Well hello dear blog readers,
This is part two of a two-part blog so if you haven’t read the first part yet what are you doing here?! I’m joking! You don’t have to have read the first part in order to understand this part. The first part spoke about the benefits of reading to our babies and toddlers. This part (part two) will talk about the benefits of reading to our pre-schoolers and younger school children. Today’s blog is a bit of a long one but we are just so passionate that once we get started we can’t stop!
So, how does reading stories benefit our pre-schoolers? We can now start looking at longer stories. Stories that rhyme and explore more themes such as friendship, hardship, making the right choices, fighting dragons, fighting the norm, following our own path. Julia Donaldson stories are superb at this age and stage! I literally cannot recommend her enough! Her stories are fun (and often funny), easy to follow, interactive and rhyme. The list could go on! They also have some teaching hidden inside as you will see in “Monkey Puzzle,” “Spinderella,” and “Superworm.”
At this age and stage, the children are much more aware of themselves, others and the world around them. This is when we can introduce some fun non-fiction books. If it relates to an interest of your child, then all the better as they will soak up all the information more. Here at Squirrel Lodge however, we do not treat the children as empty vessels to be filled with facts. With non-fiction books, we do not read it cover to cover (unless they want us to). Instead, we let the children explore the illustrations/photos and wait until their curiosity is piqued. So, if they are looking through a jungle animal book and point to an animal, asking what it is, we can tell them. It yet again comes back to the fact that if they are interested in something then they are more likely to retain the information and want to learn more. Non-fiction books are also a great way for the children to learn that we are always learning too and that adults don’t always know everything. It’s okay to say, “I don’t know.” However, don’t end it there and brush it off. A great response would be, “I don’t know but let’s find out!” Show your excitement in learning. Learning doesn’t have to be boring. It is our job as adults to show that learning can be fun, interactive and full of endless possibilities! By giving the children a love of learning we are helping to set our children up for the future. From nursery to school and even adulthood.
In the previous part of this blog we spoke about our younger toddlers looking at books to learn simple emotions. At the pre-school stage we can develop upon emotions and introduce early empathy skills. “Would you like it if that happened to you?” or “do you think that was a nice thing to do?” or even “should they have done that?” This way you can explore and talk about what is right and wrong whether it be sharing, being kind to each other, lying, hurting each other etc. We should celebrate the good things as well as highlighting what shouldn’t have been done. It is also a good idea to teach the children that if anything upsets them or someone is doing something they shouldn’t that they talk to a trusted adult. At Squirrel Lodge, we encourage the children to try and sort out their own conflicts whether it be a pushing incident, someone has knocked down their tower, snatched etc. Us practitioners will support this with questions such as “tell them how it made you feel,” and “how can they make you happy again?” This is also a good way for the other child to learn how their actions can affect others. This is why we praise positive behaviour as opposed to always highlighting negative behaviour; little bit of praise can go a long way.
Some children in the pre-school stage don’t have the concentration to sit for a whole story so again, if they are showing more interest in the illustrations, that’s fine. There are so many learning opportunities in every story. We don’t have to read a book cover to cover and be done with it. Explore it. Pull it apart. Obviously not literally but figuratively. “Read” what you see in the picture instead. “What do you think is happening?” or “they look sad. I wonder what has happened?” or “they are walking into the forest. What might they find in there?” You could also explore sounds in the story. This can help with the ability to distinguish sounds from each other such as “sh” and “ch” and “m” and “n.” A good example of a story that can help with this is “We’re going on a bear hunt.” Be expressive with sounds. If a story
talks about the wind, then make the sound of the wind. This can also help your child picture
and imagine the story more. You can encourage conversations about the story settings too. How does it differ from where you live? Do you live near a forest? Would you like to live in a castle? This in turn enables the children to make links between their experiences. For example, you may have visited Leeds Castle which your child could recall if reading a story about princes and princesses. “Does it look the same as Leeds Castle?” Similarities and differences can be important to learn at this age and stage, especially when it comes to personal differences and similarities.
Stories at this age can engage them physically too. If the story is about going to the park and someone is jumping, you could say, “do you think you could jump as high as that?” and encourage them to show you how high they can jump. There is also great lift the flap books at this age too. These can help develop their fine motor skills. At this age and stage children also like to turn the pages. This also helps develop fine motor skills as they are using the small finger movements needed in order to turn the page. Allowing the children to turn the pages also teaches the child that the words are finished for those pages too. A great tip to go alongside this is following the words with your finger when reading the story. This lets the child begin to learn that in English we read left to right. It also shows them that words carry meaning.
As well as developing imagination and a love of stories, books can also be a great way to develop number skills to. There are some wonderful counting stories out there. Some of them are a simple re-telling of a classic or a nursery rhyme for example “five little ducks.” Encourage the children to count the ducks. Once they have counted, see if there is a numeral on the page too. If there is, point to it and tell them that that is what the number looks like. This shows them that numerals carry meaning as well as words. Here at Squirrel Lodge, we also encourage counting in other aspects of the stories such as counting the three bears chairs or how many cakes Little Red Riding Hood is taking to her granny.
Now, onto our school children. By now, we know what benefits and skills that listening/reading to stories bring to us. During the school years it is so important that this continues and that when they learn to read it doesn’t become a chore. There are studies that show that children who read for pleasure succeed more in life. Continue to read to and with your child. Children in school (often as they progress into the junior years) must read out loud during lessons. Allowing your child to read to you at home in a comfortable way can help build confidence in this. If they stumble over a word, help them. If they lack expression, model how. It is important that we do not get too cross with them. Even if we have told them how to pronounce that certain words so many times. Another way to help with this is also to not stop reading to your child (even the bedtime story) until they want to you stop. Even if they are transitioning to stories with chapters! So, why not read a chapter each instead? This is a great way of sharing the stories you read and loved as a child too. I mean come on, who doesn’t love Harry Potter? Remember the books of The Worst Witch? Or… The Famous Five, The Faraway Tree, Mister Majeika, The Twits, The BFG! The David Walliams stories are absolutely fabulous too! In my opinion he is the new Roald Dahl! He releases some of his stories as Christmas TV specials, but, divided opinion… The books are always better!
As with the last post, I would like to leave you with a little tip again. Books and stories are free… with a library card. So, whatever your background or financial situation you always have books and stories at your disposal. If you aren’t a confident reader, that’s okay. Maybe you could read the story to yourself a few times first so that you are more confident reading it to your child? Or, as mentioned above you could “read” the illustrations. Libraries also offer free group reading sessions for nursery children throughout the week too.
I hope the two blog posts have helped you understand the many benefits of reading to our children.
Keep your eyes peeled for the next blog post!
Josh and the Squirrels.
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