Sight words for two year olds

8 Easy Ways to Teach Sight Words to Preschoolers

Learning sight words is a critical skill for kids to learn how to read!

Teaching children how to learn sight words can be a challenge.

Why?

Because it all comes down to memorization. There is not a way to sound out these words. In case you are unfamiliar, sight words are words like that don’t follow the traditional rules of spelling or can’t be sounded out phonetically. Some examples of sight words are who, does, and come.

To give your preschooler a great jump start to reading, I have come up with 8 EASY ways that you can teach your preschooler sight words!

#1. Start With TWO Letter Sight Words

Does anyone have a toddler that says no to absolutely everything?

You’ll be hearing it all over again when you start teaching sight words because the word “no” is one of the easiest ones to recognize!

When you start out teaching a child sight words, it’s important to start small and build up to longer words. Starting with TWO letter words for them to memorize is going to be a lot easier than FOUR letter words.

Here are some two-letter sight words that you can start with: of, to, is, in, it, he, on, as, at, be, or, by, we, an, do, if, up, so, no, go

Once your little one has mastered the two-letter words, you can move onto three or more letter words!

While some of the words on this list can be sounded out and others can not, I think it’s easier to have your child just memorize the words so they can say it at a glance.

I use the above sight word checklist when I am deciding what new words to teach my daughter!

#2. Choose Sight Words In Your Child’s Favorite Books

I have a quiz for you.

How many sight words can you find in this sentence below from the book, Where the Wild Things Are?

“His mother called him “WILD THING!” and Max said “I’LL EAT YOU UP!” so he was sent to bed without eating anything. ”

• (his, him, wild, and, said, eat, you, up, so, he, was, to)

Sight words are referred to as high-frequency words because some of them are the most common words in the English language! 

When you are reading to a child, and they are starting to learn sight words, make sure to point out the words in their favorite books. They will be more interested in learning the sight words if it’s in a context they enjoy! We have a subscription to Highlights Magazine, and my daughter loves pointing out which words she recognizes.

Your kids will feel so proud when they can read a few words in their favorite stories. It will encourage them to want to learn more!

#3. Practice Daily

Just like teaching your kids the alphabet, numbers, and shapes, it takes repetition for them to understand the material!

At least a few minutes of work on sight words each day will help them immensely when it comes to memorizing sight words.

Here is what works best for my daughter:

I write the sight words that we have previously learned on a small dry erase board, which I limit to about 25 max.

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We take some time and review those words plus add one or two new words depending on how well she does during the review.

Check out this short video of how I review the sight words with my daughter!

To ensure that she remembers the sight words we learned, I make sure to include ones that we learned in the past.

Tip#4: Make Reading Fun!

If I just focused on the above activity over and over again, I think I would struggle badly getting my kids to learn how to read.

It’s essential to come up with EXCITING ways to teach your kids how to read!

Here are FOUR ways to make learning sight words engaging!

Shaving cream is such an amazing sensory activity! Your kids will be so excited to use shaving cream for a learning activity, it won’t even feel like they are learning!

I use men’s foaming shaving cream because I think it works the best! But other types can be used as well.

How to do this activity:

1. Spray foam shaving cream on an art tray.

2. Spread it out so the shaving cream is all over the tray!

3. Write a sight word that you are working on in the shaving cream and ask your child if they know what it is.

4. Repeat this process over and over again! Let your child erase the words so they get a chance to play in the shaving cream!

Activity #2. Do-A-Dot Painting Activity

Do-A-Dot painters are one of my MUST-HAVE supplies to have on hand at your house.

They are so much fun to play with and they are pretty much MESS FREE! Can’t beat that right?

Do-A-Dot markers can be used for so many fun and learning activities. This specific activity was great because it worked recognizing a specific sight word while getting to paint!

GRAB YOUR FREE Pre-K Sight Word Do-A-Dot WORKSHEETS HERE!

(Each grade level coming soon!)

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Want to check out my other MUST-HAVE Supplies? Take a look at my list HERE!

My new thing is trying to turn games into a learning activity!

My kids love to play board games, so why not add a little bit of learning into the mix while getting to play?

How to do this activity:

1. Materials you need- Don’t Break the Ice Game, dot stickers, and a marker.

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2. On white dot stickers, write some sight words that you are working on with your little one. I wrote one that my daughter already knew so she could play the game and be successful!

3. Explain to your kids that they have to tap lightly on the ice with the hammer instead of trying to hit it as hard as they can because a lot falls at once that way. Tell them they can play the regular way after you practice the sight words. 🙂

4. Ask them to find a specific word and tap on it with the hammer or they can tap on a word of their choice and tell you what it says!

