Play Around with Sounds to Prepare Your Child for Reading Success
June 20, 2025
Did you know that phonological awareness is one of the most important early literacy skills your child needs to be prepared for school? Here’s a fun way you can help your child build this important skill while enjoying rhymes together.
Developing Story Comprehension with Bob, Not Bob!
June 19, 2025
Does your child know how to identify the main elements of a story? Understanding a story’s structure (its Characters, Setting, Problem, Actions and Resolution) is an important part of story comprehension – a skill your child will need for literacy success. Here are some tips for helping your child learn about story structure with the fun book, Bob, Not Bob!
School Readiness Tip: Help Children See Other People’s Perspectives
June 02, 2025
Talking about how others think and feel helps children understand and appreciate different viewpoints, develop empathy, and relate to others. You can encourage children to think about how others might think by using these fun tips.
Making Predictions with Julie and the Mango Tree
May 15, 2025
Helping children predict what will happen next in a story is a great way to engage them in interactive book reading, as well as to deepen their story comprehension – a key early literacy skill. Here are some tips to help children make predictions with the beautiful children’s book, Julie and the Mango Tree.
School Readiness Tip: Talk About What Could Happen Next
May 13, 2025
Young children generally find it easy to talk about what is happening in the here and now. However, they need help talking about the future because this requires a more abstract use of language. You can help children talk about the future, which includes making predictions, during everyday activities and conversations.
Building Perspective-taking Skills with Amos’s Sweater
April 23, 2025
An important part of understanding stories is recognizing that characters have unique thoughts and feelings that influence what they say and do. Use these research-based tips to build the important perspective-taking skills that prepare your child for reading.
School Readiness Tip: Help Children Use Language to Think and Learn
April 09, 2025
Children need to develop the ability to use language for thinking and learning. You can help by having discussions with them that include thought-provoking questions and explanations. Interactions like these encourage children to analyze, reflect and make connections. Here are some playful ways to get children involved in these more complex conversations.
Building Print Knowledge with How to Party Like a Snail
March 20, 2025
Before children can learn to read, they need build print knowledge skills. They need to know that letters and words have meaning, are different from pictures and have rules that tell us how to read them. Here are some ways you can build your child’s print knowledge with a book filled with fun-looking print.
School Readiness Tip: Make Storytelling Part of Your Day
March 05, 2025
Telling stories is a natural part of everyday conversations, and also helps children to understand written stories once they learn to read. At first, children may share events out of order or miss important details. You can help by retelling past events together, talking about stories in books, and making up new stories. Here are some ways to encourage storytelling.