# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Parents who are concerned about ensuring their children's literacy success in school should be reassured that their job is not to replicate the school environment in the home. The home is a place in which informal language use should thrive-natural conversation, writing, and uses of language connected with different aspects of daily life. However, there are similarities between the informality of home and the formal environment of school. Teachers can help families understand the critical ways in which they can participate in and encourage children's literacy development.

Point Out Parallel Situations

It's important to have parallel spaces in both home and school, even though they might be put to slightly different uses. For instance, in the classroom you may have a library corner or a reading/writing center. Suggest to parents that children should have a space in the house designated for free drawing and writing. Maybe the child can have a little desk next to the parent's desk. If parents have their books and magazines in the family room, there should also be a space for children's books and magazines.

The important thing to point out to parents is that literacy activities can occur anywhere in the house, just as they do all around the classroom. For instance, parents can use labels, as we do in the classroom. In the pantry, they might label shelves or, in the laundry room, the dark and light clothes baskets.

Be a Read-Aloud Model

Let parents know that they can use the content of a book as an opportunity for discussion rather than a test of comprehension. You will need to make direct, developmentally appropriate suggestions. You might also consider modeling the way to sit with a child as you read a book. Show how it doesn't have to become a questionand-answer kind of thing: "What's this? Who's that? What color is this?" Rather, demonstrate how you can have a natural conversation: "I wonder why that little puppy went down the other road."

The Value of Conversation

One critical, yet simple, thing you can do to promote literacy development in the home is to help parents really value oral language-the importance of rich talk. Encourage parents to talk meaningfully with children about what happens during the hours they are in school. You can foster this interaction by sending home drawings that children have made with the story of the drawing jotted down on the back.

Diversity and Literacy

You can also point out to parents that many of the activities they do at home that stem from their cultural backgrounds are deeply literacy related. Get feedback from families about how they use books, recipes, and so on. Encourage parents to consciously focus on these literacy activities.

Resources

"Overview of Learning to Read and Write: Developmentally Appropriate Practices for Young Children - A joint Position of the International Reading Association and the National Association for the Education for Young Children" (IRA and NAEYC, 1998). ( www.naeyc.org/about )

Starting Out Right: A Guide to Promoting Children's Reading Success edited by M. Susan Burns, Peg Griffin, and Catherine E. Snow National Academy Press, 1999).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Early Literacy: Bringing Literacy Home | Scholastic

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Parents who are concerned about ensuring their children's literacy success in school should be reassured that their job is not to replicate the school environment in the home. The home is a place in which informal language use should thrive-natural conversation, writing, and uses of language connected with different aspects of daily life.

# data[].attributes.headline
How to Foster Literacy at Home in Fun and Meaningful Ways

# data[].attributes.subject
How to Foster Literacy at Home in Fun and Meaningful Ways

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure statement for more information.

One of the most frequent questions I am asked here at My Little Poppies has to do with reading development in young children. Readers are often curious about whether I taught our children to read. The answer is no, I did not use any reading program to teach our children; however, there are many things we do at home to promote literacy.

Basically, what you want to do is to read to your children often, talk to them all the time, and expose them to a wide variety of print. It's most helpful if both parents genuinely love to read- let your children see you reading!

READ ALOUD

This is my favorite parenting book. I've gushed about it countless times on this site. I truly believe that it should be required reading for every parent and educator. Read aloud early, read often, read well past when they can read independently. You'll be making memories, building knowledge, and encouraging a lifelong love of reading.

AUDIOBOOKS

We LOVE audiobooks over here! Over the years, I've amassed quite a collection by making my own and buying through the Scholastic sales at our preschool. I have three book-obsessed children and while I read to them often throughout the day, it's impossible for me to read to them as much as they'd like me to! Audiobooks are a wonderful solution. They are also great for road trips and quiet time. Audiobooks are also a fantastic way to introduce poetry and music appreciation. Don't forget to check out my review of SKYBRARY by Reading Rainbow, in case you want to add audiobooks into your routine but do not have any, or do not have enough space. I predict that this program will be a game-changer for lots of kids.

LABELS

When I worked in schools, it was common practice to label everything. Why? Because exposure to print is so important! As a result, I have oodles of labels at home. Let me tell you, initially I received some teasing about this from family members but I felt redeemed when a letter came home from Leo's kindergarten teacher suggesting that students label items at home.

