On Tuesday, it was Family Literacy Day in Canada. I took my daughter to an Early Years Centre to participate in a Family Literacy Day program where they read and acted out a number of stories, rhymes and songs. We both had a great time. So did my 4 month old baby!

We were sent home inspired to read every day (something I have always done anyhow) to our children and to engage them in as many literacy related activities as possible.

Later that day, out came the chart paper, newspaper flyers, scissors, glue and markers. We taped the chart paper to the floor, chose a letter of the alphabet to focus on (my daughter chose the letter B) and we brainstormed different words that started with “B”. After we wrote down the words, we also hunted through the flyers for objects that started with “B”. I encouraged her to look for words that started with “B”, but she wasn’t interested in doing that.

As per usual, the activity turned into a child led activity, which was fine by me as it still focused on literacy which was the purpose of the activity in the first place, oh and of course to have fun!

Some other literacy focused activity ideas are:

Letters and words are all around us. Reading is not simply opening a book and reading the words. For children, reading involves exposure to letters and words, looking at pictures and describing what they see and drawing pictures and explaining what they drew.

Try to read with your child each and every day. Every book counts!

Today is International Literacy Day. It also marks the 5^th year of United Nations Literacy Decade 2003 to 2012. The initiative started in January 2003 by a resolution of the UN General Assembly after endorsement at the 2000 Dakar World Education Forum. Improving literacy is also one of the “Millenium Development Goals” of the United Nations Development Program.

One of the main targets of the literacy initiative is to “achieve universal primary education”, that is, ensure that children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling by 2015. Children, especially girls, are especially threatened by illiteracy. According to the World Bank, about 130 million? school-aged children are not attending school, most in developing countries. Two-thirds of these are girls. Worldwide, more than 880 million adults are illiterate and two-thirds of these are women.

It is highly important that literacy among girls and women be improved, considering a woman’s role in the education and upbringing of her children.

In Some Tips for Promoting Early Literacy, the importance of reading was discussed. But what about the other side of literacy, writing?

While your child will not be writing the Great American Novel anytime soon, encouraging writing and writing-related activities also promotes literacy. Making the lines and strokes as they scribble will help them when it comes time to learning how to make letters and numbers.

Around a year, it is safe to introduce crayons, finger paints and other writing utensils and art supplies to your child under supervision. You know your child best, so you can determine when the best time really is for your situation. Allowing your child to scribble, draw and paint encourages both gross and fine motor development. You can get in on the activity too, unleashing your own inner child and creating little masterpieces with them.

As your child gets older and their markings become more distinctive (and distinguishable) you can discuss those marks with them and how they may be similar to shapes and letters. For instance, when she makes a circle, you can also say, for example: “that’s a great circle. You know what? It also looks like the letter O.”

• Prepare your art area before starting the “project.” That may mean putting a sheet or tarp on the floor, covering the table with newspaper or waxed paper, and being ready with towels and wet cloths for clean-up.
• Get all of the supplies that you will be using before starting the activity.
• If your child is prone to putting everything in his mouth, get the pacifier ready ahead of time, so that you don’t have to worry about paint getting eaten (Even if it is non-toxic, it’s not meant to be consumed.)
• Use child-friendly products like the triangular-shaped crayons and paints by Crayola. If you are using larger tubes of finger paint, place the colors in separate containers like bathroom cups, or in dollops on a piece of waxed paper.
• Get your child ready with a smock (which can be as simple as an old shirt put on her backwards), or if it’s near bath time, strip her down to her diaper.
• Allow for free play and creativity with wild abandon while making art.
• Consider your child’s attention span. If they are showing signs that they are done, by losing interest in the activity, end it. Do a quick clean up and move on to something else. On the other hand, if they are really enjoying it, don’t hesitate to let it go longer than you may have initially intended if it makes sense to do so.
• Write with your child and around your child. As with reading in front of your child as well as with him, seeing you write will encourage him to want to as well. Show him how to spell his name. He might not “get it” at first, but he’ll be thrilled to see his name in print and start to identify those letters.
• Encourage story-telling about her pictures. What may seem to be a bunch of scribbles to you, might have an entire story line behind it for her. When she’s bigger, you can then write the story as she’s dictating it to you, and later read it together.
• After a trip to the park, zoo, to grandma’s house?where ever?encourage drawing a picture about it later. Then, you can tell the story about it as in the tip above.

