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Even when your child starts school, you are their first and most important teacher.

Reading out of necessity and reading for enjoyment are two very different things. At READ Saskatoon we want to spark a love of reading for children by growing their learning strategies and reading skills. We believe parents play a vital role in their child’s reading journey. For example, in the Spark reading program, we engage parents as active leaders in their child’s learning and in turn, parents’ confidence and use of reading strategies increases:

“I started using strategies that I had forgot about – like getting the boys to read street signs and business signs while we’re out.” (Angie, Parent, August 2021)

“The Dolch word list has been life-changing; I laminated it and stuck it up for the boys to practice their words and we use it all the time.” (Laura, Parent, May 2021)

We know that education is more successful when there is a strong and positive relationship between students, parents, teachers, and the community (Sanders & Sheldon, 2009). As such, it is important to invite parents as partners in their child’s education. Parents will always be their child’s first and most important teacher, but they are never on their own.

 

Parents, you’ve got this – and we can help!

We offer a free workshop for parents called Supporting Your Child’s Reading Journey for parents with children grades 2 – 4. The workshop will focus on skills to use before, during, and after reading. A few of the skills discussed during this workshop are:

Before reading:
Link – Ask children what they already know about the topic
Investigate – Encourage children to explore the cover of the book and make predictions about what the story will be about

During reading:
Sound it– Help children to slide through each letter sound – what’s the first sound? What’s the last sound?
Chunk it – Chunk words by breaking words into parts (e.g., bas/ket)

After reading:
Retell – Ask children to retell the story; what was the problem in the story? What happened?
Evaluate – Ask children if they liked the story – why or why not?

 

“We got lots of info; it’s general things but things like pause and see if she knows what she’s reading…to see if she understands because she needs to understand what she’s reading. The sheets that you provided us were really helpful; I went through those and I always thought she was a good reader but I didn’t realize that there was some really easy things we could do to help her with understanding the context of stories, for example.” (Ashraf, Parent, November 2021).

 

Our next parent workshop, Supporting Your Child’s Reading Journey, will take place on Wednesday, May 25th over Zoom from 6:30-7:30pm. To register, you can give our office a call at 306-652-5448 or register online here.

Reference

Sanders, M. G., & Sheldon, S. B. (Eds.). (2009). Principals matter: A guide to school, family, and community partnerships. Corwin Press.