Nice smile, Mr. Jack-o'-lantern!

We always try to stress the playfulness of Halloween. It’s a time for dressing up, playing games, singing songs, carving pumpkins, trick-or-treating, etc. However, even if you don’t have a haunted house or spooky music at your Halloween party, it can still be a scary time for many young children. People are wearing masks, some people are dressed as monsters or witches, there are a lot of strangers around, some children are running around saying “Boo!”… it’s a confusing time!

Here are a few tips for helping kids handle those fears.

1) Pass on the haunted house – Many adults get more excited about the holiday than the kids .  We remember how fun the super spooky haunted houses were when we were children, but we forget that we were probably 10 or older at that time. If you are having a party with young kids (for example, 7 and under), avoid the scary stuff. Even with older kids, there is so much to have fun with at Halloween, haunted houses or zombie costumes aren’t really necessary. Brighten up the room, have the adults wear fun and friendly costumes, play some upbeat Halloween songs and games, and smile!

2) Be sensitive about masks – Avoid wearing masks or be prepared to greet the most nervous kids with your mask off at first, and let them watch you put your mask on. Take the mask on and off in front of kids who appear to be scared, so that they become familiar with the concept that it is someone they know behind the mask. Sometimes as adults, we forget how crazy some things must seem to kids. All of the sudden, on this one day of the year, a bunch of people are wearing masks! “Who are these people? Is that a real face? What’s going on?” Be aware that masks, even friendly masks, can be super creepy to kids, even some older kids.

3) Make “scary” things fun or silly – Every Halloween party has some witches, monsters, and vampires around. How we introduce these characters to young children will have a big effect on how they feel about them. For example, when we sing a song that introduces monsters or ghosts, we make sure the gesture or dance we do along with that vocabulary is fun and happy. Smile! Make these characters silly, not scary. Think of Monsters Inc. and how friendly those monsters are. We don’t want our kids going home and having nightmares about the scary creatures they saw at our Halloween party. Making these characters fun and silly helps take away the fear.

4) Empower kids with language – We’ve all seen that look in a kid’s eye when he or she is frozen with fear or apprehension and doesn’t know how to react. Give kids some language they can use to empower themselves when they feel scared. This is a good chance to teach kids that it’s okay to strongly say “No!” or “Go Away!” when they feel threatened. It doesn’t have to be a serious discussion. You can have fun with it. Try introducing the idea with the song Go Away!.

5) Give parents ideas for non-threatening costumes – Make sure parents know that Halloween costumes need not be scary. As Halloween parties become more common around the world, many people new to the holiday may have the impression that it’s all about being scary. If you are celebrating with parents and kids who are not very familiar with the holiday, give them some tips and let them know that this is a chance to play make-believe and dress up as anything they like. You can even ask all the kids to dress up as what they want to be when they are older.

Remember that while Halloween might be familiar to you, it’s new and completely strange to many young children. Before putting the finishing touches on your party preparation, take a minute to think about the party from the perspective of a 4 or 5 year old, and plan accordingly.

Have a HAPPY Halloween party!

