Sonlight LA 1– Beginning to Read

We are working our way through this LA with Duckie so this page will continue to grow as we make and use extra things to go with our Sonlight Program.

Please note you do not need to make extra things – Sonlight does provide worksheets for every week but we wanted them to be in the HWOT (Handwriting With Out Tears) format and Duckie wanted some pictures to make them more exciting. We are also using THRASS so our edits to Sonlight will reflect that use.

For the year:

I have found a small whiteboard essential for spelling – mistakes are rubbed out straight away so there is not chance of wrong spelling becoming stuck in the brain. Plus no extra paper to file and keep and a white board is lots of fun!

Word cards – You can download the sight word cards from Sonlight here. I have made word cards for the spelling words too.

Weeks 1-10 Download from Homeschool Launch here.

I also made a weekly spelling List. I did this in one hit so you can download the entire years list here at Homeschool Launch. I use these along with SpellQuizzer to help Duckie review her spelling words for the week. Download from Homeschool Launch here.

Mini Alphabet Cards – we laminated these and then stuck a magnet on the back. We use them instead of the go-fish cards and also with some of the activity sheets I altered (more about them later) Download them here at Homeschool Launch. You can also use the ones that Confessions of a Homeschooler has made to go with her letter of the week curriculum and just add magnetic backing to them.

Below are the links to each week as we complete it with more downloads and links for each week.

Language and Thinking by Ruth Beechick and Jeannie Nelson has lots and lots of extras to go with it so I am going to make that a separate post. See Language and Thinking

Week 1

Week 2

ReadingLessons.com

Another Free reading Program – again this one looks great and has all the information you need to teach your child to read.

ReadingLessons.com has 52 books in the series that you can download free of charge. You do need to create an account but this is so easy and gives you instant access to the site. Each book has word cards and lesson plans to help you teach the lesson. I am still exploring the site but what I have seen so far is fantastic!

Free Reading Program for the month of January

Funnix Reading Program is offering their complete reading program for free this month – it is a computer download. The author of the program was also behind the reading program ‘Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons’

Remember this free offer is only for the month of January 2011!

A-Rhyme-A-Week Site

A-Rhyme-A-Week is a phonological awareness program featuring 30 different rhymes – It is a 30 week program and covers the following “rimes” -ack, –ail/ale, –ain, –ake, –ame, –an, –ap, –at, –ate, –aw, –ay, –eat, –ell, –est, –ice, –ick, –ide, –ight, –ill, –in, –ine, –ing, –ink, –it, –ock, –oke, –op, –ore, –ot, –ump. (note these are listed in alphabetical order and not in the order presented.

There are free downloads for each week and they look like a fun and easy free way to add to your child’s learning of some of these difficult sounds. Zebra is very visual and I am sure this will help her a lot.

Tt is for Turtle

We are spending one morning a week with another family and doing a “theme” day around the alphabet.  This week was letter T.  We used the turtle theme from Confessions of a homeschooler. 

To make it more Australian we also read Yakkinn the Swamp Tortoise – the most dangerous year.  This follows the first year in the life of an endangered tortoise.  We  really enjoyed the pictures (the illustrations have an aboriginal theme to them) the story was well written and we will be looking for the next book.  I want to add this one to our personal library!

The girls illustrated the book by making pictures depicting the seasons as shown in the book. 

View Full Album

 

We made turtles out of collected gum nuts.

We had turtle bread for lunch – each child making their own turtle out of bread dough.

View Full Album

We had fruit turtles for afternoon tea.

Turtle FUN!!

Font Fun

I found this amazing website with lots and lots of free fonts and they will make a font for you using your handwriting - how cool is that!!

Fonts for Peas



Looking for dot fonts - to make handwriting sheets - this is so hard as they all want you to pay for the font!

Handwriting Worksheet maker lets you make worksheets using dot handwring.



There are hundreds of free fonts at 1001 fonts -

Miss Olsen's ClassroomFonts 1.0 is a dot font (you might have to scroll down the link to find it)

Alphabet Cards

Highway Alphabet Cards - so cute now I just need some tiny cars to drive over them.

Little People Magnetic Alphabet

(Photo from Serving Pink Lemonade - used with permision thank you Amy)


Not exactly alphabet cards but such cute little people download here they come in black and white or coloured and if you look at Serving Pink Lemonade you can read how Amy has turned them into magnets and all the magnet fun ideas she has to share. My girls would LOVE to play with these.

Language and Thinking for Young Children

by Ruth Beechick and Jeannie Nelson

As this book is used in both Sonlight K and 1 I am going to put all the links here rather than post them double. Again this page is a work in progress.

Learning about the Telephone
Download the printables from DLTK here I like how Home Grown Hearts as made it into a magnetic Fridge game. This would make a good centre or poster workbox activity.

Mini Alphabet Magnetic Letters

I made a set of mini alphabet cards, laminated them and stuck a magnet on the back, and we have been using them for doing the worksheets I made to go with Sonlight Language Arts 1. We also use them for spelling and other activities.

In her book Sue mentiones "Paying close attention to the number of skills that will be necessary to complete the work" (pg 82). I have a child who hates to write so for her using the magnetics is focusing on the words and not on the extra skill of writing. It makes this activity achievable for her.

So far I only have the lowercase alphabet done. I need to get another box to put the uppercase letters in.

You can download the mini alphabet here if you want some too.

In case you haven't guessed it yet I am not a fan of worksheets but ...
these 2 sites are worth a look at.

Worksheet Works.com is a make your own worksheet so you are able to make the sheet exactly for your child.

Amazing Handwriting Worksheets - a free handwriting worksheet maker - It prints up well (the ones I have tried)

Printable ABC Bible verses for copywork are available here. They match 'Sing the Word from A-Z

Compound Word File Folder game

File Folder Fun has put a Snowman Compound Words Game up.

This was perfect to use with our Sonlight LA 2. I printed up the blank one provided, wrote the Sonlight word list in it, laminated it and away we went. I didn't add Velcro dots to this one as Zebra asked me not to. We were able to mix the tops of the snowman around and see if it was possible to make any new words. I think I will also at a later date make up the one at FFF and add to our LA workboxes as a fun revision activity.