[Ed. Note: We are thrilled to share this post by Saroj Ghoting, noted Early Literacy Storytime expert. What do YOU do in your storytimes to encourage parent participation? Please share in the comments.]
I'm sure many of us are familiar with Jim Trelease's Read Aloud Handbook, a guide to sharing books with children which has served teachers, parents and librarians well through many years and editions.
This month I began my usual round of preschool Open Houses. It's my chance to talk to the parents of the new preschoolers about the library, and, of course, about early literacy, and what they can do at home to help their child get ready to read. One thing I always emphasize, though, is that none of the activities we suggest are TEACHING. They do not need to teach their child to read - but if they share books, sing songs, talk about their day, tell stories, and play with letters, their child's reading sills will develop naturally.
There are a lot of picture books that have a rhyming text. This makes it pretty easy to find books for a particular storytime theme if your focus is on phonological awareness. It's always nice though when you're helping a patron with a specific book request and you come across a book that not only is what the parent is looking for but also has that added skill that you can also talk to the parent a
a specific book request and you come across a book that not only is what the parent is looking for but also has that added skill that you can also talk to the parent a
