Ages and Stages Archives - Academic Advantage Association

Reading Readiness Skills

One of the primary goals for 1^st thru 3^rd grades is learning to read. Understanding reading readiness skills will help you determine how you and your child are moving from learning to read to the goal of reading to learn.

If your Kindergartener was reading a few months in, it is especially easy to feel your work is done. However, if your 2^nd grader still can’t remember the word ‘cat’ from one day to the next, it’s easy to think your work will never be done.

Some children will be ready to read to learn vs only learning to read before 3^rd grade. Others will need all three years to become confident readers. Those with significant learning issues like dyslexia or sensory processing issues may take even longer to find reading easy.

Do you know the steps to reading fluency? Understanding the readiness skills for reading will foster confidence in both you and your reader:

1) Does your child recognize upper and lower case letters (not necessarily able to write them) by name.

2) Is your child able to connect each letter with the various sounds the letters and letter combinations make?

Quick Fact:

Did you know the twenty-six letters of the English alphabet make 74 sounds! The sounds are referred to as ‘phonograms’. So, early reading instruction is often called ‘phonics’.

When I was in 1^st grade, I learned the letter ‘A’ had only two sounds. You know them as the ‘short a’ in ‘cat’ and the ‘long a’ in ‘rake’. As a homeschooling mom, I learned about the 3^rd phonogram for ‘A’. This sound is the ‘ah’ you hear in ‘ahhhh-chooooo!’

3) Is your child beginning to connect strings of sounds (represented by their letters) into short words?

For example, ‘c-a-t’ is ‘cat’ – the furry pet named Fluffy that purrs! This process of putting letters together to make sounds that equal words is called ‘decoding’.

4) Is your emerging reader beginning to decode words more rapidly over time? Research shows a new reader sees a word between four and fourteen times for the word to become a ‘sight word’.

Quick Fact:

A word becomes a ‘sight word’ once it is recognized without needing to be decoded. Many folks try to teach via the ‘sight word’ approach only. Slowing down and teaching all 74 phonograms results in a more solid learning foundation.

Quick Fact:

Children with dyslexia may need to see a word forty times or more to reach this type of fluent recognition of a word.

5) As your child develops fluency, is he beginning to make connections about what he is reading or ‘synthesize’ the material?

At this stage, comprehension allows for reading to learn. You will know you are reaching this pivotal point when you no longer have to read and explain directions before turning you child loose to complete assignments.

So, if you are short of breath because you are sure your child is falling behind on the reading curve, take heart. Some children unexpectedly bloom into fluid readers around the third grade because other pre-reading skills are just reaching maturity.

Remember:

Comparison robs you of peace and your child of the joy of learning. Don’t get caught in the ‘but my child is/is not doing what my friend, neighbor, or relative is doing’ trap! These years are time for gentle paces and lots of praise. You just can’t break your student as long as you instill a love of learning and pride in achievement.

Our goal is to be your soft place to fall on the days you feel anxiety is your best friend! If this article was helpful, let us know in the comments below? If we hit a nerve and you need more information or encouragement about reading skills, email us, leave a comment, or come by the store!

Some of our favorite resources for teaching reading are:

The American Language Series

Explode the Code series beginning with Get Ready for the Code

and

All About Reading

Preschool Play and ‘Socialization’

It’s the word all homeschooling moms dread to hear: socialization. There are many reasons for understanding the stages of preschool play and socialization.

1) When you know the stages children move through as they develop social skills, you may feel more prepared to answer those hot button questions about <gasp> ‘socialization’.

2) Understanding the normal progression of play skills may help you recognize delays in development.

3) Understanding the way children play will help you make wiser choices about how to plan early learning activities.

Children move through four stages of play skills between the ages of birth and five.

a) Solitary – From infancy through to around age two, children play without interacting with others in pre-planned ways. They may laugh when ‘playing’ peek-a-boo with you and indicate a desire for more. Eventually, they learn if they drop an object, you will pick it up.

Think of play at this age as one experiment after another as they attain new skills and make draw conclusions about each new experience compared with others.

They are interacting with the world around them without the back and forth older children have matured into. Play starts when they discover their own hands and feet, toys in the crib around them, or hanging from a car seat handle.

During this part of the learning process, they learn some things (and people) are predictable and some are not.

