Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Learning To Read: Why Is Rhyme Important?

Learning to read is one of the toughest and most important tasks a young child faces. A child's successful accomplishment of this feat is one of the strongest indicators of future success--and a child's struggle with reading is one of the strongest indicators of future failure. There are many things that parents can do to help ensure that their child is successful when learning to read and one of the keys is making sure that rhyme is a part of your child's early life. There are three important reasons why rhyme is important to learning to read.

One key reason why rhyme is important is that it is fun. Playing with rhyme is learning but because it is just that -- playing -- children are willing to spend a lot of time rhyming and learning more about rhyme. This makes rhyme a great teaching tool and a great motivator for learning. Rhymes are easier to learn and remember than non-rhymes and that is why many learning tools for older children and adults still include rhyme.

Rhyme is important to emergent literacy and learning to read because it teaches children about the language. Rhyming helps children learn about word families such as let, met, pet, wet, and get. Rhyming also teaches children the sound of the language. Other important skills include phonological awareness, the ability to notice and work with the sounds in language. Rhymes help children with phonemic awareness, which is the knowledge that phonemes are the smallest units of sounds that make up words. This awareness leads to reading and writing success.

Rhyme also teaches children who are learning to read about the patterns and structures of both spoken and written language. Songs and rhymes expose your child to the rhythm of the language. This will help them read with some animation in their voice instead of just a monotone. Rhyme also prepares children to make predictions while learning words and gives them crucial decoding skills.

While learning to read is difficult and challenging for most children, rhyme can help make the task both easier and more fun, teach important language skills, and teach language patterns and structure. These three benefits are important reasons to make rhyme a part of your child's early childhood.

Deanna Mascle shares more ways to use rhyme when learning to read with the free ebook "Rhyming To Reading" at http://rhymingtoreading.info

Activity Preschool Songs: Why teach your preschooler using rhyme and song?

You may have noticed the prevalence of rhyme in children's books and songs, but have you ever wondered why? There are several reasons why educators, authors, and song writers who target young children use rhyme so much.

The first and simplest reason that rhyme and song are such an important part of early childhood education is that they are fun and encourage children to be active participants in the preschool learning activity at hand. Children love rhyme and song and early childhood educators have long recognized the benefits of using these techniques based on simple anecdotal evidence but now studies show that indeed rhythm and rhyme can help children learn more effectively.

Rhyme also helps children learn important foundational skills for reading. Reading is much more involved than simply learning to recognize that the shapes and squiggles on a page actually resolve into words and meaning. Learning to read also means learning about language and understanding the elements of that language. Once children understand how language works and the basic building blocks of words and sentences then learning to read is much easier for them. Rhyme is an essential part of this process.

Preschool songs are also a great way to increase children's vocabulary and knowledge of the world. Many preschool songs are actually informative and instructive about various aspects of culture and the world, but in addition many movement songs also teach children important aspects of relationships and direction that will aid in life as well as reading.

Rhyme is also a great memory aid and learning tool and learning new preschool songs, preschool rhymes, and preschool poems will help children improve their memory skills which can only help them when they begin their formal education.

Playing with and learning rhyme and songs also helps children improve their listening and sound discrimination skills. These will aid not only in learning to read but also becoming better students and better people in the future.

So if the simple fact that your child enjoys rhyme and song is not enough to encourage you making rhyme and song a part of your preschooler's life then you should also consider the other benefits such as setting the foundation for important reading skills, increasing vocabulary, improving memory, and teaching sound discrimination.

Find out more about Activity Preschool Songs and Lesson Plan Preschool Songs plus Learning To Read Book

15 Tips For Helping Children With Learning The Alphabet Letters

I volunteer four hours a week in my son's first grade classroom. I help out in a variety of ways but primarily I am involved in literacy activities. It is an exciting time in a child's literacy life as this is the year that emergent readers become full-fledged readers.

While they will continue to spend elementary school increasing their site words and vocabulary, there is a point during this year when most children can pick up a book at their reading level and read it from start to finish with their own knowledge and decoding skills. For some children, that point arrives early in the school year and others reach it at various points in the year.

However there are a handful of children in every first grade classroom who will not reach that point this year. These children still do not possess the basic literacy skills and techniques they need to become readers. They do not know their alphabet letters let alone the sounds that each letter represents in words. This lack of knowledge holds them back both in reading and in writing.

While the other children can write fluent sentences using their growing vocabularies as well as phonetic spelling based on their knowledge of the alphabetic principle, the children who do not yet know the alphabet fall further and further behind their peers every day.

