I’m generally pretty laid-back. I don’t get riled up easily. I have a lot of opinions, but they are rarely heated. I don’t have causes or soapboxes.
Except.
We have no business teaching kids to read before Kindergarten.
(when I say “teaching kids to read”, I’m referring to any sort of formal reading program including worksheets or consecutive leveled books/activities. Anything that makes you think “school”)
There. I said it. Here is the hill that I am dying on, the line in the sand that I am drawing, the soapbox that I will not get off. My heels are firmly dug in and I am not budging. This is why I don’t have many strong opinions – because when I do, I cling to it like Rose clung onto that door (that was clearly big enough for Jack, but that’s a topic for another day). Just to put it out there, I do have a M.Ed. in reading and I was a kindergarten teacher and a reading specialist for 11 years before my first child was born. So, just for now, suspend your thoughts of me as “that crazy girl who can’t keep it together and writes about it on the internet” and think of me as “a reading professional”. Think that in your most serious voice, and picture me with glasses, a cardigan, and a bun.
Now, having convinced you that I am well qualified (they were wire-frame librarian glasses you pictured, right?), I’ll tell you that was a lie. I do believe in teaching kids to read before Kindergarten. I just believe we’re teaching them wrong. We’re so caught up in our kids knowing their letters and sounding out words that we’re totally skipping over all of the pre-reading skills that are going to make our kids good readers and learners for the rest of their lives. We’re putting the cart before the horse, and it’s hurting our kids.
Let me put it this way – my boys like to watch cooking shows (they get it from their dad), and one day we watched an episode of Kid’s Baking Championship. Of course, they wanted to try it, so they ran into the kitchen and made their own “cakes” – toast and pancakes layered with icing. Now every time they are in the kitchen cooking with me, they want to come up with creations. Over and over I have explained to them that before you can create your own recipes, you need to learn how cooking works by following lots of established recipes. When you understand the basics, THEN you can create masterpieces. Otherwise toast with icing is the best you’re going to make.
Teaching kids to skip straight to sounding out words without first giving them a foundation of the basics of reading is the same way. They’re going to be able to read words, but they won’t have the depth of knowledge to be able to understand what they are reading. The ability to read is not the end goal – reading should be a tool for future learning, so comprehension and understanding how to learn is what we’re working towards. Reading the words on the page is just one stepping stone along the way. I’m going to give you my best tips on getting your kids ready to read before kindergarten; but first, here comes the controversial part no one wants to hear:
Developing these skills takes time. In the first five years of their life, they are going from literally no knowledge of the world to beginning academics. That’s a LOT to take in and, even though our kids are smart, it can not be rushed! I know that preschoolers love to do workbooks and are begging you to teach them to read. At least 824 times I’ve heard a parent say, “I’m not pushing him to read at all. He just really wants to do it so I let him”. My kids really like to eat chocolate cake, but that doesn’t mean I let them do it whenever they want. If you only hear one thing I’m saying, hear this:
Encourage your kids to love reading and to be good readers by reading with them, not by “teaching” them.
A lot of kids can be taught to read in preschool. Those few who are truly gifted and ready to read will do so on their own, as you develop the skills below, without being taught. There have been several studies showing that kids who learn to read early have no academic advantage over those who learn to read later. Much like learning to walk, it evens out and you can’t tell who learned when. (Of course, some kids do have learning disabilities and will struggle. If you suspect that is the case with your child, talk to his/her teacher or another professional.)
Ok, enough of that. I’m putting stern Sarah away. Let’s talk about the pre-reading skills kids need to develop in those first five years of their life and how we can help them do it.
How print works
This is not the way books work, sweet baby Logan. But you're getting there!
Kids start by learning what books are – how to hold them, turn pages, stop and look at the pictures on a page before turning to the next one, and go from front to back of the book. Eventually they understand that print has meaning and words can be read. They work on this understanding of “print has meaning” for a long time. It’s a lot to figure out because print is all around us – not just books, but signs, lists, packaging, etc. As they get closer to becoming independent readers, they develop “environmental print” and “concept of word”. Environmental print is recognizing logos and words they see every day – for instance, a kid who can see the red bulls-eye and know that the word says “Target” even though they couldn’t read that word in isolation. Concept of word is understanding that letters make words and words have spaces between them – you know a kid has COW when they can point to each word correctly as they read memorized passages.
