Literacy is the ability to interpret and use written forms of communication. There are many skills that your child will need to learn how to read and write—however, the most valuable thing you can teach your child might be an attitude. Children who develop a love of reading at a young age are more successful readers in school. Take the time now to share books and stories with your child.
Skills and Readiness
Before your child is easy to learn letter idenfication and phonics, there are many tore skills that you can focus on. For a child to be ready to learn to read, she needs to develop auditory memory and auditory discrimination as well as visual memory and discrimination. Memory is recalling and recognising sounds or images. Discrimination is the ability to distinguish the difference in sounds or images. Your child also needs to learn the symbolic nature of written language—in other words, that words are talk written down. Additionally, building your child’s vocabulary will also help her with reading later on.
Do You Remember
Help your child develop her visual memory with this game. Try doing more objects as your child matures.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 30-40 months
Duration of activity: 10 minutes
What you need:
A selection of items from outside or round the house
Blanket of screen
1. Show your child 3 or 4 common objects or toys. Encourage her to name them.
2. Hide the items.
3. Challenge your child to recall and tell you what objects are hidden.
Captions
This is a fantastic way to show your child that words are talk written down. You child will be particularly motivated to “read” her own words.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 30-40 months
Duration of activity: 10 minutes
What you need:
Crayons or markers
Bond paper
Picture book (optional)
1. Whenever your child draws or paints a picture, ask her to tell you about what she created. Write down her words, and create a caption for the art wrk. Be sure to read it back to her.
2. As an alternative, you can show your child photos or pictures in a book. Invite her to supply a carton by asking her to tell a story about the picture. Again, be sure to write down and review her words.
Does Not Belong
This activity teaches visual discrimination in the same way a the well-known Sesame Street song, “One of These Things is Not Like the Other.” You can make many game pieces in varying degrees of complication.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 30-40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
What you need:
Ruler
Light-coloured construction or bond paper
Markers or crayons
1. Using the ruler, draw Iines to divide each sheet of paper into 4 equal sections.
2. Draw or color identical shapes or pictures in 3 of the sections. Choose a different square on each sheet to leave blank.
3. Draw an item that is different from the others in the fourth square. For example, you may have 3 squares and 1 orange, 3 red dots and 1 blue dot, or 3 dogs and 1 cat.
4. Ask your child to identify the object that is different.
What Did You Say?
Enhance your child’s listening skills and auditory discrimination with this silly activity.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 30-40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
1. Review a picture book or magazine with your child.
2. As you are browsing the pictures, point to different objects and identify them. Ask your child to listen closely.
3. On occasion, intentionally misidentify a picture. For example, point to a picture of a car and say “can,” or point to a picture of a boat nd say “goat.”
4. Have your child stop you when she catches you making a mistake. As her to say the word correctly.
Who Said That?
This fun game will help your child with auditory memory skills. You can also play this game using sounds from common household objects that make distinctive noises, such as an alarm clock or telephone.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 25 minutes
What you need:
White craft glue
Photos or magazine pictures of animals, index cards
Recording of animal sounds that match the pictures
1. Glue the pictures to the index cards.
2. Play the recording of animal sounds. As your child which picture shows the animal that makes that sound.
Using Books
A love for books and reading is a gift that will last your child a lifetime. Remember books are not meant to be decorations to be gazed a from afar. If you are worried that your toddler will rip or chew or book, buy him books that are made to be extra durable. Let your child have the opportunity look at books and peruse the pictures. These activities are a great way to use books as a springboard for further literacy development.
Creative Reenactment
This activity will help your child with story comprehension, memory, and creativity. A simpler variation of this activity is to have your child act out specific motions that are mentioned in the story. For example, you might ask your child, “Can you huff and puff like the big bad wolf?”
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
1. Review a well-known and beloved picture book or story with your child.
2. As you slowly read or recite the tale, have your child act out the drama.
A New Story
Engage your child’s imagination and build his vocabulary with this activity. It is interesting to see the differences between your child’s story and the original.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 30-40 minutes
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
What you need:
1 new picture book
1. Present a new picture book to your child, and ask him to examine the pictures.
2. Ask him to guess and describe what is happening in the story. For young children, each picture will have its own tale. You can help your older child link the sequence of he pictures together for a more involved story.
3. If you wish, you can extend this activity by asking your child to draw his own picture to supplement his story. Perhaps his picture can depict what he thinks will happen next.
Story Songs
Here is a fun way to help your child learn story sequence and motivate him to look at books.
Activity for an individual child
Age group: 30-40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
1. Share with your children some of the classic songs that tell a story. Some popular ones include “Froggy Went A-Counting,” “I Know an Old Lady,” and “Three Ships Have I.”
2. Select a picture book the illustrates a song that your child knows. Let him read and sing along with you.
Storytelling
Long before the invention of the printing press, fables, myths, and tales were being shared with young children. Each time the tale was told, it was shaped by the teller’s interpretion and expression. Today there are literally thousands of wonderful boos available for children. But you shouldn’t be afraid, once in awhile, to put down a book and spin a yarn for your young child. You have the opportunity to bring a story to life. Use different voices and facial expressions to add interest. Encouranging children to make up stories is a great way to facilitate imagination as well as promote both early verbal and written literacy skills. Get started by involving children as you develop a tale.
Story in a Bag
Here is a way you can soak your child’s creativity and encourage her to create her own stories.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 30-40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
What you need:
5 or 6 common objects
1 paper bag
1. Place 5 or 6 common objects into a paper bag. Suggested items include keys, a bell, a comb, and a flower.
2. Have your child remove the items from the bag. You can either have your child look at all of the items at once, or have her remove the object one at a time. Help her create a story incorporating these items. For example, “One day a man hard a bell ring. He combed his hair. He used his keys to lock his door and he took a flower from his friend.”
