Lily is working really hard on learning to read. Because she’s a game-loving kind of girl, I made these bingo cards using an idea from Family Fun to help her with word recognition. I kept all the little decodable reading booklets that came home throughout the school year, so I went through them looking for words she should know. After making a list, I made some bingo cards out of card stock and wrote the words in the squares (using some of the words on more than one card). Lily gathered some pennies for markers and we were good to go.
Instead of just reading the words off of the list, I’m making the game a little more challenging by saying the definition of a word so Lily has to think a little harder. So I say “the opposite of mean” for nice and “the kind of animal Gunther is” for dog. Once she’s mastered all of the words from the booklets, I’ll make some more cards using words from some of her favorite books. Can’t wait to get to all those splendiferous words in Fancy Nancy.
How about you? Have you had a struggling reader? What methods or ideas worked for you?
Interestingly. I just took Abby to a pediatric optometrist yesterday. She has begun to read, although struggles more than I think she should given her verbal skills, etc. She has some letter reversal difficulties (she often writes her letters backward, and sometimes even complete words in mirror image). We work diligently and some days are better than others. Anyway….I made the eye appointment because she was complaining of “blurriness”, although only at night when she reads, when her eyes are fatigued. Well, the optometrist says her visual acuity and refraction are PERFECT. No need for glasses. However, her visual processing is “under-developed” for her age. Meaning, she has difficulty tracking (essentially because her eye muscles are not strong enough), as well as issues with other visual processing. Apparently, these eye issues can present a number of challenges for kids as they learn to read. The optometrist gave us some “eye exercises” to do and gave us a link to a website (www.eyecanlearn.com). We’re going to give it a try to see if it helps! Just thought I’d pass along the information.
Enjoy your weekend!
-Amy
Amy, thank you so much for telling me this. It sounds very familiar, so I think I’d better make an appointment with a pediatric optometrist.