ATTENTION: Preschool Parents - QUOTES TO PONDER, Getting Ready for Kindergarten!, and MORE!

First of all, happy birthday to my friend and a wonderful illustrator (who drew my little friends which are the illustrations on this posting) - Pegi Ballenger.  You can see more of her beautiful art at her website.




Now, on to the real purpose of these next few posts. 

Recently, I've been preparing and revising my workshop on getting ready for Kindergarten from a language and literacy perspective and have two new sets of resources to help you get ready for that big event as a result:.  If your child is a younger preschooler, these will help you start to think about this important transitional time; if your child is older, please share this blog with someone you know who has a 4-5 year old.
  For the next few posts, I'll be sharing:


1) A series of quotes relating to the foundational skills necessary to be successful in the very structured, rigorous environment that is the modern-day kindergarten.

2) a glossary of terms every parent needs to know before their child enters those school house doors.


Here we go . . .

Without fundamental understandings of the functions and uses of literacy (such as storybook reading, language play, written language use in everyday practices), children may not profit from phonological awareness instruction. . . Sulzby and Teal.

That helps parents see what is important - not flashcards and drills and fancy video games . . . the literacy your child will develop in school is built on his or her ORAL language abilities (speech and processing).


Through introduction to various forms of narrative texts - including nursery rhymes (look for modern ones if you aren't into the old fashioned "Mother Goose") poetry, big books (oversized) and wordless picture books  -- in an environment where inherent curiosity is encouraged, a child is able to begin a lifelong love of reading that will continue outside the classroom.

The challenge I find so much of the time is that parents don't see the connection between taking time from a busy schedule to talk and read and a child's ultimate success in school.  They are inseparable.  Think snippets of time; not big blocks.  Think within my real word; not "I have to stop".

The Beginning of Our Glossary of Terms

Teachers live in a world of science and acronyms but don't always have the awareness that families may not be familiar with those terms.  Here's the start of a beginning list.  If your child's teacher uses an unfamiliar term, don't be upset with yourself because you don't know - ask what it means.

Alliteration:  the repetition of a beginning letter sound with several words,  Tongue Twisters are alliteration - the bad boy broke the basket - it focuses on the letter "b". (Alliteration is important because it begins children thinking about how words sound in addition to what they mean).

Book Awareness - knowing how books work, that you read them from front to back, left to right and top to bottom on the page, that they have an author, an illustrator and a title (academic terms), that they have a front cover and a title page.

Dialogic Reading:  an interactive shared picture book reading practice designed to enhance young children's language and literacy development.  During the shared reading practice, the adult and the child switch roles so that the child learns to become a part of the storytelling with the assistance of an adult who listens and poses questions.  Even non-readers can still become a part of the storytelling through conversation, looking at the pictures, responding to prompts from the adult reader.  This type of reading aloud to children is found to have positive effects on the development of their oral language and phonological awareness (you learn about those terms later).

Finally - a few new books to tell you about:

Just One Bite by Lola Schaefer

and

Snow Day! by Lester Laminack

Stay tuned for more!

VOTE AT PEPSI REFRESH FOR THE BIG 3 LITERACY PROJECT

A DREAM

For 6 months now I've been working on a project with the Region IV Head Start Association's Executive Director, Myra Ingram.  Talk about inspiring!  I've visited Head Start classrooms, talked with parents and teachers and children and today we have a chance to make a bigger dream real.

My company, TLA, Inc., and Region IV Head Start Association are teaming up now for the Pepsi Refresh Project,  

Parents everywhere can relate to the idea that moms and dads want the very best for their child.  And in Head Starts across the SE, we have a chance to build upon what is already happening with family engagement to bring a new level of partnership between home and school.Learn more by visiting the Pepsi Refresh Pages for this project, watching the video and then voting.  Take a few minutes to then help us spread the word as broadly as possible (I'm telling EVERYONE on the earth that I know!)

There are several ways you can participate and make this dream possible:

1) Visit  The BIG 3 LITERACY PROJECT
to vote personally for the project (a quick registration is all you need).  Then bookmark the site and put a reminder on your phone or calendar to vote daily (30 votes are possible for this one project per person - one a day.  

2) Share this blog or the link through social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and others.  Your connections plus ours make for great numbers.  Encourage as many of your friends as possible to vote daily as well. When you see someone else Tweeting this voting, retweet them too!

3) Offer voting by texting  (all regular texting fees apply):  Text* 102675 to Pepsi (73774).
 Again, daily votes prompted by a calendar reminder are great.  If you'd like an email remainder, request same by emailing TLA. 

4)  Reach your best friends, collagues and the nonprofit agencies (including Head Starts) throughout the SE states of AL, FL, GA, KY, MS, NC, SC, TN - they'll be learning about this opportunity to impacts them directly soon if they haven't already gotten the word.  Let's get everyone on the bandwagon to vote daily.  

Together we can do this but we need EVERY vote! Thank you all!   Stay tuned for updates.  As of this afternoon, we've moved up approximately 40 points in the running but we are still far from our goal of being #1 or #2.  I know we can do it with the help from each of you!

Support Region IV! 