Labeling items at home can actually be a fun game for children. Simply go around, and ask children to name items and write the words down for them. Later, cut the words out and laminate them so that they last. Hand the labels to your child one at a time and have them find the item and tape the label on to it. That activity alone is a great way to promote literacy!

In addition to labels, I also have visual schedules around the house. In the kids' bathroom, I have our nightly schedule posted on the bathroom door, and I have How to Shower posted in the shower. Each child has their drawers labeled with words and visuals so that putting laundry away is easier while also boosting those reading skills!

CLOSED CAPTIONING

Our family doesn't watch much television. We can go days, weeks even, without turning it on. That said, when my children watch a movie I will turn on closed captioning. They have never once complained about it and the closed captioning provides print exposure. It's a simple way to make screen time more educational.

CONVERSATIONS

Talk, talk, talk, and talk! Have conversations with your children, answer their questions, make up stories! When you read a book aloud to your child, talk about the cover, the title, the illustrator, the author. Make predictions about the story, discuss your favorite characters, and come up with alternative endings! Do not underestimate the power of the spoken word when it comes to reading development!

PLAY GAMES

As a board game lover, I honestly believe that any board game boosts early literacy, however, there are a plethora of wonderful games out there for pre-readers and early readers, including;

EXPOSURE TO A VARIETY OF PRINT

It is so important to expose your children to a variety of print. In addition to various books of different genres, be sure to provide your children access to magazines, newspapers, audiobooks, and even ebooks. All you need is a library card to accomplish this, folks!

SONGS AND RHYMES

Don't underestimate the importance of music and rhyme when it comes to reading! Many see rhyming as a necessary first step toward reading development. Expose your kids to a variety of music- not just kids' music. Sing those songs loudly and dance in your kitchen - you'll be boosting those language skills while making memories!

ACCESS TO WRITING MATERIALS

All three of my children were interested in writing before they started reading. Leo used to write book after book after book, and when I wasn't available to spell words for him, he'd copy one of his favorite books. Writing and reading are two important and intertwined skills. Make sure your children have plenty of opportunities to write and draw. Provide easy access to a variety of paper, notebooks, journals, crayons, markers, pencils, gel pens.

Each of my children have an "office" in their bedroom closet. They go in there to "work" and they will often write letters to each other or draw pictures. Recently, as part of our Brave Writer curriculum, the children made their own mailboxes and placed them outside their bedroom doors. They love to send and receive mail! Also, a couple of years ago, I placed marker boards with dry-erase markers on each child's door. What kid doesn't love to write with dry erase markers? This is an easy way to encourage writing at home.

LET THEM STAY UP...

One way that we encourage reading in our home is to have a set bedtime but allow for post-bedtime reading. My kids think they are all big and bad because they stay up late, while my husband and I smile knowing that we are growing readers.

Each member of the family has one of these fantastic reading lights. I've had mine for almost eight years and it's still going strong and - believe me- it takes a beating!

Now, it's your turn. How do you foster early literacy at home? Share here! I love hearing from you all!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Easy Ways to Foster Early Literacy At Home | My Little Poppies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Easy Ways to Foster Early Literacy At Home One of the most frequent questions I am asked here at My Little Poppies has to do with reading development in young children. Readers are often curious about whether I taught our children to read.

# data[].attributes.headline
9 Tips on How to be a Talking, Reading, Writing, Listening Family 

# data[].attributes.subject
9 Tips on How to be a Talking, Reading, Writing, Listening Family 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Ask your child what their toys did while they were out today or invite them to help you read the mail. Evgeny Atamanenko/Shutterstock

How can parents best help their children with their schooling without actually doing it for them? This article is part of our series on Parents' Role in Education, focusing on how best to support learning from early childhood to Year 12.
Literacy involves meaning-making with materials that humans use to communicate - be they visual, written, spoken, sung, and/or drawn. Definitions vary according to culture, personal values and theories.

We look to a broad definition of literacy as guided by UNESCO to be inclusive for all families. Children learn to be literate in a variety of ways in their homes, communities and places of formal education.

What research tells us

New research in three-to-five-year-old children's homes and communities in Fiji, has revealed that children's regular engagement in literacy across many different media has supported good literacy outcomes.

There were ten main ways of engaging in literacy-building activities. These included print and information, communication and entertainment technologies, arts and crafts, making marks on paper, screens and other surfaces like sand and concrete, reading and creating images, and talking, telling and acting out stories that were real or imagined.

