Do you know Spalding?

A few weeks ago, my son’s school had a “Parent Training Night”. The entire idea of it got me chuckling, but it ended up being a great resource for helping me and my fellow kindergarten parents how to supplement our child’s education at home. They covered a broad range of topics, but the one that I found most interesting was an overview of the Spalding method. Now I understand why my son looked at me awhile back, obviously very proud of himself, and said “Ahh, Ay, Aah” while moving his hand around!

If you aren’t familiar with the Spalding method, it’s a system for teaching language arts to children. It involves phonograms, or word sounds, often taught with flash cards, CDs, or other materials. Each sound has a related hand motion. For instance, the “p” sound is demonstrated by holding your hand up, balled into a fist, then quickly opening it in a “pow” kind of action.

After moving through the phonograms for each of the individual letters, children move on to blends, such as “th” and “sp”.

For more on the Spalding method, see the article at Wikipedia or visit the official site.