Did you know that children develop more rapidly in the first 5 years of their lives than at any other time? Vital connections in the brain are made very early in life and when stimulated, these form the basis of all future learning and intellectual ability. To put this simply, reading to your children at a young age stimulates these brain cells and each time it strengthens them, and they form connections with even more brain cells. A study states that even children who are only read one book a day will hear 290,000 more words by age 5 than those who don’t regularly read books with a parent or carer.

Early reading ignites creativity and curiosity, and the biggest psychological benefit is how it helps to grow self-confidence. It is a skill that parents can nurture in those early years, and simply taking some time out of your day to sit down and read with your child supports this and will create a solid foundation from which your child can build on for the rest of their life. Reading doesn’t necessarily have to be in word/text form, signs such as road signs, logos and pictures are further examples of ways in which children can develop their reading skills.

As you are aware our ethos at Inspirations is child led and although we never force the children to partake in anything they don’t wish to, we do provide many opportunities for the children to explore and challenge themselves daily, to enable different learning opportunities and develop many skills throughout their time with us. Some examples of how we promote early reading are:

• Books – age related to each room. These can range from picture books to touch and feel books, to shorter stories with few words and longer stories with more words. We display these in different areas as well as creating a quiet, calm and cosy space for the children to be able to have time to explore books to encourage curiosity and language. We rotate the selection regularly, and incorporate books to support current interests and topics.
• Name cards – These are primarily displayed in our preschool provision for the children to access should they wish to explore finding their own name and sometimes attempting to label their work.
• Words/questions around the room – These can be words and questions related to current interests and topics, to spark further language, imagination and conversations.
• Different languages – Should we have children with additional languages we display everyday words and phrases, as well as related books, around the rooms to support their culture and heritage.
• Story telling – We create open, safe spaces for the children and provide versatile, open ended resources to be able to express themselves imaginatively and creatively.
• Early phonics – Whether it be environmental, instrumental, spoken sounds and languages to exploring initial sounds, rhyming words and blending/segmenting – we incorporate Phonics into our everyday routines but do support this more during school readiness and through the children’s individual interests and abilities.
• Pictures as symbols – Simple props such as wooden spoons and log slices, with song illustrations on them such as ‘Baa, Baa black sheep’, and ‘Twinkle, Twinkle little star’ help to make links and realisations that images are symbolic.
• French – We provide an opportunity once a week in our preschool provision for the children to explore and express themselves through another language.

The annual book celebration WORLD BOOK DAY is fast approaching. It allows children to express themselves imaginatively and creatively and encourages them to engage with reading, as well as providing fantastic opportunities to focus on reading for pleasure and embedding a habit of reading that brings a wide range of benefits. This year World Book Day is on Thursday 6th March, please join us to celebrate by dressing your child up as their favourite book character, if they wish to do so.

Let’s take a look at some of the outfits from previous years