Camp Creek Blog

Some ideas for helping children who are not yet reading independently:

• Let them choose books at the library — and don’t restrict them to only picture books or books with very little text! They can choose books that they want you to read to them.

• Give them a pad of small post-its and let them flag pages that you (or an older sibling) will read to them later.

• Collect ephemera: posters, charts, postcards, brochures, etc. The more images to compare and contrast, the better!

• Look for videos at the library or on youtube; remember that you can show only a part of a film or video to a small child — you don’t have to watch the whole thing. Remember also that they will probably want to watch it over and over and over again.

• Have them do observational sketches and tell you about their sketches as soon as they are finished drawing them and then again the next day. Pre-readers can “read” their own sketches.

• Label the parts of their sketches, e.g., the parts of a fire engine: ladder, tires, bell.

• Make illustrated lists of common words — digital photographs and xerox copies of book illustrations are great for the pictures; print the words large and clear with a black marker. Laminate these sheets if possible; children will use them for a long time. They can refer back to these when they want to print a word on a drawing, letter, sketch, construction, sign, poster, or book. (Make illustrations only about 1 inch square and put a group of related words together on a page, e.g., “Mommy”, “Daddy”, “Grandma”, and sibling names on one page; a project-related page might say things like “engine”, “hat”, “ladder”, “fireman”, “dog”, etc.)

• Have them dictate stories, notes, letters, e-mails, etc.  Make sure they understand that you will write anything for them that they need.

Pre-readers and pre-writers can research independently if they know they have a dependable resource for helping them find and decode the resources they need. You don’t have to be at your child’s beck and call 24/7, but you do need to be a trusted resource. It’s fine to say “Mark all the pages you want me to read and I will read them to you after lunch.” But be aware that if you don’t follow through for them a few times in a row, they will give up and stop trying.

This is just one way you can support your child’s investigations — not just helping them locate and decode the resources they need, but showing them that you are their trustworthy partner in learning.