As a parent, I am always looking for ways to help prepare my children for their first experiences of school. As a teacher with years of experience in early literacy and with working with children in the early grades, I am most concerned with my child's readiness for learning how to read. There is a direct correlation between students who are early readers and their future success in school.
Some articles will tell you that all you need to do to get your child ready for Kindergarten is to read TO them. I agree with that to a certain extent, as children should LOVE to be read to and should LOVE books. Exposure to books will do that! But there is a much more rudimentary skill they need to know: the alphabet.
When I was a student, Kindergarten was ALL about the alphabet. Each day we would learn a new letter, and draw and color pictures that had the same initial sound.
Now Kindergartners are expected to learn all 52 letters (upper and lower case) early in the year. They are expected to apply their new knowledge of letter sounds to sound out CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words, like cat, tin, and pit. They are also expected to begin to identify the most common 50 sight words (words that should be recognized on sight without having to sound them out). Finally, they use their new-found knowledge to begin composing their own sentences.
Young children are very capable of learning how to read and write at the levels that are expected in their classrooms. Children will be even more ready if parents take the basic steps to help prepare them for these high expectations. Here are some simple ways to begin to expose your child to the alphabet:
- Starting at age 1, begin singing the alphabet song to and with your child. This is not as difficult for them to learn as you would think. By this time in their lives, they will have become very familiar with the tune, as it is the same tune as the all-time favorite, "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."
- Begin teaching letters as objects and shapes. Your young toddler can identify animals by name, and letters are the same thing. They have distinguishable shapes and features that will help your child to recognize them.
- Choose letters that are included in your child's name.
- Choose letters that are very similar in both upper and lower case (o, s, m, n, p).
Here is how you start introducing letters as shapes. Purchase a set of lower case magnet letters for the fridge. Play with the letters, arrange them, talk about their colors and the shapes (curvy, straight, etc).
Next time you curl up with a good book with your child, choose one of those simple letters ("o" or "s" for example) off of the fridge and have them hold it while you read stories. Occasionally have them play "I Spy" while looking for that letter. Call the letter by name.
Point out letters in your daily environment (I will NEVER forget the day that my daughter, not even two years old yet, shouted out in the car, "Mommy, Daddy, I see the letter S! Letter S!" She saw it on a sign on some building. A majority of our waking hours are spent as just Mommy and Daisy, so I was pleased that my husband was along to witness her brilliance, first hand!
Once your child has learned about 10 letters, invest in (or make) a letter/picture chart that you can hang on the wall. Your kid will love their new "toy" and you will love helping them sort the pictures into the pockets.
It is likely that your little one will be able to identify the pictures, but soon they will start to recognize the initial SOUNDS that they hear and they will connect them with the letter names. Early on, kids will start to HEAR the letter sounds in the letter names. "Snake starts with /s/, it sounds like 'essss'."
