Article
WHAT
SHOULD WANT THEIR
KIDS TO KNOW
As a mom of two young Finding #3. By age 5,
students, I’ve been working super-ready kids must be
faithfully since they were born able to instantly identify
to encourage the joy of reading. letters, numbers, colors and
And, while I read every night to objects in “rapid” and
my children, it seems I’ve missed “random order.” So it’s not
a few tricks as to the best way to just knowing the numbers
“teach” reading. one to ten in order, it’s
important to recognize
The National Institute for them quickly in any order.
Literacy has released its Early
Literacy Report. For parents like Finding #4. Super-
me interested in helping their ready kids need to be able
children to be super-ready to wield powerful pencils.
for school, I’ve taken this report While most of us spend lots
and created from it a short of time reading bedtime
“To Do” list . stories, I’m not sure we’ve
been as conscientious
Finding #1. Researchers call about writing skills.
it, “alphabet knowledge.” I think Specifically, at age 5 a child
of this finding as if my kids were should be able to write
wearing superhero costumes while becoming “masters of the their own name, and write any letters that are called out. One
alphabet.” Their job: to learn the name of every letter and the idea is to have your child write their name in all their books.
sound each letter makes. My job: to switch on the TV
closed-caption option so words are part of my child’s every Finding #5. This finding is a doozey; researchers call it
TV experience; to point to the beginning letter of words and developing a child’s “phonological memory”. Simply stated,
make the sounds of the letter. super-ready kids have great recall and we know how they love
to “retell” their favorite stories.
Finding #2. This finding says super-ready kids have
“phonological awareness” which means they have supersen- Previous reading research suggested parents read to their
sitive hearing! It’s critical that children truly hear the sounds in kids 20-minutes a day. If you’ve been doing this, you’re ahead of
words and play with these sounds. It means reading fun poetry the curve! But the takeaway here is that simply reading doesn’t
like Dr. Seuss books, and singing songs “Clap, Clap, Clap your get us all the way there. With just a little more effort, we can
Hands” where children clap to syllables. become Super-Parents to our Super-Kids.
By Liza McFadden, President, Volunteer USA Foundation
www.volunteerusafoundation.org
50 March 2009 |
www.siparent.com
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