5. After they say or find all the words, then you can play the normal way!

My daughter loves to color, so I created this Popsicle themed Color by Sight Word Worksheet for her to do.

Here are some excellent workbooks available on Amazon that have activities ready to go!

• 100 Write and Learn Sight Word Practice Pages

• Wipe Clean: Learning Sight Words

• The Best Sight Word Book Ever!

Don’t want to buy an entire workbook? I am constantly working on new FREE resources to make available for you.

Click here to grab your FREE Popsicle Color by Sight Word WORKSHEET!

Also, take a look at the other FREE RESOURCES that I have while you are there!

#5. Build Sentences with Sight Words

Building sentences using sight words is a GREAT way to show your child how the specific word is used in real life.

You can do this by verbally saying sentences or you can also do it in an interactive way.

We have a bunch of Thomas the Train, train tracks at home, so I thought it would be fun to work on sentence building with sight words with them!

How to do this activity:

1. Materials you need- Thomas the Train tracks, labels, and a marker.

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2. On labels, write some sight words that make sense in a sentence that you kids know or you want them to learn!

3. Spread them all apart so they have to work on building the sentence so it makes sense. They will have to read each word then create the sentence!

#6. Add A New Word Each Day

Once your child can recognize words, you can start introducing at least one new sight word each day. In the beginning, you want to start slow.

Since sight words are based on memorization, that’s why learning one word a day is perfect for this age level.

While you should introduce one new word a day, remember to review past sight words that you practiced with them before. It’s crucial to go over these sight words so they won’t forget them.

Remember they are still preschoolers, repetition is key! 

#7.

You never want to rush the learning process.

Forcing preschoolers to sit and complete work when they are not ready may cause the child to think negatively about learning.

Don’t get frustrated if they don’t catch on right away or if it takes them a few days to master a word. It will happen with time, and they will feel successful if you encourage them!

There are times that my daughter can just not grasp on to a word.

For example, she had trouble memorizing the word “find.” I asked her every day for TWO weeks about this word, and she still wasn’t getting it. I decided I was going to take a break and come back to it later. I introduced the word to her again after about a month, and now she has no problem with it!

As parents, we have to be patient with our children while they are learning.

We are supposed to be their biggest cheerleaders! Tell your child how proud you are when they learn a new word. They will feel your excitement and, in return, be more excited to keep on learning new material!

#8. Join An Online Learning Program

One great website that works on early reading skills is Kickstart Reading.

Kickstart Reading– This is such a fantastic reading program! I also have a promo code that you can use to get some money off of your subscription! You will receive a FOREVER plan for $39.00(normally $57.00). This is a program that focuses solely on reading, which I think is better than anything else out there. Your little ones will learn about phonetics, sight words, vowel sounds, digraphs and MORE!

PROMO CODE: ABCDEE

Here is a short demonstration of just one of the segments included on Kickstart Reading. This is my 5-year-old daughter working on word blends.

Deciding when to start your preschooler’s journey into reading is a fun but challenging adventure!

It’s important to start slow, begin with two letter sight words, and stay positive with them! Try to mix up the activities that you do with them to learn sight words to keep them engaged and excited to learn!

I would love to help you on your journey to teaching your preschooler sight words. Whether you need some creative ideas or you need more helpful suggestions, please leave a comment below.

If you have any great ideas that you would like to share as well on what helped you teach sight words to a preschooler, please share them with us!

Sight Words FAQs | Sight Words: Teach Your Child to Read

It is much better for a child to have solid knowledge of 50 words than to kind of know 300 words.

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Children's gymnastics for the eyes - the best sets of exercises for children

Increased visual load leads to a deterioration in the child's vision. Computer games and gadgets, schoolwork, reading, doing homework - all this requires hard work of the eyes, leading to fatigue. This is fraught with discomfort, headaches and the occurrence of various visual impairments.

Make an appointment for your child to see a doctor

Regular exercise for the eyes minimizes harm and provides effective prevention of visual acuity reduction caused by overexertion. At the same time, you need to understand that no gymnastics will help cure visual disorders, for example, myopia.

When choosing gymnastics for the eyes, a lot depends on the age of the child. Some complexes are very simple, they are suitable for kids. However, parents should work with young children, explain to them what and how to do, show by example and make sure that the child does the exercises correctly. Other complexes are somewhat more complicated, they are designed for older children who are able to independently figure out how to do exercises for the eyes.

