About two months ago, my daughter finally showed an interest in reading and writing. Just as I was lamenting the fact that she had absolutely no interest in learning about written language, she started trying to draw letters and recognize them in books. I was excited, since reading and buying books is one of my pleasures in life, and I am thrilled to see her beginning to explore that world.
When children first start reading, adults usually give them words like their name or the sides of milk cartons to practice on. The kids also get to practice on words in story books, but they aren’t able to figure out the entire sentence. They’re often left with a word here, and word there. Of course, as they begin to decode more and more words and get a repertoire of sight words, they’re able to read simple books.
Like me, my daughter is impatient. She’d like to read, and she’d like to do it now, thank you very much. There is a series of books that will let preschool and kindergarten-aged children do just that: the Bob Books series by Bobby Lynn Maslen. Bobby Lynn was a kindergarten teacher who watched as children struggled to learn words so that they could read. She had the brilliant idea of creating books that were even simpler than “See Spot run”. Her Bob books start with just a few letters. Children can decode words like “Sam” and “sat,” then they can read the sentence: “Sam sat.” Soon, they’re reading the whole book.
These are tiny books, just a few pages each. Every book introduces a new letter or two. While the plots are not entirely gripping, that’s understandable – after all, some of the books only contain four or five letters! However, for a small child who is learning to read, there’s a huge pleasure in being able to say, “I read the whole book by myself!”
My daughter and I have been working on the Bob books. Although she loves it when we read picture books together, she does enjoy reading the Bob books. She hasn’t quite made it through a full book herself, but we’re getting there, page after page. For those independent souls who MUST do it themselves (which just about describes all four-year-olds), the Bob Books are an excellent entry into the world of reading.
Is your preschooler showing an interest in words, reading, and writing? How do you encourage this?