Teaching Rhyming

"Does table and chair rhyme mommy?" My four-year-old has this thing lately with trying to rhyme. I have decided I am horrible at teaching this concept. I think he got this fetish when the "Horton Hears a Who?" movie promotions started showing up. We now have six to 10 Dr. Seuss books.

Today he asked me if blanket and Cranky rhymes. Well, at least that's a little closer. I am not sure if he's catching on or just gets lucky once in a while like when he said, "box and fox-that rhymes, right?" (That's probably from a Dr. Seuss book)

I found this teacher's forum that looks at how to teach rhyming to preschool/kindergarten age kids. The teacher mentions that her "bright" kids are having a hard time understanding the concept.

Here are some tips they mention:

1. Read stories that rhyme.
2. Give a word such as "cat" and start naming words that rhyme with it.
3. Use Note cards: "Sometimes I write an ending on a card (for Sheep in a Jeep I would write -eep). Then I make other cards with sh, j, b, and st. Then we make the words from the book with the index cards. (sheep, jeep, beep, steep). This has helped some of the kids that weren't getting the idea."
4. Sing the name game. "News, news bo bews, banana fanna fo fews Me my mo mews, News!"
5. Use picture cards of things that rhyme like cat, bat and rat.

Some of these things I am already doing. I think I will try the index cards and pictures with the words written at the bottom. I did read a study on how rhyming is closely connected with learning to read. Therefore, it makes sense to me that teaching him his letters will help him rhyme!

-NewsAnchorMom Jen

Horton Hears a Who!

Did any of you take your kids to see Horton Hears a Who? My husband took our four-year-old Sunday and they loved it. We bought the Dr. Seuss book a few weeks ago and have been reading it just about everyday. My son absolutely loves going to the movies. He has been looking forward to his day out with daddy for weeks.

CNN said we're not the only family who went to see the movie this weekend. The title of their story is "Horton hears cha-ching at the box office." It made $45.1 million dollars, the best opening so far this year.

My husband said, " It was funny. There were three comic legends: Carol Burnett, Jim Carrey, and Steve Carell. Carol Burnett was the bad person, the kangaroo. (Our son) said the kangaroo was mean, of course. It wasn't over the top. I thought it was pretty true to the story. For reading the story 100 million times, I was still amused by the movie. "

He said a one and half year old was leaving the theater very slowly and everyone was waiting for him. A little kid said, "It's alright. A persons a person, no matter how small." (How cute is that?)

The New York Times readers have given it three out of five "dots" so far. My favorite kid friendly movie site kids-in-mind has not reviewed it yet.

My husband said, "I would give it three and half out of four stars. It wasn't as good as say, Hoosiers." (Hah!)

Did any of you see it? What did you think?

-NewsAnchorMom Jen