For Families

Welcome, parents. We are here to help you raise a reader. Because you want the best for your child, we invite you to begin a parenting practice which will impact your child the rest of his or her life—reading aloud together 20 minutes per day from birth. Children become good readers when their parents read to them. It's as simple as that! Getting your child ready to read is getting your child ready to succeed in school. Schools deliver 85% of their curriculum using printed words in books, digitized words on computer screens, and written words on blackboards. Reading is the most fundamental skill they will use during their 12-20 years as students. We suggest age appropriate activities and books for your baby, toddler and preschool child. Choosing appropriate daycare is also critical and we provide a checklist you may want to consider.

The ABC's of How to Raise a Reader:

A. Aloud. Read aloud 20 minutes per day with your child from birth. This provides 600 hours of essential pre-literacy preparation before entering school.

B. Basic knowledge before entering kindergarten. Your entering kindergartner should:

• Know upper case letters (A, B, C)
• Know lower case letters (a, b, c)
• Know sounds of letters
• Recognize shapes like squares, triangles, and circles
• Recognize the colors of red, blue, yellow, orange, green, and purple
• Count to ten
• Give their name, address and phone number

C. Conversations. Have frequent conversations with your child. Reading is about language. Immerse your child in it. Talk a lot, listen, ask questions and enjoy.

Children entering kindergarten with these skills are on track to read well by third grade.

 

Stimulating Brain Development

Reading to your child from birth literally wires brain cells together in networks that later facilitate independent reading. Current brain research shows that those linked brain cells enable a child:

• To hear the different sounds (phonemic awareness)
• To recognize letters and develop strategies to figure out new words (decoding)
• To develop real-world understanding of what the words refer to (create contexts for understanding meaning)
• To build an oral vocabulary (perhaps 5,000 words by kindergarten)
  

Bonding with Books

Sharing books develops successful students. Your child, snuggling in your lap, and sharing your time and laughter, is learning to love reading.

Bonding as a Family

As long as it is a happy experience there is literally no wrong way to read together. It is practically free, you can do it any place and kids beg for more. Even parents who cannot read well themselves can provide a good experience for their children by telling stories from their lives, from their imaginations, or from pictures in wordless books. It is best to read to your child early and often, but it is never too late to start in any language.

The Value of Literacy

For every year you read with your child, average lifetime earnings increase by $50,000. You make a $250,000 gift to your child from birth to age five. The gift you give is essential for success in school and in life.