Today, we
continue with the second part of the interview with Ms Fiona Walker, the Principal
Director of Schools, Julia Gabriel Centre for Learning and Chiltern House on
the topic of instilling the love for reading in young children. If you have
missed the first part, click here to read.
Q: What can parents do if a child
doesn’t seem too interested in reading and tends to run away in the midst of
reading together?
A: Sometimes you could say “You know
what, I’m going to stay here and finish the book because I’m loving it”, and he
might just come back, or he might not. But he’s thinking “She’s carrying on, I
might be missing something, even if I don’t want to do it right now”. At your
son’s age, you will be challenged to get him to sit down and listen for any
length of time. So bedtime stories are
the best, because they are tired and less likely to run about.
Q: Share with us how parents can use
the Rainbow Bear series of books to help our children with reading? For
example, for my little boy (not forgetting that he doesn’t seem too interested
with text yet).
A: You can use the Alphabet Zoo book. We
use that and the puppets in our schools when we first introduce the letters of
the alphabet at about 18 months, just so that they become familiar with the
letters and we use them all the way to our Nursery 2 classes, which are at
about 4.
You can use the
puppets and the songs in the CD. Songs
are a wonderful way to get them to hear the sounds and the use of the language.That’s
why this whole scheme is successful in that sense because it really brings
learning alive and you’re not just sitting down and going through the book.
Q: Is there going to be another book
in the series?
A: Yes, there will be! Rainbow Bear’s
third adventure is going to be about word families, for example “at”, “that”, “mat”
and so on. It’s great for when the
children are beginning to sound out words and read independently.
Q: Any other advice or tips?
A: I think the most important thing is
to make it fun and to always keep in mind your child’s level of development and
his interest. There’s not going to be learning if you pitch it far too high - it’s
not going to interest him or he’s not going to feel like he can do it. While we
can give our children a little push to see if they can do it, but if they can’t, or they are just not
interested, we should respect that. Then come back to it another day, come back
to it through another route.
There are many
ways to get children reading beyond sitting with the book. Keep the sitting
with the book to something really enjoyable, even if it means you only manage
to do that a few times a week or just once a week. You can find other ways to point
out the language in the environment. My son loves cars, so he’s really good at
recognizing all the car brands. Which is great, because it’s a very important
pre-literacy skill whereby he’s able to recognise symbols and understand they
have meanings. Which is what letters are – they are symbols and we all agree on
their meanings and we put them together to form words.
There are so
many symbols with meanings within our environment; the more you spend time
pointing them out and you see how quickly your children can see something and
know what they mean. By understanding their level of visual discrimination you can
have a good indication of when it’s feasible to start nailing down the alphabet
and practicing the sounds.
Parents can
also consider the use of technology like iPad in teaching literacy. I did have
concerns initially. But I see that my children love it and they are so engaged.
At the end of the day, learning boils down to how engaged the learner is. I
think my son’s learning to read took a big step forward when he got an iPod
Touch when he was six. My husband got him games where there’s a lot of reading
involved . He’s more motivated to read when it helps him to play the game.
Of course, don’t
leave it to just computers games to teach reading but I think they can
certainly be useful tools, especially when you can control the amount of time
they spend and the games they play.
Thank you, Fiona, for your wonderful sharing and insights. I've certainly learnt some useful tips on how to engage my son in reading together.
Thank you, Fiona, for your wonderful sharing and insights. I've certainly learnt some useful tips on how to engage my son in reading together.
Both books come with CD and songbook.
2. Leave a comment here and share which book you hope to win and what you like about the book.
Note:
- The contest is open to readers residing in Singapore.
- For the purpose of the draw, participants will be placed into two groups, one for each of the book. There will be a winner from each group.
- The contest will close on Wednesday, 7 March 2012, 11:59pm.
- Winners will be randomly picked and the result will be announced on this blog and via Mommy Cafe's Facebook page.
Join the giveaway now and win one of the two books and embark on an exciting reading journey with your child! Do share about the contest with your friends too!
