Thing 1 just turned five and she is already reading some Dr. Seuss books to me because my wife and I read to her routinely. Her current favorite is Hop on Pop. At her parent-teacher conference her pre-Kindergarten teacher told us that she is reading ahead of her age and that there are students who not only cannot read, they do not even know how to hold a book.
I came across this post on zenfamilyhabits.net titled 6 Things You Can Do Today to Change Your Child’s Life. I agree with all six of the suggestions, but I think the advice about reading is paramount. There are so many things in life that are much more difficult if you cannot read.
Thing 1 has a very good vocabulary for her age and Thing 2 is more verbal at her age than her older sis was at the same age. Aside from regular reading sessions, I think another factor in my children’s verbal development is that we did not engage in too much baby-talk with them. I am not saying that we only spoke to them as if they were college graduates, but I did try to use regular conversation as much as possible without making up words or creating new sentence structures. I figure it is hard enough to learn a language without teaching them the wrong information.
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