Education resources for parents and teachers
The reading wars are alive and well. Should you pay attention or stay out of the debate? Here's what every teacher should know about the reading wars. As a mom of six, I've refereed countless arguments. It wasn't much different in the classroom. I loved my years as a classroom teacher, but I remember how incessant student squabbles can be. The truth is ... I've heard enough bickering to last the ... Read More
It's hard to believe, but we've been in business for nine years! When I began this website, I was a mom of four kids, ages 5,4, 2, and almost 1. Since then we've been blessed with two more kids, and our oldest two are taller than I am. This year our kids are 14, 13, 11, almost 10, 7, and 6. A lot can happen in nine years! We've published hundreds of blog posts and shared over 800 free printables on our ... Read More
Looking for books about teaching phonics? Here are my top recommendations! Phonics from A-Z, by Wiley Blevins This classic is on its third edition, and Wiley Blevins starts with phonemic awareness and takes us through planning phonics lessons and meeting the needs of students who struggle. It truly is the A-Z guide! A Fresh Look at Phonics, by Wiley Blevins Unlike his previous book, which is more of a guidebook, ... Read More
We can all agree that teaching phonics is important. But there are SO many skills. Which ones should we teach? And in what order? Today we'll look at my recommended order for teaching phonics skills. Before we get into my recommended order, I want to be clear about a few things. There is no perfect order for teaching phonics skills. When choosing your own scope and sequence (mine or someone ... Read More
Our students need to turn a LOT of high frequency words into sight words ... words they recognize instantly without sounding out or guessing. In this sight word series, we've talked extensively about how to TEACH sight words. But how do we practice them? After all, students need to encounter the words multiple times to orthographically map them. The answer? Editable sight word games! If ... Read More
Are you on the hunt for sight word worksheets? Check out our set for 240 sight words … in two levels of difficulty. Bonus - they align with the science of reading! Have you been following along with our sight word series? This post is the 7th in a ten-part series. So far, we've shared: The difference between sight words and high frequency wordsThe difference between the Dolch and Fry word listsHow to teach ... Read More
Have you been following along with our sight word series? We've talked about what sight words are, how to teach them, and why it's important to integrate sight word teaching with phonics. Today we'll tackle kindergarten sight words. Many schools require kindergarten teachers to teach a long list of sight words to their kindergartners. Unfortunately, lists of kindergarten sight words are often ... Read More
A small number of words make up a large percentage of the words that appear in print. These are called high frequency words. It's important that our students recognize a large number of high frequency words by sight so they can read fluently. We call these words - the words they recognize instantly without needing to sound out or guess - their sight word vocabulary. In essence, we want our students to turn ... Read More
How should I introduce sight words to preschoolers? What is a good sight word list for preschoolers? Where can I find preschool sight word worksheets? These are all questions I've heard from parents who are eager to get their children on the right path when it comes to learning to read. They are all good questions, but I think we need to back up and ask this question first: SHOULD we teach sight words ... Read More
In our first post of this series we explained the difference between sight words and high frequency words. Sight words are words we know by sight, without needing to sound them out or guess. High frequency words are words that appear frequently in the English language. But where do we get these high frequency words FROM? Enter Dolch and Fry. What is the Dolch word list? The Dolch word list was ... Read More