As the parent of a preschooler, you have to ask yourself. Which group do you want your child to fall within? Unless you want your child to be behind in literacy by first grade then you must make sure your child has mastered the alphabet before starting kindergarten. Here are 15 tips to help you get started teaching your child their alphabet letters.

Tip 1 - Introduce the letter by finding a word or a name that is meaningful to your child. Example: B: ball

Tip 2 - Point to the letter on an Alphabet Chart (you can make one easily using the "Chunky Letters" coloring sheets) so your child can see where the letter is in the alphabet. The chart can be a learning tool to help your child visualize what the alphabet looks like.

Tip 3 - Sing the Alphabet Song and stop at that letter for the child to sing alone.

Tip 4 - Model the correct formation of the letter and have your child trace the letter in salt, sand, gel, fingerpaint, pudding, or shaving cream .

Tip 5 - Model the correct formation of the letter and have your child print the letter with a paintbrush, marker, crayon, chalk, q-tip, pencil, magic slate, or pen.

Tip 6 - Purchase magnetic letters to place on the refrigerator or cookie sheets to display the letter of the week.

Tip 7 - Point out the letter on signs and in books.

Tip 8 - Use playdough to roll out and make the letter or a toothpick to write the letter on the playdough.

Tip 9 - Talk about the shapes of the letters and if the upper and lower case are the same or different. Play matching games, same or different, or alphabet bingo.

Tip 10 - Take your finger and trace the letters on the palm of the hand or on your child's back.

Tip 11 - Practice using sticky notes and label objects in the house that begin with the letter.

Tip 12 - Alphabet Stamps are a practical investment for having fun with the alphabet for alphabet recognition, making words, and spelling.

Tip 13 - Eating the alphabet can be a delicious way to reinforce letters using vegetables, pretzels, potato sticks, and candy to form the letters.

Tip 14 - Decorate cupcakes, cakes or cookies using frosting tubes to print letters. Squeeze mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise, or jelly letters out of containers to enhance your food. If your not hungry place inside a ziploc bag and practice printing letters on the outside of the bag.

Tip 15 - Try Alphabits Cereal for breakfast and name the letters.

Learn more about other preschool lessons and learning the alphabet letters at http://teachyourpreschooler.com/

Teaching Reading - 3 Simple Ways To Teach Your Child To Read

We all know that learning to read is an important part of growing up for a child. Learning to read is also essential to future success both in school and in life. Older children and adults who struggle with reading will struggle in the future in terms of both professional prospects as well as personal life. Reading is quite simply a part of every day modern life. While we all know that helping our children learn to read is important, many parents struggle with what they can do as non-educators to teach children to read. There are three simple ways you can teach your child to read - expose them to the world of literacy, read to them, and give them the tools they need to become literate.

It is important to expose children to the world of literacy from a very young age. This means demonstrating on a daily basis how important reading is by sharing the various ways the written word is a part of daily modern life from street signs to food labels to printed literature. It is also important to teach young children how print works, such as the fact we read from left to right and top to bottom. Readers know this is the way literature works but non-readers need to be taught. You should also make sure your child has reading material available that is suitable and age appropriate. You can either provide your child with a library of their own or if money is tight then make sure they have a library card and visit regularly. Exposing your child to the world of literacy from a young age is an important part of teaching reading.

Reading to your child is the most important part of helping your child become a reader. Teaching reading involves teaching children to love reading. The more fun your child has with books from an early age then the more interested they will be when they reach school age in becoming a reader. Reading to your child also improves your child's emergent literacy skills including vocabulary, knowledge, and print awareness such as how a book works. Reading to your child on a regular basis gives your pre-reader a jumpstart in learning to read and continuing to read to your child even after they learn to read helps improve their vocabulary and reading skills.

Giving your child the tools they need to become literate is also important. Some parents handicap their children's efforts to learn to read by not helping them master the alphabet and beginning letter sounds before school begins. Other parents discourage learning to read by not providing age-appropriate reading material. If there are no books or magazines in the house to read then how can a child learn to read? Still other parents do not speak properly to their children, perhaps using baby talk, to encourage the development of vocabulary and grammar skills. You can be involved in helping your child learn to read by giving your child the tools they need to become literate.

If you follow these three simple steps you can teach your child to read. Teaching reading is as simple as exposing them to the world of literacy, reading to them, and giving them the tools they need to become literate.

