Tags
#1000speak, Alligator Pie, bilingualism, compassion, Disney Princesses, Family Literacy Day, French, Frontier College, Grade One, Julia Donaldson, preschool literacy activities, reading, Strawberry Shortcake, Three Little Pigs
Tomorrow is Family Literacy Day in Canada and the former Frontier College volunteer and all round book lover in me can’t let this one go without some reflection on the state of literacy in our home.
A quick search of the blog shows that I had EXACTLY THE SAME THOUGHT on this day last year.
So that makes this the second annual state of literacy update here at Baby Gates Down.
I’ll even use the same introductory image as last year, because, well, libraries rock.
Starting with my 3-year-old, she is currently obsessed with drawing and reading.
Or with staying up late – I’m not really sure which.
But either way, after bedtime routine, she frequently asks to stay up a bit longer to “read” or colour in bed.
I can’t see this as a very bad habit, so we usually let her for about 20 minutes and then come turn off the light.
In the meantime, she flips through her favourite books or colours and sometimes passes out with an open book over her, which I kind of adore.
Her favourites at the moment?
Alligator Pie, The Three Little Pigs, and The Smartest Giant in Town.
Images from GoodReads
Big sis usually come in for the reading of the first two given they were both favourites of hers as well.
And I like doing the voices of the piggies and singing the songs like I remember them from back when I would turn the page every time Tinker Bell rang her little bells.
But little sis? Her all time favourite at the moment is The Smartest Giant in town.
I can’t really argue with the choice. Older sister was a Gruffalo fan, but I think pretty much anything by Julia Donaldson is pretty wonderful.
I particularly like the message in this one – that the small gestures you do can mean the world to others.
Indeed, it is a theme I post about sometimes with my posts as part of the #1000Speak movement and I love that the book teaches young children about compassion.
As for big sis, reading and writing continues to be a struggle, but she’s improved by leaps and bounds since last year.
She now knows all her letters, simple blends, simple sight words, and can write her name and a handful of words despite it being messy and things like the letter “s” being backwards.
While homework often ends in tears, we continue working on it. To all her teachers EVER: Really. We do.
And I TRY to make it fun where possible.
I smiled when I visited last year’s post and saw this tweet:
Because a year later we are still tracing letters and numbers on the wall at bedtime by unicorn light. It remains a simple fun activity to do.
On the reading side we’re still about everything princess, now dutifully purchase from Scholastic to supplement our French library (she’s in French school – dad’s Francophone) and are busy working our way slowly through Level One readers.
Images from here: http://www.messageries-adp.com/index.aspx
She also has fun with the Ottawa Public Library’s online Jardin de la Lecture.
And lastly? We finally caved before our Christmas trip to Hawaii and bought a LeapPad to help get through the flights. The girls are sharing a swanky pink LeadPad3x. The first one died on the trip home. I finally got to Toys ‘R Us to exchange the dud last weekend and the new one has just been charged up. I’ll report back and let you know if it helps either on the literacy front.
As for me? Last year, I set a New Year’s Resolution via GoodReads to read 50 books. I finished the last of the 50 just under the wire on December 31st so I’m happy to say that 2015 was the year I rediscovered reading.
I’m MODELLING good reading behaviour. Or would be if they were still awake. I like to think they KNOW I’m reading 🙂
My list of 50 is here. I set the same goal for this year and am currently a book behind. In my defence, I’m working on three at the moment, so I think it should even out…
And not to leave my husband out, he reads too. His holiday read? 13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened In Benghazi. If you like that sort of read, he recommends it.
So that’s where we stand with all things literacy over here. We plan to celebrate Family Literacy Day by getting through my 6-year-old’s homework without tears and still having enough energy for bedtime reading. Today, we did her homework at Pizza Pizza. I sincerely think THAT might have helped. So tomorrow, we may try the gym for another change of scenery. I am testing out a theory that homework in public is more productive. And the gym is probably a better lifestyle choice than Pizza Pizza.
What about you? Are books a big deal in your house? Any plans for Family Literacy Day? Any suggestions?
Baby Gates Down 
Brilliant post! Books have always been a HUGE deal in our house. Read aloud time took up a major portion of every day, and weve never had enough shelf space for all our books. OMG, THANK YOU for reminding me of Tinkerbell and the prompt to turn the page. I had completely forgotten that from my own childhood, but knew exactly what you meant immediately!
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Ah shelf space. Yes – we stack them here to fit more in. And I kind of miss the read-along books. I’m sure there’s an app for that, but it’s not quite the same thing.
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What a great idea for a post! We are VERY in to books here, though I wish I got more time to read something that wasn’t Julia Donaldson etc. One day!
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Harold and the Purple Crayon? I had a moment this morning when my eldest asked me to read that one to her again. Ahhh.
Thanks for the kind comment!
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We love to read! The 8yo is seen with a book in her hands at all times, and the 6yo although she like reading and for mommy to read to her, we have been struggling with sight words n Kindergarten. We are trying real hard to get her up to speed, but we will see. I think she is almost to the point of satisfactory progress.. almost.
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Good luck with the 6yr old – that sounds similar to my 6-yr old over here. I’ve started a renewed push given she seemed to make another leap re: attention ability etc… so we’ll see in a month or so if there’s more progress. I still hope at this age the “liking of reading” is the most important thing. So I’m TRYING not to get too hung up on how much she can actually do. But it can be worrying.
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Here, if she doesn’t learn and recognize 80% of her sight words they will fail her, which is ridiculous! She is progressing,just not enough yet 😕
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OMG! That’s terrible. And way too much pressure on a six-year-old (and you!) There’s no way my daughter recognizes that many of her site words, and she doesn’t yet have the fine motor to write them out clearly yet either – so there’s a lot that’s being thrown at her to learn all at once. We’re progressing – but not at pace with the class expectations.
That said, I’m still hopeful, given the amount of effort we’re putting in that she’ll get there – but added pressure like that certainly doesn’t help!
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It really doesn’t.. Its sad that Kindergarten just can’t be fun. I don’t remember having to read the word eight in Kindergarten..
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Agreed. I look at the expectations on my child and – even realizing she’s behind – they’re overwhelming for Grade 1. There is a lot of all of a sudden marking and expectation. And I like grading. I get it. I believe people need to “know where they stand” to know where their strengths and weaknesses lie and to thus work accordingly.
But I’m not convinced memorizing site words (in your case) or mastering dictation (in my case) is the measure. Don’t get me wrong. I’m helping and she’s working really hard so she can do it, but at the moment she simply isn’t ready. But every week she falls that much more behind (as far as I can tell from the homework assignments and I sincerely wonder WHO is really keeping up? Or if it is an imposed curriculum that might have over-hit the mark for some 6-yr-olds).
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We all have more books than space on our shelves. It’s a toe-stubbing disaster of dust bunny forts around here.
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