  

One gem in this book is "Resist the temptation to 'make better' instantly. Instead of giving advice, continue to accept and reflect on your child's feelings." Here's one story: when my son was younger, I was guilty of trying to make better instantly all the time. He'd tell me about an issue on the playground or a complaint about his teacher and I'd talk and talk and talk to him about the situation and what he could do, feeling that this was my role as a parent, to try to advise and fix it. After one of these talks, I'd tell myself that I had helped even though I knew his eyes had glazed over and the conversation had revolved around my feelings and thoughts rather than his. Here's a different experience in contrast: just the other day he was expressing some recent frustration around practicing the piano. I asked him to tell me more about it, restating and naming his feelings now and then to clarify, saying only "mmm" a lot just to make sure he'd vented all he wanted to say, and eventually asking him for ideas of what he thought might help, being sure not to discount any of the suggestions right after he said them. And before I even thought the conversation was over, before we'd come up with a game plan or solution, he was already noticeably more positive, and profusely saying, "Thanks so much for talking to me about this." All I'd done was listen, act like his feelings mattered, and let him think aloud. But it was a proud moment when I got it right and a perfect example, for me, of how much more effective is this style of interacting with kids about their problems compared with the tack I used to take in the past. (I'll say also here that much of the enlightened advice in this book about how to foster good communication with kids is relevant and useful with coworkers, friends, and spouses as well.)

 

Sibling Rivalry: How to Help your Children Live Together so you can Live Too

This book fits right in with the others but with a sibling angle (for example, how to accept and name kids' feelings about a sibling). But it brings in a lot of unique points. There is a chapter about the dangers of comparing a child to his sibling, either favorably or unfavorably, and alternatives that motivate better. Also, the idea that fair treatment doesn't mean equal or the same for all parties; instead fair means everybody having their unique needs met. (I knew this as a teacher in the classroom but somehow needed to relearn it as a parent of two at home.) When it comes to my time, base it on who needs me more right now. As far as sibling fights, I'm not saying it always goes swimmingly around here, but I have gotten tons of mileage out of beautifully simple tips such as attending to the injured party first and the aggressor later. And I often try to "step in so I can step out" when they are arguing-- essentially, hearing and appreciating the difficulty of the problem at hand, but communicating that I have faith in them to find a way to work it out that works for both of them and then giving them space. It's heady stuff for any parent of siblings.

~ ~ ~

All three of these books I've described are quick reads. Chapters are written in a conversational tone, not an academic one, around specific, relatable situations that come up with kids-- messes, forgetfulness, frustrations with school work, fights. There are comic strips in every chapter, highlighting effective ways to communicate with kids in direct comparison to less effective ways, such as in How to Talk so Kids can Learn: "Instead of Denying Feelings" (page 28)..."Put the Feelings into Words" (page 29), with examples of each. There are summarized bullet points at the end of each chapter-- I wouldn't mind having all of these reminder pages plastered all over my house so I'd never forget them. There are also sections of questions sent in by parents and teachers, and the authors' answers to them. 

All three of these books have the same big themes to them: recognizing kids' feelings, using descriptive language, improving parent-child relationships, helping kids develop self esteem as well as responsibility and other skills. Faber and Mazlish aren't the only ones to write that adult language with kids matters, but their strategies are so sound. The language practices they espouse are also imbedded within the guidance of many other smart and influential voices on raising or educating children (see, for example, Carol Dweck's growth mindset work as well as advice for parents raising a quiet kid from the book Quiet).  

Evolving the way we talk to kids is hard and it takes time. In a teaching course once, I was taught a tip for working on improving teacher language: record your voice working with kids throughout the day, then go back and re-listen to yourself to study where you've succeeded and where you could improve on your goals. I could never bear to go so far as to record and listen to myself, but I see the point. In trying to embody these strategies, I mess up, all the time. There are so many situations in any given day that just come up that we have to react to (or consciously choose not to react to). It's good to be aware of those knee-jerk reactions that we aren't so proud of at the end of the day, so we can work on building up better alternatives to carry around with us and strive to do a bit better the next day. 

