Early Literacy Blog Roundup
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”-Dr. Seuss
This week, we celebrated Read Across America Week!
Read Across America is a celebration of reading in March, sponsored by the National Education Association, with a focus on introducing children to diverse books with characters they can relate to and worlds that are different from their own.
Studies show that the single most significant factor influencing your child’s early educational success is an introduction to books and being read to at home prior to beginning school. Reading every day with your child sets them up for a lifetime of success. The effects of reading on child development include cognitive and emotional benefits such as helping children develop language skills and literacy, build empathy, and learn how to handle challenging feelings.
At One Place, we work to support early literacy for all children in our community. As part of Read Across America Week, we’ve collected some of our blogs with early literacy content in one place for easy access.
Click on the titles below and check them out for some great information and resources to encourage early literacy with your child.
Why Reading with Your Child Matters
Reading creates a strong foundation for a child’s lifelong success—particularly during the first five years of their lives. Children who have the most opportunity to interact with language—from infancy to early elementary school—are the most likely to develop into skilled readers and writers for the rest of their lives.
Although you’ve probably heard about the importance of reading and literacy in young children, one important distinction that we talk about here at One Place is why reading with—instead of to—your child matters.
What’s the Most Important Reason to Read Aloud?
Even more important than teaching our children the skills of reading and comprehending is to cultivate a deep love of stories. While the adult reads the book, the child can love the words, use his imagination and become immersed in the story.
Is Reading a Book Just Reading a Book?
We’ve shared a few messages now about books-reading aloud with your child, building a home library, using conversation to develop language….
All of those benefits seem to only affect early literacy skills. Right? Don’t judge a book by its cover:)
All of those simple, loving interactions are also creating strong bonds between you and your child. Research shows that the most important factor in a child’s ability to grow and flourish is a stable, strong relationship with an adult. The times you spend book sharing give your child one-on-one time, space to talk, and YOU.
4 Ways to Help Your Child Read at Home
Reading is one of the most difficult—and yet one of the most important—skills that your child will learn. To help your young reader become more confident and develop a love of reading, you can support your child by reading to them aloud, reiterating phonetics, and having fun with words and language.
Reading Aloud
We talk a lot about reading aloud! We all know how important it is. So we try.
Let’s examine a few possible story times that we’ve all had at one time!
Are Brains Built or Born?
What happens in children’s early years sets the foundation for all the years that follow. Child development is a dynamic, interactive process that is not predetermined. It occurs in the context of relationships, experiences and environments. That’s because as Harvard University pediatrician Jack Shonkoff says, “brains are built not born.” Understanding this concept is ensuring that each child has the opportunity to realize his or her potential.
What are the “R’s of Learning”?
Just when you thought you knew about the “R’s of Learning”-more have been added. Of course it all began with the 3R’s: Reading, ‘Riting, and ‘Rithmetic…and those are still tried and true skills we all need. But now we have the 5R’s: Read, Rhyme, Routines, Reward, and Relationship!
Before you throw your hands up and say that’s really 8R’s, we do have one simple yet powerful way to do all these…
You guessed it! Reading aloud with our children can take care of all these at once!!
Busy, Bedtime, Books!
It’s back to school time! Getting up early, rushing for the bus, new schedules, busy days, getting to bed late…We all know what it’s like when we feel hurried or tired, when the days are swift and beyond our control.
It’s the same for children. It is easy to recognize that school-aged children need a regular bedtime for school, but what about your preschool-aged children?
All children benefit from routines-especially at bedtime!
The “Big Six” Literacy Skills
We talk a lot about the importance of early literacy, daily book reading, and book sharing routines. But this month, I thought we could ADD to all the “book stuff.”
Y’all know how I love books! But I have to admit a little secret…books aren’t the only way to help your child develop early literacy skills. (That was tough for me to say!!)
THE BIG SIX EARLY LITERACY SKILLS can be learned any place, any time, and with lots of things-even riding in a car or shopping in a grocery store. “What are THE BIG SIX?” I’m glad you asked…