Focus on Early Childhood (Do You Have A Infant, Toddler or Preschooler)?

A GLIMPSE INTO THIS WEEK'S WORLD 
OF THE LITERACY AMBASSADOR

Tomorrow I'm attending a wonderful north AL institution:  the NW Alabama Childcare Conference.  I always get excited because I get to see all my friends in the early childhood world (teachers and directors) from across the northern part of our state.  And this year, we have a keynote speaker I know will be incredible:  Steven Layne.  I wish those of you who are parents could be here to hear him.

I met Steven at a conference several years ago and so applauded his message:  we need to spread a PASSION for reading!  Check out his books, Love the Baby and My Brother Dan's Delicious, now available on audio too!.  What I like most about Steven is that he isn't your typical stuffy researcher from the university environment.  He indeed has a passion that is contagious and we need that kind of epidemic.  Don't be afraid to catch this bug!

RESOURCES FOR BUSY FAMILIES 
(and teachers)

I also want to share with you parents of 3-6 year olds a new video from TLA, Inc. that teaches you how to play a game, Rhymin' Simon, with your young children.  It's drawn from my new book, Anytime Reading Readiness, and its partner for educators, Before They Read, and is a quick easy way to build early skills while having a great deal of fun. 

Rhyming is the doorway into the world of thinking about words for the sounds within them (apart from their meaning).  The ability to recognize and even generate (eventually) rhymes comes as early as age 2.5 or 3 but it starts with simply playing with the language.  As you talk daily with your child, you have given him many great tools in the language he uses; this activity and others like it are the way to effectively build on those experiences as he/she moves on the road toward getting ready to read. 

My last gifts to you: 

1) a list of books to support rhyming and other early childhood literacy skills.  Enjoy!

2) a chance to win a copy of Anytime Reading Readiness!  Just cut and paste this email address with the words ANYTIME CONTEST in the subject line and you'll automatically be entered.  Contest runs through the end of February.

Three Secrets to Helping Kids Read

Today I visited with Pat Montgomery of ParentsRule radio and we talked specifically about helping young children come to the reading table "at their prime time".  This post will serve as an additional resource to that interview (which you can hear via podcast anytime this week if you missed the live show).  Pat also has a blog with more information from her shows so you can find even more important information there.

Did you know . . .

Children begin to read normally between the ages of 4-6 (a few exceptions on either end of that spectrum) and it is important to know that each child comes to the reading table at a different time (and reading later than 4 doesn't mean your child is "behind").

Did you know that the vocabulary level of children by 1st grade can predict at least 30% of their success in comprehending what they read when they are 16 or 17?  The details are included in a longitudinal research study summarized in the book Beginning Literacy with Language.

THREE BIG IDEAS

Conversations are important.
Exploring print and books together is important.
Playing with the Language is important.

All of these work when they are consistently applied.  More details on all three of these concepts are covered in detail in my new book Anytime Reading Readiness (for parents) which makes a great holiday gift for a young family (or a stocking stuffer for yourself!)    Easy, fun activities that can be slipped into busy days, without too much "academic" pressure (which can be counterproductive) are what you will find in this family-friendly handbook.  It's also designed so you can find just the areas you need more information and ideas on or, if you want an overview, you can read from front cover to back.

If you are looking for a great gift for the preschool or kindergarten teacher in your life, you can choose the companion book to Anytime Reading Readiness, called Before They Read.  Covering the same three big ideas mentioned above, this takes a more academic focus for easy application in the classroom while retaining the important essential elements of reading readiness and emergent literacy.  A plus is that this book's margins are full of teacher tips and more ideas for involving families in complementing what is happening at school.  I purposely wrote both these books at the same time to give families and schools a target for working together because that is the way children learn to read most easily.

Here are a few of the resources mentioned on Pat's program today:

Indistructibles, great wordless books for "reading" and exploring with young children

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton, one of Cathy's early favorite books

Singing (which we didn't get to) is always great - check out Fran Avni's CDs for great songs that are fun (and foster learning).

Join my revolution to draw families and schools together without an "academic hothouse" approach.  Reading and writing are tools for life, not just something that happens as an assignment or work in the classroom.  The most important part of reading, talking, and playing with language at home is that it gives time for a strong relationship between adult and child to grow.  That is the best part of literacy, combined with the fact that literacy is the doorway to all learning.  As a parent, don't worry if you're not a bookworm:  think - "It's bigger than the book" because it is.  The interaction you have with your child will grow literacy skills but it also helps the two of you grow closer.  It helps you understand your child more deeply; it helps your child connect with you.

You can also be a part of the revolution by sharing the resources from  TLA's website with schools, parent-teacher organizations, community family-friendly groups because literacy is everyone's business and children's literacy is our future.  TLA is currently booking me for events and conferences for 2010 and 2011.

Post questions you have in response to the radio show or to this blog and The Literacy Ambassador will be happy to respond!

Keeper of Your Children's Dreams: Celebrating Literacy is A Key

SWEET REFLECTIONS

Today's blog is a time for reflection - take a deep breath, listen carefully and you can feel that same emotion, that same pride you first felt on that first day you met your new little one. Whether you are a parent (or a grandparent or other relative), I believe every one present at the first moments of life has this great rush of dreams and love for that baby.  The start of a new life is inspiring to us all.  But sometimes the whirlwind of life, the pressures and worries, can drive that feeling away or at least bury it a bit. 