These days homeschooling I'm more convinced than ever that our words and our tone with kids matters-- perhaps more than anything else in parenting. I have one child who is six and another who is ten, and I hope to show both of them I am present and they can talk to me now about anything and feel heard and respected, so that when harder things come up when they're older they will still talk to me (and be willing to listen as well); I find these books a guiding light for big goals like that. 

Why We Love Mystery Science

Did you know the Ancient Greeks referred to the planets as wandering stars? Recently during science time, we watched a short video in which we learned this and some other fascinating facts about the planets including: landers that have been sent to Venus to take photos melt within a couple of hours, Mercury has craters and looks a lot like the moon, Uranus spins on its side, and it takes almost 10 years to get to beautifully blue Neptune! Then we sketched and labeled a picture of each planet and headed out into the backyard. At one end of our yard we placed the sun, and then at specific proportional distances from there placed each of the other planets. My youngest exclaimed, "If the planets were waiting in a line to do something, Neptune would be the boredest!" For part of the activity, I called out a planet and they would run to it as quickly as they could. They weren't reciting "My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Noodles" to figure out which way to the planet in question; they started to internalize where the planets were with this game. After a bit, they took turns calling them out for each other. When it was W's turn to call, he would sometimes give M hints by referring to how "bored" was the planet in question. The video and the active components were both so fun and effective, and left all of us thinking of the worlds of the planets in new ways. 

The above is just one example of an awesome science session that we regularly have, thanks to the online "open-and-go" lessons from Mystery Science. The company was started by a science teacher in California-- the kids call him "Mystery Doug." They love how he always reminds kids, in his upbeat, friendly tone, to "Stay curious." 

In the classroom, before I found Mystery Science, I used to feel that science was a lot of work to plan for-- to find several age-appropriate, engaging activities to teach a topic and then to gather the resources and plan the time for it-- especially while trying to teach every other subject as well. On the flip side, I think homeschool science, specifically, can run the risk of being helter-skelter, driven solely by fun project ideas-- a baking soda volcano here, a nature sketch there. For our homeschool, I feel Mystery Science solves both these potential issues. We do our share of museum outings and seasonal adventures-- like a couple of recent treks to a vernal pool near us-- and we do just-for-fun projects when a new Kiwi crate arrives or when other inspiration strikes. But Mystery Science lessons are the backbone of our science work, providing cohesive units of study without a lot of extra work for me. I've now taught with Mystery Science at the first-grade, kindergarten, fourth-, and fifth-grade levels, so I feel qualified to say that it's great. Here's why we think so. 

This session was so inspiring, she had to go change into her astronaut costume in the middle of it.

Reasons we Love Mystery Science 

Lessons begin with an engaging story. My son told me recently that the story Doug tells at the beginning always gets him hooked and is his favorite thing about Mystery Science. Here's an example: recently, at the start of a lesson to learn and graph the amounts of fresh water vs. saltwater on earth, we heard the true, mesmerizing story of Jose Alvarenga, who was lost at sea for over a year but survived by eating raw animals he caught with his bare hands and collecting rainwater to drink-- because, as the lesson ensures kids understand, you can't drink saltwater. That's the hook for a lesson that got us thinking of all the ways we use water and what it would be like if we had to worry about how to get it. 

It is interactive. While lessons are online and video-based, they are hardly passive sessions. Amid the introductory information, there are regular "stop and talk" moments for students to share their hypotheses. Then there's a hands-on activity, with discussion and wrap up afterward.  

It regularly takes kids through the scientific process. They have to make predictions, choose variables to test, engineer products with specific constraints, work with a partner often, gather data, and make conclusions. 

Trying to figure out how to get the sun to shine on a town shaded by a mountain (lesson fueled by a story of a real town in Norway)

It is aligned with the standards. Mystery Science lessons are based on the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and their disciplinary core ideas. The way the activities are organized incorporates specific engineering practices. I like knowing that we aren't studying life cycles for the fifth year in a row, and also that the complexity of the ideas covered is age-appropriate. 

It is affordable. We paid less than $70 as a homeschool family for the entire school year (regardless of how many grades worth of material we utilized).

