Now I have to give a disclaimer: I clearly have not gotten this right because my middle daughter still asks why we thought having a third child was a good idea. She thinks that we should have stopped while we were ahead. I did read a lot of books and seek a lot of advice on how to get my older child (and then children) excited about the new baby. Here’s the list of advice from many, many moms I solicited.
Best Phonics Workbooks and Reading Strategies
Best Phonics Workbooks: Explode the Code (at Amazon.com)
Best Phonics for reluctant read aloud readers: progressive phonics (www.progressivephonics.com)
Fun book series for reluctant read aloud readers: You Read to Me and I’ll Read to You
How To: Pronounce Mandarin Chinese Pinyin (cheat sheet)
Cheat sheet to learn how to pronounce Mandarin Chinese pinyin.
Top 10: Tips to Get Kids to Do Chores
Getting your kids organized is one of the greatest challenges for most families. However, teaching them early on how to get and stay organized builds the foundation and skills they will need to be successful in life. The more responsibility they take on themselves, the easier your life will be as a parent.
Best Math Workbooks for Home or Summer Supplementation
I find that The Univ. of Chicago’s Everyday Math needs home supplementation, especially in math facts. I recommend Daily Word Problems and Singapore Math. We use these for summer math.
DIY Math Games Invented by Kids (2nd-5th grade)
2 fun and easy math games invented by 8-year-old kids for adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing and exponents.
Caught in the Act … of READING
Thank you to everyone who sent in a photo! There are such great photos this week!!! I always need more so please keep them coming to pragmaticmom.com(at)gmail(dot)com. Thank you!!! It is always fun for me to see what old friends are up to and meet new folks. This week, I have a old work colleague who left to pursue other endeavors. She took the gorgeous black and white photo and even her snapshots are amazing as she is a portrait photographer! I met another mom friend, author Melissa Wiley, at KidLitCon 2010 last fall and we both vowed to get All of a Kind Family books back in print. She was responsible for single handedly getting the Betsy-Tacy-Tib series back in print so I have recruited a heavy hitter to my cause! Thank you again to everyone and hope you all have a marvelous Monday!!!