Value Bookshop’s Reading Notes

They say when teaching children literacy, you should teach both reading and writing. The two go hand in hand. I agree 100%. Reading helps them write better and writing helps them read better.

Recently my daughter picked up the hobby of making cards and writing notes. We did thank you cards and a Father’s Day card together before. I guess the idea of making cards and notes got stuck on her. And the best part is, her younger brother also followed suit and has started writing notes too. It is really hilarious to see their writing at this stage as they are just learning. It is interesting to see how they try to put the sounds together. Even more interesting as you read what they have to say.

Here is one from my daughter (6 years old):

Thank you for all the thing you give me. And the things that make me happy. Here is a song for you:
If you are happy an you know clap your hand if your happy an you know clap your hand.

Another one says:

have lovely day. have fun. have more love. love more. have good childen.

Checkout my son’s (4 years old)

duir mume I hav a qasan wiyoudowak

Translation = dear mommy, I have a question, why you do work?

Here are a few tips to encourage children to write:

1. Give them free excess paper. To keep your expenses low, stock up on used paper that they can recycle.
2. Stock up on various writing, drawing and art utensils such as pencils, color pensils, marker pens, glitter pens, crayons, stamps, stencils, stickers, glue, tape, scissors etc…. Children love variety.
3. Make notes and cards together to give to other people.
4. Write notes telling them how much you appreciate them. Also to convey messages like “I am your toy dinosaur. When you don’t take me home, I feel very sad.”
5. Don’t worry so much about spelling mistakes. Appreciate their effort. If you want to correct their spelling, set aside a specific time for “spelling class.”
6. Have some ‘nice’ colorful paper too. I bought a stack of colourful post-it notes and my children went ga-ga over it. They took several pieces and stapled it together to make a mini-book. They couldn’t wait to write on the colourful paper.
7. Write letters to them and put them in the mail box. My son waits eagerly for the postman everyday and feels disappointed when only Mommy and Daddy gets mail.
8. Sit down and write together. Don’t always leave them to do it by themselves. For example, I update their journal every week (at least I try to) and I have them by my side so they can put in their thoughts.
9. Let them write out the shopping list. You can dictate it as you rummage through the kitchen cupboards and fridge deciding what to buy.
10. If they can’t write yet, let them draw, draw, draw. Let them get enthusiastic about putting pencil to paper.

I’m sure you’ve heard it before, that it is important to develop a baby’s brain. Gone are the days where parents branded babies as too young to learn anything. Now the opposite is true. Parents are taught that a child’s critical learning time are during their first few years. Therefore, it is no surprise that the question of “how do I make my baby smarter?” has become a popular discussion topic among parents.

So, what can you do to make your baby smarter?

1. Develop and strengthen the connection between your child’s right and left brain.
This will help to increase their brain’s function as a whole. Encourage cross pattern exercises such as walking, swimming and crawling. Cross pattern refers to coordinated movement of the right arm left leg, and left arm right leg. Even children who can already walk will benefit from crawling exercises. You could make it into a fun game such as crawling races or playing catch. Even brain injured children have shown improvements by doing crawling exercises.
If you have very young babies, do the cross pattern movements for them. Bring up both the right are and left leg and tap them together. Do the same for the left arm and right leg. Sing a nursery rhyme as you do so to add to the fun. Other baby exercises include repeated crossing of the arms and legs.

2. Massage your baby to harness the power of touch.
A study of Romanian orphans led to an understanding that just feeding and changing babies is not enough. Babies that are deprived of human touch experience a decrease in brain development. Therefore, set aside some time to bond with your baby through baby massages. Choose a time when baby is calm, relaxed and comfortable such as after a bath. Start your massage from the head and work down to the toes. If you are pressed for time, just do a quick feet massage. First gently massage both feet at the same time. Then massage alternate foot. Besides helping baby’s brain development, baby massage also helps relief colic symptoms, improves circulation and digestion, strengthens immunity and lessens tension and irritability.

3. Play music, sing and dance with your baby.
Music can enhance your baby’s spatial intelligence, mathematical ability, linguistic ability and emotional intelligence. Some parents opt for classical music. Children songs, nursery rhymes and lullabies are good too. It doesn’t matter if you are a lousy singer, sing anyway. You could even make up your own songs or modify the lyrics. Later when babies become toddlers, let them have a go at musical instruments. Make your own shakers or just let them play drum on a tin can. Teach them to clap to a rhythm or echo a simple tune. Scout around for a “music and movement” playgroup and join in the fun.

