Value Bookshop’s Reading Notes

One way to encourage children to read is to show them how their reading skill can help them in their life. Show them when, where and how reading can benefit them. Don’t isolate reading to flash cards, worksheets and books. Rather apply their reading to real life events. Here are some ideas:

1. Reading at the Supermarket.
   Next time you go grocery shopping, give them a list of words to find. To make it more interesting, put those words into a bingo card. It could be words from product labels, aisle banners, special notices, brand names etc…. Another alternative is to have them make an A-Z list of words in a supermarket. If they see a word or thing that starts with A, they either write it down or just put an “X” next to the letter “A”.
2. Read the Newspaper or Magazines together.
   Read to your children interesting news from the newspaper or magazines. Cut out words from the pages to form their own sentences. Or give them a list of words and have them do a word search. Maybe you found a wonderful recipe in a magazine, try it out together. Check out the t.v. guide and decide if there is anything worth watching. Laugh at the cartoons. Cheer on your sports team.
3. Read the Bills.
   Show them what the water bill, electric bill, telephone bill etc… looks like. What kind of information is given. See if they can find the amount you are suppose to pay. Talk about the different ways you can pay e.g. write a check, online bank transfer, cash.
4. Read Signboards.
   When travelling on the road, read out loud the signboards. My daughter likes to play a certain game with me. She will see a certain word on the signboard then she’ll give me the abbreviation and ask me to guess what it is. For example, she’ll ask “what does K.S. stand for?” Kuala Selangor. Or “what is S.A?” Shah Alam.

Show your children how reading is a living skill. Teach them the practical side of reading. Take reading outside of the classroom.

When trying to motivate your young children to learn, it works best when you, as a parent, join in the learning. For example, whenever I give my 7 year old daughter an assignment to write a short story, she would hem and haw and do whatever in her power NOT to do it. However, when I say “come sit with me and we will take turns writing out a story”, she will willingly comply. So, here is a story we wrote the other day. I wrote the first line, she wrote the next and we continued taking turns until the story ended. Her contribution are the ones in italic, recorded here as it is without corrections on my part.

Kiki is a black dog.
She is dog that is kind.
One day she met Scarface Claw the meanest cat in town.
She was frighten of the meanest cat in town.
She was so frighten, she hid under a bush.
Then he look for her.
Oh no! He found her.
She run and cried woof!
Then she thought that instead of running away, she should do something nice for Scarface Claw.
Then she think and think.
The next morning, she went to see Scarface Claw.
She did give him flower and kiss him.
Scarface Claw was so shocked.
Then they became friends. The End.

Sometimes we think that children are full of imagination and therefore should have no problem concocting up stories. But the fact is children need to be taught and guided through the writing process. Their ability to create fantastic stories during play does not translate to efficiency in writing stories. When you throw them a writing assignment without first explaining to how to build the story, they get overwhelmed. It’s like asking them to climb a mountain without proper tools and equipment.

When you write together, you can guide their writing and teach concepts indirectly. For example, start off the story by introducing a character, describe the character, mention where the story is taking place and when, what is the problem, what is the solution and how does it end. To clarify further, break the story into 3 parts: introduction (beginning), body (middle), and conclusion (end). Writing together also gives you the opportunity to teach them how to use punctuations properly. They are able to learn writing by watching how you write.

By writing stories together, the task seems less threatening. Furthermore, you could inject humour or familiar phrases into the story, making the writing process enjoyable. For example, in the story above, I used the character Scarface Claw from the famous story “Hairy Maclary”. In another story that we wrote, I used the phrase “it’s wherever you left it” from the book “Let’s Go, Froggy!” that we’ve read many times.

From these initial writings together, hopefully it will help build their love for writing. It’s okay to take their hand and lead them in the beginning. Don’t make the mistake of throwing them into the deep end before they are able to swim (so to speak).

This is an interview with Caroline Blakemore and Barbara Weston Ramirez who are the authors of Baby Read Aloud Basics.

They share wonderful insights such as reading to babies even when they are still in the womb. You can start when you are 6 months pregnant. They also share tips on how you can read so you get your baby interested. At the end, they talk about the developmental benefits of reading to your baby. And I love how they say “it’s not about teaching your baby to read but giving your baby language so they will be able to read.”

Need activity ideas for a children’s birthday party? Why not include a story telling session? I’m sure it will be a hit with young children, especially if you rope them in to join you in the story. You could choose a well known fairytale such as The Three Little Pigs or The Three Billy Goat’s Gruff. Include in actions that they can do along with you or have them recite the repetitive phrases.

