I was eavesdropping on my husband reading aloud to our daughter the other night, and I was very impressed.  He was doing so many great read-aloud things with a familiar and much loved book.  He paused to allow her to jump in with words she knew, he invited her to make predictions about the text, he encouraged her to investigate the illustrations for further clues, and he varied the volume and pace of his voice according to the story.  I smiled to myself as I listened in on their reading time.

When she was tucked in for the night and he finally emerged from her room I said, “Nicely done. Have you been listening to me reading that one with her?”  He looked at me blankly and said “Nuh?” with a shrug.

It suddenly hit me how incredibly arrogant my question, and my thinking was.  My  husband wasn’t copying me.  He was using his own common sense!

Sometimes as an educator I forget that you don’t actually need a teaching degree to be able to teach a young child.  There was so much fantastic teaching and learning going on in my daughter’s bedroom without a B.Ed in sight.  How did my husband know what to do then?  He simply:

• modeled good reading
• shared the book with his child
• engaged in meaningful conversation
• made the book exciting
• remembered the way he was read to as a child himself

There are thousands of posts floating around the blogosphere telling parents how to read with their children.  Heck, I’ve even written some of them!  Ironic then, that the lesson I learnt this week about young children and reading came from within my own home.  The lesson?  Reading aloud isn’t ain’t rocket science!

To all the parents (without a B.Ed) reading this, I want to reassure you that you don’t need any special training to do a good job of reading aloud to your child.  You have the tools you need, so just spend time with your child and a book every day.  Engage with your child, engage with the book, and let yourself enjoy it just a little.

PS – Sorry Honey.  Ego put back in its place where it belongs :-/

This post is part of the July Teach/Learn Blogging Carnival.

The Teach/Learn Blogging Carnival hosted by Science@home is for anyone, because we are all teachers and learners all the time. This month our theme is “English”, including Speaking, Listening, Reading and Viewing. I think our bloggers have covered all of these and there are lots of resources and game ideas, plus a giveaway. Please read through to the end to find links to the other participating blogs.

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Visit Science@home to find out more about the Teach/Learn Blogging Carnival.

Please take the time to visit the other participants and check out their posts on “English.”

• Monique at Your Cheeky Monkey has written about why her family thinks storytelling is so important, some storytelling ideas, and a few of their favorite books.
• Julie at Works For Me Homemaking is encouraging sound play with preschoolers and not just for fun. It is an important tool to develop sound awareness skills and enhance early literacy development.
• Staci from Teaching Money to Kids reminds us that sometimes language and interaction need to be explicitly taught and practiced, and has some ways to teach the language of sharing.
• Leechbabe from Stuff with Thing asks what happens when your child interprets everything said to them in a very literal way? How do you aid their understanding of the funny things people say?
• Lisa at SMMART Ideas has a LETTER MATCHING activity to help you practice spelling words, or even foreign language vocabulary.
• Deb from Science@home has a giveaway to help you go on an expedition on your bookshelf.
• Colin Wee at Super Parents is teaching his kids to argue by learning how to create a reasoned argument for English creative writing and the OREO Acronym.
• The Planning Queen from Planning With Kids had her own bookclub when she and her son read the same book. It was a great experience to have a book discussion with her son where she hadn’t been reading the story “to him”.
• Deb Chitwood from Living Montessori agrees with Maria Montessori that young children have a natural love of learning. Thanks to matching Montessori sandpaper letters with small objects, her son decided as a toddler that learning to read was just a fun game.
• Amanda at HomeAge posts that we all know The Very Hungry Caterpillar, but Eric Carle has so much more to offer to young readers, particularly those interested in the natural world. With bright, beautiful artworks and simple, repetitive stories these books are a wonderful way to entice the young “reader”.
• Miss Carly from Early Childhood Resources has steps and advice in creating a literacy rich environment for children of all ages.
• Christie at Childhood 101 points out that the process of sharing stories through oral storytelling is an age old tradition amongst families, but does it have a place in our busy modern day family life?
• Sarah at Bringing up Baby Bilingual describes her public library’s Writing Buddies program where high school student volunteers lead groups of at-risk fourth and fifth graders through a series of outer-space-themed writing activities. Writing prompts and resources included in the post!
• CatWay at Adventures With Kids asks What is phonics all about? Is this something I should know more about to help my child learn to read and write?
• Narelle from A Bunch of Keys has some simple suggestions for making your own literacy resources for children at home. Includes ideas for books with simple rhymes, books with puppets, books about family trips and making felt boards.
• Zoe at Playing By the Book has gone fishing for words in illustrated dictionaries to support her early reader.

