Posts Tagged ‘early literacy’

What is Early Literacy?

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

It’s the mother who sings to her infant. The baby who chews on the board book! The toddler who asks for his favorite stories to be read to him over and over again. Sound familiar? Early literacy is what children learn and know about reading and writing before they actually read and write.

As you’re most likely already aware, early literacy skills develop in the first 5 years of life. According to recent brain development research, children are born with 100 billion brain cells. By the time a child is three, his or her brain circuitry is basically developed, which is why it is important to form positive learning experiences and attachments as early as possible.

You make such a difference to your child’s early learning successes. When you read, talk or play with your child, you’re stimulating the growth of their brain. It’s that simple! Even if a child or baby doesn’t appear to be learning, they are. Hearing stories, handling books, playing with blocks—it all adds up to early literacy. With each interaction, your child is learning important pre-reading skills such as vocabulary development, sound awareness, reading comprehension and letter recognition.

Here are a few tips to engage your child in early literacy activities:

Read to your child every day. Even if it’s just for a few minutes. Even if your toddler forces you to skip pages or chews on the corner of the book.

Talk about the pictures. Ask: what’s happening and why?

Talk about the story. See if your child can tell you what happens next.

Point to words. Run your finger along the words as you read them.

Make it a game. Ask your child to point to certain objects. Use funny voices or make sound effects when telling the story. End story time with tickle time.

Let us know if you have any tips you’d like to share!

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Diary of an Emerging Reader: Appreciating the Unexpected

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

What do you get when you put one highly exuberant 2 year-old, a literate yet bossy 7 year-old, and 24 books in one room? A little bit of everything, I have to say…

We started off with a refresher on My First Bob Books: Pre-Reading Skills. Last week, Wilson (our reader in training) had a bit of trouble recognizing his shapes, not to mention holding his attention span. This week? “Triangle! Square! Circle!” he shouted when he spied Tanner the Triangle, Seth the Square and Sally the Circle. We read through the first three books with relative ease. Wilson sat still and pointed to the shapes without prompting.

Elizabeth (age 7) then read the first two books from the My First Bob Books: Alphabet set to her younger brother. “What does this letter say?” she asked, pointing to the letter A. “6!” replied Wilson. “No, Wilson, it’s the letter A,” she corrected him in a mothering tone. “What is this letter?” she asked, pointing to the letter B. “B!” shouted Wilson, resulting in a congratulatory “yes!” from the rest of us. Elizabeth read through a few more pages but then–don’t ask me why– things went downhill after that. Both kids began jumping on the bed, giggling uncontrollably and dumping books onto the floor. Then Wilson bit his sister on the arm. “Okay,” that’s it” I said. “Help me get these books back in their boxes.” Putting the books back in order and according to each set was a terrific task to assign to Elizabeth. “Wilson, you put all the red ones together,” she said… and he did! “Now the yellow ones,” she instructed. Amazingly enough, he was able to complete that task as well. Yay, he’s getting better with his colors, I thought. But wasn’t this supposed to be a reading exercise? Then I realized that working on early learning and pre-reading skills such as colors, numbers and shapes doesn’t have to be an organized activity, it can happen on the go; anytime, anywhere.

Got a pre reading tip to share? Let us know.

–Allison

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My First Bob Books: Prepping for Pre-Reading

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Because Bob Books are all about that magical moment when letters and sounds turn into words, children need to grasp a number of important pre-reading skills (such as recognizing letters, shapes, patterns, sorting and sequencing) before reading begins. But where do you begin? How do you start?

With this in mind, we published our newest series of Bob Books, My First Bob Books in July 2008. Intended for parents to read to their young children (whereas the Bob Books Foundation Sets are designed for children to read to their parents) these two sets are geared towards getting your young ones ready for reading.

My First Bob Books: Alphabet is of course, all about the alphabet. The books encourage letter recognition, letter sounds and repetition. It’s about tuning young ears to the sounds that letters make. Also known as phonemic awareness, this is a skill needed in order to progress to reading readiness. Parents can have fun with the books and turn letters into a game, such as “b-b-b-ball, b-b-b bunny, b-b-bear. What other words start with the letter b?” Finding objects within the illustrations that match the letters is also part of the fun. (Clues are listed in the back of each book.)

My First Bob Books: Pre Reading Skills focuses on sorting, shapes, patterns and sequencing. For example, seeing the similarity in the shape of a triangle and the letter A. Or that round shapes translate into the letters o, c, q, or b. This set begins with simple shapes (triangle, square, circle) and builds progressively, with shapes getting organized in different groupings. Again, this is an opportunity for the parent to point things out and ask questions; i.e. “Can you point to the square?” or “What shape is this?”

As Bob Books original illustrator John Maslen is now retired (happily painting away, see our previous blog post), we found a new illustrator for My First Bob Books, award-winning UK-based illustrator Sue Hendra. We looked all over the world; finding the right person was no easy task. The illustrations may look simple but there is so much humor, fun and joy that are conveyed in the drawings– the art does a lot to make the Bob Books fun for kids to read. After all, that joy in learning is what Bob Books is all about.