How can I help?
Read with your kids. Point to words if you want. Read with your kids. Read signs, directions, etc., out loud. Read with your kids. Let them see you write things down – like a grocery list or activities on your calendar. Read with your kids. Let your kids read to you – if they’ve memorized or are just re-telling the story, tell them that’s a great way for them to read. Read with your kids.
*As they grow, writing is an important part of this. Acknowledging your kids letter-like shapes and random letters as writing is an awesome way to grow their confidence. Let them add to the grocery list – and then buy what they wrote. Ask them to label their pictures. You don’t have to tell them they did it correctly, just say “Wow! I love the way you wrote that. That’s such great 4-year old writing! Here, I’ll write the word correctly underneath for you”
Background Knowledge and Vocabulary
Can you read this?
“The twin primes conjecture’s most famous prediction is that there are infinitely many prime pairs with a difference of 2. But the statement is more general than that. It predicts that there are infinitely many pairs of primes with a difference of 4 (such as 3 and 7) or 14 (293 and 307), or with any even gap that you might want.
Alphonse de Polignac posed the conjecture in its current form in 1849. Mathematicians made little progress on it for the next 160 years. But in 2013 the dam broke, or at least sprung major leaks. That year Yitang Zhang proved that there are infinitely many prime pairs with a gap of no more than 70 million. Over the next year other mathematicians, including Maynard and Terry Tao, closed the prime gap considerably. The current state of the art is a proof that there are infinitely many prime pairs with a difference of at most 246.(I found this here)
How’d you do? If you’re like me (a reasonably well-educated adult, as we’ve established) you knew all the words and even what they meant. But I read it slowly, several times, and still have only a faint idea of what it means. It wasn’t fun for me and I didn’t see much point in it. I’m not likely to keep trying to read more articles on this website. My sweet grandfather had a Ph.D. in mathematics and thought math was super fun. He would have devoured this article and been interested to learn more, because he had a lot of background knowledge on this subject. Much like I would devour a story in People magazine about how amazing Princess Kate is (I mean, she really is, right? #goals).
Can you imagine how hard it would be to read a book about pumpkin life cycles, or even a cute story about a pumpkin patch, if you’ve never seen plants and watched them grow? You would be so busy trying to figure out what those green pointy things were on the vine that you would miss the whole point. Our kids need to spend at least the first five years of their life learning about the world before they can be expected to read about it.
How can I help?
Read with your kids. Talk to your kids. Get out and experience the world. Read some more. Talk some more. Get out some more. Read. Talk. Go. Read. Talk. Go. Read. Talk. Go. It sounds too simple, but it’s vital to raising readers.
Don’t underestimate the talking part! Just think of the difference between saying “Put on your coat” and “It’s cold outside today, so we need to get your coat. Please get the blue coat with the hood. If you need help zipping it up, let me know”. Now multiply that by the 100s of times a day we talk to our kids and the hundreds of days we have with them. That’s a lot of vocabulary they could be gaining! (There’s a well known, very interesting study about this, and how socioeconomic status plays into it. They found that “By 3 years of age, there is a 30 million word gap between children from the wealthiest and poorest families.” Check it out if you have time!)
Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic awareness is just the ability to play with sounds in words out loud. Lesson #1 – RHYMING! Rhyming is so so key!! It’s teaching kids how words work and how to take them apart and put them back together. This will help them big time when they get to sounding out words for reading and spelling. Also, it’s fun. And we learn better when things are fun, right? Nursery rhymes and rhyming stories are classics with the toddler and preschool set for this very reason. When you are singing those silly songs and chants that your kids want to hear over and over and over again, you are teaching them to read! Even when they’re pretty good at rhyming, keep doing it. Make stuff up, whatever. I always chant “1, 2, 3, 4, everybody out the door!” when it’s time to leave and it annoys my kids so much (which is why I love it). So they come up with their own chants to show me up, but guess what? They’re rhyming! They’re learning! I win. Teacher-mamas are so tricky. 🙂
Phonemic awareness is any kind of wordplay, though, such as changing the first letters or the vowel sounds in words. Two of my favorites are to take kids’ names and say “Sarah-Sarah-Bo-Barah-Banana-Fana-Fo-Farah. Me-Mi-Mo-Marah. Sarah!” (Please skip this one if your child’s name is Chuck) and Apples and Bananas – “I like to eat eat eat apples and bananas….I like to eet eet eet eepples and baneenees” (If you don’t know this classic, click here)
How can I help?
