Grammy's Words of Wisdom
(Ages 0 to 2)

 

Dear Parents, 

          Raising children is hard work!  I know that because I have been in the same position you are in right now.  I hope that in this section of the website, we at Bright Spot, Inc can give you some “tidbits” that will let you have some fun while helping your child develop. 

          Reading should be fun, exciting, and meaningful to a child.  It should speak to him/her of adventure, laughter, friendship, and dreams.  Books with stories, poems, and rhymes should be part of your child’s daily life. 

          As your child’s first teacher, you must share the beauty of language in oral and printed form every day of the year.  Baring your unconditional love, there is no greater gift you can give to your child.  

          Even with a six month old infant you could start establishing a routine for reading together. It should be a time when your child has few distractions.  Your child should recognize this moment of the day, as a time when you will sit together to share the closeness of each other in the company of a good book. 

          Young children under the age of 3 are learning vocabulary and labels for objects around them.  They are learning to put those words together into short sentences.  When you read them a “story”, you might like to “read” just the pictures in a story providing them with those labels before you ever read the story.  They love to hear the same “story” multiple times.  That’s how they learn the words. Most very basic picture books will provide you with the pictures you need to read the pictures.  Look for the ones that may only have one or two words on the page. 

          As your child starts speaking in sentences, they will begin to understand stories with basic sentences in them. At this stage of development they will also enjoy stories with rhymes in them. From here they just blossom and want you to read new and old favorites daily.