3. Consider having your child draw illustrations for her story. Alternatively, write down her story so that you can reread it together.
Fill-in Story
This is a silly activity, like the school-age game of Mad-Libs. Each story will be unique.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
What you need:
White craft glue
Magazine pictures of animals and objects
Index cards
1. Glue the pictures to the index cards, and place them in a hat.
2. Recite a well-known nursery rhyme or fairy tale. Stop at points in the story where a substitution can be made. Ask your child to pull a card from a hat.
3. Substitute the new word into the story for a silly result. For example, “Little Red Riding Hood was taking a basket to her grandmother. Her mom reminded her to take flowers with her also” might become, “Little Red Riding Hood was taking a rake to her grandmother. Her mom reminded her to take kittens with her also.”
Next Line, Please
This is a game that can be played by all members in your family. This is a great activity for long plane rides or when you have to wait somewhere.
Activity for an individual child or a group.
Age group: 30-40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
1. Each person takes a turn by adding a sentence to the evolving story. The adult may need to keep the story somewhat on track.
2. You new story may evolve like this:
Parent: One day there was a bear who.
Child: Lived in a house.
Parent: This bear was hungry and.
Child: The likes toys.
Parent: So they got together to get lunch and to the the toy store. When they got there they saw.
4. Consider having your child draw illustrations for her story. Write down her story so that you can reread it together.
Verbal Games
You can engage your toddler in verbal games in just about any place at any time. These games promote his vocabulary development, expressive language skills, auditory memory, auditory discrimination, and listening skills. Additionally, young children are often very fond of these activities as the feature interaction with you!
Rhyme Time
This activity will help your child with auditory discrimination skills and build his vocabulary.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 30-40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
What you need:
White craft glue
Magazine pictures of animals and objects
Index cards
1. Glue the pictures to the index cards.
2. Show your child a card, and have him identify the picture.
3. Ask him to generate rhymes for the picture. Not al rhymes have to be real words. For example, if the picture is of a cat, potential rhymes could include bat, fat, gat, lat, and mat.
Echo Echo
Your child’s auditory memory will improve rapidly as he plays this game. Using words with similar sounds will also help him with auditory discrimination. There are also many popular songs that feature echoes.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
1. Ask your child to repeat what you say to him.
2. Start very slowly and simply and gradually add complexity. You can add complexity by using nonsense words, words that sound alike, or by simply extending the length of your message.
Play Phone
What better way to get your child talking and build vocabulary than to have him use the phone?
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 18-40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
What you need:
Toy phone (or unplugged real one)
Encourage your child to pretend to call a friend or loved one. Your child will probably not need much encouragement. Don’t be surprised if he carries on full conversations, imagining the other person’s part.
Flannel-Board Activities
Discover what many preschool teachers already knows, that flannel boards are a great way to engage young children in a story. You can make the story more concrete and involve the child directly. You may choose to buy a ready-made felt-board kit, or can make one yourself with some felt scraps and Velcro.
Story Board
Here is a fun way to bring a story to life. You can also use nursery rhymes and simple poems with this activity.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 30-40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
What you need:
Scissors
Felt
Flannel board
White craft glue
1. Choose a well-known simple story to illustrate.
2. Cut out felt pieces in the shapes of the main characters and props, For the story “Th Three Billy Goats Gruff,” you would need three goats, a troll, and a bridge.
3. Recite the story and have your child glue the pieces onto the flannel board to match the action of the tale.
Outline Match
Your toddler will have fun while learning about shapes and developing skills in visual discrimination and problem solving.
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 30-40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
What you need:
Scissors
Felt
Flannel or felt board
White chalk
1. Cut out a variety of shapes and figures from the felt.
2. Place the pieces on the flannel board and outline them with the chalk.
3. Challenge your child to fit the pieces inside the outlines.
Making Books
What better way to help your child develop a love of books than to have her create a book of her own? You can bet your child will be more motivated to read when she is reading her own words. As your child grows, you may with to continue this practice. Books can become more involved and may feature ABCs or something of special interest to the child, such as family pets or hobbies. This activity will also help your child understand the symbolic use of words.
Scrapbook
Scrapbooking has become a very popular hobby. Why not let your toddle create a scrapbook of her own?
Activity for an individual child.
Age group: 30-40 months
Duration of activity: 15 minutes
What you need:
Photographs
Mementos and souvenirs
Scrapbook/photo album
Scissors
Index cards
Markers
1. Let your child select the photos and mementos she wants to include in her scrapbook.
2. Cut the index cars into strips use as labels.
3. Encourage your child to dictate a label or even a short commentary for each item in the book. Attach the label to the scrapbook.
Texture Book
Your young child will delight in creating a book that she can handle and feel whenever she wants.
Activity for an individual child
Age group: 18-30 months
Duration of activity: 20 minutes
What you need:
Hole punch
Sheets of thin craft foam
Notebook ring
A variety of fabrics with different textures
White craft glue
1. Punch a hole in the top left corner of each foam sheet.
2. Attach the sheets with the notebook ring.
3. Have your child choose fabric scraps to use in the book Suggested materials include corduroy, denim, burlap, silk, wool, and nylon.
4. Help your child glue a fabric swatch to each bag of the book.
5. “Read” the book with your child by encouraging her to touch the materials. Guide her, using words to describer what she feels.