Wiki Sticks

Alright-for those of  you who haven't heard of these "Wiki Sticks" are TOTALLY missing out!  You can usually find them at any craft store, like Michaels, or at a teacher's store.  They are wax-covered sticks that are flexible and bendable-you can creat ANYTHING out of them!  My family and I actually went out to eat at the Grand Lux Cafe, and they were handing them out to the kids instead of the old crayon and placemat.  Now, if you are like me, you bring a couple of things to keep your child busy while waiting for food anyway, but if you have these, chances are your child won't want to put them down!  The reason I chose to talk about these today is because there are so many educational ideas associated with Wiki Sticks.  A few that come to mind are to have your child create letters-practicing letter formation.  This is also an excellent art activity and gives you a great chance to see just how "outside the box" your child can think.  Kids can also make numbers using the Wiki Sticks.  I have also used them for students that are struggling in reading, and need a reading activity that doesn't "look" like it is reading (this is one of my favorite things to do-teach kids when they don't think they are being "taught").  You can take a large piece of paper, have your child tell you a sentence with a person, place, or thing (that can be made out of the Wiki Sticks) and write that sentence with a big space left open for the person, place, or thing.  For example, "I like to ride in my __________."  Then, with the Wiki Sticks you and your child could make a "car" to put in the blank space.  Then have your child read the sentence.  You could make an entire book out of Wiki Sticks pictures!!!  Children build an extensive amount of confidence when they read something they wrote themselves!  Even ask for their autograph when they are done reading it-they are now an author!!Please check out this product, it is not only fun, but educational at the same time!

Yeah! My First Post

This is my first and I am completely unsure of where to start.  I would like to start by saying that not only do I have experience as an Elementary teacher, but I am also a parent, and each day I am discovering how much of a different teacher that makes me.  I feel that it has made me an even more compassionate and understanding educator.
I just received a letter from a past parent that has a child diagnosed with ADHD.  She is one of the most understanding, supportive, and caring parents I have ever met.  She and her family are willing to try anyting to further their child's education and social skills.  Throughout our relationship I have offered many suggestions on how to help her child, and since I know that many families are also struggling with this particular diagnosis, I thought I might start with some ideas focusing on reading and ADHD.
I can only imagine how a parent receiving this diagnosis feels, but many children are extremely successful and some accomodations just need to be made.
One idea I offered to this particular parent, was when her child was just guessing as he was reading, I had her take a strip of paper and only allow him to look at one word at a time, moving the paper at the parent's pace.  Sometimes his mind would work faster than his brain could process, so this idea worked well for him. 
This particular child also would just guess at words because his attention didn't allow for him to sound out words, so we worked a lot on "sight words."  These are words that are specific to a particular grade level and are words that your child should recognize "on sight" and should not have to stop and sound out.  We took these words and put them on flash cards and practiced with the child.  He liked this activity because it was "fast" and he developed a memorization technique to reading.  Now, the only reason I suggested this idea was because this particular student had very good comprehension skills.  Therefore, after he would read a story, I or his parent would then read it to him so that he could hear a fluid read.  Then we would ask him questions about the reading.  Just having him read it would not be fair considering the struggles that was having.
I hope that this helps!  Please post with questions, ideas, and comments-I welcome them!