702 DZAS

Be blessed as you listen to 702 DZAS' special airing of their various outreach activities in the Philippines tomorrow morning. For full details you can check febc site.

Help Flood Victims of Storm Sendong

Just click the title above to check on ways how you can help the victims of Sendong. God bless our country!

Why December 25? | Christian History

Why December 25? | Christian History

Great Finds at the Scholastic Warehouse Sale

Since we had an event in the office I can't go home at exactly 6pm. But I'm so thankful to God that even on a Friday, traffic was not heavy. Why am I in a hurry? Well, today is the first day of Scholastic Warehouse Sale. I brought my list to be systematic in looking for about 49 books. (Since I only had 1 from the 50 recommended must-read books from "Teaching with Favorite Read-Aloud in pre-K"). It took me less than an hour to get to Pasig, which by the way, is the route I take everyday in going to Cainta.

When I got there, there was no customer. The warehouse was huge, full of modules with stacks of books. Someone helped me with the search for pre-K books. And yes, I was happy enough to find some. I found "The Very Hungry Caterpillar",(bought this one for only P166.50), "Dr.Seuss's ABC" (didn't buy this one, too pricey for me at P400+), and "Hello, Red Fox" (bought this one for only P265.50). Two more books I bought which were not part of the list were "Chrysanthemum" for only P140 and "An Angel Came to Nazareth" for only P115.

There were some books for young adults too. I'll be back maybe tomorrow or Tuesday if time permits. I actually left a basketful of books which I reserved already and by faith I can buy them before the sale ends. My basket was mostly Barney Coloring Books which I can give as presents to Cali's friends.

Scholastic Warehouse Sale

A friend just texted me about Scholastic (Publisher) Warehouse Sale starting tomorrow, November 11 to November 23, from 11am to 11pm. Office number is 9001537, located at #70 C.Raymundo Ave, Pasig City.

I'm excited already! Hope I can buy lots of books for Cali and for me too.

An article for parents who are teaching their toddlers how to read

Home School Preschool - The Phonics vs Sight Reading Debate And The Best Choice For You And Your Child

Author:

Trinity Montecristo

When you decide to home school and home school preschool your child you have made a very bold decision to take responsibility for their education and their life\'s path.  Something as important as this cannot be left up to strangers who don\'t know your child or your child\'s habits, interests, strengths and weaknesses. 

Naturally there are many questions that you will have to answer before you begin home schooling and one of the biggest ones will be what reading method to use? 

Reading has been taught in a classroom for the past 150 years and two reading methods, phonics and sight reading, have vied for dominance; each with their detractors and advocates. 

So let\'s have a look at the positives and negatives of each one. 

Phonics 

Phonics is the method that is the most popular at the moment and for good reason. This method is when you 'sound out words', the word 'cat', for example, would be sounded out as 'k-ae-t'. 

The benefit of sounding out words is that it allows you to see a strange word and sound it out so that you can read it.   This is your 'translating software' so that you can translate an unknown word. This is the best way to teach older children to read who already have a large spoken vocabulary. 

Phonics, however, also has a number of glaring shortcomings; the first of these is that young children don\'t have a large vocabulary and when they sound out a word, they still don\'t know what it is.  

The second is that when you teach beginner readers phonics, they don\'t know that sounding out words is meant to be reading and you lose them to boredom because what they are doing is too complicated for them. After 6 or 8 months of this your preschooler can still be unable to read, and this can lead to great frustration for both you and your child. 

Thirdly, there are many words that are sight words which cannot be sounded out.  These are words like 'the, he, her, one and people' and most of the most common words English are sight words.  These words account for almost 50of everything written in English which means that your child will not be able to sound out half of the words that they read.  A very confusing situation indeed. 

Lastly, and most importantly, English is not a consistent language and as a result phonics has many different rules that have to be remembered and applied correctly.  

Trying to teach a 4 year old the 'rules of phonics' is no mean feat, no matter what anyone tells you to the contrary. 

Sight reading 

With Sight Reading you are taught to learn a word like a photograph.  You don\'t have to sound it out or spell it out. 

This is the way that adults read.  We do not sound out the words but rather have memorized what each word looks like.  

The drawback of sight reading is that if you see a word that you do not know, you don\'t have any means of finding out how to pronounce it and you have to rely on someone else to tell you. 

