The Kumon Study Smart Sweepstakes

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Do you have any special tricks or tools that you use to help your child succeed in school? Is there anything special you did when your kids were younger to make studying more fun and not seem like torture? When I was a nanny I had a lot of fun helping the kids with their spelling words. I used a variety of activities to help with spelling words - they never knew which I was going to do:


1)  Spell the word (that's obvious isn't it?)
2)  Say the word in a sentence (this helps with reading comprehension)
3)  Draw a picture of the word (they read it on a 3x5 card)
4)  I'd hold up a picture of the word and they would spell it for me.
5)  Write the word on the chalkboard
6)  Use scrabble tiles and have the kids spell the word out.


***7)  Younger kids who aren't in school or reading yet - make up "spelling" cards with a picture of the object and underneath put little boxes for each letter. Put a letter in each box that spells the word of the picture. Using scrabble tiles, your child spells the word matching the tile to the letter. Have them say the word before putting the tile on running their pointer finger under the letters from left to right and then after they've put the tiles on they say the word using their pointer finger. This helps them understand that the letters make the word and also helps them understand that we read left to right.


What do you do? Kumon is hosting a FUN Study Smart Sweepstakes where someone is going to WIN a $500 Visa gift card. You can use it to add to your child's college fund, put it toward a super cool birthday gift or Christmas, toward sports camp, toward something special you and your family want to do..... 

Blog Hop FUN! Get a TIP - Leave a TIP!

Click on the link at the bottom to go to the NEXT blog in the Hop!

About the Kumon Study Smart Sweepstakes:

Have you perfected a brain-boosting snack food or created the coziest homework hot spot? Enter the Kumon Study Smart Sweepstakes and share your family's secret to studying success! You'll be entered for a chance to win one of four $500 Visa® gift cards to deck out your child's study space in the best gear.

To participate, visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/kumon from September 7 to October 12, click on the Contest tab and tell us, in 80 words or less, your best studying tip. Attach an optional photo to show your child hard at work studying or to show off your child’s special study space. 

A winner will be drawn every Friday during the contest and announced the following Monday. Enter early to be eligible for each weekly drawing. One entry per person, please. Winners can only win once during the sweepstakes.

WIN a $25 Gift Card to Barnes & Noble! 

I get to give away a $25 gift card to one of my readers! Is it going to be you? To enter, here is what you need to do:

Manditory: You must do this to enter (if you're already following just let me know or you can follow on FB or Twitter if you'd like):

1) Follow GivingNSharing on GFC (left column) - leave me a comment with your user name

Optional: you don't have to do these if you don't want to, but I'd love it if you did!

2) Like Kumon on their FB page and leave a comment that you came from GivingNSharing and include this link. Leave a comment below w/ the hyperlink.

3) Tweet as is:  "Enter to WIN a $25 Barnes & Noble gift card on GivingNSharing, ends 9/30, WW Pls RT @familyliteracy http://tiny.cc/ihh9k

BLOG HOP - The NEXT blog is:

This post is part of a blog hop and you can visit the blog on the list at: Victoria's Voice - click on through and see what her tip is - leave a tip too - and then go to FB and enter your TIP to enter the contest.

Giveaway - Kumon Books

My nephew Brett was one of those kids that liked to play by himself, he'd often disappear on us and we'd find him surrounded by books, he'd get out the Star Wars games and play with the figures and just have a great time.  He thrived on unorganized activities - forget the coloring books!  He refused to do them - let alone any type of preschool workbook to learn his alphabet or numbers.

My personal biggest fear when he went to Kindergarten was that he would have a hard time when it came time to do school work, any kind of organized type of activity (that wasn't sports or games).  But do you know, the only thing the teacher said when they tested him was that he needed to work on using scissors and writing within the lines. (Hey, they told him to write his name on the blackboard - he did.  He just was making BIG letters for the fun of it!)

Kumon Workbooks and Learning Aids

Brett loves to read - by the end of Kindergarten he was already reading by himself at the 1st grade level.  I was browsing through the Kumon Publishing website and came across some of their neat workbooks for kids in 1 - 6th grade.  I knew they had the preschool books for cutting, mazes, drawing, coloring, pasting and crafts (these are really neat) but I had no idea they had books or even a "method" for teaching to learn and love learning to read, write and do math.

I received 2 books from Kumon:  Grade 1 Reading and Rhyming Words and Phrases

There were several things I noticed right off the bat: the fact that the books are for the kids to do on their own.  They learn to "read" the directions, follow them and then self check their own work and learn from their mistakes.  The pictures while small are colorful and there is plenty of room for the kids to do their work.  The font is a nice easy to read size and kids won't have any problem following along.

This is an example from the Rhyming Words and Phrases book - I LOVE the puzzle on the left! It took me a minute or two to figure it out (LOL) and the phrases on the right pages teach the kids to "think" through what they are doing.  For instance - line one: HEN and MEN.  They are similar - the H and M change.

This is a FUN and easy way to help your child learn to recognize and write rhyming words and phrases, such as pup in cup and pup on cup.

The New Reading Workbooks are for grades 1-6 and Grade One covers the following topics:
- Rhyming Words                    - Short Vowels 
- Consonant Combinations     - Long Vowels
- Vocabulary Building              - Adjectives
- Direction                               - Reading Stories

Kumon has generously offered to giveaway any one of the Kumon workbooks to Family Literacy and You readers! I personally choose books for another nephew who has been having difficulties with learning to read.  He has ADHD and is legally blind (he wears glasses) - but he LOVES learning and workbooks.  He is such a smart little cookie and I know he will love this method of learning. I hope your child will love their new book as much Jake will love his.

To enter the giveaway:

Manditory Entry:
Follow my blog on Google Friend Connect and then go to: Kumon Publishing and share something NEW that you've learned about the Kumon Method of Teaching.  I'm looking forward to learning with you!

Extra Entries:
+1 Share a Kumon Title you would LOVE to receive if you win.  Who would you give it to?
+1 Follow Kumon Publishing on Twitter.
+1 Follow Kumon Publishing on Facebook.
+1 Follow Family Literacy on Networked Blogs.
+1 Follow Family Literacy on Twitter.
+2 Tweet this and add the twitter address in the comments.  (2 entries = 2 comments)
     "Enter to WIN a FREE Kumon Workbook at Family Literacy and You: http://ning.it/caJCXP"
+1 Follow Family Literacy on Facebook.
+1 Follow my Giving N Sharing Blog on GFC.
+1 Follow Giving N Sharing on Networked Blogs.
+1 Enter the giveaway for $50 in FREE Books from Usborne Books (ends 8/30, restarts 9/1) from the       Giving N Sharing Blog
+3 Add my button to your sidebar on the homepage of your blog.  The Button is located on the top left hand      side of my Family Literacy and You blog.