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Saturday, November 20, 2010

Multi-sensory experience

All the letters in My Sound Book are shown in an outlined font. The reason for this is so that the child can trace the inside of the letter with his or her finger. While tracing the letter, they should say the sound that the letter makes. After they say the sound, they should then point to an object and say its name and repeat for each object. For example: "a, apple. a, ambulance. a, ant." Each time they say the "a" sound they should again point to the letter a.

If they follow this method, it becomes a multi-sensory experience. Thus, suited for all three learning styles--kinesthetic, auditory, and visual.  They are using touch (kinesthetic) to trace and touch the letter, sound (auditory) when they say and hear the sound, and sight (visual) when they see the letter and objects. By using three senses their ability to learn is increased.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Why I Created "My Sound Book"

When my oldest son was starting to learn the alphabet and sounds, I searched everywhere for alphabet books. Of course, there is no shortage of alphabet books out there, but I was never satisfied with what I found. I wanted an alphabet that was 100% phonetic. Meaning, a book that only showed pictures of objects that begin with short vowel sounds and hard consonant sounds. My son was attending a Montessori preschool at the time and that is how they introduce the alphabet, by learning the sounds the letters make, rather than the names of the letters themselves. In all the alphabet books I found, there were several variances from the short vowel sounds and hard consonant sounds.
After all my searching and with no success, I finally decided to make my own book. I am very happy with the results! I used this book with my first son and he successfully learned all the sounds. I found that he loved the pictures and this was a very effective teaching tool. Soon he was able to put the sounds together to build phonetic words such as cat, box, or lid. Before entering kindergarten he was assessed on his ability to spell phonetic words and he scored 21 out of 21. The teacher was amazed! The Montessori reading method provided him with an excellent foundation for reading.
Now, my second son is 3 and he loves looking at the sound book. It is not only educational, but it is a fun way to connect and bond with your child!