An important clarification: before doing gymnastics, it is recommended that you consult an ophthalmologist with your child. The doctor will exclude possible contraindications and give additional recommendations.

Contents

1. Exercises for 2-4 year olds
2. Visual gymnastics for children 5-6 years old
3. Exercises for school children
4. Recap

Eye exercise for children aged 2-4

At this age, the child, as a rule, is not yet able to concentrate on one lesson for a long time. It means that:

• the duration of gymnastics should not be long - it is better to do the exercises about 3 times a day for 1-2 minutes;
• classes must be carried out in a playful way, and this should be done when the baby is in a good mood, he is comfortable, he is not naughty.

The first exercise, which is called "Blind Man's Bluff" , helps to strengthen the muscles of the eyes:

• ask the child to close his eyes;
• count to three;
• now tell the baby to open his eyes.

In this case, it is important that a small child learns to first strain his eyes, and then relax them. At first, you can invite him to watch you and at first close his eyes, sit with his eyes closed for a while, and then open them so that it is easier for the baby to understand what you want from him.

The second exercise is "Butterfly Wings" . It aims to improve blood circulation in the eyes.

Let the child imagine that his eyelashes are the wings of a butterfly. In order for a butterfly to fly, it must quickly flap its wings, that is, the child must blink intensively. Let one "flight" continue for 10 seconds, then let your eyes rest for 5-10 seconds and repeat the exercise one or two more times.

And the third exercise that is suitable for children of this age is "Rhymes" . It makes it possible to relieve tension from the eyes and strengthen the eye muscles.

You recite poems, while the child must perform eye movements that correspond to what you say. When performing this exercise, you also need to first show everything by your own example, so that the baby understands what he needs to do.

Take, for example, these verses:

Here is a big Christmas tree -

This is the height (the baby looks up, as if trying to see the top of the Christmas tree)

She has big branches -

This is the width of (the baby looks from left to right, as if estimating the width of an imaginary Christmas tree)

There are even bumps on the Christmas tree (the kid looks up, looking for imaginary bumps),

And below - the bear's lair (the baby looks down),

In winter, a clubfoot sleeps there (the child closes his eyes, imitating a sleeping bear, then blinks several times and closes his eyes again)

And sucks his paw in the den.

When performing this exercise, you need to ensure that the child moves his eyes, and not his head. If necessary, carefully correct it and explain again what needs to be done.

Eye exercises for children aged 5-6 years

Although the child is getting older, the playful form of exercise is still preferred. But now the baby understands better what you want from him, and can concentrate on the task assigned to him, so the duration of classes can be increased to 5-7 minutes.

Do exercises for the eyes in a playful way so that the child does not get bored and tries harder

The first exercise from the complex is called "Warm-up" . It is great for relieving stress from the eyes. As in the previous complex, it is worth using some verses here. The child will, in accordance with their rhythm and content, perform certain eye movements, for example:

Slept flower (child closes eyes, relaxes)

And suddenly woke up (the child opens his eyes, massages his eyelids, slightly pressing them clockwise and counterclockwise),

I didn’t want to sleep anymore (on this line you need to blink your eyes often),

Startled, stretched (raise your hands up and inhale, then look at your hands, spread them apart and exhale),

Soared up and flew (you need to shake the brushes, look left and right).

The second exercise is "Geometry Lesson" . For him, you need to prepare "training material" in advance. You will need:

• images of basic geometric figures - you can do with a circle, square and triangle;
• a pointer or an object that can be used instead.

The exercise itself is performed as follows:

• place pictures of geometric shapes on the wall, closet door, blackboard;
• use a pointer to show angles, trace contours;
• while the child needs to look at the tip of the pointer without moving his head.

Geometry Lesson stimulates blood circulation in the eyes, develops and strengthens the eye muscles.

Another exercise - "Drawing with the eyes" . It helps to strengthen the eye muscles, and at the same time promotes the development of creative abilities. Invite the child to draw something in the air, using not a pencil, not a brush and paints, but their own eyes. It can be a house or a person, a dog or a tree, it all depends on the imagination - his and yours.

The main thing is that the child moves his eyes in different directions. You can set an example for him by using eye movements to make a simple drawing, a geometric figure, or a letter.

It is advisable to perform all these exercises in a complex so that the exercises look more diverse and do not cause boredom in the child. Their sequence can be changed.

Eye exercises for school children

Children grow up, become more serious and responsible, so there should be no problems with concentration, and now it’s easier for you to explain what and how to do. On the other hand, they may not like the nursery rhyme classes at this age, so other exercises must be used.