54 votes – Five Little Monkeys – Super Simple Songs One
35 votes – The Pinocchio – Super Simple Songs Three
33 votes – Walking Walking – Super Simple Songs One
24 votes – The Skeleton Dance – Super Simple Halloween Songs
24 votes – The Hokey Pokey Shake – Super Simple Songs Two
24 votes – Uh-huh – Super Simple Songs Two
15 votes – Who Took The Cookie? – Super Simple Songs Two
14 votes – Go Away – Super Simple Songs One (Part 2 on Super Simple Halloween Songs)
12 votes – Eensey Weensey Spider – Super Simple Songs Two
12 votes – One Little Finger – Super Simple Songs One
11 votes – Open Shut Them – Super Simple Songs Three
10 votes – Twinkle Twinkle – Only on YouTube: http://youtu.be/yCjJyiqpAuU
9 votes – Hello! – Super Simple Songs Two
7 votes – The Alphabet Song – Super Simple Songs One
7 votes – Rain Rain Go Away – Super Simple Songs Three
6 votes – Clean Up – Super Simple Songs One
5 votes - Knock Knock Trick or Treat? – Super Simple Halloween Songs
5 votes – Make a Circle – Super Simple Songs One
5 votes – Five Little Pumpkins – Super Simple Songs Three
5 votes – Do You Like Broccoli Ice Cream? – Super Simple Songs Three
5 votes – Skidamarink – Super Simple Songs Three
4 votes – Say Cheese! (Let’s Take a Picture) - Super Simple Songs Three
4 votes – Ten in the Bed – Super Simple Songs One
3 votes – Phonics Review Songs – Super Simple ABCs Phonics Fun CD
3 votes – The Bath Song – Super Simple Songs One
3 votes – I See Something Blue – Super Simple Songs One
2 votes – Hello Hello - Super Simple Songs Three
2 votes – Little Snowflake – Super Simple Christmas Songs
2 votes – Count and Move - Super Simple Songs 2
2 votes – Are You Hungry? – Super Simple Songs One
2 votes – Rock Scissors Paper – Super Simple Songs Two
2 votes – Head Shoulders Knees and Toes – Super Simple Songs One
2 votes – Mystery Box – Super Simple Songs Two
2 votes – If You’re Happy – Super Simple Songs One
1 vote – The Alphabet Chant – Super Simple Songs Three
1 vote – What Do You Want For Christmas?- Super Simple Songs One (Part 2 on Super Simple Christmas Songs)
1 vote – Santa, Where Are You? – Super Simple Christmas Songs
1 vote – We All Fall Down – Super Simple Songs Three
1 vote – Put On Your Shoes – Super Simple Songs One
1 vote – The R Song – Super Simple ABCs Phonics Fun CD
1 vote – Hide and Seek – Super Simple Songs Two
1 vote – Knock Knock Hello – Super Simple Songs One
1 vote – The Months Chant – Super Simple Songs Three
1 vote – Hello Reindeer – Super Simple Christmas Songs
1 vote – BINGO – Super Simple Songs Three
1 vote – Sweet Dreams (Goodnight Song) – Super Simple Songs One
1 vote – Intro and Outro – Super Simple Songs Three

So what’s your favorite Super Simple Song?

Please check out the review of Super Simple Songs in the latest issue of The Old Schoolhouse – The Magazine for Homeschool Families.

My granddaughter loves these songs, and she learns the concepts presented very quickly because she loves to hear the songs over and over. I can enthusiastically recommend these CDs (buy all 3!) to anyone with a preschooler. They would also be helpful to children who are learning English as a second language.

We’ve always tried to make materials that are easy-to-teach, easy-to-learn for young learners regardless of the learning environment, so we’re always very happy to hear from homeschool families who have been able to make good use of the songs and other resources we’ve been working on.

If you are familiar with our materials, and you have visited our shop recently, you may have noticed that Super Simple Phonics is not there!  Where’d it go?

We’re excited to announce we’re releasing a new and improved version called Super Simple ABCs. If you’ve been using Super Simple Phonics, let me explain some of the key differences.

In 2008, we released Super Simple Phonics, an upper case ABC practice book and audio CD.  Super Simple Phonics was based on lessons and materials we had created for and used successfully with our young students.  We were very happy to get a great response from teachers all over. We wanted to make it even better though, and to make some adjustments in response to some of the feedback we received.

So here are the exciting new developments you’ll find in Super Simple ABCs:

Upper and Lower Case books

While Super Simple Phonics focused only on capital letters, Super Simple ABCs has an upper case book and a lower case book (with a Starter level on the way soon).  We recommend the upper case book for students from 3-5, and the lower case book for students for 4-7. But most importantly, we wanted to give teachers the choice about whether to start with upper or lower case letters.

Super Simple ABCS Upper Case has the same structure and vocabulary as the original Super Simple Phonics, but now features beautiful colors, stickers, and new images.

Super Simple ABCS Lower Case is a brand new book which follows a similar super simple structure, but is designed for a slightly higher level with more writing practice and more vocabulary (2 review items from the Upper Case book plus 2 new items).

