A Reflection of the Author:
Like all proud parents, I have always taken pride in my
daughter’s remarkable intellectual accomplishment: she became a proficient
reader well before she turned four. Friends and relatives often asked me the
hard-to-answer question: “How old was she when you started teaching her to
read?” I used to say casually, “When she was about three years old.” Now, as I look
back over the years of her intellectual development (she is now an attorney), I
am more inclined to say that I began unwittingly teaching her reading
strategies at a much younger age than that.
Most parents, I am sure, are keen on helping their children learn to read; and all teachers, who are responsible for the literacy of children, want their pupils to be able to read and write. Some children hardly need any reading lesson and they learn how to read before going to pre-school; others progress slowly but steadily; unfortunately, an alarming number of them remain illiterate all their lives. Whether or not children become early readers is not as important as that they eventually become proficient readers.
In this book, I aim at sharing with parents my own experience of teaching my daughter to read through daily activities and games. I began teaching my daughter to read when she was just a few months old, and she became a proficient reader when she just turned three. I was proud of that, and I am still proud of it when I look back at what I achieved some three decades ago—especially, how being a proficient reader has helped her career as a lawyer.
This book is based on
my past experience of teaching my daughter reading through activities and
games. It shows step-by-step how
children can learn effectively and progressively the fundamental skills of
reading and writing through everyday activities and interactions. There are
altogether 29 steps, and each step, reinforced by activities and games,
maintains positive motivation, without which everything that parents do to
further reading progress is likely to have only limited success. However, these
activities and games are meant to serve only as guidelines and, at best,
stepping-stones for parents to develop their own activities and games to suit
the needs of each individual child; parents should always try to become as
creative as possible in their approach in order to reap the best results.
Stephen Lau
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A sample from the book
Developing Thinking
At the beginning of the seventh or eighth month, your child should be able to act on an object to create a given effect. Your child is beginning to understand the relationship between cause and effect. Show your child how a certain action will create a certain expected result. It should be apparent that your child expects the effect and that the effect is the main motive for his or her action.
Show your child how he
or she can overcome an obstacle to get what he
or she wants by thinking.
ACTIVIVITIES & GAMES
Acquiring an object by overcoming an obstacle
Show your child how he or she can reach a toy by moving around an object, such as climbing under or moving around a table.
Acquiring an object with the aid of tools
Show your child how he or she can acquire an object by pulling one end of a piece of string or cloth. Your child should be taught and trained to use his or her thinking to get what he or she wants.
These are important first steps to develop the thinking of your smart kid.
Go and get your copy: 29 STEPS TO TEACH YOUR SMART KID TO READ.
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