Primary School Prep DIY Guide-Reading-Page 3
SINGLE WORDS
All done for you with Primary School Prep Done 4U
I hope you can see that if you are going to do this properly it is going to take a lot of planning, organisation and work. Believe me, the rewards are worth it. Seeing your child reading words at 2 years old or whatever age yours start to read, is worth the effort you put in. However, as we've warned you previously, many don't show the material regularly or give up altogether because of the work involved. So be realistic with yourself about the time you have available and whether you think you will be able to put in the work needed to do this properly. If not, then remember that those who join Primary School Prep Done 4U will not have to prepare material. It has all been done for them. The words that will be shown to your child in the videos are a mixture of all types of words we have listed above. Parents who join Primary School Prep Done 4U only need to press play each day. You can join at the link below.
Flash Card Purchase
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If you still decide to do the teaching yourself, to make your life easier, it is possible to buy flash cards. Simply search on Google and there are lots of organisations that sell flash cards. This will save you the time of making up the flash cards. Just make sure that the flash cards are large enough, also make sure that you buy enough so that you get a mixture of the types of words that we described above. While organisations will sell flash cards, you may not find one organisation selling a pack of flashcards with all the categories of words that we have outlined. Therefore, you may have to make purchases from various organisations before you get all the cards that you need.
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Showing flash cards
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Once the material is prepared, it is time to show your baby, toddler or preschooler the flash cards.
How many flash cards per session? There are no hard and fast rules. Don’t show them too many and don’t show them too few. We would advise showing them 10 flash cards per session.
Once you have shown them the 10 flash cards that is the end of the session. Don’t keep on going. Keep the sessions very short.
How many sessions per day/week?
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You need to do at least two sessions per day. Aim to do sessions on at least five days each week.
What time of day? The best time is the morning when baby or toddler is fresh. However, if that is not possible then do it when you can in the first half of the day. You may find it helpful to do the flash cards around meals, so right after eating, while your baby or toddler is still in the high chair. Then fit in another session in the afternoon or early evening.
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Mood of your child. Please do not show flash cards to your child if he or she is not happy or unwell.
Repetition/new material: Show your child the same words for six sessions as a guideline, then introduce new words. So, if you are doing two sessions a day, then you will be showing the same words for three days.
Then, retire five flash cards and introduce five new words. So, you will now have 10 flash cards. Five flash cards are the words your child has already seen before and five are new words he or she has not seen before.
The next session, retire the old set of five words with which you would have now completed four sessions and add five new words.
A typical schedule could, for example, be as follows:
Set 1 words – 1-5
Set 2 words – 6-10
Set 3 words - 11-15
Set 4 words – 16-20
Set 5 words - 21-25
Assuming two sessions per day
Week 1
Day 1-3 - you show: set 1 and set 2 words [10 words total]
Day 4 – you show set 2 and 3 words [ 10 total ] - [set 1 words retired ]
Day 5 - you show set 3 and 4 words [ set 2 words retired ]
Week 2
Day 1 – you show set 3 and 4 words
Day 2 - you show set 4 and 5 words [set 3 retired because it has been shown for 6 sessions now]
And so on....
At regular intervals, you should repeat old words that have been retired. So, in week 4 you may decide to repeat set 1 words as part of the session and in week 6 you may decide to repeat set 3 words.
Please note that the above is a guide. You do not have to follow exactly what we have said. Focus more on the principles:
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Show new words for a number of sessions but not too many sessions.
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Regularly retire those words and introduce new words.
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At regular intervals, reshow the retired words.
Those are the principles to follow.
We advise keeping a record of the words you are showing and when you showed them so that you know how long it has been since you last showed a word and when it is due to be shown.
Please be realistic with yourself. Can you do this? Will you be consistent with doing this? If there is a chance that you will not, then please join Primary School Prep Done 4U where all this has already been taken care of. The introduction of new words and the repetition of old words have already been pre-planned for you. You just press play every day. Please don’t play with your baby, toddler or preschooler's academic future. They will only be this age once and you will only have the opportunity to develop their brain at this stage once.