read2mama: Building On The Basics

Favorite Books: The Early Years

One of the ways to encourage early reading, is by providing a constant source of good children's books. An easy way to do this is to make use of your local library. In addition, learning to read will be easier if children have a small collection of familiar favorites at home.

It's never to early to start reading books to your child. When my son was a baby I didn't just stick to picture books but read actual stories, keeping him engaged by using changes in the tone of my voice. Each character had a different voice and sounds like "grrr" and "slurp" were dramatized. During those months, some of his best-loved books were:

     * Are You My Mother? (P.D. Eastman)
     * Mr Brown Can Moo, Can You? (Dr Seuss)
     * Hop On Pop (Dr Seuss)
     * and a delightful poetic tale about a turtle who tried to change his shell,                                   only to find that his natural one suited him best (it was a gift from abroad and I just can't remember the title or author)

I would say that a small collection of Dr Seuss books is a must for any young child's library. Kids love them for listening to as well as for learning to read.

In the toddler to preschool years, he loved:

    * One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish (Dr Seuss)
    * Green Eggs and Ham (Dr Seuss)
    * In a People House (Dr Seuss)
    * The Cat in The Hat (Dr Seuss)
    * There's a Wocket In My Pocket (Dr Seuss)
    * I Love You Stinky Face (Lisa McCourt)
    * Pigs Can't Fly (Ben Cort)
    * How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? (Jane Yolen), among others...

By preschool, my son was already learning to read many of the little booklets that were part of the reading program we used. He was shy at first and some of our acquaintances didn't actually believe he could read. As his early reading skills sharpened, he gained confidence and began to read everything in his environment: street signs, ads, TV and movie captions and of course, more and more books.

In early kindergarten, he loved to listen to (and to some extent read along with) these Dr Seuss books:

    * Oh, The Places You'll Go
    * The Lorax
    * Yertle the Turtle
    * If I Ran The Circus
    * If I Ran The Zoo
    * Oh, The Thinks You Can Think!
    * The Sneetches and Other Stories
    * Horton Hears A Who
    * as well as his collection of Disney books especially Buzz Lightyear, the Lion King and 101 Dalmatians

This last book is the one I credit with transforming him into a proficient reader. How else was he going to enjoy that story every evening? Mama sure wasn't going to read it ten thousand times, so he had to learn to do so himself.

I like to compare those early reading days to a plane taxiing on the runway. Next stage...liftoff!

You've Only Just Begun

Once your child is reading with some fluency, the next step is to solidify the gains that have been made. Now is the time to show how this new skill can make life more fun and interesting.

An essential next step, if not already done, is an introduction to the neighborhood library. Spend some time there regularly, allowing your child to browse the kiddies section while you pick out titles appropriate to his or her reading ability. The library is a source of good children's books and will provide much needed variety without any stress on your pocketbook. Story hour at the library is also a big hit with many kids and encourages early reading.

If you do not already have a small collection of good children's books at home, joining a book club might be a good idea as well. My son's first collection of Dr Seuss books provided many an hour of delightful story-telling before he started reading them himself. And yes, children are going to still enjoy regular bedtime stories for a long time after they can read perfectly well themselves!

Other places which became our favorite hang-outs were the children's sections of large bookstores, especially those set up with a story area. There's almost always a discount rack in the larger stores, as well as deals for club members.

However you choose to do it, the idea is to expose the early reader to a broad selection of good children's books. I know of no greater impetus for a child to practice early reading skills than the impatience to find out what delights a new book holds.

All Mama and Papa need to do is place the bait strategically and go get busy doing things round the house. Those pleas for story time, may soon turn into serious attempts to decipher for themselves what the squiggles on the page really mean.