Does kindergarten readiness rock for you? I love the play on words and what could be more fun than rocks? Did you know that word play also helps children with a basic skill for later learning to read?
Before children can tackle words on a page, they need to learn that words are made of bits of sounds. For instance, rock has the rrrr sound, the awh and the kh. Children’s brains will figure this out provided they get lots of word stimulation by sharing books and stories, listening to others, talking, singing, and playing with language themselves. This skill takes time to develop but parents and caregivers can help kids by using lots of words whenever they can and by playing with them.
The sound that words make at the start is one way to play with words. Although kids may not have developed the rrrr sound when they talk, they can hear it. When talking about rocks, you can say “Rocks kind of goes rrrrr. RRRRRocks. I think red starts rrrrr, too. Do you hear that rrrr rocks, rrrr red?” Then you can name some other things that start rrr: roll, river, rose, read, ring. What else can you think of? If you are inside, you may want to suggest that the two of you have a rrrr race to pick up the toys. Or, you might need to rrrr run to catch the bus. Who can do the biggest rrrr roar?
Your child may or may not be able to think of some things that go rrrr but you have add a few more stepping stones to the brain path that leads to understanding about words. Does this activity rrrr resonate for you?