It requires minimal materials. The materials for each lesson I find ingeniously simple; from paper and regular office/school supplies and containers from the recycling bin we have made ramps for marbles, a "universe in a box" showing constellations to be seen in different months of the year, a model of the water cycle, and so much more. I rarely have to buy materials for science. 

We could "see" sound when tuba music came out the speakers.

It is focused on key points. One downfall of elementary science instruction is the temptation to do it all-- gathering every book and resource that is in any way related to the water cycle, for example. Better teaching is more focused, and Mystery Science keeps us focused. Each lesson has a clear focus and it is around this that kids are spurred to discuss, think, model. The objectives of the lesson are always made quite clear. (There is a selection of extras included at the end of each lesson as well for further exploration-- links to other great web sites, short videos, articles, and activities. We delve into more of these some times than others, depending on interest.)  

It provides beautifully simple, creative ways to teach concepts. Directions are clear and concise, given orally and visually, step by step. W was really affected after counting all the color-coded squares on a grid of the earth and graphing (on our wall with post-it notes) to represent how much saltwater there is on earth and how very little fresh water there is in comparison. Similarly, last year he understood the process of weathering and why rocks at the bottom of a mountain might be rounded while those are the top more jagged by shaking a container of sugar cubes and seeing how the shapes of them changed gradually after every few shakes. 

Using warm or cold water above and below, they had to figure out how to make it rain inside the upended plastic cup-- or recreate what happens in the water cycle.

It is age-appropriate. Science is my kindergartner's favorite subject. The kindergarten lessons are perfect for five- and 6-year-olds: they are brief to suit a short attention span, they engage with true stories, appropriate explanations, and probing questions for a kindergartner. There is always movement built in; when we were studying animal defenses, M had to get up and act out what each of several different animals did to defend themselves after watching footage of animals in action. She loves doing real experiments using her own handiwork, making hypotheses, and doing multiple trials. The fifth grade lessons are just as engaging and accessible, but expect a little more of students, from their reasoning to math calculations to having to write down more of their thoughts and data rather than just discussing it. (The lessons are easily adaptable for multiple ages as well. My daughter often tags along with her brother's science lessons and can participate in the activities, if not all of the written work.)  

Kindergarten engineering (how to keep boulders from hitting houses on a hillside)

It includes assessments. There are paper and pencil, printable one-page assessments after each "mystery." For younger grades, the assessment often involves a drawing, while for older students it is usually a few short-answer questions. It directly covers what we learned in the activity and provides documentation for their portfolio.

It is homeschool-friendly. Unlike so many programs and resources that are made specifically for schools or specifically for homeschoolers, Mystery Science is designed to work beautifully in both home and classroom. Some resources out there are so expensive they aren't an option for homeschoolers, but Mystery Science offers a reduced homeschool price. I can enter any number of students, right down to one, to calculate the amount of materials needed. The teacher notes for each session explain anything specific to homeschoolers, but there are never any big changes. Oral directions within the video always give directions for working with groups in a classroom and for working on your own or with a partner at home. (So much in our culture is built on the assumption that school is every child's world, so it's nice to feel noticed and included as a homeschooler in these small ways!)  

Prehistoric food web

It includes a super-fun bonus component: "mini lessons." These are approximately five-minute-long segments on a whole variety of topics. They are just for fun, when you have an extra few minutes here or there, and aren't tied to a particular grade or unit of study. Kids from all over the world can submit questions through the "Ask Doug" feature on the Mystery Science web site (my kids have each submitted a few). Some of these questions get chosen to be answered in the mini lessons. When you have a membership to Mystery Science, the mini lessons are always available. Some mini lessons include an optional small project with very basic materials, but most are just a short video with a few stop and talk moments for a little extra fun and learning. A few we've enjoyed this year: Do masks really stop the coronavirus?, How are video games made?, and Could people ever walk on walls?  

It frees me up to focus my energies and preparation time on other things. I can imagine being a parent or teacher who gets excited to plan the topics of study we do in science and to research great activities to teach those concepts (and I know some of those people), but I'm not one. I do that in other areas, though. So I like having somebody else's great legwork to keep us going in science.  

