Black history is filled with stories of courage, strength, and determination. The picture books below provide the perfect way to explore these important stories with your children.

What Is Letter Knowledge?

Letter knowledge–one of the first stepping stones on the path to reading–develops as a child is exposed to letters through play and through planned activities. A child who has achieved letter knowledge recognizes all the letters of the alphabet, in both capital letter and lowercase form, and knows the names and sounds of each.

Children have such a diversity of needs—especially when it comes to spelling. If you are wondering when is the best time to start teaching spelling to your child, this post is for you! And since there are no “one size fits all” answers to this question, we’ll explore a wide variety of situations. Let’s dig in!

What Makes a “Good” Teacher?

Let’s consider this question from a child’s perspective. If you asked your child to tell you what she wants in a teacher, what would she say? Go ahead and ask … we’ll wait!

Do you remember having fairy tales read to you when you were a child? I have some fun fairy tales to share with you this month, but these are not your typical fairy tales. These are fairy tales with a twist, otherwise known as “fractured” fairy tales.

As a homeschooling mom of two kids, I am well aware that my stress level is directly related to how organized (or how disorganized) my life is. Children’s author A.A. Milne once said,

Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.

Does your child have a hard time spelling words with the sounds of short I and short E? If so, it may be because he struggles to differentiate between these two vowel sounds. It’s a common spelling problem for young children. In this post, you’ll learn what causes this issue and how to solve it.

Lights, camera, craft! Illuminate your child’s love of letters with this festive lowercase L craft! This colorful string of holiday lights is sure to brighten up any room and make your preschooler’s face light up, too!

The holidays are a special time, and this wonderful collection of holiday picture books celebrates the rich diversity of holiday traditions practiced by people all around the world. After all, no matter where you live or how you celebrate, this is the most wonderful time of the year!

If your child has recently finished All About Reading, my first piece of advice to you is…celebrate! Have a piece of cake. Call Grandma and Grandpa. Take the rest of the day off and go to the park!

And of course, don’t forget to document this milestone and send us a photo! It makes my day when we hear from kids like Katie who complete our program! The accomplishment feels fantastic, doesn’t it?

Are you teaching a child with autism how to read or spell? If so, you need this post!

Children with autism often have difficulty learning to read and spell using standard methods because their brains process information in unique ways.

Catchy rhymes can be a fun and easy way to remember some of those pesky phonics rules. Have you heard of this one?

When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.