Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary are Connected Going back to my first year of teaching, I found that vocabulary directly impacts reading comprehension. I had a student who could read beautifully and fluently, but when asked what she read, she went blank. When you don’t understand a word or how it is connected or associated with…
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Goal Planning for the New School Year
Executive Function, Goal Planning, and School Success Goal planning is a great way to help set up your year for success. This is also where executive function comes into play. Executive function is all about planning, organizing, strategizing, paying attention to, and remembering details. Setting and writing your goals down is the first step. When…
Top 10 Back-to-School Supplies: The Ultimate List
What can you do to get your kids off to a great start for school success? Having the right back-to-school supplies can make the difference between feeling prepared for the school year and not. They can help boost your kids’ confidence as they enter the school year knowing that they have the supplies they need…
Reading and Spelling: Decoding and Encoding
How are Reading and Spelling Connected? Reading and spelling are two sides of the same coin. In order to do one part well, you need the other part. In order to read, you need to decode (sound out) words. In order to spell, you need to encode words. In other words, to spell, you need…
Best Practices for Teaching Phonics
What is phonics? Phonics is the ability to pair individual sounds with a visual symbol (letters). This method is frequently used to teach reading. Phonics teaches the sounds that letters or groups of letters make when spoken. Phonics is the process of matching sounds to letters. Reading experts refer to this as the alphabetic principle.…
Background Knowledge and Reading Comprehension
Factual knowledge, also known as background knowledge, can make the difference from not having a clue what you have read to comprehending and completely understanding what you have read.
4th of July Family Activities
The 4th of July is perfect for outside activities in your backyard, like a BBQ. Some of our favorite activities include relay races and obstacle courses. You might not realize it, but obstacle courses and relay races improve several areas of learning, including laterality, directionality, visual memory, and auditory memory. These family activities target the mind-body connection, which…
How to Create a Daily Schedule for Kids (FREE Printable)
School’s out, and summer is here! Pool parties, backyard barbeques, days at the river… and summer learning loss! Hold up. Wait. Let’s put a stop to the summer learning loss, but let’s keep the good stuff. Kids often lose much of what they learned from the school year over the summer. This is because most…
What is Reading Fluency?
Reading Fluency Definition Reading fluency is the ability to read smoothly, easily, and quickly. Good readers can read words automatically without having to sound out each syllable (also known as decoding). In other words, you don’t have to spend a lot of effort and attention on the mechanics of reading. Reading becomes easy. Word recognition…
Brain-Body Connection: Movement and Learning
How does the brain-body connection affect overall learning skills? Most of us don’t think about learning skills in conjunction with the brain-body connection and movement. However, the brain-body connection and movement are very important to your ability to learn and master reading skills. The brain and body work together as a machine, one designed to…