SNUGGLE AND CUDDLE TIME

Reading with your child can help you recapture that understanding that every possibility is open; every life a new chance for the world to be a better place.  I love the words from Nancy Tillman's On The Night You Were Born, "So whenever you doubt just how special you are and you wonder who loves you, how much and how far, listen for geese honking high in the sky (they're singing a song to remember you by): . . .   They take us back to those singular, life-affirming moments that are the core of our relationship with our child.

Whether you have a newborn, a toddler or a preschool child, think back to that time and those feelings and use them as motivational fuel.  One of the truest, most satisfying ways we as parents (grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, etc.) can keep those dreams alive is by creating a rich literacy environment for that young child.

IT'S SIMPLE AND EFFECTIVE AND PAVES THE PATH TO READING

Have that feeling close to your heart?  Here's the next step (no academic hothouse).   Learning how our language works can be a natural, relationship-enriching experience for both child and family.  Sitting down for just two or three minutes can rekindle that connection we had from the very beginning and remind us of what is most important in life. Look at the outside of a book together.  See if you can guess together what it might be about.  It's that simple to begin.

A CHAT WITH TUMBLON'S GRAHAM SCHARF

I was personally reminded of just those connections when I spoke last week with Graham Scharf, father, educator, entrepenuer and co-founder of Tumblon.com, a great place for parents to find resources for understanding and nurturing their child's growth, an inspirational place to connect with the joys of parenting.

Graham and I were talking about how easy and rewarding it is to create a literacy-rich home environment for your child.  To the left you'll see he and his lovely wife with their two little "readers".  We talked about finding the most delicious books for sharing like Mem Fox's Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes and The Little Red Caboose, books with my three R's of books for young children

Rhythm, 
Rhyme and
Repetition.

These kinds of books are easy to find in your local library or at the bookstore down the street or at the mall.

We also talked about how important it is for children to hear lots of conversations (not only for their language development but also for their emotional and social development).  It is so empowering to a child when they know they are loved and when several someones in their life often say that to them and show them their care with a listening ear.  My mom loved to talk with our son when he was small (here's one of my favorite pictures of them talking about a single thing, a toy squirrel)

CONSISTENCY

One of the last highlights of the conversation with Graham last week was the idea of consistency.  I don't want any parent to think that you have to be the Martha Stewart of mothers or the Mr. Rogers of dads.  I do want you to know that you are the single most important influence in your child's life and that you are the most powerful, natural teacher you child will ever have. Learning doesn't just happen at school.  Think about what you have already taught your child to do (sit up, make raspberries with their lips, walk, talk, hug, empathize).

If you don't read with your children now, just try doing it once a week to begin with.  Set aside a few minutes before you tuck your child in for a quick read.  Remember, at this age, it doesn't have to be more than 2-3 minutes long.  You have time for that; it's less than a coffeebreak and you know (when you think back to those early emotions) that your child is worth the effort to give that little bit of time wholeheartedly to him.

Once you begin to enjoy the story with your child (no correcting and directing), you'll want to add more reading times and you'll be motivated to carve out those times because you see how much it means to your child and to you.  Reading aloud with your child is also a "destressor " for you both when you simply enjoy it together rather than making it an academic exercise.

BUILD ON POSITIVE EXPERIENCES AND GROW THE HABIT

Once you've broken the ice with the routine, try adding just one more night - go for a few weeks at that level and don't beat yourself up if you miss one as you are setting the new habit.  Stay on target and try again.   If you read twice a week, aim for three times (researchers tell us that at least three times a week is the minimum we eventually need to make a consistent impact). 

READY FOR MORE?

Listen to more tips and ideas from the conversation between Graham and me at his podcast of the event on Tumblon.com.  You can also learn more about the power of conversation, reading with your child and playing with the language through my new book, Anytime Reading Readiness, available now through Maupin House Publishing.

Calling All Parents: Practical Reading Ideas for Gifted Kids

If you missed the live show with host Audrey Borden and literacy expert, Cathy Puett Miller, now is your chance to hear a podcast of that event.  Lots of practical ideas to match up with our recent post.  You may need to listen to the hookup intro for a few seconds before the show actually starts so settle back, be ready to be inspired about reading with your child and finding the perfect book to share with your gifted child.

This podcast isn't just for parents of gifted children.  It has excellent tips for anyone interested in promoting their child's literacy.  Focusing on helping your child have positive experiences with reading, tons of references to great books and solutions to finding time to encourage reading and writing at home are all included. 

P.S.  Be on the lookout for a revolution starting in just a few weeks with the release of Cathy Puett Miller's two new books - Anytime Reading Readiness and Before They Read.  Never before have two books been so relationship-building between the teacher of 3-6 year olds and the parents of that same age group.  With these tools, parents will learn the three big essentials to getting their children ready to read and preschool and Kindergarten teachers will find fun skill-building activities to integrate into your curriculum with great results.   Stay tuned!