Early Learner Resources

Read

Our mission is to help you foster a love of reading in your child from a young age. Reading books to young children helps them learn new vocabulary, become familiar with letters and sounds, and is a wonderful time to bond with you. 

Here are some tips:

1. Keep books in places around the house where kids can grab them easily. We want them to be comfortable with books, just like with toys!
2. Choose books with a topic that interests them
3. Read the same book over and over again, they love this repetition!
4. Talk about the book! Ask them questions and let them tell you how they feel or what they see when reading a book
5. Choose books for their stage of development-find out how to select the best books for them on our Resources Tab! 
6. Come to a library storytime and learn ways to read and sing at home (link to storytimes on our calendar)
7. Participate in the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program! 

Write

Young children may not be able to write letters yet, but you can help them develop the muscles they will need to hold their pencil and write someday. These “fine motor skill” activities are ways to strengthen their hands and help them develop focus.

Here are some tips:

1. Fingerplay songs that use hand motions like Itsy Bitsy Spider or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. We will teach you some of these at our weekly library storytimes! 
2. Art activities-many art activities are helping them develop their hand and finger muscles like coloring, painting, and using play dough. We do art activities at the end of our library storytimes and other library programs each week.
3. Journaling-Give them their own notebook and let them scribble in it whenever they want to promote using pens and pencils.

Sing

Singing to and with your child will help them learn new words and rhythms. Think about how fast you would normally speak the words “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and the difference in the speed and rhythm when you sing the words “Twin-kle….Twin-kle…Lit-tle…Star.”

Here are some tips:

1. Sing the same songs over and over again because they learn through repetition and they like being familiar with the songs. Eventually, they will join in!
2. Make eye contact and sing SLOWLY with very young children
3. Make songs part of your daily routine, a song for eating, a song for going to bed, for taking a bath, etc. This provides some structure to their day, which they love!
4. Movement songs like Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes will help your child become comfortable with their body and how it moves. Come to our library storytimes to learn some more wiggle songs! 
5. If you don’t know many children’s songs, you can check out a children’s music CD from any library and enjoy singing and dancing together! Some of our favorite children’s music artists are Laurie Berkner, Dan Zanes, and Raffi.

Talk

Studies have shown that children who hear more words at home are more likely to succeed in school. We want kids to hear a LOT of words!

Here are some tips:

1. Talk to your child from birth even if you don’t know what to say! Tell them what you are doing when you cook dinner, tell them what toys you are handing them and what you are feeding them.
2. Speak SLOWLY and ask them lots of different questions
3. When they are speaking to you, make eye contact and give them your full attention as much as possible.
4. When reading a book, ask them what they think or how the character seems to be feeling to invite them to interact with the book and story. It’s ok if they interrupt! We want to read WITH them, not just TO them.

Play

Play is the number one way children learn. We want to encourage intentional play every day!

Here are some tips:

1. You don’t have to buy fancy toys. They can play with kitchen objects or things you find outside in nature.
2. Check out our Read it Again kits, which are filled with books and toys for different themes. 
3. We have children areas and youth programs every week to encourage play!