A few weeks back, I was invited to sit in on a conference call for Nemours Reading Bright Start program. I had heard of it vaguely but wasn’t completely aware of all that they did or just how impressive the program is. Being a homeschooling parent, I look at all angels of education and want the best start for my boys (4 and 7). We all learn different and struggle in different areas. With some children, reading can be tough and often they get discouraged. That doesn’t have to be the case. There are wonderful programs out there to assist your child in reading, as well as helping the parent find tools that will help and encourage.
Just in case some of you have ever heard of Nemours Reading Bright Start program, it’s actually the first program of its kind in the nation, researches, develops and offers evidence based tools targeting your children at risk for reading failure. Their goal is to effectively instruct children at the very beginning of their reading journey to ensure long-term reading success.
We are just getting to the point of reading readiness with my soon to be four year old. Over the course of the next few months we are going to start introducing early reading skills to him. He always know his letters and is currently asking me what something says, pretends he is spelling out words and even asks me how to spell them. So with all that being said, I feel he is without a doubt ready to begin the early steps of reading. Nemours Reading Bright Start does offer FREE Reading Readiness screening for children ages 3-5 in order to help assure a parent if the child is ready. The test consists of around 25 questions and generally takes 5-10 minutes.
We received some awesome books from Nemours Reading Bright Start along with magnet letters. Children are very eager to learn and I love watching my boys with the magnets. My seven year old spells out short words for his little brother. He will point to each letter as he spells it and then tells him the words. The curiosity and eagerness is there which is why we are starting with early reading.
Reading BrighStart also offers fun, age appropriate at home activities to do with your little ones. You can sort the activities by skill and age which makes looking for the perfect activity even easier! It also has an awesome list of age appropriate books which I always find very handy.
In the end, literacy is very important and it should be made fun and addressed in different way depending on the child. If you have a little one that is struggling, or you are looking for better ways to make learning fun and incorporate it into fun activities, be sure to check out the Nemours Reading BrightStart site!! We highly recommend it!!