Thanks for visiting our carnival, we hope you enjoy some of these posts and have found some interesting blogs.

Alison Lester, multi-award winning, best selling and much loved children’s author and illustrator is an ambassador for the program. Her picture books mix imaginary worlds with everyday life, encouraging children to believe in themselves and celebrate the differences that make them special.  If you live in Victoria you can meet Alison Lester this month at the events listed below.  But if, like me, you are elsewhere in the country, you’ll have to be content to read my interview with Alison Lester:

Cath - When should parents begin reading aloud to their kids, and what can they do to make the most of read-aloud time?

Alison - I think you should start reading to babies from the word go, or maybe even before. Lazing around reading when you’re pregnant must be very good for babies. To make the most of reading time it’s good to take it slow and cuddly. Always get as close to horizontal as you can.

Cath - What do you recommend parents look for when selecting picture books for young children?

Alison - I shouldn’t say this, being an author, but I don’t really think it matters what you read them as long as you do it well. Children will always let you know if they think a book is a dud.

Cath - Many of your picture books are firm favourites with Australian children and adults alike.  As a mother my pick is Magic Beach.  As a teacher my favourite would be Imagine.  Do you have a favourite?

Alison - It’s a bit like having to say which one of your kids you like the best. They are all special in different ways. I love Are We There Yet? because it reminds me of the happy time we had on that trip.

Cath - As an author/illustrator, do the words come first, images first, or does the book evolve as a whole for you?

Alison – When I have an idea for a book I can generally see it then, as a whole, the style of illustration, the font, the shape and size. The next step is some rough illustrations in a dummy book and then I put the text into my computer.

Cath - You’ve spent a lot of time travelling the country visiting schools, particularly in remote areas.  Why has this been important to you?

Alison - I started visiting schools about 30 years ago, just because they asked me really. Now I can see that those school visits did a lot to get my books out into the world. I love going to remote communities and working with the kids and teachers there. I always get a huge kick out of seeing a class make a book about their own stories, told in their words and their pictures.

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If you live in Victoria you can meet Alison Lester or Jeannette Rowe this month at the Young Readers Program Babies Love Books events :

Springvale Library with Alison Lester

Monday July 12th, 2pm

411 Springvale Road, Springvale

P: 03 9238 1466

Frankston Library with Alison Lester

Tuesday July 13th, 11am

60 Playne Street, Frankston

P: 03 9784 1020

Deer Park Library with Jeannette Rowe

Thursday July 15th, 10.30am

Corner of Neale and Station Roads, Deer Park

P: 03 9249 4171

Sunbury Library, with Jeannette Rowe

Friday July 16th, 10am

44 Macedon St, Sunbury

P: 03 9356 6932

If you go, please do me a favour and tell the awesome Alison Lester that SquiggleMum says hi…?!  I’m going to head back over to her site because I’m thinking about buying this print.

]]> http://squigglemum.com/literacy/alison-lester-and-little-library-lovers/feed/ 7 http://squigglemum.com/literacy/literacy-lava-5/ http://squigglemum.com/literacy/literacy-lava-5/#comments Wed, 02 Jun 2010 02:00:59 +0000 SquiggleMum http://squigglemum.com/?p=3216 The fifth issue of Literacy Lava is now available, and I have again contributed an article to this free publication for parents or anyone who wants kids to love reading, writing and communicating.  Clicking on this link will take you to the page where you can download Literacy Lava 5 as a pdf.

