Watch how water spreads through a plant.

• celery stalk with leaves
• 2 cups
• water
• red and blue food coloring
• knife

Make a cut up the center of the celery. (Only parents should use the knife!) Start at the bottom and go about halfway up so the celery has two “legs.”  Fill each cup with water. Put several drops of blue food coloring in one cup. Put red food coloring in the other cup.  Place one celery “leg” in each cup.  Let the celery sit overnight.  What does the celery look like in the morning? What color are the leaves? Explain to your child that the water traveled from the bottom of the plant to the top. That way water gets to every part of the plant that needs it.

• supports observation skills
• shows how water moves in plants

Enhance bath-time learning with this homemade rainmaker.

• Plastic milk container
• Large sewing needle

Punch holes in an empty plastic milk container. Using a large sewing needle, create an interesting pattern of holes around the bottom of the container. The more creative the arrangement is, the prettier your water streams will be. Fill the container with water. Show your baby how to dunk the jug in the water to fill it, and slowly raise it in the air to make rain! Older babies (9 to 12 months) might want to hold the container themselves. Your baby will delight in the sparkling water droplets as they magically fall from this simple rainmaker. She will learn about texture by feeling the water as it sprinkles over her hands and about observing as she watches the streams closely. Sing a rainy song. Try singing “It’s Raining, It’s Pouring” or “Rain, Rain Go Away” as you both watch the water fall, or sit and listen quietly to the sound of gently falling “rain.”

• Teaches observation skills
• Builds sensory awareness

 

Let your child’s fingers do the reading.

Cut out pieces of fabric. Glue each to a separate piece of cardboard. Punch holes in the cardboard and tie the pieces together with yarn to make a book. Encourage your child to touch the different textures, describing how each feels. Have fun making up sounds to represent the texture, saying “swoosh” for the smooth feeling of silk, for example. To extend the activity, make a similar book with pictures of family members. You can “dress and tress” these photos, attaching yarn, wool, or silk for hair and cotton and denim pieces for clothing. Bind these and “read” them with your child.

• builds tactile awareness
• fosters language development
• encourages imagination

Turn a simple container into an early reading experience.

 

• tubular container, such as a Pringles or oatmeal container
• photos (family snapshots or magazine clippings)
• clear contact paper

Collect pictures about your baby’s life, highlighting his family: Mom and Dad, family members, friends, and pets. You can also cut out cars, houses, flowers, and other beloved objects from magazines. Glue the photos in a mosaic-like fashion to the can. Be sure to cover the container completely.  Cover your pictures with clear contact paper to protect them, and place plastic lids at each end of the can. Let the book rock and roll. Talk about the photos, pointing out different people and labeling the items. Ask older babies to find items: For example, ask, “Where’s Daddy?”

• Builds vocabulary
• Teaches picture and word recognition

Tickle your child’s tongue with a homemade book of rhymes.

 

• magazine or catalog with appealing pictures
• children’s safety scissors
• glue stick
• stapler
• drawing paper
• marke
• die

 

 

Look for these signs of progress in your pre-reader.

As the 4 year olds arrive at the Mountain View Parent Nursery School, they pick out their nametags and hand them to teacher Betsy Nikolchev to fasten. “Great job finding your name, Elaine,” Nikolchev says. “How did you know that says Elaine?” “Because it starts with the letter ‘E,'” she answers. “What other letters are in your name?” the teacher asks. “E-l-a-i-n-e.” “Wow. I’m so proud of you,” Nikolchev says.

Long before children can read books they need to master key skills that will help them make sense of all those black squiggles on the page. The National Institute for Literacy has identified a number of building blocks that prepare children for reading. The key components of reading readiness include:

Familiarity with print and books: It’s important for your child to know that people read words, not pictures, and that the words she sees in print are related to the words she speaks and hears. She also needs to know how books work — that you begin with the cover right-side up and move from front to back, one page at a time.

Reading milestones:

• Recognizing print in everyday life, on cereal boxes, street signs, and more
• Knowing you can use print for many different purposes, from stories to grocery lists
• Holding a book, turning the pages, and pretending to read
• Following the series of events in some stories
• Asking questions and making comments that show she understands what you read to her

Letter recognition: The more letters your child is able to instantly recognize and name by the time he starts kindergarten, the quicker he’ll be able to focus his attention on other tasks such as the sounds associated with each letter. It’s easiest for your child to begin learning the letters in his name.

Reading milestones:

• Singing the ABC song
• Recognizing the shape of letters
• Starting to learn the sounds of letters: “B” makes the “buh” sound

Sounds of speech: Technically called “phonological awareness,” this is the ability to discern the sounds in words. Word play is key to phonological awareness because it entails listening to the way words sound and recognizing how they change. Developing a sense of syllable is another key part of phonological awareness and is an important precursor to sounding out words.

Reading milestones:

• Identifying letters and realizing that they represent the segments of her own speech
• Understanding that “dog” does not rhyme with “cat”
• Clapping out syllables in familiar and unfamiliar words — cow/ boy, ro/ de/ o

Phonemic awareness: Before children learn to read print, they need to understand that words are made up of speech sounds, technically called phonemes. The 44 phonemes in the English language are the smallest parts of sound in a spoken word that make a difference in the word’s meaning. For example, changing the first phoneme in the word “hat” from /h/ to /p/ changes the word from “hat” to “pat,” and so changes the meaning. Reading expert Louisa C. Moats, co-author of Straight Talk About Reading, says phonemic awareness is essential because our writing system is a representation of speech sounds. “Ninety percent of the time, kids who have reading problems have a weakness in their ability to detect and identify speech sounds,” Moats says.

