The Reading Railroad is a free newsletter for parents, caregiver's and teachers.
Fun reading ideas & activities for preshool and primary grade children
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1. How to Prepare Your Child to Read
2. Family Travel - Make Your Trips Magical
3. Featured Reading Program - Parents Choice Award Winner
4. Primary grade kids science resource
5. Holiday gift giving ideas
HOW TO PREPARE YOUR CHILD TO READ
{!name}, last month the Reading Railroad discussed the importance of parents participating in helping to prepare their children to read. The result of a recent study, funded by the U.S. Federal government, done at Weber University stated, "What readers bring to the printed page affects their comprehension. Prior knowledge of readers is the single most imporant component in the reading process." March 2007
Each month you will receive an easy activity that you can incorporate into your child's life. Imagine, by the end of a year you will have 12 new strategies that most parents never would consider doing and you child will benefit immensely.
Infant to Toddler
Stimlate your child's brain with colorful objects from the time they are born. Attach to the crib a colorful mobile, a photograph next to your childrens bed. Change the photograph once a month. Make the photograph age appropriate as they grow.
Whether you think they are old enough to understand you or not, talk to your child about the photograph. Use rich words (modifiers) like beautiful, wonderful. In your language include the name of colors and point to the colors.
Here is a secret, when you are talking with your children, whatever age they are, use auditory, visual and kinesthetic words. At this age you do not know which modality they tend to favor. Here is a list of sensory based words. (this is saved in Microsoft Word)
When you speak to your child, talk in loving, soft, caring tones. This is an outstanding habit to form, and continue to use, whatever your child's age. I know it may be difficult at times, but I must tell you, not impossible. My daugther-in-law is a constant example that how you talk with and to your child does pay off. In 10 years I have never heard her use harsh, accusitory tones, whatever the circumstances.
Talking with your child is a precusor to your child being prepared to read.
Toddler thru Primary Grades
"Unfamiliar key words need to be taught to students before reading so that new words, background information, and comprehension can improve together. " Weber study.
Every week put a new picture from a magazine on the wall of an object that may be unfamiliar to your child. For example, if you do not live near mountains, hang a beautiful photo of a mountain. Mount the picture on a piece of paper that is a little larger than the photo. Underneath clearly print the word: mountain.
Before hanging the photo on the wall show it to you child and have a brief conversation about what is in the photo. Maybe there are trees, flowers, a path to walk on.
At this point you are not attempting to teach your child to read or spell. What you are doing is forming new learning pathways in their brain. And it doesn't matter if they show an interest in what you are doing. What is most important is the brief conversation and hanging it on the wall where it is visible with the printed word.
When you and your child are near the photo on the wall, point to it and say, mountain.
After you take the picture off the wall and replace it with another one, put the mounted picture with the word in a scrap / photo book. Once a day take the book out and show it to your child. Remember your child has an extremely short attention span. So make this about 30 seconds. Look at the picture, point to the mountain, run your finger over the word from left to right as you say the word, mountain. Then point to the whatever else is in the photo and identify the picture with a word. ie: flower.
Most important in whatever you do to prepare your child to read, have a fun, loving attitude. Your home is not a classroom, but it is a learning environment.
There are many ideas in the backissues of The Reading Railroad. Plus today I am going to provide you with some fun travel games since the holidays are coming up soon.
FAMILY TRAVEL - MAKE YOUR TRIPS MAGICAL
Our family trips were always a wonderful time and the kids came home with outstanding learning experiences. We sang in the car, played games and enjoyed each other's company. And without them realizing it, our tips turned into a vocabulary rich experience.
Did you ever hear the saying, "The journey is more important than the destination?" Well, One father put this saying into practice. He developed the Travel Fairy who delivers gifts before the vacation.
Before the trip begins he hides something under their pillow when they are sleeping like sunscreen, disposible camera, a bag of healthy snacks - something that your child can take with them and gives them the message that they are going on a fun vacation or traveling to a family member's home for the holidays.
Roger also surprised his family with a beach treasure hunt. He loaded up a small crate filled with "prirate loot," which included candy, a water bottle, a priate flag, fake coins, a shovel and sand bucket. Then he left a treasure map in an old bottle for the kids to find.
Collect Lasting Unusual Souvenirs - How about a cookie cutter in the shape of the state you visited, or an object that is prevelant in that area. If you live in the city and go to the dessert, how about a cookie cutter shaped like a cactus? Or a cookie cutter shaped like a buffalo from Yellowstone National Park? When you get home, everytime you and your kids make cookies you can talk about the wonderful experiences you had and the interesting things your saw.
Collect postcards of interesting places that you visited - you know the ones with the description on the back of the card. When you get home laminate the postcards and put them on a ring clip. Put the postcards in the family room so they are easily accessible for fun discussions.
Purchase a disposible camera for each child and have a photo scavenger hunt. Even a 4 year old can do this one. Give them a list of photos that they are to photograph on their trip. If your child cannot read yet, make the list by pasting small pictures on a piece of paper in a grid. Then they can X out the images when they take their photo. When they get home have them paste their developed photos in a book. What a rich vocabulary conversation you will be able to have all year long! Snapfish is very inexpensive. Our whole family uses them.
Display your vacation treasures in a clear plastic jug. This is perfect for you campers - rocks, mini-golf score cards, pressed leaves and flowers. Put the jug on display in your family room.
Make a pretend passport of the state or country that you visit or fly over by pasting a flag of that place in a book - one flag per page. You can print out the flag on the computer and have your child label the page with the respective flag. It is a great way for your kids to learn about their country and names of cities and states / provinces.
And last but not least, as a souvenir, take your child to a book store or museum store and choose a book about the region you are visiting or a story book written by a local author that is about the town or people. Many times you can find a signed copy.
If you cannot afford to travel out of your area for the holidays, have fun taking trips to local areas of interest and do one of the above activities.
We lived near Chicago and would take our children to plays, museums, zoo, botanical gardens in the suburbs, the Milwaukee zoo. And now they do that with their children.
More Trip tips will be coming your way next month. Why? Because traveling is a language arts experience. The more your children experience, the more they will be prepared to read. They will have developed a very rich vocabulary because the brain has the most sophisticated camera on the planet. It's pictures are stored forever and the words that are associated with those pictures become alive on the printed page throughout their reading lifetime.
This became so apparent to me when I taught remedial reading in an area where parents did not expose their children to cultural experiences. Where they did know how to engage their children in conversations. When 3rd graders could not relate to seeing animals in a zoo or seeing a painting in a museum, they found it very difficult to give meaning to the printed. word.
Featured Reading Program - Parents Choice Award Winner
Excite your young readers with Raz-Kids Preview "Talking -Books from
A-Z Reading.
Preview 18 online "Talking Books" as a bonus with Reading A-Z
membership.
Reading A-Z is a 2004 winner of the Parents' Choice Recommended
Award. The Web site has nearly 750 downloadable/printable books
and thousands of worksheets and lesson plans to teach reading.
Visit us at our award winning Super Science Fair Projects site. Get lots of ideas and topics for your school science fair. You will also find outstanding science gifts.
Season's Holiday Readings.
Do you want to help usher in the holiday spirit? Books to celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Las Posadas are the answer. Each year one of my grandchildren receive special book. Here is a list of some favorites:
