Early Literacy

As much as we want spring to arrive, we gave in and borrowed several more books about snow from the library this week. Indoor days lead to lots of reading, which is more enjoyable recently now that two-year-old J will actually sit for longer than five seconds to listen to a book with M and me.

Homeschoolers have the luxury of time to read and read and read, which as we all know is the centerpiece of early literacy. There is an interesting article about emerging readers in the winter issue of Ed. Magazine, the magazine of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. It discusses the importance of exposure to books and reading at young ages and mentions some of the activities kindergarten teachers use to foster literacy by teaching kids letters and letter sounds. Many kids know their letters and sounds, and are beginning to read, by the time they reach kindergarten, but the ideas presented in the article about frequent singing, and rhyming, and story time make good sense. Lately, we've been doing an activity where I ask M to pick a letter and then we name all the objects in a particular room or place that start with that letter. Huge fun!

And, once again, we can use the city to help promote early literacy. We have a great time tallying all the "No Parking" and "One Way" signs on our walks, and reading storefront signs and banners--- with "pizza" of course being the biggest hit.