You can find more information about learning to read books and how to teach reading programs at http://learningtoreadthroughrhyme.com/ and http://learningtoreadthroughrhyme.info/

Monday, March 03, 2008

Learning The Alphabet Letters - Use Food To Teach Your Child The Alphabet

As the parent of a preschooler, you should make alphabet lessons an important part of your daily routine. Waiting until your child starts preschool or kindergarten to begin work on the alphabet will put your child behind in the literacy race while teaching your preschooler the alphabet can make them a sure winner. Teaching the alphabet letters does not need to be arduous or complicated and certainly does not require special tools. One of the simplest way to teach your child the alphabet is by using food. After all, your child needs to eat.

Here are some fun A-B-C food snacks to get you and your child started:

A Snacks: Almonds, Alphabet cereal, Alphabet soup, American cheese, Angel Food Cake, Animal Crackers, Apple Butter/Juice, Apples, applesauce, Apricot, Asparagus, Avocados

B Snacks: Banana splits, Bacon, Bagels, Baked Beans, Banana Bread, Barbecue Beans Bean Sprouts, Beets, Berries, Black Eyed Peas, Bran Muffins, Bread Sticks, Broth, Brownies, Brown Sugar, Brussel Sprouts, Butterscotch, Buttermilk, Beef, Bell Peppers, Biscuits, Bologna, Brazil Nuts

C Snacks: Carrot sticks, Cucumber slices, Celery sticks, Cheese, Crackers, Cinnamon rolls, Cornbread, Cereal, Carrot juice, Cranberry juice, Cantaloupe, Cottage cheese, Cashews, Cupcakes, Cauliflower

D Snacks: Doughnuts, "Dirt" cakes (chocolate cupcakes), Deviled eggs, "Devil" sandwiches (put a devil face on bologna or cheese with condiment), Hot dogs

E Snacks: Eggs, English muffins, Egg drop soup, Hard-boiled eggs, Eggplant, Eskimo pies

F Snacks: French Fries, Corn Fritters, French Bread, Finger foods, Fig Newtons

G Snacks: green jello, graham crackers, garlic bread, garbanzo beans, goulash, green beans, greens grapes, grape juice, grapefruit, grapefruit juice, Gatorade, granola, guava, green split peas (or pea soup), grits, gingerbread, gummy candy (bears, worms, fish, etc.)

H Snacks: Ham, hamburger, hash, hazelnuts, hoagies, honey, honeydew melon, hot chocolate, hot dog, hot sauce

I Snacks: Ice, ice cream, ice tea, Italian bread, Ice cubes

J Snacks: Jam, Jambalaya, Jello, Jelly, jerky, johnnycakes, juice, jellybeans, Jello jigglers

K Snacks: Kiwi, Kite-shaped sugar cookies

L Snacks: Lemonade, Lemon cookies, Lemon sherbet, Lemon Lollipops, Lime koolaid

M Snacks: Muffins, Milk, Milkshakes, Macaroni and cheese, Marshmallows, M and Ms

N Snacks: Nachos, navy beans, nectarines, Neapolitan ice cream, noodles
nut bread, nuts (not for small children).

O Snacks: Oatmeal cookies, Oranges, Orange sweet rolls, Edible O's (using cookie dough), Olives

P Snacks: Peanut butter, pretzels, peanuts, popcorn, pasta, prunes, pineapple
pizza, potato pancakes, regular pancakes, cheese pretzels

Q Snacks: Quiche, Quaker Oats, "Q" Cookies

R Snacks: Raisins, Rice and raisin pudding, Raisin-Apple Muffins, Rice cakes with peanut butter, Rice cakes (flavored), Red jello

S Snacks: Sandwiches, Sugar cookies, Salad, Soup, Strawberries, Salsa, Sour cream

Toast, Tea, Tangerines, Tuna, Teddy Grahams, Trix cereal, Taffy, Tapioca pudding, Tofu, Triscuit crackers, Tomato, Trident gum, Twix candy bar

Ugli Fruit{Also called Unique Fruit, it's a cross between an orange and a grapefruit}, upside-down Cake

Vegetables, Velveeta cheese, Vienna Sausages, Vegetable Soup, Velvet Cake, Vanilla Cookies, Vanilla pudding, vanilla ice cream, Vermicelli noodles

Walnuts, Waffles, Whipped cream, Wheat, Wieners, Watermelon

X-shaped cookies

Yams, Yogurt, Yellow cake, Yeast rolls

Zucchini, Zucchini Bread, Fried Zucchini (cut into strips like french fries, bread, and fry. Serve with ketchup!), Zesta saltine crackers, Zwieback Toast

To fill in with the letters without many snacks or to reinforce and review letters you can use condiments to create letters or build straight letters using pretzel sticks and the like. You can also trace letters in many foods such as peanut butter, whipped cream, frosting, mashed potatoes and so on. When the children are ready you can let them create letters out of foods too.