It is the parents who should teach the child to exercise and care for vision.

The first is "House of Hands" . It will help improve blood circulation in the eyes and will be a good warm-up before the following exercises:

1. Invite the child to put their hands together with their fingers crossed to make a “house”.
2. This "house" must be placed over the bridge of the nose so that the crossed fingers touch the forehead, and the eyes are covered with palms. At the same time, as little light as possible should penetrate to the eyes.
3. Now you need to blink, move your eyes left and right and “draw” numbers, letters, simple geometric shapes with them.

You need to do this exercise for one to two minutes. The "house of palms" can be used as a break while reading, watching TV or working at the computer.

The next exercise, "Imaginary Picture" , is suitable for both school-age children and adults. It helps to improve accommodation, that is, the ability to clearly perceive objects that are at different distances from the eyes, and also contributes to the development of fantasy.

To perform the exercise, you need to prepare in advance. Draw a picture with your child that shows many details, for example, a seashore with rocks and a lighthouse on them, birds over the waves, a ship sailing in the distance.

1. Attach the painting to a wall, closet door, or chalkboard.
2. Let the child look at the picture, look at the details.
3. Ask him what he would like to add to the drawing, ask him, without touching the picture with his hands, to tell where what he proposed could appear. If he does not have his own ideas, offer something of your own and ask him to develop this idea.

After a while, you can try to do the same, but without a drawing. Let the seashore on the wall be completely imaginary.

The optimal time for this exercise is 5-7 minutes. But if you feel that the child is bored, you can stop earlier.

Exercise "Drawing with the nose" assumes that the student will draw imaginary drawings using not the look, as was the case in the previous complex, but the tip of his nose. You can do this standing, sitting, and even lying down, but it is better to take a sitting position. You can close your eyes while doing this.

In this case, it is important to relieve tension not only from the eyes, but also from the muscles of the neck. If you sit for a long time at a desk or in front of the TV, the blood flow in the neck deteriorates, and this leads to a deterioration in the blood supply to the eyes. The Nose Drawing exercise helps to prevent these unpleasant consequences.

Summing up

Gymnastics for the eyes with children should be done regularly, only in this case it will be truly effective. If the kid has been doing such gymnastics for several years, it will be easier for him to continue doing it after entering school. He will also more easily tolerate the increased load on the eyes due to the good preparation of the eye muscles.

The younger the child, the more important the role of parents in gymnastics. They need to be reminded of the need to do exercises, motivate, set an example. If the baby does not understand why such gymnastics is needed, you need to somehow interest him - in an easy game form. For example, if he likes superheroes, you can tell that you can't become a superhero without good eyesight.

Be sure to consult an ophthalmologist. High myopia, increased eye pressure, inflammatory eye diseases - all of the above are contraindications for exercise. Therefore, the specialist will tell you how long you should refrain from gymnastics, and will also help you choose eye exercises that will be especially effective for your child, taking into account his individual characteristics.

Make an appointment with a doctor

Visual acuity in children

The main one is heredity. If mom or dad has vision problems, for example, one of the parents suffers from myopia, then the likelihood that the baby will have the same problem is very high. Meanwhile, this is only a possibility, not a sentence. The task of parents is to pay maximum attention to this aspect, regularly take the baby for examinations and take preventive measures.

Causes of vision deviations are:

• congenital, that is, those that appeared during the mother's pregnancy;
• acquired, formed under the influence of some external factor.

The development of vision in babies can be affected by diseases of the visual apparatus or systemic ailments. Deviations in the work of the cardiovascular, endocrine system, kidneys, lungs, ENT organs, childhood infectious diseases can provoke visual impairment.

When the first examination is carried out

The visual system of a newly born baby is not yet formed, its formation takes place over several years. Normally, the vision of such a child is two times worse than that of an adult. As a rule, an eye examination in a baby is performed for the first time when he is 3 months old. During the appointment, the specialist:

• conducts an external examination of the visual system;
• sets whether the child can fix his gaze on a static object and track a moving one;
• performs skiascopy – determines the refraction of the eye;
• determines the condition of the fundus.

Minor periodic strabismus is considered the age norm. In this case, the baby should hold his eyes well, track objects. The mobility of the eyes should be complete and equal for both eyeballs in all directions.

Skiascopy is performed to determine children's visual acuity. The ophthalmologist directs a beam of light into the child's eye and observes the nature of the movement of the shadow in the pupil. The doctor alternately brings the lenses to the eye and determines at what point the shadow stops moving. After the calculations, establishes the diagnosis. To obtain more accurate results for 5 days before the examination, the baby is given atropine therapy, drops are dripped into the eyes.

