5 Early Literacy Tips for Parents to encourage a love of reading and learning.
I am all about easy and simple here and believe it or not, it is possible to expose your child to early literacy skills from the start without the added stress.
When you hear the term, early literacy, a lot of things may come to mind. Probably, the most common is reading. Even though getting your child to read is the end goal, I can assure you there are simple things you can do right now in your home that will help them gain the foundational skills to eventually fall in love with reading.
During the time before your child is ready to read they are working on other important early literacy skills. These include:
- building vocabulary
- storytelling
- asking questions
- discovering the different parts of a book
- scribbling
- using rhymes and songs to play with sounds
- develop a love for stories
While all of these skills are being developed, it may feel stressful to figure out as a parent, simple ways to help move these skills along. I can assure you, it’s not. Here are my 5 early literacy tips for parents to encourage a love of reading.
1. Storytelling
Sounds simple right?! But, believe it or not storytelling (without a book or pictures in hand) is such a helpful tool for our littles to gain not just a love of reading but start to understand the components of a story.
For my daughter, we love to tell the story of Mother Goose and Bertram and how they invite and plan to have Little Bo Peep over for dinner. I can’t take credit for this idea, this was my favorite childhood bedtime story from my own mom. Are you sensing the power that simple story telling has yet?
2. Create a Print Rich Environment
Creating a print rich environment is easier than it sounds. Simply put, it means put words, labels, letter magnets, letter stickers, letter cookie cutters, wherever you want at your child’s disposal.
Let them play with the letter magnets as board game pieces. Label your furniture. Or let them create and collage with letters from a magazine. Let the environment do the talking…literally.
3. Provide Materials to Freely Create With
I absolutely love our art cart. So much so in fact, that I have two in our house now. Once in our playroom and one in our kitchen for easy access for my daughter. On it, I have writing utensils of every kind, paper, stamps, glue, scissors, and anything at the moment I feel like she may want to use to create with.
But, it doesn’t have to be as complicated as that. A simple basket of papers, crayons, tape, or blank books from @target will do the trick.
4. PLAY (with books!)
Your home is not the library. Play with books!
That can mean physically play with them OR play with the stories inside of them! Be silly and change the ending, read your characters with silly voices and accents, have your little one act out their favorite part of a book. Be silly and have fun. This will help encourage that love for storytelling and reading that you want your child to develop.
5. Notice Language All Around You
Take time to notice literacy and language everywhere. Go on letter hunts in your home or while out running an errand, talk out loud about the things you hear and see when you’re out for a walk or playing in the yard.
Building early literacy skills with your child and encouraging a love of reading does not have to be complicated. Using these simple tips above and bringing them into your home will help set your child up for reading success.
If you have a preschooler or kindergartener at home who is ready to start building on their skills as a reader, I have something for you. My Preschool Reading Workbook is a fun and engaging workbook with 101 games & activities for developing pre-reading skills! I know your preschooler will love the mazes, coloring, tracing, puzzles, and more that is inside of my new workbook! I would love for you to check it out here!
Take a peek inside:
Other
Other helpful links:
25 Fun and Simple Activities For 2 Year Olds At Home
No Comments