While we love that kids attending our literacy-based storytimes are being given the chance to build their literacy skills, this is only one piece of the getting-ready-to-read puzzle. Young children spend a majority of time with their parents and caregivers, who are in the unique position of being their children’s first teachers.
Librarians, therefore, have a wonderful opportunity to take advantage of this position and share with parents what they can do to help their children get ready to read ! We can reach out to parents and caregivers in many ways: through literacy-based storytimes in which parents are active participants, through early literacy workshops, displays and play spaces in the library, and through outreach partnerships with preschools and community agencies.
Check out the links in the grey box to the right as a starting point. Then...
See parent/caregiver-related blog posts below:
hear and play with the smaller sounds in a word. Younger children may especially enjoy reciting favorite nursery rhymes, and for storytimes with older preschoolers, ask them to fill in the rhyming word (or make up a sill
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