This blog post was inspired by my hairdresser who yesterday was telling me that her 7yr old son didn't like reading or spellings, he wanted to play with his dinosaurs. Who can blame him! That seems very natural and who wouldn't prefer to play than do their homework? Let's face it, I'd rather play tennis than do my accounts or clean the house.
So how do we do this?
It's easier than you think.
What do they want to do?
Play of course, this little boy is 7yrs old. In many countries he would barely have started school. Maria Montessori only started introducing children to letters at 6yrs old. We want children to love words don't we? We want them to enjoy reading because reading is learning, discovering and exploring new ideas and ways of life, attitudes, opinions and is a way to open our mind. We need to make this fun!
There are lots of ways I could suggest doing this but basically I would encourage them to come up with the ideas. To start you off, here are a few.
- which of your dinosaurs wants to hear your reading today?
- I think your dinosaurs want a story, don't they?
- which dinosaur's name would you like to learn to spell?
- can your dinosaur spell your words for this week?
- can you help your dinosaur learn that word?
- what story do your dinosaurs want today?
- can you tell your dinosaurs what's happening in your story?
- can you ask them what might happen next?
- can you draw a picture of each word from your spelling so your dinosaurs know what that word means?
I think you get the idea!
Now how could you expand this into maths?
- by maybe weighing each one
- combinations of dinosaurs
- take one away what is the weight left
- how many dinosaurs weigh the same as your teddy
- make a dinosaur cake and weigh out the ingredients
Let me know how this goes!
Comments