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Diary of an Emerging Reader: Meet Our Newest Reader in Training

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

His older sister learned to read using Bob Books at home and at preschool beginning at age 4. His parents read to him every night. Occasionally, when she feels like it, his sister (now age 7) reads to him as well. He loves to “play” with books, as evidenced by his stash of board books with broken bindings and teeth marks around the corners. Is he reading? Not yet. Is he excited about books and reading? You bet. Meet Wilson, age 2.5, our newest reader in training.

Over the course of the next several months we will be following young Wilson’s progress as an emerging reader.

In my previous life (as in, before kids) I spent many years as a children’s media editor and producer. Now I juggle parenting, family and a freelance consulting business (although not necessarily in that order.) I will submit guest blogs every other week, keeping you up-to-date on Wilson and his forays into early literacy.

Just to give you a baseline starting point, here are some of the things that Wilson is doing now:

  • Throwing books (plus, um, some occasional hitting and biting as well)
  • Pointing at pictures (“look at that BIG truuuck!”)
  • Recognizing a few colors
  • Beginning to learn shapes
  • Recognizing some letters
  • Memorizing repetitive phrases in books (“that’s not my dinosaur”)
  • Attending preschool two mornings per week

Last night I introduced Wilson to the My First Bob Books: Pre-Reading Skills set. Predictably, he opened the box and dumped all the books out onto the floor. “This one!” he squealed, holding up Book 11: Guessing Machine. Wilson sat still for a few pages before picking up a handful of other books. “How about this one?” I asked, pulling him into my lap and opening up Book 1: Best Friends. We read about three friends: a circle (Sally), square (Seth) and a triangle (Tanner). “A triangle! Wight dare!” shouted Wilson when he spotted Tanner. “Can you show which one is a circle?” I asked. “I dunno,” he replied. “A ball! I see ball!” he shouted, however, when he spotted Sally.

So, as you can see, there are a few challenges ahead but I don’t anticipate any major hurdles (so far). I hope you’ll join in on this learning-to-read journey and send in your comments, suggestions, personal anecdotes, or hey–even some encouraging ‘Dear Wilson’ fan mail ; )

–Allison

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The Magic of Bob Books

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

“We had the first Bob book sitting on the bookshelf since my daughter was one. Shortly before she turned four she went over and picked it out, sat down and started sounding out the words. It was one of those moments as a parent I will never forget!”
-Elizabeth S., Davenport Iowa

“I had my son hold the book for me because I was tired and he matter-of-factly began to read from it.”
-Sue L., Australia

“My oldest son has a reading problem, he is in the 4th grade and reads below grade average. I have a younger son who has just started to read, he is in kindergarten. I had the older one read Bob Books Set 1 to the younger one and WOW WOW, both of my boys were happy.  I couldn’t get that 5 year old to stop reading.”
-Nedra M., Washington, D.C.

Have you experienced your own “aha” reading moment with your child, the pride, the smiles, the confidence that comes as they triumphantly grasp a difficult new concept? Welcome to the magic of Bob Books.

As is the case with most transformative experiences, what happens behind the scenes and the skills that are developed before hand are what pave the way for the that special moment.  Children don’t “magically” learn to read. An early foundation in skills such as speaking in full sentences, knowing the alphabet, understanding the sounds that letters make, sequencing and phonemic awareness are all key for reading readiness.

As a parent, you have already been developing these skills by playing games and interacting with your child in your everyday life. Alphabet magnets on the fridge, drawing letters in sand or modeling them in clay, various arts and crafts projects; all of them have been developing reading readiness in various ways. Reading to your child and talking about the story, helps build awareness of sequencing. Playing sound games, singing, rhyming – these all build phonemic awareness.

So, enjoy your time with your child and know that the minutes and hours you invest helping them learn about their world can be both fun and will build important reading and life skills.

Do you have a magical Bob Books moment you’d like to share? Let us know!

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How Do I Know When My Child is Ready to Read?

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

If you’re like many parents, you’ve likely been reading to your child for a long time: Bedtime stories, board books, activity books; cherished picture books. Perhaps you were even reading to your child in the womb. Now your child is older and is showing an increasing interest in reading and exercising more independence. Maybe he or she is repeating back certain words or phrases, anticipating simple plots or summarizing story lines. Is it now time to introduce your child to the world of reading?

As you may have seen on the Bob Books website, there are several comments from proud parents whose young children started reading Bob Books between the ages of 3 and 4. The question is… does this mean that your child will be reading at age 3? Not necessarily. All kids learn at different rates in terms of their child development. Some children excel at language early on; others hit the ground running (literally) and master their gross motor skills like jumping, climbing and balance. Others kids are quick to absorb key social skills. Therefore, it should be expected that some children will acquire reading skills more quickly than others.

Here are a few things to look for when assessing your child’s reading readiness:

-    Does s/he know all the letters of the alphabet?
-    Has s/he shown interest in reading?
-    Can your child spell his or her own name?
-    Does your child recognize signage and enjoy ‘reading’ words back to you, i.e. – “Stop,” “Open,” “Exit,” etc.?

Another important gauge to keep in mind when you start your child with Bob Books is to notice whether your child seems interested in what you are doing and wants to try. Bob Books believes that children learn to read at their own pace which could begin anywhere between the ages of 3-7 years-old.

A bad case of the wiggles, or a lot of frustration may mean it’s best to try again another time. Put the books away for a few months, continue building foundation skills like the alphabet, and try again in a few months.

Do you have a success story you’d like to share? Let us know!

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