You believe that reading matters and recognize the importance of developing strong early literacy skills. You actively encourage little ones to check out books from the library and find ways to celebrate April’s School Library Month.

No doubt you leave public libraries with a bulging bag-o-books and scour the web for the best stories as a guide to buying more. You also spend cozy evenings reading wonderful stories at bedtime, prompting sweet dreams.

What else can you do to support early literacy? Begin book swapping!

Talk with other parents and encourage little ones to select books they’re willing to share. Next, organize book swaps with their friends and help youth initiate conversations about the stories. Guide their discussions with simple questions about what they liked, disliked, their favorite characters, and scenes. Did they like the book’s ending? If they had written the story, would they change it? If so, how?

Book discussions help little ones strengthen reading comprehension skills and explore stories from multiple perspectives.

Before you know it, your little ones will be organizing their very own reading club, surrounding themselves with friends who will help foster their love of reading.

What ideas do you have for developing a love of reading in your young learners? Share your ideas here!

You might feel trapped if you’re the parent of mixed-aged children during this school shut-down period. You know your elementary to college-aged students should be learning about verbs, nouns, and reading the classics. But how do you occupy your preschooler? It’s not as difficult as you may think.

Three to four-year-olds are primed for schoolwork because they want to imitate their older siblings. Now’s a great time to provide them with a solid academic foundation. Does your youngster need support with handwriting, math, or reading? Do quick tests to assess their skills and start their homeschooling there.

When my girls were young, I made letter worksheets by writing the alphabet using connect-the-dot letters. You can use paper, a chalkboard or a whiteboard. Start with three letters at a time, or present the
whole alphabet, if you child is at that level.

During the coming weeks, begin with capital letters, then lower-case, combining writing with letter sounds. After this, your child might be ready to combine letters to sound out three-letter words. Congratulations! They are READING. Find books geared to their reading level or write a list of easy-to-read sentences. This is the skillset to aim for before they reach kindergarten. You can do similar lessons with math. Practice writing numbers from one to ten, include objects that represent the number, then move to adding. You get the picture.

Some youngsters may balk at doing these activities. Make it a fun time where your child feels supported and they’ll appreciate your attention. If “schoolwork” already has a negative connotation in your house, then position the lessons as fun activities. Your child will copy how others think about learning. You’ll be surprised at what a toddler can do. Have fun celebrating their successes! Feel free to leave questions or comments below.