Children also engaged with reading, recording and talking about the environment, reading signs in the environment, engaging in music, dance, song and, lastly, with texts and icons of religions and cultures.

These activities were enjoyed and valued by children and their families as part of their everyday lives, and were further bolstered by creating books with children in their home languages and English.

ChameleonsEye/Shutterstock

This research can be used to add to our discussions on how parents can help develop their children's early literacy.

The Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research found daily reading to young children improves schooling outcomes, regardless of family background and home environment.

The OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) results also indicate a strong correlation between parents reading and storytelling with children in the early years and reading achievement at age 15, with those students performing one to two years above their peers.

However, it is not just being read to that matters. The adult-child interactions are also very important.

These interactions need to be lively and engage children with the text-in-hand. Alphabet toys and phonics programs alone offer little to develop literacy, as they focus on a code without contextual meaning. Words, and their letters and sounds, are best understood when seen and applied in everyday experiences, driven by children's motivations.

How to be a talking, reading, writing, viewing, and listening family

There are several practical things parents can do to encourage broad literacy and learning in early childhood years.

1. Don't wait. Read what you are reading aloud to your newborn. Children become attuned to the sound of your voice and the tones of the language you speak as their hearing develops.

2. Share stories at mealtime. Provide prompts like: "Tell us what your teddy did today". Alternatively, randomly select from ideas for characters, problems, and settings, for example: "Tell us about an inquisitive mouse lost in a library". Oral storytelling provides a bridge to written stories.

3. Record on your phone or write down your child's stories. Turn them into a book, animation, or slide show (with an app). Children will see the transformation of their spoken words into written words. These stories can be revisited to reinforce learning of words, story structure and grammar.

4. Talk about their experiences. For example, prompt them to describe something they have done, seen, read or heard about. Research shows children's oral language supports their literacy development, and vice-versa.

5. Guide literacy in your children's play, following their lead. For example, help them follow instructions for making something, or use texts in pretend play, such as menus in play about a pizza place. Children will engage with various texts and the purposes they have in their lives.

6. Books, books, books. For babies and toddlers, start with durable board books of faces, animals and everyday things with few words that invite interactivity (e.g., "Where is baby?"). Progress to more complex picture books with rhyming language. Talk about personal links with the stories and ask questions (such as "I wonder what will happen next or where they went to") as these will support comprehension. Look to the Children's Book Council for awarded quality children's literature.

7. Talk about words children notice. Be sure the words make sense to children. Talk about what words look like, what patterns, letters and sounds they make. This builds children's word recognition and attack skills, and understanding of what words in context mean.

8. Involve your children in activities where you use literacy. For example, if you make shopping lists or send e-cards, your children could help create these with you. Explain what you are doing and invite children's participation (e.g., "I'm looking at a map to see how to get to your friend's house"). Children can meaningfully engage with and create texts and see the place these texts have in their lives.

9. Use community and state libraries. Most offer interactive family literacy programs. Early Years Counts and The Australian Literacy Educators Association has a range of resources for families.

Above all, be sure the experience is enjoyable, playful, and encourages children's active involvement. Literacy should be engaging for your children, not a chore.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to encourage literacy in young children (and beyond)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
How can parents best help their children with their schooling without actually doing it for them? This article is part of our series on Parents' Role in Education, focusing on how best to support learning from early childhood to Year 12.

# data[].attributes.headline
Help Build your Child's Critical Thinking Skills 

# data[].attributes.subject
Help Build your Child's Critical Thinking Skills 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Building literacy at home is all about having fun! It requires no special tools or specific activities. All it requires is you, interacting and playing with your child in ways that encourage conversation. The truth is that children learn best not by being "taught", but by having enjoyable interactions with the important people in their lives.

There's so much you can do to encourage your child's early literacy development during the everyday activities you already do together. Use the tips and resources below to get started.

Build your child's critical thinking

To truly understand the stories they hear, children need to use their critical thinking skills. These are skills like problem-solving, predicting, explaining and evaluating, and they are what allow your child to "read between the lines" to figure things out that are not actually stated in the book. Encouraging this kind of thinking early in your child's life will prepare her for understanding the books she'll read on her own later.

