How to help your preschooler become a good reader

Research shows that they are 3 traits that make a person a good reader:

1. Having a wide knowledge of the world also referred to as background knowledge.
2. Having a large reading vocabulary
3. Accurate and fluent word recognition

You can help your preschooler to develop these first 2 traits simply by spending time with them and engaging with them. The last trait accurate and fluent word recognition won’t come until they are older, but by providing them with knowledge and experiences about the world around them, you will be laying a foundation for them to become strong readers in a few years. If you want to develop word recognition skills see my how to help your preschooler become a good reader part 2.

You don’t need a lot of money or expense trips for your child to learn about the world around them. There’s plenty to explore in your own home and neighborhood. The easiest thing to do is talk to your child often. When you’re driving in the car or shopping at the grocery store. Tell your child what your doing, where you’re going or what you’ll be buying. Ask them for their help. “Should we buy the green or red apples? I’m going to put 4 of them in this bag. Help me count the apples. One…Two…Three…Four…”

Give your child as many different experiences as possible. It could be as simple as a nature walk outside, arts and crafts, sensory bins, and “helping” with the household chores, and plenty of outside play. About this age we started letting them chop some veggies with this chopper. They loved being able to cook like mommy and daddy. Let them help with the laundry, dishes, and making beds. They love it at this age and hopefully will put some good habits in place when they are older.

We have a large puddle near our house and we love to explore it in the different seasons and talk about the changes we observe. Sometimes the puddle is large, sometimes it’s dried up, sometimes it’s frozen solid and other times partially frozen. We talk about the the different states of matter, we talk about the crystals we see that formed in the ice, we talk about textures of the ice. Some days it’s smooth and some days it’s rough and we make hypotheses about what makes it different. With proper gear, like rain pant, we can go out in all different types of weather. Rain pants have become a necessity in our home.

Set up a bird feeder and count the birds that come. Use a bird identification book to look up what kind of bird it is. (Use the book to look up what the bird is even if you already know the name of the bird. Your child will be watching how you use the book to gain new knowledge.)

Play with words and show them that words are fun and expand your child’s vocabulary. There’s been a lot of buzz about phonemic awareness and it’s importance in learning to read. Playing with words and their sounds will build these important skills. Mealtimes and car rides are a good time to play with words. I like to ask how many words can we think of that start with a particular sound. “Let’s think of words that start with the /t/ sound. I’ll go first. /t/ /t/ /t/ teacher. Do you hear the /t/ sound? Your turn. Think of a word that begins with the /t/ sound.” You can do this with rhyming words too. We like to make up silly nonsense rhyming words.

If you’re child is ready for a more difficult challenge, play Guess My Word. Think of a word and tell your child that is not your word, but if you change one letter they can figure out the word your thinking. For example, “My word is similar to the word make but it does not start with a /m/ it starts with the sound /t/. Can you guess my word?”

Learn new words together. My favorite word I learned with my son is ootheca when we hatched a preying mantis egg sac. It’s fun to look and talk about words. For ootheca we talked how unusual it is for a word to start with two o’s. Another way to expand their vocabulary is to give them new words when they are telling you something. For example, if they say “Broccoli is yucky.” Ask them some questions. Is it bland? Slimy? Bitter? Unpleasant? Dry? What makes it yucky?

Games and puzzles

Play with your kids. Follow their lead and play along. They will remember this for the rest of their lives.

Listen to a variety of music together. Share your favorites. Listen to some new tunes together. For kids music we love the Sandra Boynton books that were set to music. They are a lot fun, but hard to find now. At Christmas time we did a study on Tchaikovsky (the composer of the Nutcracker) and my son loved the 1812 Overture especially the 16 cannon shots. Peter and the Wolf is another fun one to listen to. Talk about the music – what instruments do you hear? How does the song make you feel? Do you feel sad, joyful, energetic, melancholy, or calm? Good opportunity to use and explore some new feeling words.

Make reading aloud a part of their everyday routine. For book ideas check out my list of preschool books and pre-k books.

Point out letters when you seem especially the initial letter in their name. We love the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom for learning letters.

Spend time with other people. Friends, aunts, uncles, grandparents, librarians can all enrich the lives of young children.