Last September, my nieces stayed with us for almost a month. We had lots of fun playing and learning. Each day we had new activities each designed to help them get acquainted with homeschooling.
One of the challenges each parent has to go through is teaching them how to read. Once you've succeeded in getting them to read, the next challenge is getting them to actually love and enjoy reading. They usually give remarks like "I'm bored" or "Can we draw(paint)?" or "Are we done?"
Kids are just very brutally honest. They speak up whatever is in their mind. That actually helps because you will know where they're at in a particular lesson. I find that they tend to spend more time on something if they're amused and having fun.
We have movie/video time every now and then and they love Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom. Because of this series on Netflix, their imagination run wild. Each of them wants to be a fairy, of course. And so, I had the light bulb moment! What if I made them wands to be used both for playtime and study time?
Wands usually are stars but I told them that they can choose any design for their wands. I realized that any design would mean ANY design. The trouble is that my drawing skills don't go beyond drawing the basic shapes. It's a good thing they chose easy designs. Heart, sun, and butterfly.
Once again, I found some more use for our trash. These wands are made of recycled materials, except for the main designs which are made of construction paper.
Making these wands are simple and easy. All I needed were patterns for the shapes before I cut it out on the construction paper. The cut-out shapes are then attached to the cardboard - old milk cartons that I don't really throw away specifically for art projects like this. The butterfly wand needed some details added so I needed to draw some lines on it.
The wand heads are then attached to the handles. These handles are made of used manila papers rolled together until they're sturdy enough to withstand toddler force. Once that's done, we're down to the hardest part - at least for the kids. Waiting. The glue I used to attach the handle to the head needs to dry completely for it to last. I told them the magic is still cooking up on the wands so that they can use it properly. :D
These wands helped me with the reading lessons. Each of them would grab their wands every now and then, go to the whiteboard and then just point at the words and read aloud. They would play pretend school too, each would have a turn at being a teacher and a student. I remember, back in the day, I learned a lot of new things that are not taught in school because of this game. Mission Accomplished!
@romeskie is a full-time stay at home mom juggling homeschooling, crocheting, and homemaking. A Business Administration graduate with a major in Marketing who ended up in the contact center industry, on the frontlines, climbing her way up to Workforce Management where she found her passion in real-time analysis and management. A once self-proclaimed careerwoman who soon realized homemaking was her real calling. Her passion varies from reading, writing, photography, and most of all, crocheting.
Connect with her through her Facebook Page: The Leftie Crocheter and on Instagram. Feel free to subscribe to her Youtube Channel: The Leftie Crocheter
What a cute idea XD
If it's any consolation I think some people just really don't enjoy reading, which isn't too surprising given that not everyone enjoys everything. None of my kids regularly read recreationally (alliteration!) and their father is a bookworm so it's been extensively modelled that reading is amazing. They do read for fun sometimes but a lot of the time all their reading is done for informational purposes.
Did the wands get used as pointers in pretend school too or were they in some special fairy school?
Oh yeah, those wands went from magical fairy wands in their magic school to pointers in their reading exercise in their normal pretend school. I tricked them into practice reading by themselves because of these wands. Haha!
Best way to get anyone to do anything is to make them want to do it XD
!ENGAGE 20
ENGAGEtokens.Bright and resourceful idea!
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