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.
Here's a blog post from "Not Just Cute" that explains why parents won't SEE their child being taught to read in preschool. There are no worksheets, flashcards, and lesson drilling, because they aren't needed or necessary.
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Writing to Read
One of the projects that I did with my kids was to help them write their own board books. Frequently kids who can't read yet can "read" books that they wrote.
We used www.blankslatebooks.com kits. We gave our kids six blank adhesive labels that are the same size as the blank board book pages (4 3/4 by 6 inches). They drew on the labels and then we pasted them into the books. On the opposing page we had the kids dictate to us their stories and we wrote down on labels (scribed) exactly what they said and pasted those labels in too. Then we made a front cover and a back cover that said "About the author".
Voila. The kids could read the books they authored and illustrated. We printed off duplicates for the grandparents.