All posts by Children's Staff

About Children's Staff

This post was written by the staff of the Children's Room. Contact Nicole Giroux, Head of Children's for more information.

#5 and #6 tips to ENABLE your child to read

Kids, Stories, Tips

#5  Learn Words  stop_sign

Help your child learn new words every day.  We build a baby’s vocabulary by saying the names of everyday objects.  Once a child begins to talk, we teach the names of animals and what they say; we teach colors, etc.  The more we speak with children, the more words they will learn.

Talk to your child about many things.  Ask many questions.

question#6 Encourage Questions

Help your child ask and answer questions.  Take guesses about what will happen next.  Was that character serious or just kidding?  Make up a similar story that has a different beginning, middle or end.

Enjoy books.
Notice that letters on the pages stand for words.
Apply sounds to letters.
Blend sounds together to make words.
Learn more and more words.
Encourage questions.

We do these things already.  It’s great to pause and think about the importance of all the small things in life.  And to realize how awesome are the results of all these little things…

~Maureen

Dads and Donuts in February

Books for Preschoolers, Kids, Stories

Many members of the Children’s staff take turns leading our monthly Dads and Donuts storytime.  It has been quite awhile since I had the pleasure.  I love this storytime!  Please join us on the 2nd Saturday of every month at 10:30 am.  We had so much to talk about today.

Today was Valentine’s Day, so I began with Valentine Mice! Image of item

Image of item  There is a big storm coming.  Children love snow.  Adults feel as though we are living in the middle of a snow globe, and someone keeps shaking it.  This book was perfect.

We’ve had so much snow that parents may want to say, “Yuck!” at the thought of more… Image of item

Rather than Chinese New Year, I prefer to call it the Spring Festival.  Thinking about spring is wonderful right now.  This is the year of the Goat/Sheep.  So we read Punk Farm.

Image of item  We ended with The End (Almost) Starring me, Donut!  of course we did.  🙂

Image of item~Maureen

#4 Blend Sounds

Kids, Tips

E N A B L E your child to read  Hickory-Dickory-Dock

E stands for Enjoy books
N stands for Notice words
A stands for Apply sounds

B stands for Blend sounds

Help your child hear sounds that blend to make words.

Use nursery rhymes and finger plays to introduce speech sounds.

Pronounce words emphasizing all the small sounds that blend together.

Ask what word rhymes with Cat.  And then ask what else rhymes with Cat.

~Maureen

#3 Apply Sounds

Kids, Tips

E N A B L E your child to read

E stands for Enjoy books
N stands for Notice Words
A stands for Apply Sounds

Singing222Sing the Alphabet song slowly, pronouncing each letter.

Image of item

Teach your child the sounds the letters make.

Alphabet books help identify the shapes of letters.  These picture books have an ABC sticker on the spine to make them easy to find.

 

Picture dictionaries have many words for each letter.  Image of item