The Primary Educator

Category: comprehension

  • Keeping Reading going during the Holidays

    Keeping Reading going during the Holidays

    Every school I know has now broken up for the holidays, and while it’s definitely the most wonderful time of the year, it can be the most stressful time too! We all know we need to be keeping reading going during the holidays, but with so many other things going on, it can be easy to push it to the side.

    We know reading is the most valuable part of our little ones’ education. Reading is the root to all other forms of learning, including maths! (Remember all of those wordy questions?) The great thing is, this means that ensuring your child keeps their progress going over the holidays is as simple as reading to and with them. But even that can seem overwhelming at a time like this. 

    Below I’ve written some ways to keep reading going during the holidays that will hopefully make it stress free! It might even be the easiest thing you do all Christmas! 

    Keep to a schedule 

    Whatever schedule you use during term time, try to stick to it. If you read with your little one first thing in the morning, keep doing so! Equally if you read as part of your bedtime routine, keep it up. Keeping consistency even when your child isn’t at school will help them continue to value reading, showing them that it’s not just something they do at school. It also helps them transition from school to home and back again, something that lots of kids struggle with. 

    As always, I recommend having 2 reading sessions a day, one where your child reads to you (or with you – check out more information about this here – How to engage your child with reading) and one where you read to them. This gives them a chance to continue to enjoy books without the added pressure of having to work every time! 

    Utilise the Library 

    The library is the most amazing resource, especially around the Christmas holidays! Not only is it a warm space that doesn’t require any money to go to, there are often lots of events on in your local library around Christmas, specifically for your little one. From interactive story sessions to lessons on how to find books, the library is fantastic for engaging your little one with books and stories. 

    The library is also fantastic for finding books that your child is excited by. Giving them a few minutes to find books by themselves will make them more excited to read them later. It also gives them a little bit of independence and control over what they’re reading. 

    Call on relatives 

    Christmas tends to be a time when families come together to celebrate or just catch up. If your family is the same, utilise it! Encourage your little one to show off their reading skills, or get your relatives to take some time reading to the kids. Not only is it a fantastic way to keep reading going during the holidays, it also helps foster bonds between your child and people they see less often. It’s particularly good if you have a child who is nervous around new people, as reading a book doesn’t require them to interact. They can just sit and listen until they feel more confident. 

    It’s also a great way to engage several children at once, giving the other adults a minute or two to deal with the other parts that come with Christmas, or just give them a break! 

    More than books 

    Remember that reading doesn’t just have to focus on books. It’s perfectly possible for your little one to get reading experience from magazines, comic books or writing on food boxes! Even putting the subtitles on the telly while you’re watching something will have an impact on your child’s reading, though it won’t completely replace reading with or to an adult! 

    Playing games 

    The final thing you could try over Christmas is playing a variety of games. They keep your child entertained, can be done by lots of different family members, and boost your child’s reading skills. For some ideas on games to play, try my blog on listening games, or take a look at the bunches of resources I offer for each age group and phonics phase in the shop! 

    Thank you so much to everyone who’s supported me this year, whether it’s been by reading my blogs, checking out my facebook or instagram, or simply being there. I’m truly grateful for each and every one of you. You really keep me going! 

    If you’d like to follow me on facebook or instagram, click on the links below! I’d love to have you!

    Last but not least, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I hope it’s a wonderful time for everyone!

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  • Help your 3 year old with reading

    How to help your 3 year old with reading!

    Reading is so important. It connects us to the world and allows us to become independent. So obviously, we want our children to be able to read. And because you’ve clicked on this blog, I’m going to assume you want to know how to support your 3 year old with reading. 

    In previous blogs, I’ve mentioned the importance of not teaching your child letters too young. There’s no evidence that it’s beneficial and can even be detrimental! 

    But I get it, you’re a parent! You want to do the best you possibly can for your child. You want them to have a ‘leg up’ in life. And that feels like it means they need to learn to read as early as possible. 

    Interestingly, recognising letters early doesn’t support with reading and is often focused on to the exclusion of far more important elements. There are so many other things that we can do as parents to support our kids with reading the twill have a much greater impact. 

    If you haven’t already read my blog – how to teach your 2 year old to read – you might want to go and check that out before reading this to find out the fundamentals, but otherwise, let’s dive right in!

    Helping 3 year olds with reading. 

    Firstly, carry on with everything you’ve been doing before. All the rhymes, the songs, the conversations, the vocal sounds and the games will be giving your child a fantastic foundation for the next step – blending and segmenting! 

    Even though these are words that are often included when we talk about reading books, it’s so important that our children are able to blend and segment before they’re ever introduced to letters. 

    Blending 

    Blending is the process of putting sounds together to make words. When you’re first trying this with your child, keep the words simple and short, and model pushing the sounds together yourself. For example, when you’re at the breakfast table say ‘please can you pass the c-u-p, cup’. By doing this, you’re showing your child how to listen to the individual sounds and push them together. 

    Segmenting 

    Segmenting is the opposite of blending. It’s breaking words down into their smallest sounds. This is much harder for children to learn. Use short words and start by encouraging them to recognise the initial sound in the word, then challenge them to say the other sounds. Saying the word very slowly can help!! 

    Listening to adults model blending and segmenting is a great way to scaffold learning for our children and will make it easier for them to do later on in their education. Segmenting and blending words here and there during the day will help them to hear each individual sound in words, a much smaller unit of sound than it seems!

    Comprehension 

    Comprehension of stories should still be being developed, focusing mostly on retelling what has happened with pictures as prompts, such as ‘what happened to Humpty Dumpty?’ and answers to direct questions about what they’ve just read.  If you’d like to find out more about what questions to ask to help your child, check out my blog – Demystifying Reading Comprehension – here!!

    The most important thing you can do to help your 3 year old learn to read is to talk to, and play with, them! Children learn so much from their parents, and vocabulary is one of the biggest and most important. The average 3 year old knows 450 words, but by 4, they know as many as 1000 words. And the difference? Conversation! The more you talk to your child, the more their vocabulary grows, and the easier they’ll find it to recognise words on paper later on. 

    If you want to support your child further and get more individualised support for both you and your child, check out the Raising Readers Community, where you can learn all about teaching the pillars of reading, how to ensure you’re getting the most out of reading with your child, and how to fit learning into your day with no extra preparation needed from you. Even just a 3 minute activity a day makes a huge difference. Check it out!

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