If your baby and young toddler snatches a toy from another, you are seeing the influence of solitary play skills in action. Rather than label the behavior as bad and react in a panic, simply move your little’s attention to another ‘shinier’ object, and the uproar will quickly be over.

While short attention spans may plague you as your children mature, this season is one to rejoice at how easily distracted they are!

Parallel – Children begin to play ‘in parallel’ around age two. Given the attention to play dates and play groups, you might think age two is about the time children begin to cooperate with other children to ‘play nicely’.

Understanding their limitations in this regard will save you and other moms and children some heart breaking moments of misunderstanding. At this age children enjoy sitting close to one another while playing. They watch, learn, and listen from one another. They want their own things and space, however, and are not ready to ‘share’.

In this parallel stage, everything within reach, maybe even across the room, is ‘personal property’. Your toddler may howl when another child picks up a toy they want.

They are beginning to learn about the concept of ‘sharing’ when they have to relinquish a toy. Sharing won’t be easy yet because of they are still in parallel play mode. Again, their easy distractibility at this age is your ally, so use it!

Associative – Closer to age three and four, children begin to look as though they are playing together when, in fact, they are following one another’s lead. One may build with blocks and another come along side and begin to build. They may talk back and forth, share blocks, and answer questions each ask the other. But, they will build independently of the other v.s. working on building something together.

Cooperative – Between ages four and five, children have usually learned the listening and communication skills to enter into cooperative play. You will note they are able to develop a strategy to pretend and work together on that imaginary scene under way. This is also the time when children begin to be able to work together to play games – even if they make up their own rules!

You’ll hear conversation revolve around who is playing what role or what should happen next in the joint venture. While there still may be squabbles over who will use what playthings, you will also see some skirmishes over who is playing what role in the game afoot.

Understanding the stages of play will help you in planning learning activities. Toddlers will enjoy independent activities that do not require sharing materials like early learning puzzles. K5’ers can work together to play dress up and will enjoy costumes that allow them to try on roles of community helpers.

Knowing what to expect from your child when you are trying to foster social skills will keep you and your child from feeling frustrated and uncertain.

Pre-K Learning Fundamentals

The preschool years are times of rapid change for our little ones. They go from almost complete dependence to interacting with the world around them in skillful ways.

A basic understanding of Pre-K learning fundamentals will equip you to enjoy these precious years.

For many of us, worksheets and workbooks anchor our ideas about education. The idea of introducing our littles to early academics by those methods is exciting.

When we see our children developing new skills at a rapid rate, the fascination can become a sense of urgency. You find yourself fearful of falling behind if you don’t get ahead of the worksheet learning curve.

When we have older children already homeschooling, it’s even easier to see workbooks and worksheets as the primary approach to early education.

For the visual learner, worksheets may be an enticing and satisfying activity. For other active children who learn by listening or moving, the pencil and paper approach will soon lead to tears and confusion.

What a relief to know: play is the pivotal foundation of learning for our youngest students.

Play fosters opportunities to:

* develop and integrate fine and gross motor skills
* refine visual motor skills
* model and practice social interactions
* investigate life roles and responsibilities
* rehearse maturing vocabulary and language skills
* develop motor planning abilities
* follow a plan through to an end.

Play is just as important in the learning process as the years of ‘book work’ ahead.

When you understand the central role of play in early learning, it’s easy to plan a more relaxed school day. You won’t feel guilty for a day of playful learning.

If you are finding yourself and your littles frustrated, exhausted, and overwhelmed, take a step back. Evaluate the use of play in your homeschool day.

If paper and pencil looked like a good idea, in theory, but resulted in tears and fears, do not despair. Suspend the traditional idea of pen-and-paper anchored learning.

Want to add some play into your Pre-K to K5 day:

Deb Chitwood of Living Montessori Now has tons of early learning ideas just right for the playful homeschool environment.
Before Five in a Row offers wonderful unit-study based resources to fire your playful schooling ideas.
For more information about play and early learning, Early Childhood News has a helpful article by Jill Englebright Fox, PhD.
If you love the idea of hands on activities but feel at a loss to know how to pull it all together, Kate Funk of Ready Made Preschool has a kit just for you!
Check out or online store for pre-school and K5 manipulatives including geobards and a desk set of attribute blocks.

We hope these ideas will get you started! Be sure to leave your thoughts, ideas, and comments below, so we can plan future play-related schooling posts.

Image courtesy of sixninepixels at FreeDigitalPhotos.net