The Ultimate Homeschool Phonics Hack
Has your child ever received a toy that you secretly wanted to try out too? I’m guessing you could skip a lot of toys, but I’ll bet you can’t resist the urge to try this one. Just one poke? One pop? Which kids’ ‘toy could I possibly be talking about? You don’t want to miss out on this homeschool phonics hack!
I’ve just found the perfect homeschool phonics hack. It’s a toy you can use during phonics instruction. It doesn’t roar, blink, the wheels don’t whine when it moves, if your child drops it, it won’t break or crash. It makes almost no noise at all. It’s lightweight and low cost. You, mom friend, may even want to try out this kids’ toy.
What is it? The Push Pop Bubble Fidget!! You’ve seen them. Soft, plastic-rubbery toys in all shapes and colours with rows of circular ‘buttons’ that you can silently pop in and out. As many or as few rows as you choose. Let your child choose his or her favourite shape and colour. You’re all set to use this ultimate homeschool phonics hack.
Why are Bubble Fidgets the perfect homeschool phonics hack? Because homeschool mom, the Bubble Fidget, in all of its shapes and forms, is perfect for teaching two of the most important phonics skills that you, as your child’s reading teacher, need to know.
When modeling the foundational reading skills for beginning readers, phonemic awareness, there are two listening skills: hearing to blend sounds into words and hearing to segment words into individual phonemes or sounds.
This perfect homeschool phonics hack is so easy to use!
First, the Bubble Fidget is the best homeschool phonics hack because it can be used to support the phonemic awareness listening drill. No spelling with pencil or whiteboard maker for this specific phonics skill, unless you would like to add this as a next step. Any Bubble Fidget will work, but if you’re modeling phonemic awareness and segmenting skills for CVC words with 3 sounds, then choose a Bubble Fidget with rows of 3 buttons.
Truly, get an basket filled with different numbers of rows for words with different numbers of individual sounds. Your child will love ‘graduating’ to the next level of phonemic awareness when using a larger Bubble Fidget!
Second, the Bubble Fidget is the perfect homeschool phonics hack because it doesn’t make any noise! Your child will not be distracted by lights and sounds. Silent pushes and pops satisfy your child’s need for tactile, hands-on engagement with phonemic awareness, yet without the distractions an electronic device may offer. It’s perfect for kinesthetic learners learning to basic of phonics and the alphabetic principle for CVC words.
Third, you can use this ultimate homeschool phonics hack to segment syllables in longer words. One pop per syllable instead of one pop per individual sound. The word ‘communication’ has 5 syllables. Each syllable gets a pop. If your child is getting confused between individual sounds and syllables, use one button per sound and one row for syllables.
Homeschool Phonics Assessment Hack
Add this assessment hack for homeschool moms. Check for application of phonics skills by watching how many ‘bubbles’ you child ‘pops’ or pushes during an oral phonemic awareness drill. This is a quick observational assessment you can complete without your child even knowing it! No other homeschool phonics assessment is quite this fun or simple!
As you can see, the Bubble Fidget is the perfect homeschool phonics hack for teaching 3 core phonics skills at home! Does your child have one?
