Early Reading Encouragment

 

Teach Your Monster To Read

I've got two early readers in my house right now. I received a valuable bit of advice from a wonderful kindergarten teacher (lookin' at you Ms. Caston!)

Kindergarten Teacher Extraordinaire

when my first two were early readers. She told me to choose books in areas of interest that they loved and it would be both enjoyable for them and create a lifelong love of reading. She was so correct with this advice! My older two read a wide variety of books for leisure as well as school and it all started with age appropriate reading level books in the Star Wars genre.

So along with getting books that aren't just reading level and age appropriate, I look for ones that are geared towards their interest and I find they pull the books out on their own and try to identify words on their own.

Along with this bit of advice, I have also found a few software programs that make reading and identifying words fun because they make them a game.  The first one is free and it's called "Teach Your Monster To Read". The other is called Endless Reader and this is best used on a touchscreen and can be downloaded off the app stores for Windows, Apple and Google. It also features cute monsters and I think this one is the favorite right now. It's great for when I am making lunch so they are occupied, but still learning.

Endless Reader & the Monster Crew

I hope these suggestions help you with your early reader. Fostering a love of reading is so important, especially in today's tech obsessed society. I think we are providing our children the best way to disconnect and cope with stress by giving them an endless world of imagination to turn to within the pages of books.