Thursday, April 27, 2017

Extra Resources for EFL Kids

Maybe your child already goes to English lessons but a little English practice every day could really help them make faster progress! You should choose something your child will enjoy and want to do. The last thing you want is for them to feel stressed out about English. Here are some links to some great websites with online games, videos and activity worksheets to help your child practice English between lessons. 
These are mostly free, so there's no reason not to check them out!

ONLINE GAMES FOR ESL KIDS









YOU TUBE CHANNELS WITH VIDEOS FOR ESL KIDS




(Good simple dialogues!)

WORKSHEETS FOR ESL KIDS


Printable workbooks US$4.99 each




Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Picture Dictionaries for Children

I think one of the most useful books for children studying English as a second language is a picture dictionary. They are usually beautifully illustrated, and they tap into a child's natural curiosity. Rather than learning vocabulary chosen by a teacher or a curriculum, a child can browse the dictionary for topics and things that they are interested in, and find new English words.
Amazon has a good selection to choose from.





Picture dictionaries would make great prizes at the end of the school year. They also make great Christmas or birthday gifts for young students of English.

Sunday, May 8, 2016

Four Problems Teaching Children to Count


Learning to count is an important part of a child's development and should be lots of fun. Most children find it easy to learn numbers, but not all.

 You might see these problems... 
  • Children can't remember numbers after 5 unless they count on their fingers starting from 1. It is very slow and inefficient.
  • Eleven and twelve are hard to remember.  
  • Children to confuse 12 and 20. 
  • Non-English speakers say three-teen and five-teen instead of thirteen and fifteen
You should try these ideas...

Counting from 1 is not enough. Teach counting many different ways. Count down from 5. For example, "5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO!" Count down from 10 (Rocket Blastoff is a fun game for doing that.)
Count by 2s and by 5s and by 10s. Break the numbers into chunks (1 to 5, 5 to 12, 13 to 19, and so on). Play Number Slap.  If you do these things, children will become familiar with numbers in any order. They won't need to count on their fingers.

Teach from 1 to 12 instead of 1 to 10. Children will remember them much more easily. They will be able to start reading clocks. It will also make the next step easier (13 to 20) because they are all teens except 20. Children who start with 1 to 12 will not mix up 12 and 20, because 12 will already be firmly fixed in their minds.

Tell children who say three-teen and five-teen that those numbers are 'special', and introduce thirty and fifty at the same time.














HOW TO TEACH YOUNG CHILDREN TO COUNT



TPR Counting Songs & Rhymes:

1,2,3 GO!

One Two put on your shoe

5 little monkeys

Rocket countdown

10 little fingers

TPR to 12




Some great counting videos:










Some great counting books:

Counting book of bugs










Counting Games to Play:

number recognition snap

How many animals

Number match-up



Call me.

If, heaven forbid, your child ever gets lost, you’ll have a much quicker reunion if she can tell a helpful adult her phone number. And she’ll have an easier time remembering that long sequence of numbers if you set it to a simple tune and practice it together. Try singing your digits to a toddler-friendly song, like “Mary Had a Little Lamb”: “355-8461, 8461, 8461, 355-8461, that is my phone num-ber.” Write it down as well so she can see what it looks like. This number activity will help your little one associate the sounds of the numbers with their appearance — and that could help her out of a scary situation.



http://www.whattoexpect.com/wom/all/most-recent.aspx

Thursday, May 5, 2016

Counting Book of Bugs

Count 13 ladybugs, snails, grasshoppers, cicadas, dragonflies, beetles, caterpillars and moreI published my first e-book with Kindle Desktop Publishing on April 19th, and just completed a print version too.
What a learning curve! The Counting Book of Bugs has 130 bug photographs - 13 photos each of ladybugs, grasshoppers, butterflies, cicadas, snails, ants, honey bees, dragonflies, beetles and caterpillars. Most of the photos were sourced for Pixabay.com.

Why count to 13?
I wanted to be able to sing the words to the tune of 'Ten Little Indians' (singing is a great way to learn something) and counting to 13 fitted the tune. However, there are other good reasons to start with 1 - 12 instead of 1 - 10. Clocks have 12 numbers, so once kids are familiar with 1 - 12, they can start telling the time. Also, from a language learning point of view, it makes more sense to group 11 and 12 with numbers 1-10, then group the teens together. Finally, learning 12 and 20 in separate groups of numbers will help kids avoid mixing them up (as they so often do!)

I wanted to make a book about bugs because I find them fascinating and I know lots of kids, especially little boys, do too. There are many books about bugs with cute illustrations, but in my opinion there should be more books for kids with real photos as illustrations. Honestly, some real bugs look like aliens, right? But the truth is there are more of them than us on the earth!

I'm looking forward to using the book in my ESL classes.

Sunday, May 1, 2016

Free E-book to download

Page with butterflies from Counting Book of Bugs
One of the butterfly pages in Counting Book of Bugs
From May 1st to May 5th you can download my new kids' picture book, Counting Book of Bugs, for free (normal price is US$2.99). It's for kids who love bugs, and for kids who are learning to count. You can sing along with the words. Try it out on your preschooler.

This e-book is available on all the Amazon Kindle stores including Japan and UK.

 I need reviews on Amazon, so if you left an honest review I would really appreciate it!