School readiness —what children need to become ready to learn to read.
September 3, 2010
Making sure their child is ready for school has become a quandary for many parents. With more and more emphasis on early academics it seems that kindergarten is becoming the new first grade, and there is a wider age span in kindergarten classrooms. There can easily be an 18 month age spread in a K classroom, and social and intellectual disparities become an issue. The question becomes whether it is wiser to hold back a child and have them start a year later.
No matter when a child begins school, a child needs a firm foundation to make sure they are ready to enter school and be successful learners– and the adults in their lives can establish that base.
Reading aloud to a child changes a child’s life and is one of the activities children need to enter school ready to learn to read. The benefits of reading aloud are enormous—and often these benefits are not taken seriously enough because parents or caregivers feel that reading aloud is too simple and obvious to be that important. The time spent reading to a child is the best predictor of reading success. Children need to hear approximately 1,000 stories read aloud before they being to learn to read for themselves. A child’s desire to learn to read comes from being read to.
However, reading aloud does not automatically lead to literacy. The real link lies in the verbal interaction that occurs between an adult and a child during story reading. The skills a child needs to get ready to learn to read are first learned in conversation. Vocabulary is the lynchpin to literacy and language learned in conversation is where a child acquires the words needed to learn to read. A child who enters school with a vocabulary of 22,000 words has a distinct advantage over the child who enters school with a vocabulary of 2,000 words. Children who come to school with well-developed “finding meaning in books” skills are clearly at an advantage. Someone in the home read to the children, answered their questions, and encouraged them to read.
Reading Together is One Year Old! …. Notes from a mother to a child
August 31, 2010
I have the habit of writing a letter to my sons on their birthday, so I see no reason not to continue that tradition with my third son, RT, also known as Reading Together. Dear RT, You changed and enriched my life. And you continue to amaze me. You are exacting, demanding, lovable and endearing—a […]
A message to parents from the “Back to School Fairy Godmother”
August 25, 2010
The beginning of a new school year can feel daunting for parents—along with the excitement and anticipation for the new year comes the daunting reality of new schedules and responsibilities for children and their parents. The juggling act required of parents can feel overwhelming. On top of that, along comes a survey by The Michigan Department of Education […]
Ray Bradbury~ Happy 90th Birthday!
August 23, 2010
My Birthday wishes to Ray Bradbury are a day late, but better late than never and as a friend once told me: “I want you to know that I am thinking of you the day after your birthday; you had plenty of well wishers on the day of your birthday! Ray Bradbury is best known […]
A Father’s Love and 15,000 Books…
August 22, 2010
I just finished an amazing book—brim full of humanity— a son’s tribute to his father. I would categorize the book, Losing My Cool: How A Father’s Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip-Hop Culture by Thomas Chatterton Wiliams, as a “love letter from a son to his father, Pappy. Pappy, born in the segregated south in […]