Make writing and reading fun and you may instill a love of words that will last a lifetime and promote future academic and life success.

The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) published a report in 2002 on world illiteracy statistics. In the report, the United States alone is projected to have an illiteracy rate of 5.3 percent by 2010. While that does not seem to be a high percentage, any illiteracy should be considered troublesome.

How do we combat those statistical projections? It is simple, really. By reading and promoting reading as early as possible. If parents wait until school begins (whether traditional preschool, pre-Kindergarten or homeschooling) it could mean that your child is already behind. By no means do you need to force reading on your child or expect them to be reading the Iliad by third grade, but there are simple, daily things that a parent can do to promote reading as a habit.

• Read with your child every day, even if it only for a few moments. Find a quiet and special place. Choose lyrical, rhyming books with engaging pictures for infants and babies. Encourage her to point at pictures and help you turn pages.
• If you are reading a longer story, don’t feel that you have to be locked into following the story the exact way that it’s written at first. If your child is more interested in the pictures, make up a loosely related story to the text about the pictures that he may be pointing to. When he’s older, and his attention span is longer, you can start to follow the story as it is written.
• Let your child see you reading. If they are playing nearby, pick up a book, magazine or newspaper and read. (Of course, don’t forget to continue paying attention to her.) Seeing you read will enforce visually that reading is for everyone. Plus, since she probably likes to do what you do, this is a good habit for her to copy.
• As your child gets older, let him select the books. Doing this will give him ownership over reading choices, and show that you value his opinions and desires. If you don’t have your own little library at home, take a field trip to your public library.
• If story time is also part of the bed time routine, encourage reading outside of bedtime as well. Let her pick a time during the day to read either by herself or with you together. As she gets older, you can give her picture/word books that she can “read” herself. Even if she is not yet really reading (by decoding the letters and their sounds) she is gaining a familiarity with the association between print and images.
• Don’t be afraid to introduce the alphabet with your young toddler. Beyond singing the alphabet song, play with letters and their sounds with her. This will help facilitate language skills as well as reading skills. If your family is bilingual do it with her in both languages.
• Remember words are everywhere and so is the opportunity for reading. With your older toddler, encourage reading when you’re out in the world by making games out of traffic signs when you’re driving or out of other things while you’re on a walk or at a park. For example, when at a stop light, you might say: “What color is the light?” and when she answers ask “what letter does red start with?” or “Let’s spell red.”
• Is your child already hooked on cartoons and videos? Don’t despair. Put those favorite characters to good literary use. Pick books that feature his favorite television friends if you are just getting started (or having to start over) to engage them with reading. Use these characters as positive examples as well: “let’s read like Elmo” or “Diego and Dora read, let’s read like them.”
• Encourage exploration and creative thinking about the stories as well as your child’s vocabulary and understanding grows. Ask her open-ended questions like “what do you think happens next?” “What do you see?” You’ll know the best questions to ask because you know your child and her development best.
• Don’t get locked into gender stereotypes. Sure, let Bobby listen to and read fairy tales and let Suzi listen to and read action-adventure stories. It won’t hurt, it will broaden their minds.
• If your child is tired, cranky or just not interested in reading at a given moment, don’t force it. Doing so will only create a negative association with reading. Instead, redirect her and save reading for a time later that day when she is ready.
• Encourage group-reading activities. Check with your library or local bookstore (like Borders) to see if they have a regularly scheduled story time. If they do, make a field trip out of it. (And don’t forget to borrow or buy a book for his own little library.)

These are just a few ways that parents can promote literacy in their homes early. It’s neither too early nor too late to start. Doing so will not only ensure later academic readiness, but also instill a love of reading that will hopefully last a lifetime.

For more tips see:

http://blogs.babiesonline.com/2008/01/05/books-for-baby/
http://www.babiesonline.com/articles/education/importancechildrenreading.asp

Some Tips for Promoting Early Literacy part two covers writing.