Writing center

Reading and Writing Readiness when introduced at an early age makes connections in the young brain that prepares a child for strong learning skills during the school age years. There are building blocks for reading and writing that are presented to the preschooler through play. Children learn to hold a writing utensil correctly and the fine motor skills to be able to trace and eventually write on their own the alphabet, words, and numbers.

Reading Time

The way to introduce writing to preschoolers is to first have them practice lines and squiggles that resemble the movements that real letters make. After the child masters the ability to hold a pencil correctly and makes lines and squiggles easier, it's time to introduce tracing and writing real letters both upper and lower case. The Makeovers Home Preschool Curriculum has three sets of worksheets to teach your child writing on three different levels.

Reading readiness starts early with tools geared for the toddler and the three and four year old. The beginning skills of reading begin long before Kindergarten. The first step is to recognize letters both upper and lower case at the same time. Introducing lower and upper case letters at the same time is important so that your child's brain recognizes that there are two sets of letters. When the lower case alphabet is introduced at a later time, the concept seems to confuse the child. Labeling letters as 'big B' and 'little b' works well.

Library center

Another important aspect in learning reading and writing is phonics. In phonics, each letter has sounds it makes. Teaching these sounds to your child will help in decoding the phonics system in Kindergarten. Reading simple books with just a couple of sentences on each page to your child is a simple way to grasp reading. Also, children learn to recognize whole words when exposed to the same set of words repetitively. The Makeovers Home Preschool Curriculum has sets of familiar words of objects from around the house and another list of action words that are age appropriate and easy for children to memorize.

The last building block to tie together the concept of reading and writing is for your child to draw pictures . Drawing is a simple way for children to learn to communicate on paper before actually learning to read and write.

Reading and writing readiness are skills that take years to master for a young child. When these concepts are introduced with tools that are age appropriate, it makes learning fun and easier…not easy…just easier.

Makovers Curriculum samples are viewable with Adobe Reader. If you need to download Adobe Reader, click the Get ADOBE READER button. The Adobe Reader download page will open in a new window.