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The Editor's Desk - From Beneath the Clutter
Feature Article - Be Involved in Helping Your Child Learn to Read
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Well, if summer's going to be this hot in my area, we're in for quite a year. Two days in a row already breaking 100 degrees F outside. Thank goodness today is supposed to be significantly cooler. That's quite a relief. This weather has been hard on the garden and made it a bit more challenging for the kids to sleep.
And any parent knows that it's no fun when the kids don't want to sleep!
One of the really great things about my daughter's kindergarten class is how much her teacher encourages the parents to read to their kids. 4 nights a week they have a book brought home to be read first by the parent, then by the student, then returned to school and read to a volunteer in class.
20 minutes of reading each day is also assigned as homework.
It's been amazing seeing the progress the kids have made throughout the year. Most of them are reading above the required level for kindergarten.
But some aren't, and it's generally pretty clear why. Their parents aren't doing the reading with them each day. It's a very clear difference.
Just helping out in class and seeing how much more challenging it is for the kids who get less help at home has really been amazing. They're all learning, since there is such an emphasis on learning to read, but for most of the kids who read only rarely at home, things go much more slowly. Some do better than others, of course.
Helping your child learn to read isn't hard. You pick skill-appropriate books, and read it to them, pointing out each word. Have your child read it next. Just memorizing the book is acceptable in these early stages. The library is a great resource for children's books, but early readers are also quite affordable, often $3-4 each.
Kids also need to learn about chunking. This is where they learn to identify sounds that will normally be the same in any word, such as "ing". As they learn to identify chunks they can better sound out words.
It's important to let kids choose the books they want to read. The more interested they are in the book, the harder they'll work, as a general rule. You can guide them to groups of books that are skill appropriate, but after that you need to give them the freedom to pick.
There's something delightful about seeing your child learn to read as well. You get to see them pick up a skill that will help throughout their lives. It's a real treat all around.
But it can also take tremendous amounts of patience. You'll watch your child know a word on one page, and the next be completely unable to sound it out. There will be days when he or she does not feel like reading at all.
The best thing to do is to approach the reading when neither of you is tired. If you only do reading together at bedtime, your child will be tired and less willing to make the effort. You may be tired enough to get frustrated with the process as well. It's just less fun many nights.
Find a time of day when you can both sit down and enjoy the book. It may be before dinner, after dinner, in the middle of the day, whatever time works for the two of you.
If you keep it up every day, not only will your child learn to read over a matter of months, you can encourage a lifetime love of reading that will benefit your child for years to come. It's highly worthwhile.
Stephanie Foster is the owner of Home with the Kids, a resource that knows that there's more to staying home with your family than just business. For more stay at home tips, visit the site at http://www.homewiththekids.com/ and subscribe to the free newsletter.
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