Here are some tips or promoting the E's and P's of critical thinking: Explain, Evaluate, Predict, Project and P roblem-solve:
Read more about critical thinking

Build your child's vocabulary

Studies show that the larger a child's vocabulary in preschool, the better their reading comprehension will be later on.

The secret to building your child's vocabulary? Shoot for the SSTaRS! Click the button below for a handout you can print to help build your child's vocabulary:

Build your child's print knowledge

Before your child can learn to read or write, there are many things she needs to understand about print. Use the arrows to scroll through the slides below for ideas on how to build your child's print knowledge during everyday routines and activities.

Print knowledge your child needs to learn

Before your child can learn to read or write, there are many things she needs to understand about print. For example, she'll need to know that:

* Print has meaning
* Print represents spoken language
* Books are used in specific ways (for example, they are held right side up and read from front to back)
* Print is read is a specific order - we read from left to right and from top to bottom
* Print includes letters, words, spaces and punctuation marks
* Letters of the alphabet combine to make words
* Letters have names, as well as upper case and lower case forms
* Words are separated by spaces
* Words are combined to make up sentences

The understanding of how print works is called print knowledge and it's one of the critical early literacy skills your child needs to be prepared for school.

It's easier than you think

You don't need any special tools or activities to build your child's print knowledge. Simply by talking about the print in your child's environment, you can do so much to encourage your child's learning.

POP - Point Out Print

It's not enough for your child to just see print around her. To learn how print works, she'll need you to draw her attention to it.

POP is a strategy you can use during any daily routine or activity to draw different aspects of print to your child's attention. The more you POP, the more opportunities your child will have to think and talk about print.

POP during book reading...

Here are some ways you can Point Out Print during book reading. ( It's best to do only 2 or 3 of these things during one reading so you don't overwhelm your child or interrupt the story too much.)

* Point out the title, author and illustrator of the book.

* Show how we read from left to right on the page.

* Explain that print in speech balloons tells us what the character is saying.

* Explain that illustrations show us what's happening in the story.

* By tracking with your finger, show that the words being read match the words on the page, with spaces in between.

* Explain how letters work - say the names of letters, especially the first letter in a word, and point out some upper-case letters.

POP throughout the day...

As you go about your day together, opportunities to POP will be everywhere. Here are just a few ideas:

* Breakfast - Point out the colourful letters on the front of a cereal box or a carton of milk.

* Getting dressed or folding laundry - If your child has clothing with print on it, read the print while tracking the words with your finger.

* Bath-time - On a shampoo or bubble bath bottle, find a word that begins with the same letter as your child's name. For example: "That word says 'soft.' 'Soft' begins with the letter S, just like your name - Sarah."

POP throughout the day con't

* Grocery shopping - Encourage your child to find the names of foods on their packages. Read the words and name some letters in the words, or ask your child to name the letters. For example, you can say: "Look, this says 'butter.' What letter does 'butter' start with?"

* On a walk - Talk about the print you see on billboards, store signs, street signs, vehicles and posters. Make a game of spotting print all around you. You can also look for signs with more than one word, like "No Parking," "Main Floor" or "Garage Sale." Point out the spaces between words and count the number of words on each sign.

Tips on making the most of print

* Choose print that connects with your child's interests. For example, if she is interested in outer space, point out books or newspaper articles about space, or draw a picture of all the planets together and write out the names for her.

* Put print at your child's eye level. For example, if you've created a sign for a door, place it lower down on the door so she can see it easily.

* "Switch up" the print. Change the print around your house regularly so your child will notice. For example, change the notes you put on the fridge, the posters you put on the walls or the magazines you might look at together.

* Use large print that your child can easily see.

More info and fun ideas for building your child's early literacy skills

Print knowledge is just one of the many early literacy skills your child needs to be prepared for school.

The tips you read here are from the new Hanen guidebook I'm Ready!™ How to Prepare Your Child for Reading Success. This practical guide shows you simple ways to promote the key building blocks of early literacy during everyday routines and activities.

Learn more about I'm Ready!

Resources

Book Reading Checklist

Print off this checklist to see how you've been sharing books with your child and what other things you might do to maximize your child's learning.

Hanen Book Nook

Get fun tips for using popular children's books to build your child's early literacy skills.

