Category: Literacy Tips

It’s pretty simple… More than 30 years of education research boils down to these two basic facts about reading enjoyment and achievement (from Jim Trelease, The Read-Aloud Handbook (7th edition), pages 6-7). Right now, we are the sole influences in our child’s reading lives. We must be modeling reading for them (I think I may need a whole post on that…), we must make reading pleasurable for them, and we must ensure that they are reading (both listening to books and reading/looking at books).

Because remember, as humans, we do things over and over again when they bring us pleasure, and we avoid things that bring displeasure or pain. Is reading pleasing to your child? What can you do to make the at-home reading experience more pleasurable?

And, just like riding a bike, hitting a baseball, or playing the piano, in order to get better at reading, we must practice it. The more we read, the better we get at it. Over and over again, research findings show that “students who read the most also read the best, achieve the most, and stay in school the longest.” (Trelease, page 7) Continue reading “Reading “Facts of Life”” →

At this point in school cancellations and shelter-in-place, you’ve likely seen the advice that if you only do one “school” thing a day, choose reading (either independent reading time or read-aloud time). And this advice is given for good reason — research shows that both the amount of time children spend reading and the amount they are read to are strongly correlated to academic performance in all subjects down the road (Jim Trelease thoroughly documents research on both read aloud time and sustained silent reading time in his book The Read-Aloud Handbook).

So, how’s that reading time going for you all? As you can imagine, the read-aloud time comes naturally in our house, so we just continued on with our normal read alouds (take a moment to read my Practical Tips for Making Read-Aloud Time Easier if you’re struggling with read-aloud time in your house). However, we’ve never had a formal time for everyone in the house to read independently. We’ve been given the gift of time, though, so there was no time like the present to make independent reading part of our daily ritual, too! Read on for some ideas on motivating your children to read independently. Continue reading “Book Baskets and Daily Independent Reading Time” →

I’m coming at you today with an incredibly short and sweet way to combine your quarantine home-school literacy learning a P. E. class– the alphabet scavenger hunt! Brainchild of my amazing husband, this alphabet scavenger hunt reinvigorated family enthusiasm for our daily morning walk around the block AND helped the girls practice some of their reading and writing skills! Read on for a very brief description of this amazing family project. Continue reading “A Quick and Easy Literacy (and “P.E.”) Activity for Different Ages” →

Is it just in our house, or is the “L-M-N-O-P” part of the traditional alphabet song really hard for children to hear, decipher, and then translate to actually written letters of the alphabet? Surely other children out there besides our own have believed the middle of the alphabet consisted of one long, hard-to-say letter called “eleminopee,” right? Anyway, you can imagine how excited I was when our older daughter came home from her prekindergarten class one day singing the alphabet song a new and different way– a way that made each of those middle letters unique, individual sounds! Keep reading for the magical words to this version (sung to the same tune, by the way…), as well as a video of my girls modeling this edition! Continue reading “An Amazing Alphabet Song Hack” →