For this weeks homemade Monday activity, I want to share about ways to encourage literacy in young children.
ENCOURAGING READING
Here are a few practical ways you can encourage literacy and a love of reading in little ones…
- Start early- Even as early as infancy, start reading aloud to your newborn. This isn’t limited to just children’s books; read recipes or the newspaper out loud. As your child’s hearing develops this familiarizes them with the sound of your voice and language used.
- Read often- Be sure to read often and have age appropriate books on hand. It’s important to have durable board books for infants and toddlers. Pick books that are interactive with fewer words. This provides a great opportunity to work on vocabulary. You can point to pictures and ask questions. For an example, if you are reading about animals you can ask: “what animal is this?” or “What sound does a dog make?” As they get older progress to more complex picture books with rhyming language. They are beginning to see that books tell a story. Have them hold the book and help turn the pages. You are teaching the little things like where to begin and end of story are or that we read sentences from left to right and top to bottom. Please see recommended books by age list.
- Visit your local library- Most library’s throughout the country offer amazing programs. I can attest to that the Charles County Public Libraries are wonderful. Both my boys have completed the 500 by 5 program, and attend story time regularly. Research studies show that children who attend story time at their public libraries enter school with greater pre-reading and emergent literacy skills needed to succeed in school than their peers that didn’t visit the library regularly. The best part about going to the library is that it instills the love of reading which leads to improved reading.
- Talk about it- Have conversations about letters and words your children notice while out and about. Encourage your little one to point out letters they recognize. Pointing out letters and words in public, provides a opportunity to talk about what words look like and what sounds the letters make, as well as builds word recognition.
- Get involved- Involve your children in activities that use literacy. A great way to do this is to have them assist you in making a shopping lists or follow the steps of a recipe as you are cooking together.
- Play- Most importantly literacy should be fun! Make reading enjoyable, playful, and encouraging through fun activities. Instilling a love for learning in my children is very important to me; so I’m always trying to come up with fun literacy-building activities for my kids.
BUILDING FOUNDATIONS OF LITERACY WITH BRIKS
Like most kids, my boys love to build! We have a bunch of LEGOs, blocks and Briks that can be transformed from toys to literacy tools. I used Strictly Briks to make literacy activities that provide a entertaining way to teach literacy skills that help with letter recognition, spelling, writing and reading. The best part about these activities is that they don’t require a great deal of prep and are a lot of fun.
BUILDING LETTERS- Build letters using Briks.
ALPHABET LINE UP- Encourage your child to create the alphabet by lining up letters.
SIGHT WORDS- Here’s a fun twist to writing out site words by using Briks.
TRANSCRIBING- Open a page and copy out the sentence.
THANK YOU
While at Toy Fair, I discovered that one of my favorite toy companies Strictly Briks has an award winning line of educational brik sets called Alphabriks and Mathbriks. These toys are designed to develop STEAM skills and make reading and math fun! I want to thank Strictly Briks for providing families with fun and educational toys. Be sure to check their website www.strictlybriks.com and follow their Facebook page for more ideas of fun and educational toys. the
***The Playful Parent was not paid to write this article; this homemade Monday article was created to promote learning through play. All photos are property of The Playful Parent and information provided is my own non-bias opinion.***
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