I’m pretty confident in most of the parenting decisions that I make. I have an obsessive personality so I really think and plan things out. I don’t have many regrets but I do have one that’s big: I wish I had spent more time with Kate on learning activities.
Kate was always super smart. She was fully verbal by 12 months old and by 14 months old she was regularly using 5 word sentences to communicate with us. By 3 she knew all her letter sounds (thank you Letter Factory*!) and could count to 20.
Before having kids I was an elementary school teacher. I taught 3rd and 1st grades. I know how important education is and I know how important learning to read is. I also know how frustrating it is to kids (and teachers) when you have a student who knows all the material. I was afraid that Kate would get bored in school if she knew too much. So although Kate was already ahead, I didn’t do any additional work with her. A big part of this was probably the fact that I had 3 children in just over 3 years. I was busier than I thought I’d be.
Kate went to a play & learn preschool, which means that they believe that children learn through play. I love this style of preschool. It focuses on the whole child and not just what they should be learning academically. She loved it there and we loved it, as well. A friend took her children to whale watching california as a whole learning experience all while they were pre-school age, I’m glad this worked for her and I think I will plan something like that for my children when I get the chance.
When she went to Kindergarten she was a little behind. We weren’t too worried, because I was a teacher, remember? I know how quickly kids grasp concepts and how once the ball gets rolling, it just keeps going. Except that she didn’t want the ball to get rolling. She gravitated to science and if it were up to her, she would have spent all of her time learning about that alone.
It’s funny now how I should have seen that coming. She loves animals and learning how things work. She’s enthralled with nature and space. I didn’t imagine that I wouldn’t raise a reader. Or a writer. After all, she’s my kid, right? At least that was what I thought.
Early and frequent exposure to learning activities leads to greater success in children learning to read. I’ve seen this happen. In some ways I think if I had done more learning activities she would have been more excited about reading and it wouldn’t be so hard for her now.
Recently I was able to check out Nemours Children’s Health System’s website, Reading Bright Start. I sat in on a webinar that was about their mission to promote reading readiness so that children will be successful in reading, from birth to age 5.
As I browsed their website, the teacher in me was revitalized. It was the first time in 7 years that I actually missed teaching.
Here’s what I LOVE about it:
The Reading Skills by age section covers from birth to age 5. For age birth through 35 months old, there is a list of Pre-Reading milestones you can work on with your child. They are broken into categories of Motor Skills, Language & Cognitive, Helping at Home, and Warning Signs. As you can imagine, the earliest activities are as simple as singing and talking to your baby and expand to turning pages in a book. For the 3-5 year old, the milestones become Reading Readiness skills that span from knowing how to hold a book to writing their name from memory.
The Pre-Reading skills are broken into information on Oral Language, Letter Knowledge, Phonological Awareness, and Beginning Writing. There’s a wealth of knowledge that any one can understand. I actually wish I would have had this handy when I was teaching. Parents could really benefit from knowing the language and phrasing that teachers speak.
As amazing as all that other information is, my absolute favorite part of the website is the At-Home Activities section. It breaks down activities you can do at home by skill and age. I can tell you that Rebecca (who is 4) and I have done quite a few of these already and we both love them. She especially loves the Story Bags (perhaps because she’s such a talker!).
The Recommended Books is a great section, as well. There were quite a few books in there that we have not read so we’ve added them to our reading list.
After all that information you might be wondering what I didn’t like about the Reading Bright Start website. There is ONE thing. I did not like that it ends at age 5. And that’s just me, maybe being selfish. I wish that there were activities on there that I could still use with Kate (7) and Caroline (6).
This website is such a great resource to go to for activities to do with your child. There’s no longer a need to look up different activities – they are all now in one place. Another great resource you could use to help your children, or your students if you’re an educator, would be the WordMint puzzle maker which allows you to make a crossword puzzle from scratch using your own words. Crosswords are great activities and have proved effective in strengthening memory and recollection for a given subject.
How often do you do learning activities with your kids?
xoxo
–k
{ I was gifted reading readiness products from
Nemours for my post, but obviously the opinions (and story) are mine. }
*This link is an affiliate link. What does that mean? It means if you click on the link to purchase this product I get a few pennies for every dollar, at no additional cost to you. Basically, in a year I’ll be able to take the girls out to ice cream. 😉
Kristina Grum is a Certified Parent Educator who has over a decade of experience working with children, including being a classroom teacher. She currently teaches parenting classes in her local area and writes about shifting parenthood from barely surviving to thriving.
