LCS - Literacy Consulting Specialties

🛒 Skills We Learned as Kids: Making a Grocery List

Remember making a grocery list before apps and delivery?

Sitting at the table.
Checking the fridge.
Thinking through the week.
Trying not to forget anything.

Before everything was digital, we:

✔ Planned meals
✔ Made written lists
✔ Estimated quantities
✔ Remembered what we forgot
✔ Compared prices

We didn’t call it executive function.

But that was organization and working memory training in real life.

Those same underlying skills still power everything in learning — from writing essays to solving math problems to managing homework.

Some of these skills aren’t practiced as naturally today.

Maybe this week, let your child help plan the list.
Have them write it.
Let them check items off.

Real life is still one of the best brain builders. And not everything has to be digital.

☀️ Wednesday Summer Learning Idea ☀️
“Restaurant Night — Kids Run the Café!” 🍕🍓

Turn dinner into a full-family learning adventure!

Kids create:
📋 Menus
💵 Prices
🧾 Orders
🍽️ Table signs
⭐ Reviews

Younger kids can:

Draw menu pictures
Count items
Practice beginning sounds
“Take orders” with pictures or symbols

Older kids can:

Calculate totals and change
Write menus and specials
Practice persuasive writing
Double recipes or measure ingredients

Bonus ideas:
🎵 Add background music
👨‍🍳 Dress up like restaurant staff
🏆 Vote for “Best Customer Service”

Why parents love it:
✔️ Reading + writing practice
✔️ Real-world math
✔️ Creativity + communication
✔️ Easy for multiple ages to join

And somehow… kids are MUCH more motivated to read when they’re serving dessert. 🍰

📚 Tuesday: Reading Building Blocks 📚

This week’s focus:
⭐ What is Phonemic Awareness? ⭐

Phonemic awareness is the ability to HEAR and PLAY with sounds in words.

It’s an important early reading skill that happens…
👂 WITHOUT looking at letters.

Examples:
🗣️ What sound does “cat” start with?
🗣️ What word rhymes with “cake”?
🗣️ Say “smile” without the /s/.
🗣️ Clap the sounds in “dog.”

Phonemic awareness helps kids learn:
✔️ how sounds work in words
✔️ how words can be broken apart
✔️ how sounds connect to reading and spelling

And here’s something important:

Kids can know their ABCs and STILL struggle with phonemic awareness.

Signs a child may need support:
❌ trouble rhyming
❌ difficulty hearing beginning sounds
❌ guessing words while reading
❌ struggling to sound out words

The GOOD news?
Phonemic awareness can be strengthened through playful activities.

Easy ways to practice:
🎵 rhyming games
👏 clapping syllables
🚗 sound games in the car
🎶 silly songs
🧩 word play during everyday conversations

Learning to read starts with hearing the sounds inside words. ❤️

🧠 Monday: Executive Function Focus 🧠

This week’s focus:
⭐ Task Initiation ⭐

Task initiation is the ability to START a task.

And for many kids (and adults), starting is often the HARDEST part.

This can look like:
❌ staring at homework for 20 minutes
❌ wandering instead of beginning chores
❌ saying “I don’t know what to do”
❌ shutting down before starting
❌ needing repeated reminders

It’s important to understand:

This is often NOT laziness.

Kids with weak executive functioning may struggle with:
🧠 breaking tasks down
🧠 deciding where to begin
🧠 managing overwhelm
🧠 transitioning into action

Helpful supports:
✔️ “Let’s do the first step together.”
✔️ Use visual checklists
✔️ Break tasks into tiny pieces
✔️ Set short timers
✔️ Reduce distractions
✔️ Give ONE direction at a time
✔️ Celebrate starting — not just finishing

Sometimes the brain gets stuck at:
😵 “This feels too big.”

What helps is turning it into:
😊 “I can start with THIS.”

And often?
Once kids START… they can keep going.

Starting is a skill.
And skills can be strengthened. ❤️

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This is SUCH a common trait among ADHD girls.

Hyperfocus is not the problem.

When a girl with ADHD becomes deeply absorbed in something meaningful, we may be seeing one of her strengths in action: intensity, curiosity, persistence, creativity, and attention that locks in when something matters to her.

The goal is not to pull her away from what captures her mind.

The goal is to help her understand it, shape it, and aim it toward places where it can help her grow.

When we recognize hyperfocus as a spotlight, we can stop seeing it as stubbornness or “getting stuck” and start asking:

What is she drawn to?
What lights her up?
How can we help her use that focus well?

Girls with ADHD need support, structure, and understanding—not shame for the way their attention works.

Learn more at www.FINDtheADHDgirls.org/checklist

🎯 Friday: Try This Instead 🎯

Instead of:
❌ “Clean your room.”

Try:
✔️ “Pick up everything RED first.”
✔️ “Can you find 5 things that belong on shelves?”
✔️ “Let’s make the floor disappear.”
✔️ “Trash first. Clothes second.”
✔️ “Set a 3-minute timer and race the clock.”
✔️ “Can you clear just ONE corner?”
✔️ “Put all the books in one pile.”
✔️ “Bring me anything that belongs in the kitchen.”

Why this works:

For many kids, especially those with ADHD or weak executive functioning skills, “Clean your room” is WAY too big and overwhelming.

Their brain may struggle with:
🧠 where to start
🧠 organizing steps
🧠 prioritizing
🧠 staying focused
🧠 breaking big tasks into smaller parts

Specific directions reduce mental overload.

Instead of:
😵 “This is impossible.”

Their brain hears:
😊 “Oh! I can do THAT.”

Small, clear steps help kids build:
✔️ task initiation
✔️ organization
✔️ working memory
✔️ confidence
✔️ independence

Sometimes kids don’t need MORE pressure.

They need smaller starting points. ❤️

✍️ Thursday: Skills We Learned as Kids ✍️

Remember learning how to write a letter?

Not a text.
Not an email.
A REAL letter.

📬 Writing the date
📬 Starting with “Dear…”
📬 Organizing your thoughts
📬 Addressing an envelope
📬 Adding a stamp
📬 Walking it to the mailbox

It may seem old-fashioned now… but letter writing builds SO many important skills:

✔️ handwriting
✔️ spelling
✔️ sentence structure
✔️ organization
✔️ sequencing
✔️ communication
✔️ attention to detail
✔️ executive functioning

And honestly?
Kids LOVE getting mail with their name on it.

Fun family ideas:
💌 Write letters to grandparents
💌 Become pen pals with cousins
💌 Send thank-you notes
💌 Mail encouragement cards to nursing homes
💌 Write a vacation postcard to yourself

For younger kids:
🖍️ Draw pictures
📝 Dictate sentences
✉️ Practice writing names and addresses

For older kids:
📖 Focus on storytelling and details
📬 Learn how the postal system works
🧠 Practice planning and organizing thoughts

Sometimes “old-school” skills are still some of the BEST learning opportunities.

And receiving a handwritten letter?
That still feels special at any age. ❤️