The norm of visual acuity in children at 3 months is +3.0 - +3.5 diopters, that is, farsightedness is inherent in almost all healthy babies. This is due to the small size of the eyeball. With age, it increases and the child's vision normalizes.

Ophthalmoscopy is performed to examine the fundus, and also evaluate the transparency of the lens and other components of the optical system of the eye. The fundus of the eye in a child and an adult is significantly different. In young children, the retina is pale pink, the nerve disc has a grayish tint and slightly blurred contours.

Primary examination in the detection of pathologies

Optometrists rarely try to determine visual acuity in newborns, normally it is 0.1, but an ophthalmologist can examine the visual system directly in the maternity hospital.

This diagnosis is carried out for children who were born weighing up to 2 kg. According to the decision of the doctor, a complete examination is performed in a month. This applies to babies with disabilities:

• injuries received during passage through the birth canal;
• asphyxia;
• premature births;
• persistent lacrimation.

An important indicator during this period is the ability to fix one's gaze. A month-old baby is shown a bright object, he must hold his gaze on it for a few seconds.

Diagnosis at six months and a year

After three months, the baby's vision improves, he can already keep his eyes on the toy and pick it up. Parents should be aware of the following points:

• frequent redness of the eyeballs;
• secretions;
• persistent strabismus;
• rhythmic vibrations of the eyes.

If one of these symptoms appears, do not wait for a routine check, take the baby to an ophthalmologist as soon as possible.

Checking the visual acuity of a child at six months is performed in the same sequence as for a three-month-old. The degree of farsightedness may slightly decrease or remain at the same level. Research results must be compared with previous ones. Strabismus at this age should not be. The retina becomes pink in color, and the optic disc becomes pale pink, has precise contours.

In a year, a child with normal visual acuity distinguishes objects well, perceives the facial expressions of others, but it should be borne in mind that vision during this period is still different from an adult. At an appointment with an ophthalmologist, visiometry, skiascopy or autorefractometry is performed, which allows you to clarify the degree of refraction.

Farsightedness should decrease compared to the values ​​that were obtained in half a year, and range from +2.5 to +3.0 diopters. A visual acuity test in a child is then performed upon reaching the age of two, when registering for a preschool institution (mostly 3 years old), at 4 years old, and also before entering school. Normally, visual disturbances during this period should not be. During studies, examinations are performed annually.

Examination of babies after three years

At the appointment, the ophthalmologist performs a visual examination of the baby's eyes. When studying the eyeball, he evaluates its size, shape, and ability to move synchronously. A specialist can immediately determine some pathologies, for example, strabismus, infectious and inflammatory processes.

The Orlova table for checking vigilance is used for children who have reached the age of three. On this poster, instead of letters, there are pictures that decrease from top to bottom. The child is seated at a distance of 5 meters. Testing is performed mainly without the use of corrective lenses. If the baby is visually impaired, then the diagnosis is clarified using skiascopy or autorefractometry.

Also performed at this age:

• biomicroscopy – assessment of the transparency of the components of the optical system of the eye;
• ophthalmoscopy - examining the fundus of the eye;
• perimetry - diagnostics related to peripheral visual acuity.

Norms of vision in childhood

The age of the child is the main criterion by which the visual apparatus is determined in the norm or not. Sharpness is considered the norm in childhood:

• 2 years old - 0.4 - 0.7;
• 3 years old - 0.6 - 0.9;
• 4 years old - 0.7 - 1.0;
• 5 years - 0.8 - 1.0;
• 6 years and older - 0.9 - 1.0.

The most rapid increase in the eyeball occurs at the age of 3 years, then it slows down, so the older the child, the less the degree of farsightedness. Its reduction should always occur adequately to age. In cases where the supply of farsightedness decreases rapidly, the risk of myopia increases; if the eyes of a newborn have a large reserve and do not waste it over time, pathological farsightedness may occur.

Children with impaired visual acuity should be examined at least once every 6 months, dispensary observation allows timely detection of complications and adequate therapy.

Possible disorders

The most common vision problems in babies are: nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. The optical system of the eye consists of several lenses. Light passing through them is refracted and focused on the retina. If the point of connection of the rays is located in front of it, then the baby has myopia, if behind it, then hyperopia. In each of these cases, the severity of age-related changes in children should be monitored and corrected in a timely manner.

These pathologies can cause amblyopia or lazy eye.

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