Opposites

I'm not sure what gave me this idea. I've been wanting to start using word flash cards with Thomas to help him practice his reading. For some reason opposites popped into my head.

First we divided the cards into colors, one side red and one side blue. He had to pick a blue card, read it, and then try to find it's opposite in the red cards. The first one he chose was "on". He read it right away and started looking for "off". The whole game took less than 5 minutes. I guess I need to make some more flash cards!

For a while we have made a game out of reading signs wherever we go. I help him sound out the letters but he does a pretty good job of blending the sounds together and figuring out the words. I wanted to introduce flash cards so that we could practice the same words over and over again. I've read differing opinions on "sight words" which is essentially what this is, memorizing common words by sight instead of having to sound them out every time, but I thought I would give this a try. Any time I try to get him to sound out words in a book he is not interested. I think seeing so many words on a page at one time is a little overwhelming to him. He has no problem sounding out a single word on a sign or, in this case, a flash card.