The advantage of sight reading, however, is that most of the common words in English are sight words and cannot be sounded out by phonics and this allows your child to read at least half of everything written. 

Which one must you choose? 

When you are teaching your child to read at home, your entire focus should be on building up your child\'s confidence and their passion for reading. 

You can only do this by first getting them to recognise and read the basics, then gradually working on improving their reading ability. 

The biggest mistake you can make is to have a preference for one method over another.  You goal should be to teach your child to read EASILY and QUICKLY and by choosing one method over another you will be severely limiting your child\'s potential.  

Adults only sight read yet we insist on teaching our children only phonics. Yet by using both methods together your results would be 1000more effective. 

Sight reading should be the first method that you use to teach your child to read.  Through this you will build their confidence and through this you will develop their love for reading. 

You can begin by teaching your child to sight read the 100 most common words in English and this alone allows them to read over 50of anything written in English, no matter how complex the book.  They will also learn to sight read other more complex words.  

Once your child is reading proficiently and has read a few basic books they will begin to ask you questions such as 'what\'s this word?', you will then know that they are ready for the next level of reading skill, which is Phonics.  By this time your child will have acquired an ease with words and become accustomed to what words 'sound' like. 

This will not only give them an all round reading proficiency but also ensure that they can read well from an early age.  

Reading is like riding a bicycle; once your child can read, they will become better at it by reading more.  The more time they have in the saddle (or book) the better they will be.  

Reading, like anything else in life, is a matter of practice and the earlier you start teaching your preschooler to read, the better they will be at it.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/homeschooling-articles/home-school-preschool-the-phonics-vs-sight-reading-debate-and-the-best-choice-for-you-and-your-child-4732562.html

About the Author

Trinity Montecristo is an expert in home school and home school preschool learning. Her home schooling expertise includes reading, writing, math, foreign language tuition and accelerated learning systems. If you want a method to teach your child to read EASILY and FAST, you can find out more about our wonderful reading system, 'Teach Your Child To Read & Reading with Phonics' by visiting our website at: http://www.yourchildcanreadin30days.com

 

She has successfully taught her son and numerous other children to read through her reading course 'Teach Your Child To Read & Reading with Phonics', in as little as 30 days.

She has a Degree in Public Relations (graduated with honours) and has a Certificate of Proficiency in English (graduated with honours) from the University of Cambridge.

She is a devoted wife and mother. She also runs a successful online business with her husband and continues to actively promote home school preschool reading and literacy for all children. Her mission is – literacy for ALL children.

A Faithful God

I haven't been updating my blog since February.  Lately, it seems like work in the office and all other tasks I need to do just double and double.  Many times I feel like giving up, but then  I remembered that the God I serve is faithful enough to see you through in any challenging tasks.   When I was young, I used to say do your best and God will do the rest.  I only realized now that it's letting God do His best in you so you can really do the rest...It is not actually your strength but God's which allow you to make the things undone done.

Philippians 4:13
I can do everything through Him (Christ) who gives me strength.

What Really Matters

What Really Matters

Is your house built on the Rock?

My boss gave me a devotional book for my bday- Devotions to Go.  It's sooo cute,  but its content will sharply strike your soul.  This morning the topic I read was about security.  Bible scripture is from Isaiah 32:9-18.  It tells about the complacency of women and finding security on what we presently have.  Security to most of us are from our jobs and our families.  But do we ever really find security in an unchanging God? I agree with the writer that "beauty fades, stocks tumble, any one of them could be gone in a moment.." As I was pondering over these things I remembered the first lesson I had for my training as a church worker.  It was about foundation. The lesson talked about the wise man and the foolish man who built houses. The wise man built his house on a rock while the fool built his on sand.  No storm could destroy the house that is built on the rock. But the one who built on sand had his house crashed when the storm came.  (Matthew 7:24-27)

Careers, friends, families, yes even our kids may disappoint us and crush our spirits.  But one whose life is built on the rock who is Christ can never be moved.  Yes we can cry sometimes over some frustrations that we experience, but the joy that comes from the ultimate Joy-Giver will always lift us up, cheer us up even when things around us may seem bleak.  Jesus says-- "in this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."   That's a promise we can always claim.  Jesus has overcome the world! We can have victories over all the challenges that we're about to face or we're facing right now.  Cheer up, cheer up! Life is to be enjoyed! With Christ of course!

Defragment- must-read for on-the-go moms

Defragment