Learning the alphabet letters can be as easy as A-B-C when you use food to make learning fun and easy for your child.

Learn more about learning the alphabet letters at http://www.squidoo.com/learningthealphabetletters/

Learning The Alphabet Letters By Making Learning Fun

Learning the alphabet letters is an important part of early childhood education but it can be fun, too. Here are some fun suggestions to make alphabet fun for your child.

A Fun: Make paper airplanes and fly them around, or line up chairs in 2 rows and pretend it's the inside of an airplane. Make up your own tickets, provide flags to wave when the runway is clear. Pretend to be alligators in a swamp.

B Fun: Make bead or button necklaces. Play with balloons or beach balls. Paint butterflies: Fold white construction. paper in half - cut out a butterfly shape. drop small amounts of tempera on one wing - fold and press together.

C Fun: Make cotton ball art projects. Paint clown faces on you and child. Play with clay. Play with cars.

D Fun: Color or paint pictures of dinosaurs. Play with stuffed dogs or real dogs (if you have them).

E Fun: Decorate envelopes to mail to a friend or grandparent. Pretend you are elephants. Pull out an art easel and make art. Make up your own episode of "Elmo's World".

F fun: Go fishing (for real or pretend). Pretend to be a frog. Decorate fish. Make foot prints.

G Fun: Cut a green sponge in the shape of a G. Wet the sponge and place in a shallow pan. Add water as needed to keep the sponge wet, but not soggy. Let the child sprinkle on the grass seed and watch the grass sprout and grow. Make art with glue and glitter. Make gingerbread people out of paper or cookies.

H Fun: Make hats from construction paper and decorate them with stickers or cutouts of things beginning with the letter H. Play a hopping game (frogs, rabbits, whatever you like)

I Fun: Go on an insect hunt and record your finds by drawing pictures. Have them make an "I" collage that is all about them and their favorite things. Ice cookies or freeze juice to make special ice cubes. Make or play with musical instruments.

J Fun: Make jewelry by stringing beads. Paint or finger paint with Jello. Play jumping games such as jumping races, jumping rope, jumping over things, jumping jacks. Pretend to be jet planes and zoom around.

K Fun: Make paper kites and decorate. Crown a "King" for the day. Make "kisses" on paper. Color or pain kangaroos.

L Fun: Make a lollipop tree with styrofoam. Paste cotton on a lamb picture. Make a "love" collage of things they love.

M Fun: Make masks. Make a "Me" book. Make or play with magic wands. Make macaroni necklaces.

N Fun: Have some fun with names. Make necklaces. Make a "night" collage. Make up a bedtime story for the night.

O Fun: Trace a big O and a little O on a piece of paper then glue Fruit Loops inside the O's. Make an opposite book. Have an orange day (wear orange clothes) and find orange colored items around you. Make owl puppets or color owls.

P Fun: Make puzzles out of cards, postcards, photos or artwork. Make popcorn. Paint. Have a pajama party.

Q Fun: Make a Queen for the day. Paint with q-tips. Quack like a duck. Play quiet and loud.

R Fun: Let the child draw/color rabbits and add a cotton ball tail. Make rabbit ear head bands and give your child a cotton ball tail and pretend to be rabbits for a day. Paint with radishes. Make rainbows. Have a "Red" day.

S Fun: Sprinkle a painting with salt so it dries all sparkly. Make cloud pictures with white chalk or cotton on blue paper. Play Simon Says.

T Fun: Decorate T-shirts with fabric paints or do Tie-dye. Have a tea party. Build a tower with blocks. Play with trains, pretend to be trains, color pictures of trains, tell stories about trains.

U Fun: Make "U" shapes with pipe cleaners or play dough. Throw balls underhand. Go up stairs. Draw pictures or tell stories about uncles. Listen to the story of The Ugly Duckling. Draw, color or glue a unicorn picture

V Fun: Make Valentines. Find various velcro objects in your home. Make vests from the large size paper shopping bag or an old piece of cloth and decorate with glitter, ribbon, fabric scraps, vegetable stamping, etc. Talk about, color and/or eat different vegetables.

W Fun: Make a mural using wallpaper samples. Make a "W" using watermelon seeds. Using pipe cleaners and googly eyes, and lots of other imaginative doodads, make a pet/monster/whatever that has Whiskers using the "W" anyway they want.

X Fun: Max X-traordinary puppets using paper bags. Have a treasure hunt with a map where "x" marks the spot. Make or play xylophone music.

Y Fun: Have a "yellow" day. Make a "yellow" scrapbook using old magazines. Paint yellow flowers.

