I love books! Children's books, Fiction books, biographies, music and even recipe books. As an introvert, books have been my friends from my earliest days, through my school years and as an adult they have become treasured friends. In my house I can never have too many books!
A language-rich environment is important to children's early brain development and can have strong effects on early language, vocabulary, reading and math skills as well as a child's social-emotional development. Being language rich means that children are surrounded by talking, singing and reading. That they have many opportunities throughout their day, across all activities, to communicate with others and engage in back-and-forth interactions.
Reading to children helps get them ready for school. For infants and toddlers the most important part of reading is interacting while you are reading to them. That means talking about the pictures in the book, asking questions, making fun comments and connecting the story to the child's life. It's not important to read every word in the book, it's about learning new words and concepts while having fun.
A language-rich environment is important to children's early brain development and can have strong effects on early language, vocabulary, reading and math skills as well as a child's social-emotional development. Being language rich means that children are surrounded by talking, singing and reading. That they have many opportunities throughout their day, across all activities, to communicate with others and engage in back-and-forth interactions.
Reading to children helps get them ready for school. For infants and toddlers the most important part of reading is interacting while you are reading to them. That means talking about the pictures in the book, asking questions, making fun comments and connecting the story to the child's life. It's not important to read every word in the book, it's about learning new words and concepts while having fun.
Yesterday Erica and I made some changes to our office. I moved all my children's books out of the cabinet they were in. Sounds easy right? As I was moving them, I'd find a book and think "Oh I love this book" and then I'd find another, and another. Pretty soon I started thinking about how sad it was. See I had put away my books in a cabinet. When I had them on a bookshelf, I got them down and used them and read them to others who learned to love them as much as I do. But when I put them in the cabinet, all that stopped. Sure they were organized, but they weren't used the way that they should have been. As I moved them to their temporary home, because we have vowed to bring our books back to our office some how, I thought that there has to be a way to bring my love for reading and how to read to children to our staff, our parents and the community.
So today I want you to grab one of the children's books you like the best, and a child or two or three or four and just sit with them. And while you're sitting there, read them a story and think about the lovely gift you have that you are now sharing.
So today I want you to grab one of the children's books you like the best, and a child or two or three or four and just sit with them. And while you're sitting there, read them a story and think about the lovely gift you have that you are now sharing.