reading to your children

Christmas Limerick 2018.

The alpacas and all of us here

Wish you and those you hold dear:

Christmas cheer, joy and love,

P’raps a peaceful white dove,

And we hope that you’ll join us next year.

Picture of cat lying on a bed with a tinsel halo, with the caption:"You can see that Shanti isn't feeling very angelic wearing a halo. Shikha batted it off with his paw every time."

You can see that Shanti isn’t feeling very angelic wearing a halo. Shikha batted it off with his paw every time.

And here is something that has just appeared in The Australian newspaper in the book review section on December 15-16, 2018.

Image of recommendation for "Aa is for Alpacas" from The Australian newspaper, December 2018.

Pretty good to get a recommendation nearly 5 years after publication!

 

Remember to keep reading to your young children throughout the holidays, and encourage the older ones to read for pleasure.

Reading Comprehension – Is Your Child Barking at Print?

Jj is for Jottings 67.  Reading Comprehension – Is Your Child Barking at Print?

When your child is reading to you, are you sure they (I’m using “they” to cover both boys and girls) are actually understanding what they are reading, or are they just barking at print? i.e. Reading the words correctly but not actually decoding them, so they really have no idea what they are reading. Continue reading →

What is Synthetic Phonics?

Jj is for Jottings 65.  What Is Synthetic Phonics?

We’re just taking a break from the series on How to Raise a Reader – we’ll finish it next time.

Synthetic phonics means “building words from individual sounds”.  For example, even if you had never seen it before, you could spell the word “step” Continue reading →

Raising A Reader Part 4: Early Readers.

Jj is for Jottings 64.  Raising a Reader Part 4: Early Readers.

Continuing from

https://educatingalpacas.com/raising-a-reader-part-1-the-baby/

https://educatingalpacas.com/raising-a-reader-part-2-toddlers/ and

https://educatingalpacas.com/raising-a-reader-part-3-emerging-readers/, your child has now begun to read Continue reading →

Raising a Reader Part 3: Emerging Readers.

Jj is for Jottings 63.  Raising a Reader Part 3:  Emerging Readers.

Continuing from the two previous articles

https://educatingalpacas.com/raising-a-reader-part-1-the-baby/  and https://educatingalpacas.com/raising-a-reader-part-2-toddlers/,

this next stage is the magical time when your child starts to take an interest in letters and words and begins to make out words for himself, in books or real life such as street signs. Continue reading →

Raising a Reader Part 2. Toddlers.

Jj is for Jottings 62.  Raising a Reader Part 2.  Toddlers.

Continuing from the previous article (here), you cannot overestimate the importance of reading with a child at the toddler stage – for intellectual, social and emotional development.  They take in everything: vocabulary and language structure, numbers and math concepts, colours, shapes, opposites and many other language concepts, animals, manners and all kinds of useful information about how the world works. What’s more, when you read out loud, Continue reading →

Raising a Reader Part 1: The Baby.

Jj is for Jottings 61.  Raising a Reader Part 1: The Baby.

There are various things parents can do to maximise their child’s chances of becoming a reader (i.e. someone who is proficient at reading, reads for pleasure and has no difficulty in using reading for information-seeking and the school curriculum.)  We can divide this topic into 4 stages: Baby, Toddler, Emergent Readers and Early Readers.  Question: What stage comes before the Baby stage?  Continue reading →

Reading to Children – Some Statistics.

Jj is for Jottings 52.  Reading to Children – Some Statistics.

Even the alpacas are worried about current trends.

 

Here are some disquieting (but not unexpected) statistics and comments quoted by the guest, who is very experienced in education, at the launch of “Aa is for Alpacas”:

Research by Angela Emher in 2013 of 1263 parents discovered that only one in four of them or 25% read to their children daily.  They claimed that making dinner and doing housework, work commitments and exhaustion all interfered with the nightly routine of reading and sharing books with their children.  From this same survey though 20% of parents though were worried that their own children read less than they did at a similar age.  Is the bed time story being sacrificed because of busy lifestyle and at what cost to our future? Continue reading →

Cutting Out Visual Props.

From the colour I thought it was Geisha on the shearing table (she’s medium fawn), but when I saw her face on the next frame it turned out to be Nina – white! I should add that the alpacas are not suffering whilst on the shearing table – not keen, but not suffering, and the result feels so wonderful – no more itchy grass seeds against their skin, and ….freedom! Looking at her this way makes me want to tickle her tummy.

 

Jj is for Jottings 41.  Cutting Out Visual Props.

Enlarging upon the comment on Jottings 40 made by Ann on Facebook, who said she finds another great listening activity is to read a story to children without pictures – spot on!  When you ask them questions about the story afterwards, you will really begin to find out their ability to listen and to Continue reading →