Tag Archives: Micah

Babies, Child #1: Micah, Child #2: Quentin, Parenting, Toddlers

3 Easy Steps to Teach a Young Child How to Read

February 10, 2015 Hubbard's Cupboard 8 Comments

My oldest son, Micah, is now 3 years and 5 months old. He is starting to sound out words and reading short words! I’m seriously so proud of him. My goal is to teach him how to read before he goes into Kindergarten. I’ve been teaching my son how to read ever since he was interested in letters which was well before he was 18 months old. I definitely think this is from Dallin’s genes cause I have never been interested in reading very much at all.

I broke it down to three easy steps. I’m writing this down so I can teach my next kid how to read but may be it’ll help someone else too.

Teach your child to recognize all the UPPERcase letters
Then teach your child to recognize all the lowercase letters
MAKE IT FUN!!! Teach your kids letter sounds as you would teach them animal sounds. (ex. What does a M say? mmmmmm) With this step I needed a little bit of help and guidance, I’ll list the resources I have used below.

After talking to my mom friends, I really think phonics is the way to begin teaching kids how to read.

First book, my neighbor suggested Teach Your Child How to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. This book has a really boring introduction of instructions for the parents, but once we started the lessons my son seriously took the book and blossomed. Everyday you only do one lesson and it last about 20 minutes. Everything is outlined for you so I didn’t even have to plan anything. It gives you the order to teach the letter sounds, starting with the more obvious sounds like M and S and A then moving towards more complicated sounds like silent E’s… ect. Three reasons why I love the book is 1) it’s super easy for me 2) it teaches kids how to read and not just memorize the words 3) It makes reading into a game.

Another friend suggested the Three Owl’s Reading Method which unfortunately is out of press and I can’t find a copy anywhere. Micah loves these little books!!! This is more of a Montessori approach to teaching kids how to read. The first sounds that it teaches kids are the vowels sounds: a, e, ee, i, o, oo, u. Since it’s out of print, may be I’ll recreate the books and put them online. Dr. Hulda Clark who created the reading system died back in 2009. I’ll email the publisher to find out what I can do. Micah loves Owl’s Eyes more than Teach Your Child How to Read in 100 Easy Lessons because they come in little colorful books his size.

The third resource I’ve used to help my child learn how to read is Hooked on Phonics Ipad App. While I’m not a huge fan of their curriculum (mostly their story books are weird), I love love the letter sounds songs and the games they made for their app. Micah loves this app!

Of course, I don’t believe in forcing children to learn how to read but it’s been so fun for Micah that he’s forcing me to teach him how to read!

Now I’m not an expert at this but my younger son, Quentin is 18 months… I started asking him “What sound does M make?” and he replies with “mmmmmmm”. So I truly believe that when a child starts imitating animal sounds they can totally start learning letter sounds too! 🙂

I’ll end with my favorite scripture in Doctrine and Covenants:

D&C 88:118 …seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.

What tips and tricks do you have to teach kids how to read?

Child #1: Micah, Child #2: Quentin, Creative Ideas, Family Life, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

DIY Cereal Box Bible Tote for Church

January 18, 2015 Hubbard's Cupboard 2 Comments

Micah just went into primary as a “Sunbeam” this month and on the same day Quentin went into nursery at church! It was a good transition because I was afraid to let Quentin in nursery when there were like eight boys that were a lot older than him. Here is a picture of their first day:

All the older boys went into primary and now our primary is huge! (Well only compared to the other wards in our stake… it’s actually only like 35 kids but our room is small and it feels like a lot of kids.)

The new kids in primary got a Book of Mormon to take to church every week. I decided to make Micah a scripture tote. I remember seeing missionaries make these scripture covers out of cereal boxes for their Bible and Books of Mormon.

It was super easy. I just cut off the top of a cereal box and taped it up all around to laminate it. Then I punched two holes and tied a ribbon so it would be easier for him to carry. Micah keeps all his church stuff in it along with his new Book of Mormon.

I got this Elmo Cereal at the store because Micah insisted that it was the one he wanted. The cereal really really gross but it made a cute box! (It was definitely good marketing on their part…. the cereal is way plain… it’s like dry cardboard.) The scripture tote works pretty good! I don’t know how long it will last though. 🙂

Dallin is still in the bishopric and I’m still a primary chorister. We’re having fun! Here are two cute pictures of Micah and his friends at church.

Babies, Parenting

Found My Favorite Diaper

June 15, 2012 Hubbard's Cupboard 1 Comment

Ok It’s taken me six months but I found my favorite diapers…. ready drum roll!! Target & Walmart diapers. They’re cheap and nice. I’m converted. I’ve also tried Earth’s Best Diapers and Luvs. Still Target and Walmart diapers are my favorite.

Target Diapers

Sizes Tried: 2, 3, 4

Best Price I’ve Found: $0.15-0.16 / diaper

Likes: They are made with pretty nice material. They have a stretchy waste band just like Huggies. They’re big and cheap. I haven’t really had any problems with blowouts. I also think they’re cute. They have the Velcro straps.

Neither Like or Dislike: They have blue and green polka dots on them so it might show through if your baby is wearing light clothing

Walmart Diapers

Sizes Tried: 3, 4

Best Price I’ve Found: $0.15 / diaper

Likes: They also have a stretchy waste band just like Huggies & Target Diapers. They’re big and cheap. They’re not as cute as the target diapers though…They also have Velcro straps. These diapers fits well on Micah. Now that he’s crawling it has the perfect fit to his baby bum. They hold a lot of fluid!! I haven’t really had any problems with blowouts.

Neither Like or Dislike: They are white with teddy bears on them.

Luvs Diapers

Sizes Tried: 2, 3

Best Price I’ve Found: $0.16

Likes: Cheap. That’s about it though.

Dislikes: The quality of material of the diaper is not very nice. They smell weird and they feel scratchy. They puff up a lot when they’re wet. They don’t have the stretchy waistband so I’ve had blowouts up his back. They have both velcro and sticker for the straps and it leaves marks on Micah’s skin when I don’t put them on right.

Neither Like or Dislike: They have some purple design of a monkey on them.

Earth’s Best Diapers

Sizes Tried: 3

Best Price I’ve Found: $0.20 / diaper

Likes: Nothing really. They advertise that their diapers of eco friendly and chlorine free (but if you wanted to go eco friendly might as well use cloth diapers)… I didn’t have problems with blow outs!

Dislikes: The quality of material of the diaper is different. They swell up a lot. They have a stretchy band but an ugly design. The area around the thighs were too big for Micah. The diaper didn’t fit him very well.