Share a Story 2013 Day 5: Look Mom, I Can Read!

Do you remember that moment?

For those of us who are passionate about raising readers, we nurtured that spark and now it is a flame we carry with us always.

Just as it excites us to watch our toddlers and preschoolers explore the world around them, being part of that moment when a child has discovered reading is pretty darned special, too.

Although we tend to equate Kindergarten with learning to read, not every child is ready to read quite yet. It becomes a balancing act of guiding and helping (but not pushing too hard) and minimizing the peer comparisons.

Lucky for us, our guests today have great ideas on ways to encourage your reader-to-be and nurture a love of literacy, too. We're hosting "Graduation Day" at Family Bookshelf, and these are the posts to get us started:

• Mia Wenjen explains the reading and writing connection in her post Invented Spelling and Creating Books with your Kindergartner at Pragmatic Mom;
• Susan Stephenson reminds us that reading is not just books at the Book Chook;
• Debbie Alvarez describes the Kindergarten Reader at The Styling Librarian;
• Colleen O'Hearn talks about Kindergarteners at the Library on the Destination Happy blog;
• Laurie Mattaliano is In Search of a Swan and His Trumpet (reading up) at Rocks in the Dryer;
• Dawn Little explores Text Features with Kindergartners at the Literacy Toolbox; and
• Michali Lerner shares her thoughts in It's a Small World on the Marketing Barefoot team blog;

I will be back later with a post about that magical moment of discovering "I Can Read." In the meantime, we would love to hear YOUR stories about literacy with Kindergartners ... or your journey to being a bookworm and writer.  

Add your links in the comments here or on the Family Bookshelf post and we'll incorporate them into the Event Summary.