 |
- Read, Read, Read aloud! Choose from a variety of books, including picture books and simple books for beginning readers.
- Make sure reading times are cozy and relaxed. The calm and intimacy between you and your child will help to connect books with pleasurable feelings.
- Build a library of picture books at home for your child to handle and pour over. Opportunities to turn pages and examine pictures lead to curiosity about text and print.
- Share rhyming books with your child. Invite him or her to fill in the "missing" rhyming word as you read.
- Look for predictable books that have recurrent lines or phrases."Chime" in together when you come to the familiar part.
- Listen to your child "re-tell" a storybook in his or her own words as the pages are turned. These approximations are a step forward in the reading process.
- Invest in a book with an accompanying audio cassette… and don't worry if your page-turner loses his or her place! Putting story and pictures together will inspire an interest in the written words.
- Take your child to the local library and allow time for browsing in the children's section. Let your child apply for his or her very own library card!
- Keep paper, crayons, and pencils readily available. Encourage all efforts your young writer makes, from squiggly lines to "inventively" spelled words. Early efforts at writing are closely related to beginning reading.
- If your child is beginning to write, ignore that backward "s" and inverted "b" and "d"! He or she is still in practicing phase on the road to reading through writing.
- Purchase some inexpensive magnetic letters for your refrigerator door. Allow your child to handle and play with them freely. Rather than instruct, respond to questions such as "Mommy, what letter says 'Daddy'?"
- Ask your child if he or she would like to tell you a story. Write it down as he or she talks, then read it back and share with others.
- Make a book with your child. Staples some blank pieces of paper together and ask him or her to illustrate the cover and inside pages. Write down whatever he or she wants to say about the pictures at the bottom of each page. Enjoy reading and sharing the results!
- Make shopping lists with your child. Say the names of the grocery item aloud as your write them down. Search for and check off the items together as you shop.
- Make a batch of pretzel dough together and use it to form different letters of the alphabet: shape, bake, and eat!
|
