Ready Readers - Quizative Questions

WHO? WHAT? WHERE? WHEN? WHY? HOW?  These words are my daughter's most frequently utilized words.  Maybe I should rephrase that, these are the words that my daughter uses to drive her parents crazy on a DAILY basis!  While, yes, her constant questions easily drive me up the wall, it is hard to get upset about it, as I know that her little mind is always clicking and ticking. 

Any  parent of a child over the age of 2, can use this developmental stage to begin to help their child become more involved in literature. The word here is MODEL.  SHOW your children HOW to ask questions about a text that you are reading.   In addition to this list of question words, start working on concepts of story grammar and vocabulary.   Talk to your children about who the CHARACTERS are in the story. USE the work CHARACTERS.  Talk about SETTING, PLOT and even what happens in the BEGINNING, MIDDLE, END and CONCLUSION of the story. 

You may be asking, WHY is it SO important that I use the terms, character, setting, plot, beginning, middle, end and conclusion?  Simple, these are appropriate terms for the parts of a fictional story. 

Before you start a book, take some time to look at all the pictures on each page and discuss what you see happening in the story (this is a classic techinuque used be primary teachers who are teaching reading, called a picture walk.)

• Have your child PREDICT, what will happen in the story.
• Request them to ask QUESTIONS, "like mommy does" about the story, using the question words.  You can offer a word to get them started.  "Use where to ask me a question about this page."
• If your child has been practicing letter names or sounds.  Use the pictures to help them identify letters, sounds or even words.  Your child finds a "cat" in the picture.  You can say:
• "cat stats with the letter c, can you find a word on this page that starts with the letter c?"
• or, "cat starts with the sound /c/ can you find the word that starts with the /c/ sound?"
• or, "can you find the word that probably says cat?"
• As you are reading continue to have your child ask questions, as though the parent is the kid or student.
• Also ask your child if they need help clarifying words that they do not understand.  Again, you can roll play this and pretend to switch roles.  You can be silly and have fun, you can turn to your kid and say, "Mommy, what does the word excited mean?  Can you please clarify that word for me?"

Have fun reading with your child and use your sense of silliness and sense of humor!  : )


Please share your reading ideas with us!  ALSO if you want more ideas or have any questions about these techniques please let me know and I will clarify information here and/or in future blogs! 

I love that I can use this blog to continue to help education children by educating their parents, too!  : )

Terrific twos, threes and fours

Looking back, I KNOW that we skipped the terrible twos and we are still avoiding the terrible threes. Don't get me wrong, we have had a tantrums and struggles, but the terrible "every things" have been avoided.

I am hardly bragging, as I know that it still might happen, especially with the new baby coming in about 8 more weeks (plus or minus two!).

I DO want to share with my friends of children that are nearing their twos that one of the things that I believe is that communication is key. I know that this sounds trite, but teaching your children to communicate with you, at a VERY young age will help to lessen the tantrums.

At a very young age Daisy was communicating with me (and NO I am not one of those parents that guesses until I get it right, either).

As many "Davis" parents I started off with baby signs with Daisy at a very young age (it was hard not too, as one of the researchers and authors of this topic lives and works in our community).   We started with the basic needs (eat, done, milk) at about 5 months.

Soon after, she was saying those words on her own.  As you will read in the book, that the key is to begin asking them to sign back, instead of anticipating their needs.  As you feed them, for instance, saying "more" and signing it, and then asking for them to ASK for more.  They will GET it very quickly!

In addition to baby signs, it is important to talk to your babies all day long.  I know that it sounds strange, but actually narrating everything that is going on, is the perfect way to do teach vocabulary.

Be careful to vary your verbiage as well.  Think about the daily routines that you do and what you explain to your child each day. Now, each day add a new word into the context of the situation that they can start to pick up.   Try "dispose of trash" instead of "throw trash away", or "munch, chop and chew" instead of "eat" food.  Obviously, the options are endless.  This concept can be applied throughout their lives.  (This evening, as we waiting for dinner to finish up, Daisy and I were reading a version of Goldilocks, and Baby Bear, used the word ravenous to explain how hungry he was.  I EXPLICITLY taught her her this word, instead of letting her just "absorb it."   I said, "Look there is another word for hungry, ravenous.  Let's tell Daddy that we are hungry but let's use ravenous, instead."  We then stopped and turned to him and each complained about our empty tummies and how ravenously hungry we were. 

Researchers of vocabulary development have determined that homes where parents talk to their kids at the dinner table and read to them on a regular basis have been exposed to a much greater vocabulary than those that do not do those things.  There is also a strong correlation between parents' education and the child's success in school, specifically reading. Looking toward the future, the poorest readers in classrooms are those with the most limited vocabularies. (take a look at the research on this website if you are interested in more info:

http://reading.uoregon.edu/big_ideas/voc/voc_what.php
Young children who can express their needs to their caregivers are often less stressed and less frustrated.   These children seem to understand the world around them, as well as reasoning.  Reasons why we do not act certain ways, reasons why things are, the way they are.

I just wrapped up a quick conversation with Daisy this evening.  As she has gotten older, things such as bed time have gotten easier.  I told her it was time to get ready, and she used the classic, "but I am having fun playing right now," excuse.  I reminded her that she does not want to be tired for preschool tomorrow, to which she shrugged and said, "you are right, I am going to go get ready now."  DONE!    Communication, and the ability to understand and comprehend are keys to easier parenting.

Mommy reading to Daisy at 3 days old!

So add reading to your child, to that list of daily to dos!  It really helps to make it a part of the routine.  In our family daddy and mommy each read a story to Daisy before bed.  (I will offer great techniques to help your child be ready to BECOME a reader in upcoming blogs).