Force and motion: knock over the old building without wrecking the nearby houses

It encourages kids to question and wonder. I love that these science lessons don't just provide activities to teach science concepts. They espouse values, sometimes explicitly: how important and exciting science is, the value of asking questions, of failing and persevering, the need for collaboration and problem solving. 

Our worm terrarium last fall 

Good Books and Other Tips for Teaching a Child to Read at Home

Learning to read is one of the most exciting things. 

I taught first grade and one of the main things I loved about it was seeing so many kids become readers. I loved witnessing the excitement and incredible growth around that (and I had similar feelings about seeing kids that age become writers). There's a metamorphosis in kids, when they realize they are-- finally, sometimes suddenly-- a reader, when they've cracked the code and feel the special new confidence that comes with the ability to decipher the world around them-- books and so much more. It was exhilarating to see it in my own daughter this year in our homeschool setting. 

At the beginning of this year, M was 5 1/2. She could name most of the letters reliably, and she knew many of the sounds they made. She recognized a few words on sight and could write her own name and sometimes a couple of other names (Mommy, Daddy). She was well-placed as a beginning kindergartner, but she was not yet a reader. 

...Now, she is a reader. We can no longer spell the words we don't want her to hear in our conversations. She constantly catches us off guard by asking, "Why does it say-- ?" as she reads food packages, our to-do lists, road signs, and everything else. She insists on reading some of the questions herself when we play a game. It all happened so quickly, and it's amazing the effect all of these new abilities have on a now-six-year-old's sense of self. 

The Ingredients for Learning to Read

There is a lot of research on the methods for teaching reading skills. I think a few things are most important:

• Regular, brief lessons in letters and sounds, in an intentional sequence: go from easiest and most common sounds/spelling rules (e.g. short vowels and consonants) to those more difficult and/or less frequent (e.g. silent e rule, ing/ang endings). 
• Teach them to recognize by sight words like the, are, and is-- words they'll come across frequently but that often can't be sounded out. Spell them out loud, use flashcards, write them in the air, etc. 
• Read books aloud regularly and talk about them. 
• Writing time, for kids to tell their own stories and learn to put them on paper, with pictures and words.
• Reading time itself, to put appropriate books (not too hard or too easy) in kids' hands and let them practice, with support in how to tackle tricky words and other strategies.   

All of the above heavily supports learning to read. But the moment of putting it all together and really becoming a reader isn't a formula. I see learning to read as partly magic; it's a small miracle within each kid as to when and how it all clicks for them. 

Below is how we approached reading time itself. 

How we Approached Reading This Year

Keep it Cozy

We don't do worksheets or drill sounds during reading time. Reading time is for books. We sit on the couch most days. She reads me two or three books, then I usually read her one or two (at any level, just for the sake of reading aloud) as well. I might read a book to her on a topic we are learning about in science, or a great new library book or something else. She looks forward to being read to probably as much as I like to hear her read to me. 

There are ways to jointly read her books, which we did a lot early in the year, and still do sometimes just for fun, or when the book or the mood calls for it:

• Alternate: I read a page, she reads a page, and so on
• Echo: I read the book first-- either the whole way through or one page at a time-- then she reads it 

Logistics

Most academics we fit in in the morning when we are freshest and most energetic. But reading works in the morning or afternoon because it's not too demanding (see above). I try to start with a tip or reminder that I know is relevant for her at the moment, like: remember to stop when there's a period; if it doesn't make sense try again; make sure the word matches your guess from the picture. Other than that, I just have her choose what she wants to read and we read. I listen and follow along. If she gets stuck and asks for help, or plows ahead with mistakes, then I remind her of another strategy to try. 

For a lot of the year, we had two baskets she could easily draw from: "Working On" for a selection of books I thought were currently about right for her that she hadn't read yet or couldn't read very smoothly yet and "Can Read!" for books she'd mastered. It was nice having a spot she could go to for books she already knew any time she wanted to read to her dad or anyone else. Recently, we've started to outgrow this basket system as what she can read has expanded so widely so that she can select books from all over our house. 

