Build pre-reading skills through this rich collection of activities and educational videos.
Talk
Play
Apps & Videos
Read
Sing
Ensure that children's screen time is a learning opportunity. Educational videos can make learning engaging and fun. Look for videos that offer shared parent-child interaction activities. Screen time must be monitored. Here are some recommendations.
Vaivén de Palabras
Designed for you and your child to use together in Spanish! Includes games, songs and activity ideas that can be the start of many back-and-forth conversations, which prepare children to read.
Create a story with your child by taking turns with your child to make animals say funny things as they visit a store, a library, a construction site, and more!
Turns screen time into smart playtime with calls and video chats to their favorite characters from Lucas & Friends. Each call features cute voices, cheerful music, and funny conversations that teach social interaction and listening.
Enjoy a series of tracing games that help kids recognize letter shapes, associate them with phonic sounds, and put their alphabet knowledge to use in fun matching exercises.
From color sorting to memory puzzles, this app is packed with activities that promote essential early childhood skills while keeping your child entertained and curious.
Designed for you and your child to use together! Includes games, songs and activity ideas that can be the start of many back-and-forth conversations, which prepare children to read.
Children pay attention and learn when you talk with them. Talking teaches them language, which helps them understand the world around them. Ask questions, point out the world around them, describe what you are doing as you make food, and mix in new words to expand their vocabulary. The more words your child hears, the further ahead they will be when learning to read.
Help them learn categories of items. For example, when eating or getting dressed, pick a category, like shoes. Name the different types: "sandals!" "boots!" "sneakers!"
Playing and making up stories helps children connect ideas and feelings with words. This is the same kind of thinking that is used to learn reading, when they learn that letters and words represent real things.
Let your child play with books. Try making a tower and knocking it down.
Collect scraps of different fabrics, like lace, corduroy, and silk. Rub them gently on the baby's hand or foot and use descriptive words like "soft," "bumpy," or "scratchy."
Play homemade letter games with children. Write individual letters on cards, turn them face down, and have children search for matches. Encourage children to say the letter of each card they turn over.
It doesn't have to be books; take advantage of opportunities to read many things to your child. Read street signs while walking, cereal boxes at the kitchen table, and magazines in the doctor's office.
Many songs have interesting words that we don't hear in normal conversation with young children, so they are also building vocabulary. As you sing with children, you are building their pre-reading skills in ways that add up to make a difference by the time they enter school.
Your baby loves to hear your singing voice, even if you think you can't sing!
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