b and d

Learning to read and write is hard.  Sam made great strides during Kindergarten.  I’m trying to keep his brain in the game with reading and writing over summer break.  There are two letters he didn’t master in reading.  He complained yesterday that he was still frustrated by identifying b and d.  Whenever a word starts with one of those letters he pauses, hesitant to sound it out, because he’s not sure which sound to make.

I did some research to see if there was a good trick to help kids remember the difference.  I found this great idea and, as I suspected, Sam took to it with gusto after lunch.

Focus on which part comes first, the line or the circle.  For b the line, or “bar” is first.  For d the circle, or “donut” is first.

Now replace those with a Twix bar and a chocolate donut and suddenly the kids are eager to form d’s and b’s – d starts with a donut, b starts with a bar.

Even the third grade grad was excited to practice his b’s and d’s.

The memory device seems to actually work.  Sam wrote “sudway,” noticed his error, and changed it to “subway” without me pointing it out!

They were engrossed with writing until Freddy started toying with my flower.  Not even chocolate can compete with a prancing kitty.