Apparently "experts" say that children should hear 1000 books read aloud before they learn to start reading themselves. One thousand may sound like a lot, but literacy guru Mem Fox points out, it's easy - just read three books a day, and in a year, you'll reach that number. The ideal three books are one favorite, one familiar, and one new. If you start early and follow a routine, your child will most likely be reading on his/her own when he/she starts school.
So the best thing you can do for a young child's development is easy and fun - read books with and stories to him or her!
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2 comments:
Does “start school” mean start first grade?
Having just finished reading this book, besides reading 1-3 books daily to a kid from birth, the author endorses the idea of the "whole language" approach to learning to read (by a kid). In this approach, the kid first becomes familiar with a good book, mostly through a parent or adult reading the book aloud to the kid, then begins associating the sight of the words (loosely the set and order of the letters in each word) on each page with the words of the story being told, and only drills down to inspecting individual letters (for their sounds) when a word is unfamiliar or long. In other words, the whole language approach flips the "phonics" approach upside down.
Since the original publication of this book in 2001, I understand that trends have shifted again and the thought now emphasizes that kids thrive with a combination of story reading and associated word play ("whole language"), phonics, and direct teacher instruction. At least for my part, I will no longer consider the phonics-first approach to be the standard (as was my impression until a few days ago, mostly based on watching words being sounded out letter-by-letter on (contemporary) Sesame Street episodes.
- Huitzil
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