In the fifth edition of Literacy Lava, you’ll find ideas for helping kids develop spelling skills, ways to pair fiction and non-fiction read-alouds, ideas for letter writing with your kids, whether graphic novels are real reading, how to unwrap a picture book, tips for a loving bed-time story ritual, how to help your video-loving kid to love reading too, and all about encouraging kids to write poetry. Don’t forget to check out the Online Extras page, and the Activity page for kids.

Here’s a snippet from my article on Unwrapping Picture Books.

The kids and I retrieved the sneaky culprit and put him in a box for further investigation.  We talked about the caterpillar’s colour and markings.  We watched the way it moved.  We took note of its size and the funny “tail” at the end.  We talked about what colour butterfly it might turn into and wondered how we could find out…?

So then we pulled down an enyclopedia. Oh hang on, no – that’s not what we did.  We googled it.  Here’s how I guided Little Miss 3 through an internet search:

Me:  We want to find more information.  Google can help us find information.  What information do we want to find?

LM3:  We want to find out about what our caterpillar will turn into.

Me:  That’s a lot of words.  Can you tell me one word?  We want to know about…?

LM3:  Caterpillars

Me:  Ok, let’s type c-a-t-e-r-p-i-l-l-a-r-s.  That says caterpillars.

LM3:  That sure is a big word Mum!

Me:  Do we want to know about AAALLLL the caterpillars in the world?  Or just the caterpillars where we live?

LM3:  Just where we live.

Me:  And where do we live?  In B…

LM3:  Brisbane!

Me:  Ok, let’s type B-r-i-s-b-a-n-e.  There.  So now we’re asking Google (point) to tell us information about caterpillars (point to word) in Brisbane (point to word).  Can you click here?

I’m not fussed on young kids playing heaps of computer games, but I think there is a lot of value to be had in early, purposeful use of technology.

We found a couple of useful sites and looked at various pictures of caterpillars to identify our own.  There was so much fantastic language involved in this process as we eliminated images.  Too green.  Too spotty.  Too hairy! Once we found some caterpillars that were similar we could look at more subtle detail like the four yellow spots, and the funny “tail”.  Eventually we found a match… we think!  Our best guess is that our very hungry caterpillar will become a Hawk Moth…

My daughter enthusiastically took her caterpillar to kindy today and shared her new found knowledge with her classmates.

We love learning together.  Did you learn something with your kids today?

We had just finished reading her kindy library book for the week, Do Like A Duck Does (by Judy Hindley). The toy phone rang so I “answered” it and pretended it was the mother duck calling.  I improvised conversation based on the text, which went something like this:

“Hello Mummy speaking.  Oh hello Mrs Duck.  How’s your day been?… What’s that?!  You took the children for a walk and a fox tagged along?!  Goodness me!  What did you do? … (giggle)  And you made him quack?  And eat worms?!…(giggle)  Well, it sounds like you taught him a lesson.  I’m glad it all worked out in the end.  Bye for now!”

Of course, my daughter had completely dissolved into hysterics by the end of the conversation and wanted to have a turn too.  The pretend phone rang again and she proceeded to have a similar conversation with Mrs Duck.

The following day she wanted to play phones again.  Building on the success of the day before, I took things a step further:

“Hello Mummy speaking.  Mr Fox you sound terrible.  What’s happened?  Oh dear, you tried to trick Mother Duck? You know she’s very clever and doesn’t like anyone messing with her babies… I understand you’re hungry.  How about you go and dry yourself off and make some nice soup instead?… Ok, I hope you feel better soon.  Bye bye.”

What a powerful tool for helping a child to see different perspectives on the same story.

