Encouraging Literacy

My daughter will start Kindergarten in the fall.  When I took her to the doctor this week for her shots, we got a bookmark listing things parents can do to encourage literacy (from Smart Start in our county).  As both a parent and a teacher, I see many ways these activities can be implemented in both the home and the school to encourage literacy for children of all ages.

• Talk, sing, and play with your child (Expand on what your child says. Talk as you do simple routines together. Recite nursery rhymes and do finger puppet plays…. I had chants and poems we would recite in my classroom at certain times of the day. I often would start saying the first stanza of the NC Official Toast when I wanted to get the attention of the students at the end of group time. This introduced vocabulary, worked on oral storytelling, and established a pattern. )
• Read with your child everyday (Have a regular reading time together that is relaxed and enjoyable. Let your child pick the story. Remember, you want reading to be a pleasurable experience … let children see the books and images on Big Universe to select the book they want to read.)
• Surround you child with reading materials (Visit the library, buy inexpensive books, make home-made books … this is a great way to use BigUniverse … a place to read, create, and share books)
• Keep adult literature in your home (By having books, newspapers, magazines, and work-related materials in your home, your child will recognize the important of literacy. . . As a teacher, I enjoyed reading my book when students read their books during independent reading time so they could see that I valued literacy as well)
• Read books again and again to your children. (Repetition is the key when reading to young children. They learn to predict what will come next and acquire skills such as sequencing through repetition. . . I like that I can put the books my daughter enjoys reading on Big Universe on my bookshelf there so I can easily find them again and again.)
• Point out specific sounds or letters. (As you are driving in your car or walking around the block, point out road signs, restaurant names, and gas stations. You can point out words and letter when reading a book . . . I ask my daughter what shapes and colors she sees as we are riding in the car. I point to the McDonald’s sign and ask what words start with that letter … (my name and her name) Just “play” with letters and words to increase literacy skills.)