- Read and be read too: Talks about the importance of reading to your child. Kids get so much of their new vocabulary though books. It is a wonderful way to connect with your child and find some peaceful time together. http://www.papertigers.org/wordpress/?p=584
- Encouraging children to read though book events: We had Camp Read at the elementary school that I volunteer through a month or so ago. Parents supplied the pop tents in which books were put. Members of the community (Police, firefighters, parents, volunteers) spaced them selves around the school with books and read stories. The kids loved it. This article has more creative ideas for schools looking to have some fun with reading for the day. http://cherylrainfield.com/blog/index.php/2008/03/10/encouraging-children-to-read-through-book-events/
Learning to read
WHEN SHOULD I START TEACHING MY CHILD TO READ?
This is the question we most commonly hear so let’s take a moment to a moment to delve into it.
Most commonly, this question starts to pop up when a child is 3 or 4 years old. The first and most important thing to remember at this age is that at this age a toddler’s brain is developing rapidly. Surprise! Just by being a loving parent you are probably doing all that you need to do to facilitate his learning.
One thing that seems to be forgotten these days with all the pressure on academics children are put under is that there are many skills that a child needs to learn in order to do well in school. Reading is just one of those skills. More important are social skills and a positive attitude towards learning. Marilyn Chapman, director of the Institute for Early Childhood Education and Research at the University of British Columbia says “Learning is emotional as much as it is cognitive, and emotions help memories ‘stick’. We want children not only to learn, but to feel good about doing it and develop a positive, healthy identity.’
In his book “Outliers” Malcom Gladwell talks about a comparison study between the literacy levels of two groups of children. One set which were in an academic preschool and the other set that were in a play based preschool. It was found that on average the children in the academic preschool learned to read one year earlier than the children in the play based preschool. However, by the age of 7 there was no difference in reading skills, but the children from the play based preschool were much more likely to read for fun.
Here in Vancouver, Canada it is only expected that children should know their alphabet by the end of Grade 1 – this means that your child has until they are 7 years old before the educational system feels that they are ready to move on.
So what does this mean to you? Watch your child, look for clues that indicate that your child is ready to start to learn to read and once you feel that they are ready make sure that it is a fun experience and don’t feel that they are falling behind in any way if they don’t catch on right away.
Clues that your child is ready are likely that your child is asking more and more for you to explain, point out and help them “read” words. Teach him to write his name, if he manages it quite easily then that would be an indication that he’s ready for a bigger challenge.
If your child is not quite ready, don’t worry about it. Keep modelling positive learning behaviour such as reading books to him, giving him picture books to ‘read’ to you and pointing out important / interesting words you see as you move around on a daily basis. One day, pretty soon he will be open and primed for a positive learning experience.
MULTI SENSORY WHAT???
Multi Sensory Learning has been a buzz word in education for decades now. It sounds very serious but few people know about the benefits it can offer.
What is Multi Sensory Learning?
Multi Sensory Learning is very simply learning through all the 5 senses. If you teach any one a concept through sound, sight, feel, smell and taste the chances of them ever forgetting it are very small. For example lets take something boring like fractions.
Sound: First explain what half and a quarter is to your child.
Sight: Take an apple and cut it into half and a quarter
Feel: Allow your child to cut up other pieces of fruit into fractions.
Smell: Take three glasses of water. Using vanilla essence measure out three servings into the three glasses using fractions. How different do they smell?
Taste: Taste the difference between the three glasses.
Do you have to use all the senses all the time?
No, some senses are harder to engage than others. Try to engage as many senses as is natural for the topic you are working on.
Isn’t Multi Sensory Learning used mainly for children with learning challenges?
Multi Sensory Learning has been very successful in teaching children with learning challenges. However it’s uses are much wider than that, it is a great tool for teaching any one any thing – I like to use it to teach adults concepts too. One thing it does is get you to think much more creatively about the topic you are explaining. Taking any thing out of a text book and into 5D is much more engaging and in the long run easier for you. A little more effort at the front end equals less time going over topics and re explaining old topics when you are trying to build on them.
Next time you are looking to explain a concept, try to think in 5D (using your 5 senses!) For information on a Multi Sensory literacy program see the rest of my website.
COMPUTER AIDED LITERACY
There are some great computer or internet based literacy games out there. They are fun, interactive and quite amusing, small doses are a great way to add another dimension to your child’s learning.
A while back I spent a fair bit of time in a down town east side school here in Vancouver and one of the things I did was take the kids for computer time. Over a period of time I made a couple of observations which I’d like to share.
- Computer time is a really fun time, kids really enjoy it and do an amazing job of figuring it all out (usually before I have)
- Computer programs are very graphically designed. Kids can enjoy the games by clicking on lots of stuff but without reading the screen. If your child is just starting to read, it would be a good idea to sit with your child while they play computer games and encourage them to read the screen.
