I'm biased, but I think he's the best :). And I want the best for him.
Like a lot of you, I'm always looking for ways to grow and encourage his interest and skills when it comes to reading and writing. He loves books now, and I want to keep that spark alive and help him learn to read without struggle and turn him into a lifelong reader. This should be easy, right? After all, I have a degree in this!
But, like all of you, I have competing priorities in my life. I work full time as a professor at Michigan State University, and my husband works full time as a lawyer. We have a limited amount of time to spend with Will each day, and lots of competing priorities for that time. We want him to feel loved and secure most of all. We want him to be happy and develop self-reliance. We want him to get along with other kids and adults. We want him to get lots of exercise and eat healthy food. We want him to learn about math and music and science. We want him to play independently and develop his imagination. And eventually, we'd like to get him potty-trained.
So, we do what we can to support Will's language and literacy development and everything else that matters to us as his parents.
What this looks like to us is that we spend a certain amount of time every day engaging in language and literacy activities with Will. These activities are very low-key, child-led, and play-based. Some days we do a lot, and some days we do a little.
Here's what I don't do. I don't sit down and "teach" Will specific lessons. I don't use educational shows or specific toys or apps. I don't have a curriculum. I don't have a chart where I keep track of how many books we read or give him rewards for completing activities or learning new things. I don't have any worksheets or flashcards.
Instead, my advantage as a professor of literacy is that I can recognize literacy opportunities in our daily activities and capitalize on them as they arise naturally. I'm also able to use what I know about early literacy development to provide the right level of support in these activities, so that Will and I don't get frustrated. And that's what I want to share with you all here, in a series of posts that I will title "Everyday Literacy." I hope you will get new ideas for things to try out at home and, at the same time, take some pressure off yourselves and keep literacy fun for everyone.
My first tip is to build reading and writing activities into your daily routine. We don't look at our to do lists and check off "read with Will" or have a reminder pop up on our phones to "work on the alphabet." Actually, we 95% of the time, we don't initiate literacy activities at all. Instead, Will tells us when it's time to read, or write, or sing songs, or, in his words, "talk about the letters."
We built these routines up almost by accident, over time, by following Will's lead. If he wanted to read a "boo" (one of his first words) we tried to do it when he asked. If he wanted to play with "galk" (one-year-old speak for sidewalk chalk, as shown above), we went along with it. Over time, it became clear that he liked to do these things at certain times in the day and those activities became habits, which became routines.
Of course, his preferences and our schedules change over time, so these routines stay flexible. But I think the key thing for us was that I had a "soft spot" for literacy early on, so I was inclined to agree when he wanted to write and not when he wanted to eat cat food, to think of just one example. This allowed me to learn about about his interests and daily rhythms and for us to develop routines that keep us engaged in literacy without stress from day to day.
I'll talk about the specifics of our routines, as they stand now, over the next few posts, but it's more important to think about what will work for you and your kids. Think about when your children show the most interest in reading, writing, and language play, and when they seem to have the most energy for this kid of thing. For some kids, bedtime is a very sleepy time, so they can listen to stories but will not be inclined to engage with the books as much as they might be in the morning. For other kids, they need to jump on the bed for 20 minutes first thing in the morning and can't be bothered with sitting still. Some kids love to ride in the car, while others could really use a book or song (or 20) to get a through a car commute. The important thing is to follow your child's lead about when and how they want to participate in these activities, and then say yes whenever you can. You're on your way to creating your literacy routine!
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