Tips on how to improve reading with D.I.Y cards

Find out how you can help improve your child’s reading skills with D.I.Y cards

With the proliferation of technology and handheld devices, the humble flashcard is losing its lustre as the preferred tool to teach our kids to read. Yet it would be foolish to discount flashcards, improving reading with D.I.Y cards is a great way to help our children even today.

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What are flashcards?
Flashcards are essentially a group of cards that hold a small piece of information both in terms of texts and drawings that are used to aid in learning. It is due to this very simplicity that makes them easy do-it-yourself (D.I.Y) projects. Instead of spending hundreds of dollars buying flashcards at the store, parents can specialise their flashcards to suit the learning needs of their children.

Here’s an excellent example of how a parent made her very own flashcards to help her child improve in reading with D.I.Y cards:

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Reading with D.I.Y cards
Flashcards are a great way to introduce new vocabulary to your young learner, remember to make constant reference to the picture and the word as well as how the word sounds so that the connection between the three is reinforced in your child’s mind. However, mere flipping through of flashcards makes for a very boring lesson that kids with short attention spans will tune out in a matter of minutes. Here are some creative ways to incorporate fun reading with D.I.Y cards throughout your daily interactions.

• Paste flashcards or your D.I.Y cards around the house and while you read to your child, use the words that appear in both the book and the flashcards. For example as you read the word ‘door’, tell your child to hop to the card with the word or picture of a ‘door’ on it and bring it back to you – this allows your child to make connections with the word and the story as well.
• Cut holes on a piece of paper and cover familiar flashcards with it so that only parts of the information on the card is visible. Next ask your child to guess what is under the paper. To aid in reading make sure you do this with word cards or even alphabet cards for much younger learners. This activity can help your child recognise the shape of letters and familiarise themselves with the looks of certain letters and words.
• Create a story with the flashcards. Get your child to pick some random cards from a pack (they can be a mix of word and picture cards) and spread them out on the floor. Next, get them to come up with their own bedtime story with the information on the cards. You can write down their story and read it as a bedtime story. This activity helps your child think creatively and independently as well as encourage them to make connections between words to create a coherent story.

Did these tips on reading with D.I.Y cards help you? Do you have any other tips? We’d love to hear from you!

Check out this video on how you can use your own home made flashcards to help your children to improve reading with D.I.Y cards.
https://youtu.be/_oEtu5dJfiQ