4. Constantly talk to you baby.
The fact that they can’t talk back yet doesn’t mean they aren’t listening and digesting the information. As you go about your daily activities, describe to baby what you are doing. Talk about the things you see and hear. If you are in the kitchen preparing a meal, imagine you are hosting a cooking show. If you run out of ideas on what to say, use the alphabets to guide you. For example, “A” could be for apple. Go into details that relate to apples such as the color of apples, how does it taste like, where can you find them, and what can you do with them. Maybe include a song about apples. .
Betty Hart and Todd Risley found in their study of 42 children that those who had heard more words early in their life later developed higher IQs and richer vocabularies. They also performed better in elementary school.

5. Read to your babies.
Don’t wait until they have stopped chewing books or tearing pages. Read through those stages and make it part of your daily routine. Babies have short attention spans so conduct short reading sessions but do it often. Don’t force learning to take place. Keep it fun and relaxed. Focus more on developing their love for books. Reading aloud to children helps to develop many pre-reading skills. When they are ready for formal lessons, watch them excel.

Baby brains are excellent learning machines. It is not difficult nor expensive to raise a smart baby. What it requires is your time, attention and commitment to interact and to provide a stimulating environment.

Do you have tons of photographs of your kids? I do. My harddisk has a folder full of them. AND I’ve also burned some earlier ones onto a CD. As parents, we try to capture our kid’s important moments like first day at home, first smile, first step, first time eating solids, first time at school, first time in the pool etc…. We snap away at basically anything we deem important enough to deposit into our memory banks. Our children soon learn that mommy and daddy takes pictures of things or events that they feel are important.

So what do you think happens if you start taking pictures of them reading?

Lately, I’ve tried to catch my children reading. Hopefully, this simple act of mine conveys to them the message that reading is important. Important enough that mommy wants to keep it as a record. And that will encourage them further to want to read.

How about you try to catch your child reading this week? Tell me when you’ve got the picture posted.

Here are 2 reading activities that you can do with your children:

1. Read a book that you’ve not read to them before. Don’t show them the cover or tell them what the title is. After reading the story, ask them what they think the title of the book should be. And if they are up to it, have them design a cover for the book. When they are done, show them the book cover so they can make comparisons.

2. Grab a few children books from your bookshelf. Again, don’t show them which book you are going to read from (have them turn their backs or close their eyes). Read a passage from any page and see if they can guess which book you are reading from.

What is this book about:
Tired baby is cranky and crying away. So everyone joins in to kiss baby to sleep. Counting down from 10-1, read the many different kisses given by mom, dad, grandma, sister and even the two household pets. Although a simple story, but it can serve many purposes:

* Learn to count
* Learn the different body parts e.g. toes, feet, knees, belly button etc….
* Increase vocabulary with adjectives such as dimpled chin, yummy knees, little ears, wriggly feet etc….
* Goodnight book to calm baby to sleep
* Great bonding moment as you swamp your baby with the many kisses

I love Karen Katz books. They are just perfect for reading to little ones. Not only are the illustrations attention grabbing but it promotes that warm, fuzzy feeling between you and your child when reading.
If you’ve read this book to your child before, please share your experience and let me know what you think of it.

ONLY ONE COPY OF COUNTING KISSES IS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE AT MY BOOKSHOP: RM18.00

If you have a toddler who likes to tear paper, what do you do? First reaction would be “Noooooo!” Paper tearing is not something we parents see as beneficial but rather destructive. But you know what? It can be beneficial. If you have a young child who likes to tear paper, might as well make it into a lesson. But of course, the one important rule to drill into their heads would be to GET PERMISSION first. Only tear paper that is supplied by a parent.

So, what are the benefits of paper tearing?

• teach about size (big, small)
• teach counting (how many pieces can you tear)
• teach art (use the torn pieces of paper to make a collage)
• teach vocabulary (use descriptive word throughout the activity such as “tearing”, “ripping”, “big”, “small”)

I believe the actual act of tearing is also beneficial to their physical development as it refines small muscle movements. Bet you didn’t know tearing paper is actually a skill that will help them later when they learn how to cut with scissors. Another pre-cutting skill is crushing paper.

So the next time you see your baby/toddler tearing paper, look at it as an opportunity for growth and development. Channel and mold their so-called destructiveness into a more positive outcome.