Okay, I’m putting on my teacher hat now. This chapter actually consists of an article I wrote suggesting how parents can assist their school-age children with reading skills. The gist of it is that times have changed, and so have schools and learning. No one’s hand gets rapped with a ruler anymore. Students aren’t expected to sit in silence and work at their desks. Hell, a teacher can’t be alone with a child these days and have to be careful even giving a hug. As parents, it’s hard for us to avoid comparing our own experiences to the ones our children have. The important thing is for us to try to gain an understanding of current educational methods and build a rapport with our children’s teachers so that we can best support their learning. With those things in mind …
“They’re supposed to start reading in kindergarten,” I heard another mom say during drop off. “When I was in kindergarten we just had fun.” She’s right, I thought. Remember when we started our school careers and the (half) day consisted of playing, doing a craft, playing, eating snack, playing, completing an art project, playing, doing another craft, and playing some more? We learned plenty: how to share, take turns, and stand in line. We recognized our colors and shapes. There was no mention of educational state standards, no hint that we should be reading on our own.
Now we drop off our five-year-olds at school, where they are expected to name all the letters and their sounds, string those sounds together to form words, and group those words together to create sentences. “Many kindergarten programs have become much more skill-focused, and the expectations are much higher than they were twenty years ago,” says Katherine Echeverria, a retired reading specialist from Media, Pennsylvania. “Phonological skills are those which form the foundation for learning to read. They involve the manipulation of sounds in spoken language. The importance of phonics cannot be stressed enough; and phonics instruction must be explicit. Children need to learn that letters and letter combinations represent sounds, and that sounds can be blended to make words. Such instruction also helps children with spelling. By the end of kindergarten, a student should be able to name all the upper and lower case letters of the alphabet and label the sounds of the twenty-one consonants and five short vowels. They should be able to “sound out” simple phonetically-regular words (such as cat, hum, pet, hot, and pig). In addition, kindergarteners should be able to read about twenty-five sight words. We also can’t ignore comprehension. Students should have the ability to retell a simple story from memory and say something about the story’s characters and important events … Skills are reviewed at the beginning of first grade, but the pace is fast and there is an expectation that new learning will begin as soon as possible.”
So how can we as parents support our children’s literacy and instill in them a lifelong love of reading? Kelly Hoopes, a kindergarten teacher in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, shares some ideas:
“Aside from reading to their children every day, there are many tools parents can use. They can model how to read, by pointing to the words as they read from left to right. Asking questions about the story is also important: Who are the characters in the story? Where does it take place? What is the problem in the story, and how was it solved? What do you think will happen next? Did you like the story? What was your favorite part? Parents should also read for pleasure, in front of their children, to demonstrate its importance. Showing enthusiasm for reading and practicing sight word skills with their children will help moms and dads to be good role models.”
Writing and spelling exercises are also crucial in the development of strong literacy skills. “Create a print-rich environment where items in the room are labeled,” suggests Mrs. Hoopes. She uses Play-Doh to show how things stretch, and explain that the sounds in words can be stretched out to help with reading. She urges parents to review sight words with children every night and to make reading a part of outside activities. For example, children can practice reading road signs and finding items at the grocery store. “I like a holistic approach in addition to phonics instruction,” she says. “I think it makes for a well-rounded student.”
Working with our children as they read is a highly effective technique in assuring fluency (the ability to read at a steady pace) and comprehension (understanding the text).
Lauren O’Boyle, a Reading Specialist in Chichester, Pennsylvania, offers some tips. “Schools should provide parents with reading material that is on the child’s independent reading level (the level at which a child’s reading accuracy is 95% and (s)he is comprehending the text). A student should be reading for fifteen minutes (or longer) each night at their independent reading level.”
Parents also need to be advocates for their children’s reading success. If notified by their child’s teacher that their child is struggling with reading, there are many things a parent can do to gain support. Mrs. O’Boyle suggests, “Ask what services the school is going to provide for your child. Will a Reading Specialist be available to work with your child? If so, when will services begin, how often will they occur, and for how long? Find out what the teacher is doing in the classroom to help support your child. Is small group or individual instruction taking place? At home, keep practicing sight words, reading books on your child’s level, and having him/her sounds out words that are too difficult for them to recognize.”
We all want our children to succeed and be happy in school. Assisting them with early literacy skills is an act that can really pay off. After all, reading is at the foundation of all other subjects. Creating a lifelong love of reading can create lifelong success in school!
Useful Websites for Enhancing Literacy Skills
An excellent resource for parents who want to learn about ways to help their child(ren) with reading:
Are your children still in preschool? Here are a few ways to help them learn their letters and sounds.
- Cut out block letters from construction paper or cardstock. Tell your child what the letter is and what sound(s) it makes. Then decorate it with your child by placing stickers or pics from magazines that begin with that letter. You can even put faces on them! I hung my children’s finished letters high on a wall in our kitchen, and my children (now ages 7, 5, and 3) still use them to remember alphabet order and letter formation.
- Glue a large piece of felt to a display board. Cut shapes out of various felt colors to make a snowman (3 separate white circles for head and body, hat, scarf, carrot, eyes, buttons, smile …). Make some cards with letters and shapes on them (and any other skills you’d like your children to learn). Ask a question, and if your child gets it right, they add a piece of the snowman to the felt board. My kids love this game, and it’s been great because I can keep changing the questions as their skills become more advanced.
- I created a “word wall” in my kitchen, where we have a big, blank wall. There’s a piece of paper for each letter of the alphabet, and simple sight words for that letter are listed on each page. Each time my daughter or son brings home more sight words from school, I add them to the word wall. After dinner, I ask one of the kids to go to a certain letter on the word wall and read all the words on that page. I also have separate pages that show our address, phone number, days of the week, months of the year, and seasons. Having the words there all the time helps them to learn to read and spell them.
Great iPad App:
Teach Me (Toddler, Kindergarten First Grade …)
The World of Author/Mom Alicia Murphy! 
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