Registering my sweet four year old for Kindergarten comes with many mixed emotions, feeling proud of the little boy he's becoming, sad that I'm losing my baby, and worried about whether I've prepared him well enough to thrive. Looking through the sheet of Kindergarten entry level expectations, I want my child to be as prepared as possible to learn and stay at the top of his class, and with that comes reading. The thought of teaching my child to read is terrifying to me, as I have no clue where to start, until I found I Can Read, with clear and easy to understand levels and hundreds of fun stories, I began to gain confidence in developing a little reader.
We found many books that my son loved, especially Pete the Cat. Keeping a full shelf of books is a great start to keep your child interested and enjoying reading. I Can Read books come in multi-packs, so it was easy and affordable to add many of them to our home library. Reading every day with your child is important to help develop the habit and love of books.
Since my son is just beginning to learn words and put his sounds together, we have started with the Yellow Coded books, which is the Shared Reading level, with basic language, word repetition and fun illustrations. I have started pointing out some of the repetitive words and sight words, and I stop at them while reading and give him the opportunity to tell me what the word is. He feels so accomplished and excited as he learns to read some of the words! As he begins to learn more basic reading during his Kindergarten year, we'll move on to the Blue coded books (Level 1), which are for beginning readers, offering them short sentences, familiar words and simple concepts. I Can Read offers 3 more levels of reading up to Advanced Reading, so there is something for every level your child reaches in reading.
Pick up a pack of books next time you are out shopping and let I Can Read help and guide you through teaching your child to read. Just flip over any I Can Read book to learn more about their reader levels and how you can assist your child. I'm excited to see my son learning to read and using these books, and I know you will too!
