Louise, from South Wales, shows us how to make spelling and phonics fun. Let’s take a look…
What did you do?
Little idea for anyone with primary age children who are struggling/not wanting to practice reading and phonics…
My little boy Alex (almost 5) loved this! We practiced the basic phonics sounds (e.g. oo, oa, qu, ch, sh etc) that he would be learning if he were at school.
A piece of kitchen roll, fold in half then half again so it looks like a book.
Write the word on the ‘front’ of the book in felt tip.
Open the book and draw the picture inside.
Take a bowl of water then get them to spell out the word (I helped him with a couple of them).
Once they’ve read it, put the kitchen roll into the water and the picture appears behind the word!
He enjoyed it so much he asked me to do more (after already reading 9)!
Tip: We did have to change the water a few times as the ink runs into the water making it black but it’s quick enough to do. You could use sharpies instead of regular felt tips as I don’t think they would run as much.
Tell us all a bit about yourself…
My name is Louise and we live in Gelli, Rhondda in South Wales. I have 3 children- Alex age 5, George age 2.5 and Clara who is just over 3 months.
How have you been finding being housebound?
We have had up and down days during lockdown, I try to do lots of activities with my boys as they’re used to going to nursery and school where they have lots of stimulation. So they often get bored easily now we’re all at home. Whilst they will go and play with their toys etc, they love nothing more than doing an activity together with me.
It has been hard work with a newborn and both boys home full time. My husband is working from home so it’s just me looking after them all during the week. I am loving the extra time we have together though and building even stronger relationships with each of them.
Do you have any tips for other parents?
I have found having a loose routine has really helped us since lockdown began. Before I went on maternity leave in January, my boys were in a routine of nursery/school etc and they thrive knowing what is going to happen next.
We have breakfast around the same time each day, we have set snack times, meal times and bedtime.
The rest of the day we just play by ear as it depends when the baby naps as to when we can do an activity together. But I highly recommend parents try to keep a routine in place for their children during lockdown.
