This is what we do when we’re finally let out into the paddock after shearing – have a good roll! You might need to concentrate a little harder for the first two paragraphs, but bear with me, it’ll become clear in the third. This applies to adults, too, not just children. Jj is for Jottings: […]

Jj is for Jottings 71.  4 Signs of Weak Spellers. This is just a quick post a week after the last one, so I can get back into sync with my working days. The 4 tell-tale symptoms of weak spellers are: Struggling to decode words when reading i.e. to sound out the word if they […]

Links to buy the book are below.  It may not be a complete list, but the major online sources are here.  Some booksellers stock it, and you could always order it if they don’t have it in stock.  All three major Albury bookshops stock it.  There are two online listings for each book, one for […]

Jj is for Jottings 78.  Sound Blending – “Look, Mummy, I Can Do It By Myself”. Another Sound Blending Game. Following on from the previous article on sound blending (see here), here’s another simple way to help your child blend sounds spoken by other people: Step 1. Collect a few small objects, toys or pictures […]

Jj is for Jottings 72.  Single Words Versus Connected Speech. Following on from the discussion about the end of a word not always really being the end (here), we find that, as a result of running our words together to get a smooth flow which is easier for the listener to follow, we can end […]

Jj is for Jottings 94.  Phonological Awareness, Phonemic Awareness and Phonics. Learning phonics with this book helps with phonemic awareness and phonological awareness skills, too. You may have heard the terms “phonological awareness”, “phonemic awareness” and “phonics” and wondered what they mean and whether they are different terms for the same thing.  Let’s sort this […]

Jj is for Jottings 28. A Neuroscientist’s Comments on Children’s Development. Baroness Greenfield, a neuroscientist at Oxford University, maintains that technology is re-wiring brains, particularly for young people growing up knowing nothing else. She asserts that a young person who hasn’t yet developed a clear and strong sense of identity and social skills will respond […]

Jj is for Jottings 92.  Managing Children’s Screen Time. The easiest way to manage children’s screen time is to avoid screens altogether as much as possible, by providing alternative activities. Rory, the foal, is looking over Amy’s shoulder, trying to read “Aa is for Alpacas” with Amy, Zack and Zara. This article on managing children’s […]

educatingalpacas.com supports the book “Aa is for Alpacas”.  See Why This Book? Welcome to my blog – Educating Alpacas.  Does this mean that we are educating the alpacas – teaching them to count and so on – or are the alpacas helping to educate people?  Although we do a little bit of educating the alpacas […]

Jj is for Jottings 75.  Voice Quality and Speech Intelligibility. I was reminded the other day about the effects that voice quality can have on the clarity of a person’s speech.  In addition to reduced speech intelligibility caused by speech sound problems (see here), poor voice quality can also interfere with the listener’s ability to […]

6 days after we said goodbye to April, Shikha had to have surgery on his paw to remove a foreign body (which didn’t turn out to be there after all!) He kept walking around shaking his leg, trying to get rid of the yellow bandage with smiley faces on it. It lasted all of 24 […]

Jj is for Jottings 79.  Literacy, Language and Prison. Here are studies from three countries on the relationship between literacy, language and prison or young offender sentences: 1. USA. Approximately 80% of prison inmates are functionally illiterate, and 47.8% of the inmates were deficient in word attack skills, according to reports.  (Texas, 2000) In a […]

Jj is for Jottings 75.  Voice Quality and Speech Intelligibility. I was reminded the other day about the effects that voice quality can have on the clarity of a person’s speech.  In addition to reduced speech intelligibility caused by speech sound problems (see here), poor voice quality can also interfere with the listener’s ability to […]

Jj is for Jottings 59.  More Minimal Pairs: Voiced vs. Voiceless. I was reminded a couple of days ago that there is more to say on the subject of minimal pairs ( see Jj is for Jottings 47.  Minimal Pairs: Voiced vs. Voiceless.  You may wish to read/re-read this before continuing), when an intelligent, well-educated […]