Thursday, June 19, 2014

Building A Bookworm

As I venture down the parenting path through life over the years I am sure there will be 415,689,372 and more things that I will feel guilty about with my boys and want to redo over and over again, but since I am only 17 months and 2 days into this humbling journey, there is one that haunts me regularly- reading to my son daily and nightly!  I don’t know, maybe it’s the teacher in me (and the fact that my master’s degree is in early literacy), but if my husband and I haven’t read a stack of books to him throughout the day the panic sets in- will his vocabulary suffer, will he learn his letters and sounds on time, will he continue to develop a love for learning and reading, and…the…list…goes…on…  Now don’t get me wrong, he isn’t quite a year and a half yet, so I am not expecting him to pick up a book and recite it to us nor am I expecting him to sit for 10 minutes at a time to listen to a variety of texts; the anxiety takes a toll when I think we played too much throughout the day rather than taking 2 minutes here and there to read a story.  Yes, trust me, after teaching preschool and attending hundreds of hours of professional development on the concept of play and a child’s development, I understand and value the critical need for play in a child’s daily routine, but how do you balance time between play and books with your children? 

I recently read an article from The Children’s Reading Foundation that talks about reading to children starting at birth thru school-age and my mind and heart are at ease now.  Reading 20 minutes a day to your child proves to have a significant impact on their language and cognitive development.  I think it is important to remember that the 20 minutes a day doesn’t have to be a consecutive chunk of time; building it into your daily routine is up to you and how it will best fit.  Another point to consider is that while introducing and modeling good reading practices and strategies with children is an essential skill, you can build literacy into your schedule through conversations, songs, and fingerplays too.
Here are some ingenious ways to develop these literacy moments with your littles:
  • Sing songs during bath time, washing your hands, getting dressed, cleaning up, etc.
  • Read books during breakfast and lunch
  • Visit the local library for story time
  • Obtain a library card
  • Listen to stories on CD in the car
  • Felt Board Story sets
  • Letter magnets on the fridge, talk about them while you’re cooking
  • Label items around the house; point them out during the day
  • During TV commercials, mute the TV and read a story
  • Have books available during playtime for your child to handle

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