Good Books for Kids Learning to Read

In the classroom I had a whole selection of books to suit kids' different interests and ability levels. But at home, I don't have all that to draw from. In the beginning, it was a little tricky at times to figure out how to get our hands on books that were easy enough for M to practice with-- not to mention the hope that they also be engaging (which many beginner texts are not). But we found things for her to read, without buying a lot, by using the library and some free apps. Essentially, we followed a path from emergent reading (see below) to phonetic reading to patterned books and then to a great variety of options. 

These are the books and sources I've found affordable, accessible, and helpful for a child learning to read at home. While some overlapped, I listed them here in approximately the sequence in which we used them. I am sure there are other good options out there as well but this list got us through!

1. Start with Labels around the House

The night before the first day of homeschool, I taped index cards on various things in our house-- "chair," "piano," etc. The moment M came downstairs, all bright-eyed and eager for the first day of kindergarten, she noticed one, and then another and another. She was full of exclamations: "Why is this here? What does it say?!" We didn't read them to her, but told her to look at it. What would make sense? What did she think it said? Did she have any guesses based on where it was or by looking at the beginning of the word? She quickly figured out some obvious ones but others took more time and I let her puzzle over them, like "light." She immediately thought, "switch" and I said, "Great idea!...But this word starts with /lllll/." Whenever she figured one out triumphantly, we'd say, "Wow! You're a reader!" and you could almost see her self esteem grow. I'm so glad I started our year that way because I feel like it set the tone for her school year. It gave her a sense that she was so capable already and just had to work to unlock the world around her. It was a way to get her to really start to look at words, and made her feel the thrill of being a reader. (And it was the moment I really understood why every kindergarten classroom I've ever been in has labels all over on things like the sink, calendar, and table.)  

2. Respect the Emergent Reading Stage

This is the stage when kids understand that a picture book tells a story. They have heard stories lots of times. They know the words hold meaning but they can't read most of them yet. They can, however, sit down with a known, favorite book, and turn the pages and tell the story aloud, pretend reading. They won't be saying the words exactly as they are written. But they are reading, in their own, emerging way. Rather than rushing past this stage or forcing them to focus on the words, honor this stage for what it is and work with it. 

I found ways to encourage this type of reading for a while. I asked M to try to say more details to go with each page-- so she wasn't just flying through the book providing a cursory summary. If it was a new book she could look closely at the pictures and try to tell the story by using all the clues they provided. This was a little freeing to a beginning reader to be told she could read this way. I think made her feel a lot more confident early on to feel she could "read" any book off our shelves. If it was a story she'd heard before, I could also ask her to try to sound like a grown-up reader and use words like the author used in her telling of the story-- words like gasped and suddenly and worried. It was okay if she didn't know exactly what the words said yet; she could still read by doing the best she could and using a reading voice. By allowing her to work with great books she loved right off, rather than flimsy miniature early readers which kids seem to know aren't real books, it propelled her into the reading world with more engagement. So the strategy for a while was essentially: fake it till you make it. But it worked and was a lot of fun. 

3. Primary Phonics

After the emergent reading stage, we worked with some phonetic readers. I had had success with the Primary Phonics series with some students, especially those for whom it is hard learn and keep straight letters and sounds. Kids like that don't need tricky language in books at first to trip them up. They need controlled texts-- books that have only the words they've learned by sight (e.g., the) and words that consist of sounds they have learned so far. The first book in Set 1 is Mac & Tab, about a cat and a mouse. It consists entirely of words like a, and, the and 3-letter words with only the vowel "a." The pictures are black and white line drawings and they are old stories. But it's empowering for kids to open up a book that follows the rules, that they can sound out, all the way through, even if it takes a while. This was real reading for the first time. 

4. Bob Books

These are even easier than the Primary Phonics set in a way, in that they begin with only truly decodable words. The first book in Set 1: Beginning Readers never includes even the word the, but is made up entirely of the letters "m," "a," "t," and "s." But in other ways these were a little trickier, especially for a kid who has been read to and knows how books should sound. Herein lies the tricky balance for books for early readers; in order to have such a controlled, decodable book, some pages sound awkward. (The first page of book 1 says simply, "Mat." Another page says, "Mat sat. Sam sat.") But when sounding out was hard and reading was slow going, she could read a couple of these little tiny books and feel successful.     