Z Fun: Use rick rack to make a "Z" mural. Play zany zoo animals. Walk in a zig zag.

Learn more about your child development and child education at http://www.squidoo.com/childsdevelopment

Preschool Education - What You Must Teach Your Preschooler

Many members of my mother's generation did not even attend kindergarten. Many members of my generation did not even attend preschool. With my son's generation preschool has become a necessary part of preparation for formal education. In fact for most children, formal education actually begins with preschool. That does not mean that preschool education begins the first day of preschool. In fact, if you want your child to successful in preschool and beyond then you must prepare your child for preschool. What are some of the things you will need to teach your preschooler?

First and foremost you must help your child become as independent as possible. This means toilet training and basic hygiene as well as the ability to dress themselves. Prepare your child mentally and emotionally for the idea of independence from you and other primary caregivers. Preschool teachers are obviously caring and helpful but they will not be able to give the same level of attention many children are accustomed to from their primary caregiver.

There are also some basic concepts that children must learn. These lessons will be solidified during preschool but if a child grasps them before preschool that is even better. This includes knowledge of colors and shapes. Do not spend a lot of time drilling this knowledge into your child, but instead casually introduce it to your child through daily life. Name the colors of the clothes your child will wear that day. Point out various shapes during the day or even cut food into a shape of the day.

Begin working with your toddler early to introduce the letters of the alphabet and then as those are mastered begin introducing the beginning letter sounds. Again, make these lessons fun and casual as you go about your daily routine. Similarly, begin working on counting as you cook, clean and dress.

Why must you prepare your preschooler for preschool? As I pointed out in the opening paragraph, the educational bar is continually being raised. Kindergarten is no longer about preparation. Real education goals are set and children learn reading and math. They begin learning several reading concepts and are expected to count to 100 in kindergarten. First grade students are reading and performing complex math and money problems. Children can enter preschool without any knowledge of independence, colors, shapes, letters, and numbers, but a head start can help them be more successful in preschool and then later in formal education.

A child who starts kindergarten not knowing these concepts will be behind and may never get caught up. Even worse, this late start will destroy the child's self esteem and confidence as well as cause the child to hate school and learning. Some children can overcome these challenges and go on to become successful but all too many children continue to fail throughout school and life. Which would you rather for your child's future? If you want your child to succeed in preschool, formal education, and life then you should work on the key concepts long before schooling starts.

Renaissance Woman Deanna Mascle shares more articles for your family at http://ezinesbydawggone.com

Good Parenting Advice - Encourage Imaginative Play

Imaginative play is an important part of childhood. Not only is it fun for children but it is also an essential part of learning and developing. Children learn about themselves, about their world, and lay the groundwork for their future through imaginative play. Yet too many children are not encouraged to use their imagination through play. There are three essential ways you can encourage imaginative play in your child -- by providing the place, the time, and the supplies.

Does your child have a place for imaginative play? Is there somewhere, even the corner of a room, where they can build a block city or shape play dough monsters? Can they assemble all their stuffed animals into a school or all their cars into a parade? While children should be encouraged to pick up after themselves sometimes it takes a while to build the city of their dreams and they want time to play with it again. Try to strike a balance between your need for order and their need for imaginative play. Give them a day or so to create a complex setting for their imaginative play before forcing them to put away their toys.

Does your child have the time for imaginative play? It is amazing how many young children have a very full schedule. While many of these activities are likely required, such as school or day care, and many are also desirable, such as sports or clubs, it is also important that children be given the opportunity for free, unstructured play that allows the opportunity for imaginative play. It is not desirable that every moment of every day be structured and planned. Children who are not given the opportunity to exercise their imagination run the risk of losing the ability to use it at all.

Does your child have the supplies for imaginative play? As we know from our own childhood that imaginative play does not require extensive and elaborate supplies, but children do need access to objects they can use. A complex wardrobe is not necessary but a few items can be helpful. A bath towel might be a king's robe or a super hero's cape or swaddling for a baby. A cardboard tube from wrapping paper might be a sword, the container for a secret map, or a spyglass. A cardboard box might be everything from a treasure chest to a race car. Provide a few basic supplies and try not to be too suggestive in their use. Children will do better if allowed to give their imagination free rein without your interference and control.

Imaginative play can be a wonderful opportunity for your child to not only enjoy their childhood but also to learn and grow as people by trying on different roles such as parents, cooks, police officers, and firefighters but also to experience safe adventures as pirates, explorers and paleontologists. Imaginative play should be encouraged in children by allowing them the place, the time, and the supplies for imaginative play.

Renaissance Woman Deanna Mascle shares more good parenting advice in her blogs at http://deannamascle.com