The Bright Ideas Company is Now on CurrClick

The Bright Ideas Company is a project my husband and I started in 2007 as a way to share the teaching aids I created for our daughter.  Our sons are nearly seven years older and were already in school when Sadie was born.  Not surprisingly, by the time she was a toddler she wanted to have school also.  Never wanting to discourage learning, I indulged her, thinking she would loose interest quickly.  Boy was I wrong!  She loved it!  She quickly learned her letters & letter sounds, and was reading simple words by age three.  By four, she was counting to 100; even skip counting by 2's and 5's to 100 before kindergarten.  

Like most people, we have always lived on a budget, and effective teaching aids and easy reader books are not always cost effective.  Neither are they easy to find.  Frustrated, I decided to simply make the materials I needed to teach my daughter at home.  I wrote books, and created printables & games for her.  Many friends and family members had children about the same age, so I decided to give the materials a more professional look and share them with others.  I've always stated on my blog that the good life should be free...and it should.  Unfortunately, the real world is not free at all.  And so, we have listed our products on CurrClick at an affordable price.  However, I will continue to offer freebies and special offers for my blog readers.

Visit CurrClick to check out our product line.  I am currently in the process of reformatting all the materials I've made so that they can be available online, so more materials will be added as I get them ready.  Books are available as downloads to be viewed on your device or printed by you.  CurrClick does offer books as printed materials shipped to you, and I am working on getting that set up as well.  I will update this page when that option is available.  Here is a quick preview of some of our products.  

Available Now

     

Doodle Letters: Printable pages for the beginning writer.  Available in ball & stick print, casual print, and D'Nealian print. 

Sing & Sign: Letter Sounds and Letter Signs: A simple song sung to a familiar tune combined with American Sign Language make learning letters and letter sounds more fun and interactive.  

Mid-week Morsel: Reading Resources for All Year Long

Although Reading Month is coming to an end, that doesn't mean it's time to stop reading.  Quite the opposite, actually.  This week's Mid-week Morsel features three websites to keep your youngsters excited about reading all year long.  Starfall has online games and activities for children learning their abc's all the way up to reading short stories.  Reading Rockets is more of a website for you, to give you information about ways to help your child become a better reader.  They have book lists, FAQ about reading, articles, and many other reading resources.  If you would like to do more research on your own, the Florida Reading Association has a long list of reading websites for you to check out.  As usual, the sites I've recommended above are free resources.  However, there are several good subscription based websites and paid programs out there for helping your child read, ReadingA-Z, All About Reading, Reading Eggs, and Click-N-Read to name a few.

Letters and Letter Sounds Free eBook

As I've mentioned already, March is reading month.  The first step in reading is learning to recognize each letter and the sounds it makes.  When my daughter was learning to read, I had trouble finding materials that were both useful and affordable.  I didn't want to spend a lot of money on materials.  After all, as soon as my daughter mastered one concept, she lost interest in the material teaching it as she was already working hard on learning the next concept.  I sat down at my computer and, using Microsoft Word & Microsoft Picture It, I began writing my own books and creating my own manipulatives for her.  Here is the first book on the way to reading, Letter Sounds and Letter Signs.  I made up a song (sung to the tune of Where is Thumbkin?) using the primary sound each letter makes (which means all vowels are short), and included the American Sign Language sign for each letter to make the book more fun and interactive. Each page also includes a picture of both the upper and lower case letter, and a picture of something that begins with that letter sound.  Please note that when your child sings the song, the red and blue letters represent letter sounds, not letter names.  Finally, I have to say a special thanks to my dad for helping me get this converted from Word to PDF.  Thanks, Daddio!  You're the best!  I hope you all enjoy it.  Let me know what you think.

Karissa