At Home Curriculum Connections

At Head Start and Early Head Start, we believe that parents are their children’s most important teachers. The success of our programs is dependent on the role played by parents. Our staff actively supports children’s primary caregivers by helping them to continue the work done in the classroom with their own activities and positive reinforcement at home. Tips for enhancing children’s educational and social development in the home include the following:

 

Parents can play an important role in helping to develop their children’s literacy skills. Tips for supporting literacy at home include the following:

 

Activities to Support Literacy:

 

  • Storybook reading: You can read aloud to your child anytime and anywhere. Read to your children during bath time, when they are sick, while waiting in line at the grocery store, or waiting for meals at restaurants. You can even read traffic and street signs to your child while in the car, on the bus, or walking down the street.

 

  • Family story telling: Use puppets and stuffed animals, and create different voices for different characters, while sharing stories with your children. Possible story topics include where you lived as a child, what your grandparents were like, and how your child’s name was chosen.

 

  • Talk to your children: Having conversations with your children can teach them new words and help them learn to talk and listen to others. Meal time is a great opportunity to engage your child in conversation. To make sure they get the most from your conversations, use adult words like “cut,” not baby words like “boo-boo.” Ask open-ended questions, like “Why do you think that happened?” Listen patiently when your child speaks.

 

Family Reading Tips:

 

  • Visit the library regularly
  • Let your children see you reading
  • Make your home reading friendly
  • Read aloud to your children, even when your child knows how to read
  • Establish a routine for reading aloud
  • Make reading together a special time

 

Simple Ways to Enrich the Experience of Reading Aloud:

 

  • Move your finger under the words as you read
  • Point to pictures and say the names of objects and colors. Let your child repeat the names
  • Let your child help turn the pages
  • Take turns reading words, sentences, or pages
  • Pause and ask open-ended questions, such as “How would you feel if you were that person?” or “What do you think might happen next?”
  • Look at the illustrations and talk about them
  • Change your voice as you read different characters. Let your children make up voices.
  • Keep stories alive by acting them out
  • Talk about the book as you read. Ask children to describe pictures, repeat phrases used in the story, and predict what will happen next

 

Choose Books for Preschoolers that Include the Following:

 

  • Colorful illustrations and photos
  • Lively rhymes and repetition that children can say aloud and remember
  • Stories about everyday events, fears, and challenges, like having a new baby in the family
  • Basic story concepts that review letters, numbers, shapes, and colors
  • Characters their age or slightly older
  • Playful animals
  • Simple, fun plots
  • Books should be able to be finished in one sitting


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