It seems like there is always a bandwagon for educators to ride: STEM, STEAM, phonics, whole-language, blah-blah-blah. I am not saying these are not wonderful movements in education. We enrich our students' learning through a mixing of many of these movements. Consider the bandwagons surrounding when is the best time to begin literacy instruction. Is it Pre-K? Maybe. You might think so after reading an article from The American Educator called "The Promise of Preschool" (click on title to read article). Is it 1st grade? I honestly doubt that. Some, such as the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), would say that even infancy is not too young (read more). Literacy in infancy has also been heralded by Marie Clay, a champion and author on effective reading instruction (link to more about her work). Clay coined the phrase "emergent literacy." To summarize, she felt that the child's family and home environment play a crucial role in literacy development, which she felt begins at birth.
Well, that last one is the bandwagon for me. I know from personal experience that a baby can fall in love with a book well before he is ever challenged to try and read that book. A baby can find joy in the relationship that is built when someone they love says those words in the best voice and invites them to imagine so many wonderful people, places, and things that are found in a book.
Well, that last one is the bandwagon for me. I know from personal experience that a baby can fall in love with a book well before he is ever challenged to try and read that book. A baby can find joy in the relationship that is built when someone they love says those words in the best voice and invites them to imagine so many wonderful people, places, and things that are found in a book.
An idea from the NAEYC article at the link above is to make a Book Nook for babies. Here are a few tips to make yours baby-friendly:
1. Have a rug on the floor, but you don't need all those pillows. Pillows may be cute and cuddly, but they can trip a novice-walker and they don't work well with a baby's unique "physique."
2. Books should be low to the ground. You could stand them up on the rug, or put them in a low basket. A shelf is best used for the older children.
3. Provide sturdy books that can sustain the many ways a baby may "engage" with the book.
4. Most importantly, don't forget to insert YOURSELF as an irresistible aspect of the Book Nook.
You are your child's first teacher. And you'll probably always be their favorite. Never forget that!
Happy Reading!
