Literacy At Home

Reading At Home

Daily Reading

Reading once a day to your child can increase their future success in reading and writing. This is why it is so important to begin this habit of reading everyday as early as possible. As with most things, it is way easier to say we are going to read to our kids everyday... but it is much harder to do it! Here are some tips on how to stay consistent:

-Make it a part of your daily schedule: Find the best time during the day, maybe right when they wake up or perhaps the more common time, right before bed.

-Keep track: Make it a habit to mark it on a paper somewhere. You could mark it with stickers or even record what book you read that day.

Pro Tip:

Have small baskets of books throughout the entire house. Try to switch these books out or rotate them.
Print is everywhere! If you do not have access to many books here are some alternatives: Junk mail, letters, magazines, cereal boxes, cookbooks, menus, and books online.

How to Get the Most Out of Your Daily Reading

Getting your hands on books:

Having a variety of books in your home is a wonderful way to really encourage reading in the home, but can often become very expensive. Here are some alternatives to purchasing books:

Going to your local Library! Here is the website to Williamston's : https://www.cadl.org/about/our-locations/williamston
Local library book sales
Find used books online or at garage sales
Ask a family member or friend (They may have books that their children have outgrown.)
Trade/ Rotate books with a family member or friend (To make sure you get your books back, mark them with a symbol or your name)
Classroom lending libraries (Ask your child's teacher to borrow books)

Questions to ask:

Before Reading

What is happening on the cover of the book?
Hmm... the title of the book is.... I wonder what this story is going to be about? What do you think?
I wonder what information I can find on the back of the book?

During Reading

How do you think the character feels?
What is going to happen next? How do you know?
What do you think is the problem in this story?
If I were the character/person... I would feel...
Did something like that every happen to you?
Hmm... it says that (the character) was (challenging word) what do you think that word means?
What other (animals/characters/etc.) do that?
This reminds me of....
I wonder....

After Reading

How did you feel about that story?
What was your favorite part?
Can you tell (dad, sister, grandpa, etc.) about the story we just read?
Did the story remind you of anything?
What were the new words we learned in the book?
Is there anything in the book that you would like to learn more about?

Preschool Literacy Goals

Recognizing their name and the letters in it
Know letters of the alphabet out of order
Recognizing sounds of letters
Understand rhyme (recognizing and creating rhymes)
Use books correctly and name the parts of books
Recall information from a text
Retells stories
Uses pictures to help tell or retell the story
Interacts during read aloud
Understand that some words start with the same letter

Common Misconceptions

Children who make up stories for a text aren't reading and should be corrected: No! Most children will use the pictures and/or previous readings of the text to retell or make up the story. This skill allows them to develop skills such as retelling, picture reading, comprehension, print concepts and imagination. Let the child read their version of the story to you. Ask them questions about their story! You can even write it down and then read the actual text to them to compare and contrast the two stories

Other Ways to Promote Literacy In the Home

Here are some of the ways that we think are extremely important to incorporate:

Read every day (I cannot stress the importance!!!)
Point to and occasionally count words in a story
Ask questions before, during, and after reading to your child
Reread books
Look for letters (In books, around the house, etc.)
Sing songs and learn nursery rhymes
Play with language (its okay to make up words and even use made up words to rhyme)
Have child friendly explanations for words
Play games! (Board games, verbal games such as "I spy")
Have their name written in a few places in your house, have the alphabet displayed, as well

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