January Activity - Cheerio Connection

It's a brand-new year which brings new opportunity to help your child become reading ready. Every month, I will be writing a blog here to share some ideas with you as the first and most important teacher in your child’s life. Whether they are still in the infant stage, walking and talking, or thinking about being a big kid who will go to kindergarten soon, it is never too early, or too late to prepare for that life-changing, life-affirming skill known as reading.

You as the parent, caregiver, or caring person in that child’s life can teach all kinds of things that will help them. Most importantly, talk to your child. Vocabulary is huge when it comes to learning how to read. The children who have had a lot of conversations with those around them are infinitely better equipped to understand the connections between sounds and letters. Teach them new words daily.

Something as simple as a trip to the grocery store can be a teaching moment. For example, when you’re walking along the cereal aisle, you might point out to your child, “Look Charlie, there is a cereal whose name sounds very close to yours, Cheerios. Can you hear it? Charlie starts with a “ch” sound and so does Cheerios.”

[INSERT IMAGE OF CEREAL AISLE HERE]

Or you could say Alpha-bits for Alena, or Grape-nuts for Greyson. The stop sign could be for Stacey, the mailbox for Mason and on and on.

These kinds of opportunities are all around. Look for similarities you see, talk about them, and about everything else. It will help increase your child’s vocabulary, and letter-sound awareness.

See you next month, until then, happy reading!