Lifelong Readers

Happy New Year, Early Childhood Educators!

With the New Year comes many hopes and ambitions to better ourselves, or better those around us. For some, this include wanting to dedicate more time to reading. This could mean both professionally in your early childhood work, educationally in your cdaclass.org endeavors, or personally perhaps with children in your own family. No matter your reason, here are some things to consider when developing plans to improve your literacy delivery!

Remember that literacy is not just reading. Keep in mind that looking through books, magazines, newspapers, etc., all count as reading too. Exposing children to as many forms of print as possible is important. In addition, not all “reading” activities need to come from books. For example, whether in your home or in your early childhood center, be sure to have games a puzzles, flash cards, visible sight words, pocket charts, and plenty of writing materials.

Children enjoy writing, and sometimes writing can filter into a dramatic play area, where children want to label their “school” made of blocks, or their “store” made of play-doh. Be sure to include a variety of writing resources, such as paper, crayons, markers, index cards, tape, stamps, stencils, and magnets.

Of course, don’t forget the books! Books and more books of various topics, genres, sizes, languages, etc. should be readily available to all children. Magazines and newspapers can also be fun (and often free).

While books are extremely important, these other resources can be a big assist in helping children gain the foundational skills they need for becoming life-long readers! So read on early childhood educators!