A child’s early years are important for them to develop a love for books and the process of reading.
Read together every day!
Read to your child every day. Establish a fixed, warm time and make it an opportunity to embrace and discover things together through the magical world of books!
Know when to stop!
If your child loses interest, simply put the book away for a while. Do not continue reading if you are not enjoying it.
Read it over and over again!
Your child will probably want to hear a favourite story over and over again. Encourage him or her to read the same book even for the 100th time! Surveys show that repeated readings help children develop language skills.
Pre-school concepts we learn naturally:
- Categorization: We take various small or large objects found while walking in the countryside e.g. stones, leaves, shells, sticks, etc., and divide them into groups-categories according to a characteristic such as size, colour, property
- Matching one by one: This means that we must match each object with another one e.g. each stone with one person. So let them share a stone with each member in the group.
- Pattern-Sequence: Build an easy, repetitive array of objects such as stone-shell-sand and let the child repeat it in exactly the same way. Help with questions if it is difficult, for example, ‘Whose turn is it after the stone?’
- Ordering: Here we have to order a series of objects according to the size that we have chosen e.g. leaves from the smallest to the biggest, stones from the lightest to the heaviest, etc.
Help your child to love and cultivate literacy!
- Let your child use writing tools such as pencils, markers, pieces of chalk and crayons. Collect and organize these materials, along with some paper, in a box which your child can decorate as they wish.
- Show your child that written words are a part of everyday life. From grocery lists and emails, to billboards and store signs, writing is everywhere!
- Encourage your child to write what they think their favourite stories say or create imaginary tales together, illustrating the story and writing the dialogues.
- Let your child write words on the computer and show them how to print them!
- Label your child’s belongings and let him write titles and names on their own!
- Write your supermarket or greengrocer’s shopping list with your child!