5. Scholastic Box of First Little Readers

When M started being able to branch out a bit from the decodable books above, I found this Scholastic set of patterned stories, in which every page has the same sentence that only changes by a word or two and the pictures give big clues. It makes sense to teach kids explicitly that many books (for early readers) have a pattern, and to look for and identify that pattern to make reading easier. Once they are comfortable with the idea of a text pattern, this type of book can introduce them to more interesting vocabulary. With 25 little books for around $11, this set was a bargain. The boxes are available in various levels, marked by a letter. We got guided reading level C. On Amazon there are pictures of the insides of some of the books so you can quickly get a sense of what they are like if you aren't sure of the right level for your kid. I'd suggest buying a level that feels like a little bit of a stretch at the time, because they will only be at any given level for a finite period of time. Even with the brevity of the text, this series manages to be a little silly and M enjoyed the humor.

6. Board Books

We have a vast collection of board books from when our kids were little. I realized at one point that there were plenty that M could now read herself and I started culling them from our bookshelves. Board books, made for babies, consisting of one word on each page, were great. Some others are rhyming or patterned in some other way that make them easy to tackle for new readers. The familiarity in the fact that we had read these books to my daughter hundreds of times since infancy helped her be more successful with some of them as well. Some good ones we used were Freight Train by Donald Crews, Orange Pear Apple Bear by Emily Gravett, I Like Fruit by Lorena Siminovich, and Mommies Say Shhh! by Patricia Polacco. In general the ones with the fewest words were best at first, and later she could access others.   

7. Repetitive, Predictable Texts, Including ABC Books

Up until this stage, I had had a hard time finding books from the library (other than more board books) that were simple enough for M to read. But once she could handle a sentence or so on a page and was working with patterned texts, the library became a rich resource for her reading materials. I looked for ABC books, because those are essentially labeling books. I also looked for anything patterned or repetitive, like the classic Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? by Bill Martin Jr. and others like Silly Sally by Audrey Wood, I Went Walking by Sue Williams, and Go Away, Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley. I found if I did a Google search for "repetitive picture books" or "picture books with predictable text" or "rhyming picture books," I got lots of lists of ideas, then I would borrow some of those titles from the library.   

8. Kahn Academy Kids App

I don't get a lot of apps for the kids, but Kahn Academy Kids is one of the best ones I've found, school-wise. It was free. We put it on our iPad. It plays constant background music, but you can turn off the sound. It offers academically-oriented games too. But we got it for the "Library" part of the app, where there is a good selection of books. The books are under different categories, and we most utilized the Early Readers section. When your child taps on a book, it opens with the option to "read to me" or to "read by myself." We always chose the latter when we were using the app to practice reading. The early readers range from simple decodable stories to more challenging, but they do follow a sequence that makes sense as kids get stronger at reading. Most of the early readers are fiction stories about the same set of characters, which M found engaging. They were a perfect combination of decodable words, patterned text, and interesting stories and characters. And, free! 

(For general listening enjoyment or read aloud, the app also includes some great published nonfiction, like the great Blastoff Readers Series about animals, vehicles, and science topics, and some National Geographic Young Explorer books.)  

9. Epic App (or Epic Online)

A lot of teachers had their students use Epic for remote schooling. We got a free trial to Epic at one point and since then I have been paying the monthly fee (less than $10). It's unpredictable what titles they have, but there are a lot of books available for various ages. There are both Epic originals (not always so good) and lots of great, real published books. Each of my kids have a profile and the app notes their interests and suggests books for them, and keeps a record of which books they've read. 

