August 6th, 2009 by El Ed Mom

As an author and publisher, I am shocked by the number of books that say they are for “early reading” and yet are not using the appropriate “early reading” vocabulary or any of the Dolch site words by age group.   I love Dr. Seuss books!! They are fun and engaging and full of repetition and rhyming patterns, but they are hard to use as an early reading book. WHY?  Because word association doesn’t work with Dr. Seuss; he uses silly off-the-wall rhymes that don’t add up in a child’s head.  They would not automatically put together green eggs and ham, unless they already knew the book and the rhyme.   

Top tips for helping kids learn to read:

• Empower kids into the process with simple “early reading” books that use word picture association and stress word/picture connections.
• Practice getting kids to draw one page word picture association, such as draw:  Tom has apples.
• Getting them to make the connection and guess what the next word is – Tom has…they can see the apples so they can say, apples.
• Play games to get children to guess word association: if I say peanut butter, you say: __________.
• Practice, practice, practice with the early learning books that specialize in word picture association and seeing words in the early learning vocabulary. 
• Make it fun with lots of picture books about repetition and rhyming patterns that are geared to “early reading”.

Smiles – Stacey

Stacey Kannenberg
“Ready To Learn Mom”