TEN WAYS TO SUPPORT EARLY YEARS READING

Reading can take us to far-off places, live an alternative life or see another culture — reading gives you wings, yet it is a struggle for many and a chore for some. I have compiled a list of 10 playful ways to encourage reading in your home so you and your children enjoy the journey, have fun from the start and understand the process.

All the early literacy resources found in this post are in my shop. Print your own resources are perfect for home or classroom use. Lose them, need more — just save the file and print more as needed.

Use sounds in conjunction with names Old habits die hard and there are still too many people teaching children the ay bee see and focusing only on letter names and capitals — Yes letter names matter, as they form categories the sounds sit in, however, in the early days, es you en doesn’t say sun /s/ /u/ /n/ does. Teaching from the sounds we say will build words from the beginning and manipulating these sounds is the game-changer that builds strong proficient fluent readers. Discussion about letters and sounds will implicitly help your child to develop letter name awareness as we use them all the time. When teaching your child to decode words always use the sound, not the letter name.

Ten ways you can help your child succeed with reading before they enter a classroom 1. DON’T RUSH Make the first five years all about playing with books and language. Make reading part of everyday life. The simple act of reading and talking with your children will develop the necessary language needed for learning to read later on. Learning to read is a process that takes time, do it too early and the brain just isn’t ready — it’s kind of like forcing walking or potty training before your little one can.

2. BEDTIME STORIES Proven to help reading success, however, if that time doesn’t suit it could always be a before dinner/ after-dinner story… in the bath story or a brushing your teeth story. As long as we read stories and we take time to indulge in storytelling regularly the actual time we read them doesn’t matter, the time taken matters!

3. MAKE YOUR HOME A LITERACY RICH ENVIRONMENT Make books and a variety of materials available. Seeing family and friends read for lots of different reasons is important as this will instil good reading behaviours. It doesn’t just have to be a story — It could be a recipe book, list, leaflets in a doctor’s waiting room or the free magazine from a local grocery store. These are all reasons adults read and your children might not even be aware of how many materials you read in a day.

4. GO TO THE LIBRARY

Go to the library regularly and loan books of interest, both fiction and non-fiction. Libraries are for preschoolers too- yes, even those at that loud voice/ fast little leg stage! Many libraries have story time and art and craft activities for preschoolers, our local library also has clubs available after school. Check with your local library to see what they offer. Perth has quite a few little free libraries that we love to visit. Have a look and see if your town has one, if not why not start one? I just started one at our local primary school.

5. MATCHING GAMES We love matching games and turning traditional games like Snap, Face Up or Matching Pairs into learning activities. Whilst playing talk about the sounds you can hear when you name the pictures. Listening for the individual sounds is a skill that takes time and effort to master. Playing with letter symbols and saying the sounds will reinforce the shapes of the letters and the sound to symbol correspondence. Playful games are great skill builders. Match pictures to the sounds you say in the beginning and move on to match pictures to symbols.

6. PLAY ACTIVE GAMES Kids love to move and some learn really well when active. Toss bean bags to a given letter. Write the letters on ping pong balls and get your kids to say the sound as they toss the ball into the right picture/letter card bucket. Draw letters on the floor outside with chalk and get your child to say the sounds as they squirt the letters with their water guns or jump on each letter as we call the sound out. Paint the letters outside with water and say the sounds as you do it. Sometimes active learning is the most fun. Kids need space and time to learn. The preschool years have to be all about fun and playful learning. Saying the sounds is key and connecting the sounds to the letter symbols truly aids the reading process later on.

7. RHYMING GAMES Read lots of nursery rhymes and rhyming stories as hearing the repetitive text and rhyming words develops language awareness. One of our favourite activities is to go on a rhyming scavenger hunt around our home and find cards or objects that rhyme. We can then make rhyming strings, eg cat, hat, bat, sat or make silly rhyming sentences. If your child struggles to hear the rhyme, it can take time. Help your child pull the words apart and manipulate the sounds to build words. /c/ /a/ /t/ let’s take away the /c/ what do we have… blend the /a/ /t/ together to get at and repeat the word Let’s add another letter /h/ /a/ /t/ hat and discuss the ending of both words. The hand-painted A-Z picture cards are in store now. Click here to check them out. Use alphabet picture cards or flashcards and take it in turns to take a card and make a rhyming sentence such as – The cat has a hat

To begin with, model what needs to happen until your little people get the hang of it. Verbally playing about with rhyme will train little ears to hear individual sounds in words. Manipulating sounds in words is a key skill for reading later on.

8. GO ON A SOUNDS WALK OR HUNT Can you hear the bus, bee, digger etc? Learning to hear sounds in the environment can help little people to, discriminate between sounds in words. Find more listening games that encourage early reading skills here.

Extend this activity to look at the variety of signs, number plates and environmental language in your local area.

Try it indoors too with pictures and later on letters – go on a sounds scavenger hunt around the house and hide letter sounds cards or find objects/pictures beginning with the sounds you are focusing on.

9. MAKE IT MULTISENSORY In the beginning, learning to read should be about playful skill-building and not a chore. Use sand, rice or lentils to hide some letters for your little ones to find. Draw in salt or make letters out of Playdough.Rice, salt and Playdough are wonderful materials for sensory play, hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.

10. PLAY LISTENING GAMES Listening games help to develop an awareness of sound. Read all about listening games and why they are so good for reading development here. Check out the growing range of hand-painted, research-based early literacy resources in my shop.