I'm Ready! How to Prepare Your Child for Reading Success
Use this comprehensive guidebook to learn research-based interaction strategies for building all of the key skills that prepare your child for literacy success.
Learn more

Five Books, Five Literacy-Building Ideas!
Early literacy skills are the "tools" your child needs to learn to read and write, so the more early literacy skills she has now, the better prepared she'll be for school. Here are some fun tips for building the five critical early literacy skills your child needs to learn before she starts school.
Read article
More Than ABCs: Building the Critical Thinking Skills Your Child Needs for Literacy Success
To truly understand a story, your child needs to go beyond the words and pictures on the page and use her critical thinking skills. Find out how you can promote your child's understanding during book reading with "E's and P's" - the building blocks of critical thinking.
Read article
Getting Ready to Read: Building Early Literacy into Daily Activities
Did you know that your child's journey toward literacy starts long before she begins to read and write? In fact, by the time your child starts school, she'll need a solid foundation of several "early literacy skills" - the building blocks for learning to read and write successfully. Find out what you can start doing right now to build these critical skills and prepare your child for reading success.
Read article
A is for Apple: What Kids Can Learn in the Grocery Store
While grocery shopping with children can sometimes be stressful, there are ways of turning this regular outing into an opportunity for interaction, conversation, and fun! Find out how you can make the most of this time with your child to encourage her to use and learn language.
Read article
Which Books Are Best: How the Type of Book Affects Children's Language Learning
Can electronic books promote language and literacy as well as paper books? Do moving parts in a book help children learn or are they distracting? Do the types of pictures in a book affect what a child learns? Find out what the research says.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Building literacy at home is all about having fun! It requires no special tools or specific activities. All it requires is you, interacting and playing with your child in ways that encourage conversation. The truth is that children learn best not by being "taught", but by having enjoyable interactions with the important people in their lives.

# data[].attributes.headline
10 Easy Ways to Promote Literacy at Home

# data[].attributes.subject
10 Easy Ways to Promote Literacy at Home

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines literacy as, "the ability to read and write". The definition may be simple, but the effects of being literate are huge! To a great extent, a person's literacy determines how successful they will be as well as how easily they are able to navigate the details of everyday life. As parents we want our children to experience this type of success. How can we promote literacy in our homes? Red Apple Reading has ten tips for how you can help nurture the growth of literacy in your little one!

1. Read to Them - It's never too early to read aloud to your child. In fact, The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends reading to children in infancy! This special time actually promotes healthy brain development and serves to bond parent and child closer together.

2. Read in Front of Them - If parents "practice what they preach" about the importance of reading, it sends a loud and clear message to their kids that reading is, in fact, valuable.

3. Make Space for Reading and Writing - One way parents can make literacy appealing to children is by providing an inviting place to read and write. A desk with pens, pencils, markers and paper nearby will encourage your little one to hone his writing skills. A small bookshelf filled with books, with a comfy beanbag close by, will promote reading.

4. Take Advantage of Windows of Opportunity - Parents should look for natural opportunities throughout the day to support literacy development. Have your kiddo write the shopping list for you, read the traffic signs as you drive, and name all the things in the kitchen that start with the letter P.

5. Be Involved with Homework - If your little one is school-age, then be available to help with homework. Children often feel overwhelmed and unsure about their assignments. Your presence can help to alleviate their anxiety as well as remind them that you place a high value on their education.

6. Visit the Library - Frequent visits to your public library go a long way in nurturing literacy growth in your child. Take advantage of story hours, book borrowing, and other activities offered by your local library branch.

7. Celebrate Successes - Everyone likes a pat on the back every now and then. Be sure to celebrate when your kiddo spells a hard word correctly, finishes her book, or writes her name for the first time!

8. Turn off the Television - Kids often need a little extra encouragement to pick up a book or pencil and paper. Parents can help this process by turning off the television at certain hours of the day. You may be surprised at what your kid finds to do once the TV is off!

9. Play Around with Words - Young children learn best while playing. Make sure you provide toys that encourage literacy development. Remember, these don't need to be the latest tech toys with all the bells and whistles. Simple toys such as ABC blocks and Magna Doodles will offer plenty of learning stimulation!

10. Check out Red Apple Reading - If you haven't checked out Red Apple Reading's online reading program, you'll want to visit our website today. For a limited time we are offering our full program at a 40% discount! Your kids will love the fun games and you will love the results!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines literacy as, "the ability to read and write". The definition may be simple, but the effects of being literate are huge! To a great extent, a person's literacy determines how successful they will be as well as how easily they are able to navigate the details of everyday life.