Reading milestones:

• Naming several words that begin with the same sound — bat, boy, and bell
• Replacing one sound with another — replace the first sound in pig with /d/ to make dig.

Try these crafty ideas for those long holiday vacation days.

Holiday vacation is the perfect time to share memories and to start new traditions like creating a year-end scrapbook. Plan some time to clear off the kitchen table, heat up some cocoa, and make something with your child that will capture the spirit of family, friendship, and memories.

Ages 3-5: 

Photo & Picture Book
Help your child celebrate this year’s highlights!

• Use a photo album with sticky pages or sleeves (choose a light 8×10 album or smaller so your child can carry it easily) and write the year and your child’s name on the cover.
• Choose about five categories to “remember” such as Dance Class, Birthday, Favorites (Story, TV Show), Holidays.
• Cut drawing paper into a size that will fit into the album. Your child can draw pictures for each category, and you can put them in the book.
• On the pages following each drawing, insert photos that fit the category.
• Ask your child to tell you about his best friend, his teacher, etc. Write his thoughts down and put them into the album.
• Save a page in each category to write your own memories.
• Decorate the book with fabric, artwork, or stickers.

 

Family Collage
Connect your child to her relatives as you create a family collage.

• Gather pictures of different family members.
• Help your child tape or glue the photos onto posterboard.
• Your child can talk to relatives to find out what they like: ice cream, golf, ballet, etc.
• You and your preschooler can search through holiday catalogs and old magazines to find pictures that represent each relative’s favorite things.
• Glue the magazine pictures alongside the right person’s photo.

Ages 6-9:

Thank Yous from the Heart
When the gifts are all unwrapped, there is only one thing left to do — say “thanks”!

• Make a list of each relative or friend who gave your child a holiday gift.
• Using heavy stock paper, make a personalized thank you card for each person on the list. Or use our template and have kids decorate it with their own drawings.
• Variations: If your child is computer savvy, design cards on the computer and even add holiday photos. If relatives have e-mail, send an e-card.

 

Scrapbook
Pass on stories from your own childhood as you build a book filled with unique memories.

• Help your child choose a theme for the book (baseball, animals). She can create artwork to carry the theme throughout the book.
• Use heavy stock paper for the book’s pages and cardboard (cut to the size of the paper) for the covers.
• Wrap the covers in fabric.
• Punch holes along the left sides and tie the book together with ribbon.
• Glue the magazine picture alongside the right person’s photo.
• You and your child can write memories and thoughts on index cards and glue them to the pages, too.
• Decorate the book with glitter, markers, stickers, and artwork.

 

Paper Quilting
Create a traditional family quilt … without sewing a stitch!

• Print out 36 or more quilt squares (or print one and trace the pattern onto other sheets of paper) to make a quilt that “talks” about four family members.
• On one square, your child can draw a relative or a friend. On four other squares, he can draw something related to that person (pet, favorite food, house they live in).
• Tape the four related drawings to each side of the first square.
• Continue until you have drawings for every person you want to include.
• Glue the magazine picture alongside the right person’s photo.
• Make “fillers,” colored and decorative squares that can fill spaces between the drawings.
• When the squares are done, tape them together and add “stitches” with a black marker.

Ages 9-12:

Family Map
Put a twist on the traditional genealogy tree.

• Pick a theme for your map. Instead of a tree, choose a symbol that has a special meaning for your family. Any V-shape or pyramid-like image will work: An Irish shamrock, a Native American wigwam, even a bowl with chopsticks!
• Draw the symbol on a large piece of poster board.
• Your child’s name goes at the skinny end of the image with relatives branching out above or beneath him.
• Where you can, add nicknames, dates of birth, favorite colors, or other facts next to a relative’s name.
• Your child can call and e-mail aunts, uncles, or grandparents to find out more about other relatives.
• Decorate the area around the family map with photos and artwork.
• Be sure to leave room for new family members and facts the two of you might discover in years to come!

Family Newsletter
Keep far-away relatives up to date on what’s going on.

• Your child can use a standard Word processing program to write stories about family events from the past year: weddings, vacations, births, parties, and more.
• Import photos into the document. Or narrow the margins to make a column of text, print, and glue photos onto the paper.
• Make copies of the newsletter and mail to relatives.
• Variation: Create a family Web site with news and information for relatives.

These sewing cards are tailor-made for your toddler.

• washable markers or jumbo crayons
• paper plates
• shoestring or yarn
• scissors (adult) or large circle punchInvite your toddler to use the markers or crayons to decorate the paper plates. She may need you to provide gentle guidance in holding the marker and using it to make marks. Once your child has decorated the plates, use scissors to make holes approximately the size of quarters in the plate.  Show your toddler how to lace a shoestring or a piece of yarn (with the ends taped to prevent fraying and provide a grip for your child) through the holes in the plate. As she works, describe what she is doing — the colors of the yarn and the colors on the plate, as well as how the string goes IN and OUT of the holes.

• strengthens fine-motor skills
• promotes vocabulary developmen