My son is 17 months old, and currently says these words (probably only a mother would even call them “words”):

dadad = Dad

gagga = cracker

nana = banana

ga = car or grapes

gigga = digger

mumum = Mum (this is pretty rare to be honest)

I realise that this selection of words makes my son seem like a stereotypical boy (food and cars)!  My point is that his speech is still at a very early stage.  However, the vocabulary he has through song far exceeds his spoken words.  He can’t quite say grapes (ga), but as we passed the huge melons in the supermarket the other day he started swaying from side to side tunefully babbling something that sounded incredibly like, “I love, you love, watermelon!” (a Justine Clarke song we often sing at home).  He does the same thing when we read Saturday’s page in The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  As soon as he sees the picture of the slice of watermelon he sways from side to side and tunefully babbles, “I love, you love…” all over again.

There is so much going on that little brain!  Not only is he is learning new vocab but he is making connections between objects and experiences, remembering words in sequence, understanding that words are made up of sounds, having a red-hot-go at forming those sounds with his own mouth, communicating his thoughts with others, and enjoying the whole process!  I didn’t sit him down with a watermelon flash card.  I just sang with him.

My daughter is almost 4.  She recently started kindy, but was home with me full time before then and has heard a lot of songs.  At this stage she can read (and write) her own name, and recognise personally significant letters and their associated sounds – but that’s about it.  She certainly isn’t “reading” yet.  However, her ability to recall lyrics is amazing.  This means that before she can even read she has developed her skills in recall and sequencing.  It also means she has an excellent vocabulary for her age, and she transfers words from songs into everyday conversation.

Like many preschoolers she loves to make up her own songs, and has done for some time.  Her songs are quite varied and interesting both musically and lyrically.  Sometimes she sings her own made up story.  Sometimes she sings about feelings.  Sometimes she sings about what she can see.  Often her songs demonstrate her understanding of story structure, rhythm, phrasing, and even rhyme (much to my amusement she sometimes makes up a word so that her lines rhyme as she sings).  Before she starts formal schooling she already has such a good foundation under her – through song.

There are many ways music and literacy complement each other, and several studies have proven these connections.  Learn to sing, and sing to learn I say!  If you’re interested in further information on this topic, try the work of Robert A. Cutietta, author of Raising Musical Kids: a guide for parents (2001). Cutietta claims the patterns of words, rhymes, and tonal qualities inherent in songs are incorporated easily and naturally by children as they learn to speak and eventually to read.  Based on what I see in my own children – I completely agree.

Singing with your kids is bound to boost their language development.  How well you sing is unimportant.  How often you sing is. So to quote The Carpenters (which I can’t believe I’m doing)… “Don’t worry that it’s not good enough, for anyone else to hear.  Just sing, sing a song… la la la la la…”

This post is part of Share A Story – Shape A Future 2010

and is featured over at The Book Chook today.

In this fourth edition of Literacy Lava, you’ll find ideas for nurturing creative thinking, ways to use magazines with your kids, ideas for raising book-loving boys, what to do if your child is not into writing, how to encourage your child to love reading, ways to promote inquisitiveness through hands-on learning, how to help kids make connections through story extensions, and all about getting kids to tell stories through moviemaking. Don’t forget to check out the Online Extras page, and the Activity page for kids.

I’d love you to go and download your own copy.  Read it on the screen, or print it off if you like and read it over a cuppa!  I really enjoyed many of the articles in Literacy Lava 4 and I know it will be a useful resource for parents, teachers, aunts & uncles, grandparents and carers.  Happy reading (for you and your kids)!

PS – if there’s anything you’d like to read about in the next issue of Literacy Lava let me know in the comments below.

