Food for Thought: Invented spelling

Using invented spelling can strengthen your child's spelling and reading ability, while opening up fun ways to write letters and stories.
Lately Isadora has enjoyed writing notes to her friends. I think this stemmed from the activity we did with the Valentine's letters, because she now will list friends from preschool that she wants to write letters to - although I know it is just a ploy to break out the glitter and go crazy with the glue! In any case, we don't write a lot on them at all - just the names of her friends in fact. Instead of me writing the name for her though, I'm having her help me sound out the words using invented spelling. Invented spelling is where Isadora can sound out her friends name Koen, and write "KON" on her paper. When we wrote her friends name Eloise the other day, it looked like LOES. Before students can make sense of conventional spelling, they can use the sounds that they do know to construct words. This also helps them strengthen their ability to sound out words using phonics. Here is a great video clip that helps illustrate the strategy a little more. Although it is a video clip with first graders, you can easily see 1) how you can use invented spelling with your own preschooler, and 2) how you can gradually transition your child into conventional spelling as they become better able to sound out words.

Favorite Author: Rosemary Wells

Rosemary Wells writes a funny series of books that focus on the characters Max and his big sister Ruby.
Isadora has recently been reading the Max and Ruby series by Rosemary Wells. Max, the main character, is always getting into trouble of one kind or another, and his big sister Ruby is always there to try to patch up his mess (although Max usually ends up figuring out things for himself). While the stories are very appealing to Isadora, I also enjoy reading them because the situations are quite funny and memorable. For example, one of our favorites is Bunny Mail where Max tries to write a letter to Santa to tell him he wants a red sandspitter motorcycle. Max can't write yet, so he tries his best to communicate to Santa through a letter what he wants (by putting a tire track, sand, and red paint on the letter). Through many missteps, Max finally gets his beloved motorcycle. This short description really doesn't do it any justice, but I think it conveys the general gist of the plot. Here are our favorites: Bunny Mail, Bunny Cakes, Ruby's Beauty Shop, Max's Dragon Shirt, Bunny Money, and Max Cleans Up. Click here to get to an Amazon list of her books.

Recommended books: Yo! Yes? and Move!

Yo! Yes? and Move! are two fun books that you should check out from the library or purchase for your child's library.
Isadora and I recently saw the book Yo! Yes? on Between the Lions where they had actors reading the text. While using only a few words, the authors creating a fun dialogue between two main characters. What is so great about it is that Isadora proudly announced after I had read it to her a few nights in a row that she could read it on her own. Weeeellll, she could guess at a few words, and she even got some of them right, but that's exactly what you want. Yo! Yes? will be a book that we will return to for the bedtime reading.

A book that you should NOT read right before bedtime is Move!, a fun book that gets Isadora jumping around like a kangaroo and slithering like a snake. It is one of those fun movement books that is really enjoyable and gets Isadora to act out some great words like slither, waddle, etc. And it's only $6.40 for a hardbound book at Amazon right now. Money well spent.

*Sidenote: I haven't been doing many posts lately because I'm working my tail off every evening trying to finish my dissertation (Graduation in June!). I promise there will be more - I have a backlog of ideas and stuff I need to get out. Just so little time to do it all!!!