Have you been flashing the word cards and picture cards regularly? If your child has been enjoying these sessions, within a few months his eyes must have got used to ‘photographing’ the word that is flashed instantly. This could be keeping you really busy; making more and more new flash cards to keep up with the amazing speed of your child’s grasping power. Of course you must also be busy enjoying the delightful discovery: Your child has started to read.
Let’s take the next step forward. This time around, you will not stop with just the ‘words’. Instead, transfer the experience into sentences. For this, you will be making one card each for the words in the sentence. But as you keep progressing (we have been discussing this even much earlier). You will not need to make cards for all the words. For, your child will know for himself the words that are commonly used since you had flashed them already. Some such words are: the, to, and, on, in, I, you, my, your, big…
To begin with, make the sentences brief and catchy.
- I love yummy pista ice creams. (Choose the flavor that your child loves)
- Daddy takes us to the beach. Hooray!
- Salty potato chips taste great.
- I enjoy swinging in the park.
- Sleepy crocodiles live in swampy rivers.
And later, you can make longer, but simple and attractive sentences:
- Tasty French fries make a lovely snack.
- Mummy, Daddy and I have fun on Sundays.
- I walk merrily with Grandpa in the garden.
- Halwa and Peda are my favorite sweets.
- Playful Tommy wags his tail very fast.
You may choose the sentence that would go with your child’s taste and attitude. Or you may make some on your own.
And now, for the making of the flash cards. This is a familiar exercise for you. Make one card each for the sentence. So, for the sentence”I love yummy pista ice creams”, you will be making five flash cards - I, love, yummy, pista and ice cream. Later when you make cards for a sentence that could have one or more of the same words,you need not make the cards once again. Hence, as you gradually introduce more sentences, you will need to prepare fewer cards than the number of words that make the new sentences. Your job would become easier, but you do not lose anything at all: convenient, simple yet effective.
So, what about the flashing, this time? To begin with, introduce one sentence. Take the set of cards for the sentence and flash them at random, not in the logical and grammatical sequence. And for every session, shuffle the cards and change the order of flashing. You need to flash this way for two reasons:
- The child should not end up just memorizing the words passively as he would guess the uniform sequence of flashing.
- His growing urge to read the random card is nurtured.
Remember the Golden Rule - The flashing sessions need to be absolutely joyful, brief and stopped before the child wants to. To your delight and surprise, within three or four sessions of flashing, your child will easily read all the cards.
You have a new job now: Make a ‘Handmade Book’ with the sentence that you flashed. Take the ‘Landscape’ position of the broad board / chart paper, cut to A4 size and write the words in printed form, each of 3″ height. At first, write one word per page. As your child gets used to the Handmade books, you may write more than one word per page. It is advisable to laminate these pages and tie them up in proper order in the form of a book. This Handmade book is very special. They are likely to be handled in all happy ways possible by your kid.
Now give it to him and watch him read the book. It becomes a prized possession for him as he would want to read it dozens of times.
You may proceed with this way of introducing sentences further:
- Instead of one set of cards (that make one Handmade book), you may gradually introduce one more and later two more sets of cards, enabling your child to read more Handmade books,pretty soon. In any case, limit the number of new cards to fifteen for the flashing session. Of course, you can retire the known cards and introduce the new ones.
- Later,instead of continuing to make newer sentences, you can paste a photo of your child that would thrill him on the left side blank page and make a sentence that briefly describes the picture on the right side, which would be the reading area. What excitement this evoques in the little one! You need to see it to believe it.
- You can also choose a small story book that has large fonts. Make cards for the words as yet unknown to your child. After the flashing sessions are complete, give him the book. His eyes would go wide with joy and thrill. And he starts READING THE BOOK ALL BY HIMSELF.
Your mission has been successful. You have bequeathed a great asset to your child. And definitely formed him into a responsible adult of the future.
You deserve a Royal Salute.