During the holiday season, it can be challenging to find focused reading and constructive playtime with your kids. Get creative and capture fun learning moments with your pre-kindergartner or kindergarten student while on-the-go:
- Never leave home without a book! Take advantage of the bus or subway ride to read to your children. You never know when you might have to wait in a long line, for a table at a restaurant or for your child’s pediatrician appointment. Your 4 or 5 year old may enjoy listening to chapter books which are easy to carry.
- Books on CD are great on long trips. As everyone in the car is listening to the story together, interesting family discussions may arise about the plot, characters, relating the text to your own family, etc. Over Thanksgiving, my three children ranging from 5 to 10 all loved listening to Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt during a five hour (pleasant!) car trip.
- Playaway books help your child build strong listening skills. This digital media player allows you to select age appropriate books for your child from your local library. My kindergartner enjoyed Kids’ Classic Stories (which included: Jack and the Beanstalk, Hansel and Gretel, The Town and Country Mouse, and The Tortoise and the Hare).
- Play rhyming games, notice letters and read words as you walk around your neighborhood. Play “Pass The Story” (one person starts the story and each person takes a turn adding to it), “I Spy” (…with my little eye something that rhymes with cat or starts with a specific sound…)
- Cook and bake with your child. He can help read the recipe out loud as you combine ingredients. If your child is an emergent reader, he can read out letters or numbers on the page. Likewise, if you need to create a “to do” list or grocery list, dictate it to your child.
Have Fun!
Marigrace Morris is a literacy specialist in NYC.