Use the Hanen strategy, “Shoot for the SSTaRS” to help your child learn the kinds of higher-level words that prepare them for school success.

Helping a child understand less commonly used words will have a big impact on their reading and writing abilities later on. In this Book Nook, we share some helpful strategies to introduce rare words to children and to ensure they really understand them. 

Children’s language learning skills are influenced by the people they interact with everyday. As these are the skills that prepare them for kindergarten and future school readiness, it is important to choose a preschool environment that encourages children’s language growth. Find out what you should look for when choosing a preschool for your child.

When we support children to act out a story, we encourage them to think more deeply about the events and characters in the book, which deepens their understanding. Here are a few tips for adding pretend to your book sharing with children.

Bear might be scared of a lot of things, but is it possible he’s braver than he thought? Come along for the fun as we share strategies for helping children learn about story structure with this charming book.

Studies show that children who start school with strong sound awareness skills tend to become better readers and writers. Learn more about what sound awareness is and use a fun Hanen strategy to help children learn this skill while you’re looking at print, both in books and at other times throughout the day.

It can be tempting to read a children’s book straight through without stopping. But when you carve out a bit of time to pause and wait for your child to participate, you open the door to far more learning for yur child.

A little boy named Floyd has a big problem: First his kite gets stuck in a tree, and then his shoe! What will he do? In this Book Nook, we talk about how you can build children’s problem-solving skills during book reading to enrich their story understanding and help prepare them for reading and writing.

Did you know that engaging your child in a conversation about a story greatly increases the likelihood they’ll understand it? Read on for some tips to turn book reading into a conversation with the fun book, Not a Box.