Tomorrow is the last day of Esther and William’s first term at school

The weeks have flown by at speed

The end of term for Esther and William

Is also the end of the fourth trimester for Baby Bea

And on the 2nd November we will mark 21 months without Matilda Mae

Time is marching on

With Esther and William now at school all day

Our home activities have had to change

After school the twins enjoy some quiet time to play

Before a healthy snack or ‘pretty tea’

Often in front of the TV

At the moment we are all enjoying Come Outside on You Tube

Esther and William also like to find an activity set up for them when they get home

It can be small world play in a baking tray

Autumn tracks in the Tuff Spot

A Cosatto notebook, stickers and pen

Or something like this

Learning to read with Jelly and Bean

This Invitation to Play was easy to set up

I have been teaching Esther and William to read since they turned four

In a very relaxed manner

We have been playing with letters and sounds since they first started talking

Anyone who meets Esther and William comments on their language

They have an incredibly wide vocabulary and they talk incessantly

They love letters and words

They love to play with language

They get this from Mummy and Daddy

Both of whom love to read and write and perform

And play!

I bought the Jelly and Bean books a few weeks ago

When I realised the reading books would not be coming home from school until Term 2

They were recommended by Granny and a friend

Both early years teachers

The books are great

They build up children’s reading ability and confidence

Starting with one or two words per page

And building up to simple sentences

Made only of CVC and high frequency words

Esther and William love the books

Some of the sentences are silly

With funny pictures to match

We extend our reading by telling the stories

We see in the pictures

The books are great for segmenting and blending

They support the foundations we had built

With Jolly Phonics

Most of all the books are fun

And because they are simple and systematical

They give young children a great sense of achievement

As they are very quickly able to read a whole book on their own

For this Invitation to Play

I wanted to play with the key words from the books we had been reading

I wrote the words on fabric autumn leaves

And set them out with copies of the books

And also some lovely wooden magnetic letters

And magnetic boards

I encouraged Esther and William to practise reading and writing their names

Before reading and writing some of their key words

They took a leaf with a word on

Read the word and then built it with their magnetic letters

After a while

Esther and William started making up nonsense words

And how we all laughed as we tried to sound them out and read them

How we tried to think what such silly words might mean

Nonsense words are a great way of practising phonics skills

Building up silly words with real sounds

It is great fun, very funny but is also a real skill needed for reading

Making and breaking words

Decoding

Playing with language in this way

Really helps children with the skills they need for reading and writing

Esther and William are now flying through the Jelly and Bean books

As they discover the wonder of being able to read books

And understand books

All on their own