Early childhood literacy advocate, teacher, consultant, parent coach
Welcome Parents of Children Ages Birth through Five – and Beyond!
I invite you to explore this website. Here I share my approach to engaging children in literacy and numeracy experiences. Through talking, reading, playing, and extending those natural activities into purposeful exploration with your child, you will be stimulating their innate capabilities while developing their curiosity in the world around them.
As an early childhood literacy advocate, teacher, consultant, and parent coach, I have developed and tested practical approaches which actually make a difference in how children grow in response to your interactions.
The Importance of Compounding Learning
At birth, all children are already intelligent, in fact, ready-made for learning. Infants immediately start using their emerging capabilities which compound dramatically, especially during the first five years of their experience.
First, your babies will respond to your voice, your touch, and your face. They hear the differences in your speaking, reading, and singing voices; they hear the various inflections and intonations; they see your facial expressions. And they respond by making demands, attempting various physical movements and expressions in their interactions with you. They show emotions, likes, and dislikes, and they are attentively watching and listening to you. Always. This early focus, when it includes not only talking, and singing, but also reading aloud, will continue to serve your child well.
What You Will Learn
In the Book Tips, I cover everything from what types of books to use with brand new babies to some of the many specific quality fiction and nonfiction books that introduce topics that will naturally lead to practical activities to grow your child’s vocabulary acquisition, background knowledge, and increase your child’s literacy and numeracy capabilities. As well as expanding your expectations of what your child can do.
The Latest in Brain Research... and More
In my Blog, you will find discussions of many timely issues, from what you can learn from brain research to how to manage screen time, from the benefits of doing chores to how vital trees are to the environment. All good talking points with a child.
Both the Blog and Tips postings are filled with book suggestions that will enable you to focus on themes. I give you specific examples of ways to spend the precious time you have with your young children. All learning is cumulative starting from Day One.
Step-by-step
These book-based activities will help your children understand the world around them, develop vocabulary, and be thoughtful and successful participants in learning communities.
Engaging Curiosity
When the adults surrounding children interact with them in meaningful ways, this can turn everyday moments into enjoyable language and play experiences and stimulate the growth of their children’s innate curiosity and early learning capabilities. I find children are too often underestimated and underserved. Children are waiting for your attention.
Always Surprising
Here is an example of what can happen when a child is routinely been read aloud to with high-quality books and experienced purposeful talk with a parent.
A three-year-old and I were out for a walk when he suddenly turned and looking up to me said, “We need to turn back.” I asked, “Why?” He simply stated, “There is a storm brewing. The sky is dark. The wind is picking up.” I had to think for a minute, ‘How did he come up with that particular vocabulary which perfectly described our situation?’ Then I remembered I had recently read a children’s book to him about Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.
In our discussion, I hadn’t drilled him on any specific words. I had read it aloud to him twice because he had asked me to. Clearly, a stormy page had resonated with him and he was able to apply it now to the weather on our walk. His use of this vocabulary was a natural outcome. I was delighted. Children are always listening!
Explore and use the resources here for you and your child. Enjoy!