Everyday Enrichments will benefit you in your teaching and your child in his learning on a daily basis. These suggestions, mini tutorials, or tidbits if you will, are best when incorporated into everyday life.
1. Keep books accessible at all times. Books at and beyond your child's reading level should be accessible to him/her at all times. Teach your child how to care for books and instill a respect for books now. Teach them the different parts of a book(i.e. front, back, spine, cover, jacket etc.). Teach them how to properly hold a book and turn pages. Show them how to put a book on a shelf, spine side out, and explain why.
2. Make good use of your local library and allow your child to do some picking. As books should be available at all times, new books should be explored often. The library can become one of the most exciting places for a kid, as it holds all the adventures any kid could imagine. I suggest marking your calendar with regular "library days." Your child will enjoy looking forward to it and it provides great structure and responsibility. She will know "these books go back, and I can get new ones." When you have time read a book or two while at the library, it's just a nice added bonus. Save some fuss by having the same, maximum, set number of books to be checked out each visit. Wether it be 3 or 6 your child will learn to choose wisely and not get overwhelmed(and if they only want "1 this time" let it be). Your child's age is a good number to use and they will love getting one more book with each growing year.
3. Read easy books. Familiar books that may seem easy and boring to you are not at all to a pre-reader or new reader. Memorization is a normal process for young book lovers, do not fret if you see your child "reading" and you know it is just memorization. Give praise where praise is due, how many books have you memorized verbatim in the past year? And think, you have been the one reading them. When your child has begun to read "easy readers" it is good to allow your chid to read books they know, this encourages fluency. They are "reading" not working to sound out words and there is a great difference. As your child's skills increase so will his desire for the next level. Listen to what he is telling you, if he says "this book is too hard" believe him, read it to him instead, and don't have him sounding out every other word on every other page, just read it to him. You may be surprised to find him picking it up to try again tomorrow.
4. Remember to use all lowercase letters when writing words for your child. It’s not too early to tell your child that capitals are used for the first letter in “actual names of people or places only.” No worries about them actually getting the concept, we are planting seeds and it will all click one day and they will know that they know, that they KNOW that! If you write a name with new letters you are using, capitalize it and remind them why.
5. Play with play-dough. Lots of fun and great for fine motor skill strengthening.
Here is my favorite homemade recipe:
- mix 2 cups all purpose flour, 1 cup salt, 2 teaspoons cream of tarter
-dissolve 1 package, no sugar added, kool-aid(any color/flavor) to 2 cups boiling water
- in a large bowl begin mixing flour mixture and water and add 4 tablespoons vegetable oil.
- have your child mix all ingredients together by hand until you achieve the texture that suits you best. You can add flour to stiffen it or water to loosen it, just be sure to add very small bits at a time.
- store the finished play-dough in a zip lock bag at room temperature.
HAVE FUN!
1. Keep books accessible at all times. Books at and beyond your child's reading level should be accessible to him/her at all times. Teach your child how to care for books and instill a respect for books now. Teach them the different parts of a book(i.e. front, back, spine, cover, jacket etc.). Teach them how to properly hold a book and turn pages. Show them how to put a book on a shelf, spine side out, and explain why.
2. Make good use of your local library and allow your child to do some picking. As books should be available at all times, new books should be explored often. The library can become one of the most exciting places for a kid, as it holds all the adventures any kid could imagine. I suggest marking your calendar with regular "library days." Your child will enjoy looking forward to it and it provides great structure and responsibility. She will know "these books go back, and I can get new ones." When you have time read a book or two while at the library, it's just a nice added bonus. Save some fuss by having the same, maximum, set number of books to be checked out each visit. Wether it be 3 or 6 your child will learn to choose wisely and not get overwhelmed(and if they only want "1 this time" let it be). Your child's age is a good number to use and they will love getting one more book with each growing year.
3. Read easy books. Familiar books that may seem easy and boring to you are not at all to a pre-reader or new reader. Memorization is a normal process for young book lovers, do not fret if you see your child "reading" and you know it is just memorization. Give praise where praise is due, how many books have you memorized verbatim in the past year? And think, you have been the one reading them. When your child has begun to read "easy readers" it is good to allow your chid to read books they know, this encourages fluency. They are "reading" not working to sound out words and there is a great difference. As your child's skills increase so will his desire for the next level. Listen to what he is telling you, if he says "this book is too hard" believe him, read it to him instead, and don't have him sounding out every other word on every other page, just read it to him. You may be surprised to find him picking it up to try again tomorrow.
4. Remember to use all lowercase letters when writing words for your child. It’s not too early to tell your child that capitals are used for the first letter in “actual names of people or places only.” No worries about them actually getting the concept, we are planting seeds and it will all click one day and they will know that they know, that they KNOW that! If you write a name with new letters you are using, capitalize it and remind them why.
5. Play with play-dough. Lots of fun and great for fine motor skill strengthening.
Here is my favorite homemade recipe:
- mix 2 cups all purpose flour, 1 cup salt, 2 teaspoons cream of tarter
-dissolve 1 package, no sugar added, kool-aid(any color/flavor) to 2 cups boiling water
- in a large bowl begin mixing flour mixture and water and add 4 tablespoons vegetable oil.
- have your child mix all ingredients together by hand until you achieve the texture that suits you best. You can add flour to stiffen it or water to loosen it, just be sure to add very small bits at a time.
- store the finished play-dough in a zip lock bag at room temperature.
HAVE FUN!
6. Sound out letters your child may put together to make a word, wether real or not. Sound it out and say, “I can read it even though it is not a real word.” This is helping them understand that letters make sounds no matter what.
