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 environments.
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Activate Curious, Capable Minds
A Busy Parent’s Guide to Literacy, Language, and Learning from Crib to Kindergarten
Activate your child’s curiosity, language, and love of learning from the very start. Grounded in early brain research, this guide offers hundreds of examples of quality children’s books — and shows you how to choose and use them to build vocabulary, attention span, and comprehension — plus practical ways to use talk, play, and everyday moments. For parents, grandparents, child care providers, preschool teachers, and homeschoolers.
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.
Day One
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.
The Blog
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.
Visit the Blog
What You Will Learn In the Book Tips
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!
Literacy and Numeracy
How to Make Happier Kids from Day One
Early literacy growth begins on Day One. Infants hear and recognize their parents’ voices through talking, singing, and reading aloud to them from quality books. As you share the books and engage in the follow-on activities recommended here, your child will develop the vital background knowledge that comes with literacy.
The Why
Magic Happens when Reading is Fun
Children depend on parents – and other caregivers including grandparents – to provide these thoughtful experiences that will kickstart their inquisitiveness, help them understand better the world around them, and be thoughtful participants in learning environments. Literacy is the basis for all learning. And since learning is cumulative, it is important to develop these routines as soon as possible.
Science Is Everywhere
Numeracy and Science
Numeracy and science experiences and vocabulary are all around us and are easily found in children’s books if you look for them. We use math and science vocabulary all the time without even knowing it, but by recognizing and using math language intentionally, parents will be increasing vocabulary, numeracy knowledge, and analytical skills in a child’s word bank. Early on children need to know how to think critically so they can eventually be able to cut through the complexities of digital analysis to find the useful information and insights they need while feeling comfortable doing this, all while experiencing positive reinforcement from parents.
Math talk includes position/location/placement language – over, under, edges, high, low, almost, next, near, and so much more – along with specific number relations, matching, approximation, and many more. Quality trade books promote this practical talk using quantifying and descriptive words that are often overlooked or unrecognized as related to Math and Science. In my Book Tips, I include many books that bridge several genres but almost always include numeracy language. The goal here is to enable your child to develop familiarity and automaticity in using numeracy and science language.
Families
What Families Say
Marcia is a gifted educator who has profoundly impacted our children, Isabella and Edward’s development from age 3. She has used her vast knowledge to curate age-appropriate learning journeys spanning geography, history, culture, science and technology. She has inspired a love for reading and appreciation of history, but most of all they have the capability to ask WHY and dig deeper for truth. While we believe that this relationship with Marcia has helped to unlock our children’s intellectual capacity, the real impact is their enrichment on a human level as they have grown to become highly engaged, empathetic to the challenges in our world and motivated to make a difference.
Marcia has been an invaluable asset as we navigated the waves of parenting our first child. She's helped us, given advice and incubated a love for reading in our daughter that we know will stay with her for life. There are a lot of tough decisions when you're raising your first kid but Marcia made the choice to read to her early and often one of the easiest.
Marcia has worked with our family since our first daughter was born. She gave us valuable insight into how we could promote literacy and a love of reading in our child from day one. We started reading to Grace the day she came home from the hospital and used Marcia's guidance to progress our techniques over the years. Grace is now in Kindergarten, loves books and reading, and is excelling in her school's bilingual literacy curriculum. We now get the privilege of using this guidance with our son as well. Marcia has shared fantastic books with us over the years that are not only engaging for our children but also promote diverse characters.