Read All About It!

When I got home from the library yesterday, I got to play the role of Proud Mom. I’ve noticed as my children age, this opportunity comes around a lot less often than when they were hitting all those early milestones, so I treasure these times more and more. I got the news that my 11 year old son had been cast as a principal role in the school musical after several years of being in the chorus. My son gets to play- (drumroll)- Humpty Dumpty! I always knew that boy was a good egg (nyuk nyuk).

But not everybody was as impressed as I was. After school, another child l asked him which part he got, and when he replied, “Humpty Dumpty,” the other child queried, “Who is that?”

Who is that!? Really? I couldn’t believe it when I heard about the conversation. At first I was simply surprised, but then I was feeling badly for the child who didn’t know about this clumsy egg man, and could only imagine what other colorful characters he never met as a preschooler. Nursery rhymes, those stories full of plot, character and setting all rolled up in a few lines, were a staple in my house and in my classroom when I was a preschool teacher. To me, it is a travesty when children are unfamiliar with them. I encourage you to share some with your child today. See how many you can remember!

Hearing or saying nursery rhymes can build a child’s phonological awareness. Sharing rhymes and singing songs are effective ways for your child to pick up on the fact that our language is made up of smaller sounds that are strung together, an important pre-reading skill.   Nursery rhymes can be a springboard to so many other activities that build a little person’s skills in becoming an avid reader. After your child is familiar with some fun nursery rhymes, it’s time to play and have fun with them. 

Sharing nursery rhymes isn’t for just the very young child. The activities you can do with them can be quite complex. Below are a few suggestions of how to “play” with nursery rhymes, while building your child’s phonological awareness. Many of these ideas are excerpted from the book, Phonemic Awareness in Young Children: A Classroom Curriculum by Marilyn Jager Adams.

Have your child sit down and close her eyes so that she can concentrate on what she will hear. Then recite or read aloud a familiar story or poem to her but, once in a while, change its sense to nonsense by changing its words or wording.  Your child’s job is to pinpoint the “mistakes”. Here’s an example: “The first little piggy made his house of bricks.” Or: “Mary had a giant lamb, its fleece was purple as snow.” Your young child will delight in these more obvious changes, and think how fun it will be for her to correct you and help you get it right.

As your child becomes better at this skill, make more subtle changes, such as, “Little Miss Muffet, eating a tuffet, sat on her curds and whey;” “ The eensy weensy spider went up the spouter wat;” or even, “Humpty Dumpty wall on a sat.”  You can see that these changes are a little more complex.  I can pretty much guarantee these little listening sessions will end in fits of the giggles. By playing with nursery rhymes, you will be sharing an important genre of children’s literature, increasing your child’s phonological awareness, and giving your child background knowledge to draw upon, possibly in middle school and beyond!

Perhaps you have heard of Thing 1 and Thing 2, or Sneetches on beaches with stars upon thars?

Maybe you are more familiar with Sam-I-Am and his propensity for green eggs and ham. Whatever your exposure has been to the writings of Theodore Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss, there’s no denying the impact he has had on children’s literature. 

Have you had the chance to share your love of Seuss books with your children? Dr. Seuss books are a wonderful tool to build pre-reading skills while you have fun: to be silly, create chants while you read the rhyme, use different voices, and discuss all the amazing imaginary creatures that reside inside the pages. Help your children create their own fond memories while you build their phonological awareness, which is just one early literacy skill they will need to have before they are taught formal reading.

Reading Dr. Seuss books is a great way to introduce lots of rhyming words to your children! Focusing on rhyming words is important for kids because it helps them learn how to hear if beginning sounds and ending sounds of words are the same or different. This is part of phonological awareness. They will need to be able to hear the smaller sounds of words when they start sounding words out as they read. (Psst! It’s ok to read Dr. Seuss a few pages at a time or to skip around to the important parts.)

Come celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss with your Milwaukee Public Library! Join us as we celebrate this beloved author’s birthday with stories, music, a Horton-shaped birthday treat, and more.

Saturday, March 3, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Central Library 814 W. Wisconsin Ave.

The fun will continue through mid-March at our neighborhood libraries! Click this link to find a birthday celebration in your area! http://www.mpl.org/file/kids_seuss_index.htm