Literacy: More than Just Reading Books
Friday, January 25, 2013 at 9:36AM
by Stefania Moffatt
For some, the love of reading takes hold at a young age. For others, however, the pleasure associated with reading is something that needs to be cultivated. For parents with children in the latter group, take heart; getting your child to appreciate the written word and develop his or her literacy skills doesn’t have to be a struggle.
Reading books is certainly an effective way for a child to enhance his or her literacy, and provides an opportunity to explore emotions and empathize with characters in a book. Reading to/with your child is an important activity to incorporate into daily routines as well. It is also important that children see their parents reading. Most children want to emulate their parents; if they come to see that their parents consider reading to be an enjoyable activity that continues into adulthood, this helps encourage the children to embrace reading as well.
One also has to realize that you don’t have to rely on books alone; learning and reading can happen at any time. Parents can look for ways to incorporate reading into everyday routines, like encouraging children to look for signs and recognize letters on license plates during time spent in the car. When putting a toy together, parents can encourage the child to follow along with the instructions. The same goes for following recipes while making dinner. Anything that gets letters and words flowing through developing brains can enhance the development of literacy.
Written-word skills can also be developed through other fun activities, such as singing, playing a board game, or writing a story or poem. These elements of literacy development are part of this year’s Family Literacy Day on January 27, the theme of which is “15 Minutes of Fun”.
Family literacy is about family members carving out time from their busy schedules to enhance literacy skills through activities they can do together, regardless of any differences among the literacy levels of the various individuals. Some of the possible activities one might consider include: using puppets to narrate a story, acting out different roles in a book, or creating a craft project that illustrates a storyline.
Learning together through family literacy is not only an important way to enhance a child’s development; it can also be beneficial for the parents. This kind of dynamic interaction between parent and child can help improve communication skills and keep adults mentally alert. And we can’t forget that spending time with kids means lots of hugs and kisses.
For more information on Family Literacy Day go to: http://abclifeliteracy.ca/fld/family-literacy-day. The website provides great tips on how to get you and your family reading.
Reader Comments (1)
Wouldn't it be lovely for schools to arrange and encourage pen pals for children as was done when their parents were at school. The excitement of receiving a letter in the mail would certainly be a different treat in our electronic age.