Tag Archives: literacy

Normal Stages of Reading with a Baby or Toddler

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As I’ve been through Reading 1000 Books before Kindergarten with my two oldest kids, I’ve realized that there are various “stages” of reading with children, especially reading with my babies. I started reading with my babies from their infancy, and my third child is nearly two. My thoughts on baby-reading stages are based on my personal observations of three different babies in a house that is full of book-lovers. It’s not scientific. Still, it’s a reminder that it is never to young to start reading with a baby!

When my son was a baby, I visited the library for myself mainly. On one particular day, when he was about six months old, I handed him a baby board book to hold as he sat in the stroller so he had something to hold while I searched for my book of choice. Imagine my surprise when an older lady commented, “Don’t you think he’s a bit too young?”

I’ve thought about that many times in the past 9 years. No, ma’am, I don’t think my son was too young for a book! Was he maybe too young to treat it with gentle reverence? Probably. But babies are never to young for books.

Babies are never too young for you to start reading to them. Read to your baby even if it puts her to sleep! Eventually she'll want to eat it, then read it, and finally love it!
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Why Read 1000 Books Before Kindergarten?

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Reading 1000 books before kindergarten gives your child a great head start towards literacy, an amazing advantage in vocabulary exposure, and it's a lot of fun!

When you consider the number 1000, it sounds like a lot. To read that many books with your zero to five year old child seems outrageous. Why a challenge to read 1000 books before kindergarten? Reading 1000 books before kindergarten helps kids get an important foundation in literacy that will impact them for their whole lives.

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Writing in the Snow Picture Book Lesson

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In the book In the Snow by Huy Voun Lee, Xiao Ming and his mother walk in newly fallen snow and his mother shows him Chinese characters by writing them in the snow. They discuss how the characters look like the items they are describing. Despite our lack of snow in Chicagoland this season,we made our own snow and practiced writing in the snow at our kitchen table, making English letters rather than Chinese characters as they did in the picture book.

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Vegetables Learning Activities

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My daughter has fallen in love with VeggieTales, which is now on Netflix! She loves that each episode ends with a reminder of God’s love for each of us, and I must admit that I like that too. We also happened to read a number of fun books about vegetables (named below), so this week we have been focusing on some vegetables learning activities!

Learning about vegetables can be fun.
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Encouraging Independent Quiet Time for a Preschooler

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If there is one thing my preschooler does not like, it is being alone: playing alone, resting alone, eating alone. You name it, she always wants someone right by her side to talk with her, to listen to her, and to be with her. She is an exuberant personality that loves company. Always.
I am, however, more of an introvert. Her constant company is exhausting. I love it, but it is exhausting. I’ve been working for years to try to get my no-longer-napping youngster to take an independent quiet time break each afternoon. In the past month, I’ve finally found a way to encourage independent quiet time for my preschooler: audiobooks, especially Playaways. Audiobooks have helped my daughter have independent quiet time each day.
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