PreschoolRock.com Forum

My husband and I read to our boys every night, but is it enough? What more can I do? Does anyone have any suggestions?

How old are your boys, Lazydazy? (I LOVE your name, by the way!)
I used to teach kindergarten and first grade - back in the day before I had children. I think reading to them is the BEST thing you can do to promote reading readiness.. but I think there is more... if you felt like they were interested. Simple reading games can be fun - take the first letter away from a word and change it to something else.. mat becomes pat .. becomes.. sat..
I think rhyming words is a great way to introduce reading skills... just have them rhyme when you're in the car or something...
What kind of books are you reading your boys - I only ask out of curiosity! I absolutely love children's literature!

Preschoolers can learn so much just by reading to them. I'd try adding a story time during the day as well. If you talk to your kids while you read to them they will start to understand basic reading concepts. Follow along with the words with your fingers and they will learn that we read from left to right and top to bottom. That seems basic but it's an important pre-reading skill.

You are doing a great job just by reading to your kids. They pick up more than we realize.

Rachel
http://education.preschoolrock.com

We read to my son before his afternoon nap and then again before bed each night. We have also added a special Daddy-time reading in the morning before my husband leaves for work. We go to the library about every other week and get new books - some board books that my son can have free range of and then some regular kids books that we read to him just to add some spice to the regular collection we have! We sometimes just look at each picture in his favorite books and ask him to "read" it to us or what is going on in the page. He asks TONS of questions when we read - what certain words are and what people and things are in the pictures. Basically, we just talk and read and read and talk and books are in just about every room in our house in order to encourage him to plunk down where ever and crack one open on his own! Another fun thing we do is take some of his fav (firefighters right now) and change the names to his name (Isaac) and make the story "his own"! We do tons of books with our craft times depending on the unit we are on - we just finished a unit on Our Home and we made a book with pictures and words of all the things in our house. That way he got to see how a book is created (my mom works at a school and bound the finished product for us!) Just keep reading - all those words are helping SO much with language development! We have read to my son literally from the day he came home from the hospital and he was speaking in complete sentences by 18 months (he is 2-1/2 now)!

It sounds like you are doing all the right things. I love the idea of Daddy story time before work. I bet your son loves that!

I think sometimes it can be enough. We've always followed 4yoDS's lead in reading him books, which he LOVED! He started memorizing books when he was two, by three he was reading many simple books and at 4 he can read almost anything with wonderful comprehension. We never did phonics, go over or memorize letters and the sounds they make or anything fancy with him, just read as much as he wants. Our DD is almost the same. I think if the intrest is there, they will run with it

The best thing you can do is go with what feels right for your kids, you can't push them to read, however, you can make it so much fun that they will fall in love with it and eventually want to sit and learn it themselves. I found board books like "The Rooster Struts" and got the kids involved. I'd read what the animal does and we'd act it out, for instance, strutting around like a rooster. with my 3 year old I'll do letter finds with her, I'll have her find an A on the page or a B and my 4 year old, who reads at a first grade level, likes for me to have her hunt for words on a page. we have a lot of leapfrog items in our house as well, letter sponges for craft time, letters for the bathtub, letter magnets on the fridge, an alphabet music CD, alphabet puzzle...
My girls also like to put on plays, so I bought them some Little Pony books, and we set up a stage on their card table and while I read the story they will use their Little Ponies to act out the stories. It's just all about making it fun!

As a student in college working on a child development degree, to become an assistant teacher, a mother of four children who I read to since I was pregnant with them.. read, read, read, but do flannel board stories, rhyming, and lots and lots of fingerplays. Repitition is the key to reading readiness... I have sucessfully taught 2 nieces and 8 nephews to read and write in English, with Spanish as their first language. I currently work in a child care center,and read to the babies of only two months to children of five years EVERY day, at EVERY opportunity I get... in two lanquages

We are avid readers in our house, and it has paid off with our little reader. He has his favorite books, some of which have been given a 'rest' from being read - but then they are fresh again. He enjoys books that have a rhythm to them or rhymes and images he can enjoy. He is almost 3 and can read some simple words and loves to spell words he knows. I don't think you can read too much WITH your little ones...and you'll know what fits best with your child and your family. If you love books and reading, they probably will too! Have fun and try Sandra Boynton's books or Richard Scarry (favorites in our house)...

We go to the library once a month and check out our limit of books. While I nurse our newborn, we read. The other thing that we do is a preschool curriculum found at http://www.abcjesuslovesme.com - it is a free curriculum. Two separate curriculum for ages 3 and 4 year olds. The curriculum work on letters, numbers, colors, shapes, basic math, etc. The best thing about it is that the lesson plans are very doable for even the busiest mom and it is ALL free!! We feel that by reading and doing this curriculum that our children are getting a well rounded foundation.