research that hits home
This post is the third in a series about the Positive Caregiving Checklist. Please see the previous two week's posts to read part one and part two.
READ
This one is pretty self-explanatory, but here are some tidbits regarding incorporating reading that I've acquired over my past few years of parenting:
1) Use the local library. It's free!!! Cycling through new books every so often keeps it interesting, for both parents and children. Plus, most public libraries offer a variety of story times during the week and weekend. These typically involve not only reading but singing and dancing and, on a Saturday morning when you are wiped out from the week, Story Time allows you to be with your child but someone else entertains them! Did I mention it's free?!
the local library
a zillion books...all for free!
2) Start early. Even one simple board book during that last bottle before bed can establish the reading routine for an infant. Early on, their interest in reading might really be an interest in flipping the pages, but that's OK. Reading before bed is a great habit. It provides designated cuddle time (particularly important for working parents and their children who have been apart all day), helps establish a bedtime routine (which can help with sleep habits), establishes a reading habit, and begins developing a child's language skills.
3) A book in the car is a great way to break the car seat blues. My son absolutely hates being in his car seat. When he has a good book to look at, however, he is at peace.
4) Action books--those that involve sliding pages open, counting items, sticking fingers through holes (The Very Hungry Caterpillar, for example) or touching differently-textured elements on the pages--are winners for busy babies who may initially have trouble focusing on just listening to words.
positive caregiving
a good book & a good snuggle
5) Act out favorite stories. One of my daughter's all-time favorite books, Nobody Likes a Goblin, involves a Goblin who sets off on a quest to rescue his best friend, Skeleton. In so doing, he finds a troop of like-minded goblins and, by chance and a bit of chutzpah, becomes their king. At home, we took a play tent, a toy crown and an old pair of boots (you'll have to read the story to see why those matter) and acted out the story. My daughter LOVED it.
6) Let your child read to you. My daughter can't read yet but, at a certain point, we realized that she had memorized some of her favorite books. Occasionally, now, after we have finished reading to her, we will let her "read" one of her books to us.
letter magnets
early language learning
7) Letter magnets. When my daughter was about one, we got her a set of letter magnets. Although these magnets kind of ruined my life--sweeping them off the refrigerator and onto the floor was a particularly enjoyable game for her--and more than a few ended up in our dog's teeth, our daughter learned all her letters this way and even how to spell the names of people in our family.
8) Get a "First Words" book. See note above about ruining your life. Once my daughter learned how to say the names of all the things in her "First Words" book, she wanted to read it...over and over and over. While this was extremely monotonous for her parents, I really saw her language take off after learning from this type of book.
Do you have tips for building reading or other types of positive caregiving into your family's or students' lives? Share them here!
