Family Involvement
"Bee" involved in your child's education....
Learning actually starts long before children even step into a classroom. It starts in the most important place of all - the child's home. Family is an integral part of learning. Therefore, educators can not afford to neglect inviting parents and caregivers to take part once formal schooling begins. Positive parental participation is essential in order to ensure the best education of each child.
Families can show the importance of education and of learning in a myriad of ways - volunteering in the classroom, discussing the day's events, reading class newsletters, attending special school events, etc. I would like to encourage families to participate as much as possible.
Why is reading aloud with your child important?
Helpful Hints
Different Ways to Read With Your Child
Families can show the importance of education and of learning in a myriad of ways - volunteering in the classroom, discussing the day's events, reading class newsletters, attending special school events, etc. I would like to encourage families to participate as much as possible.
Why is reading aloud with your child important?
- stimulates your child's imagination
- develops your child's interest in reading and in books
- improves your child's listening skills
- builds vocabulary
- helps your child to understand stories and 'book language'
- creates a bond between you and your child
- provides your child with a positive role model
Helpful Hints
- Read a favorite story more than once.
If your child asks for a story to be read again--Read it again! The repetition assists your child in gaining word recognition, story sequence, vocabulary, story book language, etc. Most importantly, your child is enjoying the story!
- Focus on enjoyment.
Choose stories that both of you will enjoy. Think about what your child's favorite things are or what they like to do.
- Read from a variety of genres.
Read traditional tales and rhymes such as The Little Red Hen and 'Old Mother Hubbard' as well as stories that play with language such as Dr. Seuss' ABC's. Also, don't forget about stories that you can sing such as The Five Little Ducks by Raffi. Books with lots of repetition, predictability, and rhyme are perfect for young readers!
Different Ways to Read With Your Child
- Reading Aloud- This is when you reread the poem or booklet to your child, touching the words as you read.
- Echo Reading- This is when you read a phrase or sentence and then have your child echo the same words after you.
- Filling in the Gap- This is when you reread, but drop your voice and pause for your child to fill in the missing word. This can be done with any predictable or repetitive words in the poem/story, rhyming words, words that closely match the pictures, easy sight words such as ‘a’, ‘I’, ‘is’, etc.