As far as using it for M for learning to read, we've mostly done one of two things. One is, we look for "Collections" of books that teachers or others have made. These are groupings of books based on a theme or level. We found a Collection called Fiction Level A/B Books and another called Ready to Read. Important note: the leveling on Epic does not seem to follow a consistent standard. Plenty of the supposedly A/B books were harder than that, but it was a good start. The other thing we learned to do is to go to Search, search for a topic, then when the search results come up, narrow them by clicking on the Reading Level filter at the top and choose a level range. It's a range rather than a particular level, but it at least loosely groups books by difficulty. M would choose a book that looked interesting and then we'd look at it together to see if it looked just right for her or not. (The more broad the initial search term you use, the better, because I haven't found a way to simply search for books by level.)   

10. After that, the World...

By the time kids can read beyond predictably patterned books, the world of reading has opened up and it's less about finding specific titles or series. There are so many good series and options for a young reader who can really read-- Henry & Mudge, Little Critter, Elephant and Piggie, and lots more. One thing worth noting, though, is that if you set out to buy books marketed as early readers, some of the labeling can be tricky. Leveling systems are not consistent from one publisher to another, and the terms can be deceiving. For example, we've enjoyed books from the I Can Read! series, at the "My First" level, but M wasn't reading those until recently. They aren't decodable, there isn't a defined pattern-- and yet it's listed as the earliest level. I think a good rule of thumb is, rather than being tied to levels or to a particular publisher, to just flip through a book. Check out first and foremost how many words are on a page; fewer = easier reading level. But also check how easily most of the words could be sounded out, or whether the words of the story follow a predictable pattern, because those things make books easier too. 

Don't be afraid to let young readers try something you think is too hard. For one thing, it's good for kids to learn to recognize for themselves when a book is easy or too hard. But once kids put together the puzzle of reading, they sometimes grow by leaps and bounds. You may be surprised by how much they can read if you casually test them from time to time, asking them to read first one book without any help, then another more difficult one if that goes well, and so on, just to see what they are capable of at a point in time.    

Other Notes

Using the Pictures

Children's books have pictures for a reason. They support the text and help with comprehension and figuring out words that would be too difficult without them. Learning to read means learning to put together all sorts of information-- what the letters in the word itself look like, the context of the sentence and whether it make sense and sounds right, and the picture too. Pictures are engaging and supply details and richness beyond what an early level book can provide in the text alone. Kids using the pictures to figure out a word isn't cheating, but rather a part of being a young reader. 

On Memorization

Sometimes parents are concerned that their kids are just memorizing when they can fly through a book. And sometimes it is true that they know a book so well they literally have it memorized and claim they can "read" it without even looking. When this happens, of course, it makes sense to let them know that that's a neat trick, but it isn't really reading because grown-up reading means looking at the words too. 

But there is no harm in memorizing a book and it can be a good thing at a certain stage. When you have a book memorized, you need to match what you have in your head to the actual text on the page. By doing both at once-- the fluid, rote memorization, and the looking and following along with their eyes-- they are internalizing story language, memorizing what certain words look like, learning new vocabulary well. A memorized book is also an accomplishment. It makes reading fun, and is a nice contrast to the hard work of getting through a brand new book. Memorization allows them to practice other, higher level reading skills like voices for different characters, and fluency and phrasing, while their brain is not entirely consumed by sounding out and figuring out as they go. They shouldn't cling to only books they have memorized, but as part of the learning to read repertoire, it's a good and healthy thing.  

...

I'll end with an anecdote that reminded me how memorization can be a good thing. M wanted to learn all the words to a certain favorite song from the movie Frozen ("Into the Unknown"). So I found and printed the lyrics for her. I imagined I would read these to her or with her because it was a lot of words, but no-- she wanted those lyrics for herself. She read them with voice and expression, following along, efficiently figuring out tough words because she already had big portions of this song memorized. She had a good sense of the language and what it should sound like, so she was able to match that knowledge to the print and consequently to read plain text on a page that would have been beyond her otherwise. 

The lyric reading I witnessed is a reminder, too, of the impact that reading out loud (and talking, for that matter) to kids has on learning to read. The more stories they hear, the more language they know, the more they know how stories tend to go, and the easier a time they have filling in the gaps when it's their time to read themselves. 

Video clip reading/singing "Into the Unknown" (can't resist):