A bit of pre-reading with Caleb
Posted by aaronjen | Filed under Books, Family
Noah was always keen to sit and read with me from the time he was a toddler. Caleb, however, now a preschooler, has only recently taken any real interest in reading, but has picked it up really quickly. As with Noah, his favourite book by far is The Cat in the Hat, by Dr Seuss (we’re already onto our second copy, having worn out the first one). How I recall reading The Cat in the Hat to Noah no less than 7 times a day before he was 2 years old, especially when I read it to Caleb now, being able to easily recite the whole book off by heart.
In this post, however, I want to mention two other books that are very popular with Caleb - I Went Walking, by Sue Williams and Where is the Green Sheep?, by Mem Fox – because they are great examples of books that develop a preschooler’s pre-reading skills. The thing that makes these two books particularly good is the repetitive and easy vocabulary and the 
corresponding pictures, helping a child who can’t read yet remember which words go with which pictures, allowing them to practice ‘reading’ the book to themselves. In fact, the book is rather an optional add-in when it comes to reciting the book, as Caleb demonstrated the other day when we were walking home from the shops by reciting pretty much verbatim I Went Walking (only steering from the script where I do as I read it to him).
I highly recommend these books for your toddler/preschooler and it’s my hope that reading these books over and over again to Caleb and having him ‘read’ them to me will help him gain the confidence he needs to take the leap when he starts school in 2011 to real reading. - JRR
Tags: Dr Seuss, I Went Walking, Mem Fox, parenting, pre-reading, reading, school, Sue Williams, The Cat in the Hat, Where is the Green Sheep?
Summer brain drain
Posted by aaronjen | Filed under Family
One blog I regularly frequent is Momformation. Several writers contribute to it, and it covers all things parenting. As it is summer break over in the States at the moment, one topic of interest is how to help your child avoid ‘summer brain drain’ (see article). Apparently, a child can drop back two reading levels over the summer break, due to not having the regular brain stimulus that comes with school. This is especially evident in poorer families, as the richer families can afford to send their children to summer programs.
While we thought it was an American phenomenon, as the summer break is much longer over there, I came to find out that wasn’t so, and worse, that Noah had probably experienced it himself. We had a Semester One parent-teacher conference with Noah’s teacher on Tuesday, and when we were talking about his progress so far this year, she mentioned that the reading level she recorded for him at the start of this year was probably not indicative of his actual reading level, which she commented was likely two levels higher than that. I was shocked, and slightly embarrassed!
Quite often, I find myself to blame for Noah’s progress at school rather than him. He is a keen learner (this is a child who cries because he wants to do his homework). And looking back over our summer break, I realized that he hadn’t been doing the reading, I had! Determined to avoid this happening again, I asked his teacher for some advice. While her advice amounted to ‘keep reading to him (at two levels higher than he’s at)’ and ‘get him to read to you’, she also said that Noah is over the hump where that would likely affect him, saying that aspect of summer brain drain is really about learning to read, and Noah is a fluent reader now, so we need not worry.
Just another way that Caleb will benefit from Noah being the first child. - JRR
Tags: parenting, reading, school, summer brain drain
