I’ve been asked by a few of my friends with young children
to cover the important skills to be addressed in preschool years while at home!
It’s been a long time coming but here goes…
The important areas to cover are literacy (phonics and
fluency), writing, handwriting, math, science and wellness, social studies,
spiritual wellness, life skills, art, music, physical education, and personal
development skills.
This will be a pretty lengthy blog but there will be a lot
of useful tips so please be patient! For
the sake of time, we’ll cover LITERACY in this blog! The suggestions in
this blog are for 1-2 year olds and don’t feel the need to tackle everything at
once; you have between the 1st and 2nd birthday to cover
all of this content!
Literacy
Literacy
Read with your toddler! It’s really the key to instilling
early literacy. Model “best-practice” by
reading with a fluctuating tone in your voice, make facial expressions and
gestures! Discuss with your child the various characters as well as their
emotions and actions, and discuss events taking place in the story to gauge
comprehension. Even if it means allowing them to talk about the book based on
their interpretation of the pictures. Be
sure to mix it up a little! Read aloud some poetry, story/picture books,
nursery rhymes, etc. Start with reading short texts and don’t feel as though
you’re failing at this when they start to squirm in their seats. As time
progresses, they start to enjoy the activity more and their stamina for reading
will begin to expand. Have fun with reading and pick a comfortable location to
read every time! This could also help in relationship building for you and your
bundle of joy. Most importantly your child has to see you being the exemplar
example of literacy! Be sure they catch you reading a ton.
As far as vocabulary building, use snazzy vocabulary when
speaking to your toddler and expand on definition (otherwise they will be
looking at you all crazy)!! I’d also recommend pointing environmental signs as
you drive around town. “Hey Kendall, look at that! [point to sign] We
are at the STOP sign!” “We are at the red light right now! [point to red
street light] Have conversations with your toddler and encourage them to
expand on what they are trying to say. If they say something that is
grammatically incorrect, GENTLY correct them. For example, “Mommy, I goed to my room.” Your response
ought to be “Oh, you went to
your room? What for?” Your role is to gently correct and expand the
conversation. They will begin to self-correct as a result of noticing your
correction.
When it comes to the reciting the alphabet, you can teach it by singing the alphabet song. However, be sure to wein your toddler off and recite the alphabet without having to sing the song. Eventually, back off until you can clearly hear your baby recite the alphabet independently.
When it comes to the reciting the alphabet, you can teach it by singing the alphabet song. However, be sure to wein your toddler off and recite the alphabet without having to sing the song. Eventually, back off until you can clearly hear your baby recite the alphabet independently.
Helping your toddler memorize short poems and rhymes is also
an important skill. This can be done by repeatedly reading certain rhymes,
songs and short books. Kids LOVE, Love, Love, recurrence and you’ll notice they
will start reciting familiar rhymes, songs, and pieces of text.
Toddlers need to know that in English we read from left to
right! You can teach that by using your handy, dandy index finger to point to
work and follow in the direction in which you’re reading. When physically
possibly, allow you child to hold the book and allow him/her to practice
appropriately changing the page (this has to first be modeled)! This is a prerequisite
reading skill that all children must have in order to be successful! In
addition to teaching them an important skill, you’re building their
anticipation for what happens next in the text. Additionally, you’re allowing
them to take ownership of reading and the responsibility attached to being the
“page-changer.”
Another important literacy skill is that your child enjoys
being read aloud to and can point to pictures in the book when asked a “check”
or comprehension question i.e. “Where is the blue circle?” “Point to Clifford.”
It is important that they can point to pictures and converse based on extended
questions asked about the pictures. Don’t just ask “What is this?” Take it
further by asking, “Where is the blue ball? Can you point to the house?”
Lastly, be sure to take your toddler to the library!!!! I
cannot stress this enough. There are a ton of opportunities for read-alouds by
authors and puppet shows for children. You can do some reading as well as
teaching of library etiquette and expectations. Practice taking down a book,
skimming it and putting it back if it doesn’t tickle their fancy!
That’s all for today! Stay tuned for the next topic to be
covered: Writing (scribbling) and Handwriting!
Read, Rule, Reign
Karen
Read, Rule, Reign
Karen
No comments:
Post a Comment