Backyard baking is so much fun.  Props required?  A bowl and maybe a large spoon.  Your child might need a little encouragement to get started, but after that they will run with the activity for quite some time.  If you have cooked with your child they will probably take to this activity more readily.  Here are some open ended questions you can use to help the activity along if necessary:

• What are you baking today?
• What ingredient will you need next?
• How much of that ingredient will you need?
• What will you do with your mixture?
• How do you know when it’s ready?
• What does it taste like?!

Make sure you establish some ground rules, especially if there is anything in the garden unsafe for your child to pick (be wary of plants with milky white sap).  My daughter decided to make “Weed Soup” for her recipe.  She picked leaves and flowers from weeds, and also added macadamia nuts, bark and a range of other different leaves.  She sang “Stir up the cooking oh deedle-deedle-dum…” (a Playschool cooking song) while she worked and served the soup up in plastic cups when it was ready!

For an extension on this activity you could encourage your child to write down their “recipe” when they’re finished.  A simple recording of their recipe only involves writing a title at the top for them, and allowing them to draw their ingredients.  For slightly older children you can label their ingredients under each picture.  If your kids love this activity why not make a recipe book and glue in each different recipe?!

This week we borrowed “Rosie – the Cow Who Wanted to Slim” from the library by Christel Desmoinaux.  What a timely book and wonderful way to combat the current media assault without making too much of a big deal about it all.  Rosie is a gorgeous cow with plump pink udders.  She makes good milk which makes good cakes and life is good.  That is, until she reads Moo Monthly and discovers she’s a little, well, heavier than the covergirls covercows.  Her highly successful slimming campaign results in a svelte figure, but at the cost of her milk. I think there’s a message in that for mums and daughters, don’t you think?

If you’ve got older girls in your family, this would be an excellent book for a big sister, older cousin or young aunty to read to your daughter.  Our girls need to hear the real truth about body image, and they need to hear it more loudly and more clearly than the messages they get from the media.

PS – if this is a topic that concerns you, check out Julie’s blog over at Beautiful You.

The easiest way to do this is to go with an area of interest for your child.  As they get older they will do this naturally.  Regular SquiggleMum readers will know that I’m a bird nerd, and my kids are too.  So this week my three year old borrowed two wonderful picturebooks from the library about birds.

Birds Build Nests (written by Yvonne Winer and illustrated by Tony Oliver)

King of the Birds (written and illustrated by Helen Ward)

Both contain language which is a bit more of a stretch for my daughter, but she has just loved them.  Birds Build Nests is written in verse, with each stanza describing a different type of nest.  In this book she has come across words such as tranquil, rookeries, abandoned, silhouetted, etched, fledgelings, tailors, intricate, russett, delicate, craggy, predators, secure, camouflaged, tundra and more!  These aren’t words a toddler typically encounters, but my daughter coped with them because they are well supported by the illustrations, and they relate to an area of personal interest to her.  In our (several) readings of this book we have talked about many of these new words, though I did not stop and explain each new word to her as we read unless she particularly asked.

King of the Birds is a retelling of an old folktale which we have read over, and over again.  It reads beautifully, and while some words have been new again for my daughter she has understood remarkably well.  Because the topic is of special interest to her she has coped with sentences like: “The struggling broad-bellied birds, the fluttering finches and sparrows, the lazy flap of gulls and slim-winged sea crossers, the busy wings of auks and the invisible beats of hummingbirds all rose higher… and higher, a column of birds circling up to the sky.“

And on top of all this rich language, both books include identification guides at the end of the text.  My daughter and I have pored over these pages – looking up names of birds unfamiliar to us, comparing eggs, finding Australian birds and learning about habits of different species.  Of course I have not read these pages in their entirety to my daughter – she’s only 3!  But they have prompted wonderful conversations and I have been able to pick out facts to share with her.

What piques your child’s interest?  Is it insects?  Trucks?  Space?  Dinosaurs?  Dolphins?  Use their interest area as an opportunity to take them further with language.  And yes, that might mean you need to learn a thing or two about velociraptors or black holes or ornithology…

Happy reading!!