Yeah, we covered this already. Sing, be silly, play with words. Have fun with them! Teaching kids to rhyme with a workbook should be against the law. Why would we make something boring when it’s so easy to make it fun?!?!?!
Letter Recognition
I’m not saying we should ignore letters and words all together – I’m not crazy! Being able to identify letters, make their sounds, and write them is vital in learning to read! I just downplay it because I feel like we’re already pretty good at it. There are a LOT of things out there aimed at helping kids learn their letters, and we tend to do it pretty naturally as parents. What I am saying is that there is no need to give a preschooler a workbook or worksheets to learn letters. If we make it meaningful and fun, kids will learn better and enjoy reading more.
How can I help?
My favorite activities are ones that make letters meaningful for kids, like helping them recognize and write their names. Names are important to kids, so they are often the first words they recognize. Things like alphabet magnets on the fridge, alphabet puzzles, and reading fun ABC storybooks are all good tools. Environmental print comes back into play – telling the kids that Target starts with a T will help them recognize that letter. At least it will if they spend as much time at Target as my kids do!
Learning how to learn
Big picture, my main goals for what my kids are learning in those early years have nothing to do with academics – first and foremost, I want them to know about Jesus and how much He loves them and how much we love them. I want them to develop empathy, kindness, generosity, the ability to listen…heart issues and social skills that will always be important, no matter their age or situation. But my biggest academic goal is for them to learn how to learn. I want them to be curious about the world around them, ask questions, solve problems, be creative, and think outside the box. If I can send them to school with that foundation, I know they have a great chance of being successful. Even more importantly, carrying those skills into adulthood will help them no matter what career path they choose.
How can I help?
It’s true that “more is caught than taught”, so let them see you learning! Ask questions and talk through your problem-solving process out loud. “I wonder why the deer run away when they see us?” “Oh no! The tape didn’t work to hold this together. I’ll have to try something else. Let me see if glue will work”. Guide them through it when they have a problem. Instead of fixing it, ask them how they think it could be solved. When they blurt out one of those random amazing things kids say, ask how they figured that out. Encourage independence and let them try things even if you know they will fail. They will learn better if they learn for themselves!
When my first child started preschool at 3, I was distressed because, as a KNOWLEDGEABLE READING PROFESSIONAL, I did not believe in writing names with all capital letters. I would only teach my son the RIGHT WAY… so he wasn’t writing his name yet. His fabulous teacher, with the wisdom that comes from experience, told me to let him write it with all capitals. She said it would be easier for him to learn and he would get it the right way soon enough. She was right. He caught on very quickly, and when he moved to the four year old class the next year they learned to use lower case letters. He’s in second grade now and not in any way scarred. I tell you this so you will know that once, four years ago, I was wrong. I don’t think it’s happened since then (don’t check with my husband, just trust me), but the possibility is there that it could happen again. I am not the final authority on this or any other matter. I just happen to feel strongly about this one. But I do have enough experience that I feel qualified to share my opinions, including 2 kids that entered kindergarten ready to read, but not yet reading, and left as strong readers – thanks to another amazing teacher who is not me.
The good news here is that you are already doing a great job teaching your toddlers and preschoolers to read! Moms naturally read, sing, and talk with their kids all day long, and that’s what it takes. So what I’m really doing here is cutting you some slack. Stop stressing and enjoy your kids. You’re doing a great job!!
I’ll leave you with this list of The Top Ten Ways to Become a Better Reader that I always made my students memorize:
10. Read
9. Read
8. Read
7. Read
6. Read
5. Read
4. Read
3. Read
2. Read
Wait for it…..you’ll never see it coming….
1. Read.