Updated Colorful Design
The Super Simple ABCs books are full of bright beautiful color, while still leaving plenty of opportunities for students to draw, trace, and color black-and-white images and letters.

Fun Illustrations

We wanted to keep the simplicity of the images in Super Simple Phonics while adding a little more warmth and liveliness (as well as color!)  We’re really excited about how our students have responded to the bright new images in Super Simple ABCs and think you’ll really love them.

Stickers

In Super Simple Phonics, there was a space to place a sticker or stamp upon completing each page.  Our students LOVE getting that sign of completion.  So for Super Simple ABCs, we decided to take it a step further and put two spaces for stickers, and include 52 full color stickers (2 for each letter) right in the back of the book.  The students eyes light up when they see the stickers and it adds an extra bit of vocabulary reinforcement.

Separate CD

With Super Simple Phonics, the book and the CD came together.  However, many teachers and parents wanted to buy the CD, but not the book (because they already had an ABC book).  Others wanted to buy the books for their students, but didn’t need a CD for each student.  Again, we realized we needed to give teachers more choice.  Now the CD and books are packaged separately, allowing you to buy one or the other, or both!  This leads to…

Lower price!
Even though we’ve upgraded the books making them full-color and adding stickers, offering the CD separately allows us to drop the price of the books by 25%, making it more affordable for classrooms.  And for those who only need the CD, it’s now cheaper as well!

More Songs
We received a lot of feedback from teachers who loved the songs on the Super Simple Phonics CD, but didn’t need the spoken mini-lessons that were included.  We listened, and thought about our own classes, and came to the realization that the CD would be even more useful if we focused on the songs. So, we’ve kept the songs from Super Simple Phonics, moved the songs from the Phonics Support Pack to the audio CD, and added several new songs.  The Super Simple ABCs – Phonics Fun CD can be used to support both Super Simple Songs ABCs Upper Case and Super Simple Songs ABCs Lower Case, or any ABC/phonics program you are using.  It’s full of what we do best…super simple songs.

Posters

When learning your ABCs, it definitely helps to encounter the letters as much as possible.  We wanted to make it easier to do so while giving teachers another tool to introduce and review vocabulary.  There are two big, bright posters available for each book (two upper case posters and two lower case posters).

Super Simple ABCs Support Pack CD-ROM

The main update with the support pack is MORE.  More flashcards, more worksheets, more games, more, more, more.  The new Support Pack is designed to support both the upper and lower case Super Simple ABC books.  It’s the same price as before with double the materials and brand new images and worksheets.  The songs that were previously on the Support Pack CD-Rom have been moved to the Super Simple ABCs – Phonics Fun CD so that all of the songs would be in one easy-to-access place.

We’ve spent the last year testing out the updates with our students and making small tweaks and adjustments to get everything just right.  We’re really excited about Super Simple ABCs, and hope you are too!

More details are coming soon on our website.  Please check back for more details.

Keep It Super Simple!

Troy and Devon will be in Korea for some workshops from Aug 28 – August 31. If you are in Korea, we hope you can make it! You can get the details here: http://www.milkenglish.com/news/ or at our Facebook page: http://bit.ly/10I0iJ.

We’ll be talking about how to increase student confidence, enjoyment, and performance in the EFL classroom through the use of songs, games, and creative drama.  Our co-presenter will be Ms. Sujeong Kim of Soongsil University and MILK English.  It will be super active and super fun.

Hope to see you there!

As teachers, one of the problems we’ve had with phonics programs that are not designed specifically for children learning English as a foreign language, is that sometimes the associated vocabulary is beyond their comprehension.  Think, igloo!  Or, yarn!  So, one of the goals of Super Simple Phonics was to come up with vocabulary for each letter that children are already familiar with–vocabulary, that they could easily gesture and most importantly, have fun with!

Kids don’t need to know they’re in the beginning stages of learning how to read.  As long as they’re having fun, everyone is on their way.

Here are some outakes from Devon’s classes this week.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bfp0DQpn_4I