- Computer programs can be very controlling. Your child will often find the easy route through the games instead of engaging their brain. An example of this was a story that could be read, but if the child was stuck then they could click on the word and the computer would pronounce it for them. The kids I was working with didn’t realise that they were supposed to be reading the words themselves. Instead they were labouriously clicking on every word and waiting for the computer to pronounce it. Once your child is reading, keep an eye on them while they are playing computer games to make sure that they are using them in a way that has some educational benefit.
- Sometimes computer games can overstimulate a child to some extent. They begin to click away fast and change games without playing and finishing one. If this happens, you will need to step in and turn off the games for a while. Next time, you will need to direct your child into playing one or two games only.
TIPS TO KEEP YOUR KIDS READING THIS SUMMER
Reading like any new learned skill can get quite rusty after a summer off. Here are some tips to keep your kids in practice over the long hot summer months.
- Take a digital camera with you on a day out with your kids. The next day print off the photos and help your child make a book telling the story of the day out. This book can be read by your child when ever he/she wants to read it.
- A fun variation on this is for your and your child to spend the day photographing a favourite toy in various places and poses around your neighbourhood, you can build this into quite an adventure story!
- Check out your local library for events. There is bound to be lots of kid friendly activities on over the summer, while you are there spend some time together in the kids section and help your child pick out some books to take home and read. Don’t worry too much about trying to find books that are challenging. Kids learn a lot about the enjoyment of reading from books that they can pick up and read fluently by them selves.
- Cook together – and get your child to read the recipe. Even better – turn your baking into a pretend cafe and have your child make up some menu’s and signs.
- Any time you are in a restaurant together this summer, let your child read the menu and pick their own meal.
- Planning a road trip? Make a bingo board out of road signs and place names that you think you will see on the way. When your child sees the sign then they cross off the matching words on the bingo board.
- More on that road trip – give your child a map before hand and let him/her plan the route.
- Do you have parents that live out of town? Have them email your child and let your child return the emails.
READING LEVELS
As a parent it can be tough to find books that are age appropriate and at the right level for your child to read by them selves – especially if your child is either above or below average for their age.
As adults we read books once and then are pretty much done with them and I for one, assumed that this was the same with children’s readers too. It was only when I worked in an elementary school here in Vancouver that I learned that there was a different way. Children there were encouraged to pick three books which they kept for a couple of weeks – yes that’s right, the same three books for two weeks! Now you or I might think that sounds pretty tedious, but what happened was pretty interesting. For the first few read throughs the children would be learning new words and generally focusing on the technicalities of the books. Once they got over that they were able to enjoy the sensation of reading and getting lost in a story. We all know how much kids like to hear familiar stories over and over again, this was the same philosophy but with the added benefit of the child having the satisfaction of knowing that they read it all by them selves.
Looking at this technique from a couple of perspectives I think it is a great idea – firstly, the child is reading less books so you can really focus on finding good books that really are age appropriate and secondly it may really be the difference between teaching children to read and teaching children to read for pleasure.
Yet again the slow and steady learning wins the day.
INSPIRING KIDS TO ENJOY READING
Here’s a in interesting article with lots of ideas on getting an unsure reader to love reading.
http://www.newsday.com/features/booksmags/ny-lfkidsmain5533038jan13,0,772786.story?page=1
STORY BOOKS ON PAPER BETTER FOR CHILDREN THAN READING FICTION ON COMPUTER SCREEN.
I’ve always wondered whether it’s good for us to read off a screen or not. Certainly I much prefer to curl up with a good book rather than stare at a screen. Here Professor Ann Mangen from the Centre of Reading Research at the University of Stavanger, Norway looks at the pros and cons of both types of reading. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081219073049.htm
LET THEM EAT PICTURES
Excellent article from the Squeetus Blog about not pushing too hard for your children to give up picture books in favour of books without pictures in them.
http://oinks.squeetus.com/2009/01/let-them-eat-pictures.html
THE LETTER SOUNDS IN THE PHONICS ALPHABET
The phonics alphabet is just a posh way of saying. “This is the sound that the letter makes rather than the name of the letter” We teach kids the letters phonetically first because it is easier to remember “The letter a” rather than “Ay says a”…. yes it’s challenging to write this stuff down!
Here is a flawless example of the phonetics alphabet pronounciation by www.helpingtogrow.com
Here is a high energy example – but beware, some of the letters are prounced as bu, du, pu, cu etc. The correct way to pronounce them is softer and more breathy (as in the first video). This video courtesy of www.genkienglish.net
GO FORTH AND READ
Here are two interesting articles courtesy of Jen Robinson http://jkrbooks.typepad.com/blog/