“Rhymes, read alouds, riddles, word games? These things are that important…are you serious?” she asked.
“You bet your reading glasses I am!” said me.
“But why? What’s the big deal?”
“Because phonemic awareness is the greatest predictor of reading success or failure. If a child has a good grasp on phonemic awareness by kindergarten, 1st grade (or so), that child will likely become a successful reader. If they don’t, they are likely to struggle through all 12 grades,” said me.
“Are you serious?” she exclaimed.
At this point I realized an illustration was an order….
Take two children. Child A walks into kindergarten having spent the previous three years being read to, looking at age-appropriate books, singing children’s songs, learning nursery rhymes, and seeing others in his family read. Now in walks Child B who has had a steady diet of TV, app games, little to no “couch time” with someone reading to him on a regular basis. Which child is likely to have an easier time to learn to read?
Let’s bring it home a little more. Take two new brides. Bride A grew up helping her mom cook. She would help gather ingredients, stir them up, and bake the cookies. She was shown time after time how food could bring people together for sweet fellowship. She learned about herbs and flavors that complemented various meats. When she walked down the aisle, she was pretty well equipped for taking over the new kitchen that would be her own. Then enters Bride B (um, my last name begins with B). B’s mom was a great cook, but the one-day B Bride didn’t help out all that much. B learned to cook a few things in college, but when it came time to cook the first meal for her new husband, she called home and had mom talk her through it before he got home. 😉
Now, does it make a little more sense why phonemic awareness is so important? Can you see why so much of it is intuitive just by sheer exposure to books, reading, and language? I hope so. More on that the next time.
So today, sweet mama, sit on the couch and read to your little (or big) one. You are building a future! I won’t hesitate to bet my reading glasses on it!
Happy Reading!
Kay
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Reading 101 ~ Phonemic Awareness ~ Pt. 2 is a post from www.homeschoolreadingspecialist.com
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Hi Kay! Great post… so important for parents. Have you thought about making pinnable images for your posts? Very easy to do with picmonkey.com (free). Just a simple box with a catchy title would do it. Then I can pin the posts my followers would appreciate 🙂
I tried creating one! Let me know if it works. Thanks for the tip for this tech challenged gal!
I am in the process of creating an educational website to help struggling readers too. I am new to communicating with others, out there in the internet world. I would like to stay in touch!