Here are some examples:

• The Three Little Pigs - have a group play the wolf and let them say the two lines “little pig, little pig, let me come in” and “I’ll huff, and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down” (then let them blow with all their might). Another group play the pigs that have the line “not by the hair on my chiny chin chin.”
• The Three Billy Goat’s Gruff - ask the children to stamp their feet when the goats go “trip trap trip trap” over the bridge. Then ask them to put on their meanest, ugliest face when the troll says “Who’s that trip trapping over my bridge.”
• The Gingerbread Man - Have them chant the ever popular “run, run, as fast as you can, you can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread Man.”
• The Enormous Turnip - Modify the story a bit by including the children’s names. Have them form a chain pretending to pull out that enormous turnip. At the end, have them all fall down.

Here is another book that will be fun to read to a group of kids.

Select about 2 story books and sandwich some songs and action rhymes in between.
You want to instill the love of reading in your child, then show them what fun it can be. Show them that books are as fun as other party games. Want to take the birthday party a step further, have kids dress up as their favourite story character.

I know some of you take your kids to story telling sessions at libraries or playgroups. It’s a fun activity right? So, as you make out your party “to do” list, don’t forget to include a fantastic book reading or storytelling session.

Need some help in reading aloud to a group of kids, this video may be of help.

I recently started to teach my 4 year old son some Bahasa Malaysia because very likely he will be going to the same kebangsaan school as his sister. With K, I pretty much rushed her to learn the language in one year. Not a good idea. That’s why I told myself that I need to start earlier with kokoD. I think 2 years should be enough time for him to be sufficiently fluent in the language.

Anyway, current lesson is about “Rumah Saya” (My House). The lesson involves learning how to name the different rooms in the house e.g. bilik air (bathroom), dapur (kitchen), bilik tidur (bedroom) etc…. Here are four activities that I did with him:

1. Sat down and had him help me draw out the plan to our own house. So he had to think what are the different rooms in the house and where they are located. After that I wrote down the names of the rooms on pieces of paper and he had to label the drawing (glue the words to the corresponding places).
2. To add to his vocabulary, we talked about what people do in these rooms. I kept it simple by getting him to associated one word to each room. For example, tidur-bilik tidur (sleep-bedroom), mandi-bilik air (bath-bathroom), masak-dapur (cook-kitchen) etc…. After which I would write the name of the room on a blank piece of paper and had him draw out what he would do there.
3. Did a word matching worksheet. He had to match the names of the rooms to the correct verbs.
4. Treasure hunt. I stuck clues in the different rooms around the house. Each clue would tell him where to go to find the next clue. For example, “Pergi ke bilik air. Di atas cermin” (Go to the bathroom. On the mirror), “Pergi ke ruang makan. Di bawah meja” (Go to the dining room. Underneath the table.”) The treasure was what he likes best, a packet of Cheezels

These are just some learning activities that I want to share. You can use it to build your child’s vocabulary and reading skills. Use it to teach your child a second language, be it Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese, Spanish etc….

When we start teaching our children to read, we usually start with having them recognize the alphabets and then associating them with the corresponding sounds right? But how do you start them reading a book on their own?

Just want to share what I did to get my son reading on his own.

• I got him to memorize some high frequency words, also known as “sight words” or “Dolch words”. I made them into flash cards or just printed them onto an A4 paper and put them on the wall. I would go through the list with him about twice a day and put a tick on the ones that he already know (*seeing all those ticks was a great motivator and helped his confidence).
• Once he knew a majority of the words, I read simple books together with him, letting him read the words that he just learned.
• And then praise, praise, praise! I would say things like “Wow, you know so many words already”, “You almost read the whole thing”, “See, you CAN read” or “Thanks for helping me, you will be able to read the whole book by yourself soon.”

Sight words such as “the”, “and”, “you”, “is”, “a” occurs so often when you read, the repetetiveness provides many opportunities for reading practice. And when your child tastes the little bit of reading succuss, it will spur their desire to read more.

MORE TIPS:

1. Start with a really simple book - not that many pages and 1-2 lines per page.
2. Choose a book they like and read it again and again and again. The repetitive reading increases their familiarity with the story and words. It’s okay if it looks like they are memorizing the story instead of reading the words. What you want is for them to be excited about their ‘new’ ability to read.
3. I recently put up a piece of paper on the wall listing down all the books that my son is able to read by himself. As soon as he masters one book, I add it to the list. The lists acts as a visual motivator - like displaying your trophies on the shelf.

You can start with books like this Ladybird’s “Let ’s Read Together” Series.

This book pack is currently available at Value Bookshop for RM28.80