A Little Writing Inspiration from Harold and the Purple Crayon

So earlier in the week I shared some tips to help you raise a writer in a post titled, How to Aid Your Child's Development of Writing Skills: The Often Forgotten Half of the Literacy Equation 

I am as guilty as anyone though for forgetting (or at least focusing much less on) writing.  We read, read, read all the time, but literacy involves reading and writing.  Baby bookworm is not NEARLY as enthusiastic about "writing" as she is about reading.  In fact, she's not enthusiastic about it at all.  I usually get one little scribble followed by an "I can't do it."

Sigh.

I can now sympathize with parents who say they can't get their children interested in reading.

I think baby bookworm's main frustration is that she knows her letters and numbers, and at 25 months she can name just about every picture in any book I point to.  But, she can't make her crayon strokes look like she knows they are supposed to look; she's knows her scribbles aren't a letter A, and she knows they look nothing like that house she wanted to draw.  So she gives up and says "You do it, or that's not an A!" 

But I've been on a mission to change her reluctance, and reading Your Child's Writing Life has helped educate me with methods for helping her literacy journey.

Today I'm sharing a lesson that we did this week that I think was a success.  

1). First we read Harold and the Purple Crayon.  (We checked it out at the library and read through it a bunch of times before attempting our writing activity)

2). Then I asked her questions about the story (great for assessing comprehension).  We talked about what happened at the beginning of the story.  I asked her to draw about it with a purple crayon just like Harold.

I divided our paper into three sections to talk about
beginning middle and end.

She drew a path like Harold does at the beginning
of the story; I labeled it

3). Then we talked about the middle of the story.

She wanted to draw a moon which isn't exactly the middle of the story but...
 she got a little frustrated, too.  I ended up helping out!

4). Then we talked about the end of the book where Harold goes to bed.

Once we finished up talking about Harold and our story, we flipped our paper over and I drew a picture.  Then I asked baby bookworm to come up with a story about what I drew.  I wrote out our story as she described it. She liked this activity VERY much - and had I begun with this one first, I think our Harold activity would have been more successful.

Baby bookworm describing the story

And.......much MUCH to my surprise, this is what I caught baby bookworm drawing all by herself (without even being asked) later in the day.  This is the most elaborate thing she has ever "written".

She told me it was a "thinking hippo" - OK! whatever you say, but I LOVE it!

So, I think something clicked.  I'm hoping this is a step in the write (pun intended) direction. ha ha.

Here is some other writing info:
Writing involves the use of a child's fine motor skills.  Babies and toddlers will generally hold a writing utensil with their entire fist and between the ages of 3 - 5 a child will start to hold a writing utensil with a thumb and forefinger.

What does writing "look like" with babies and toddlers?  Here is a simplified developmental continuum of writing.

• a baby may try to make a few little marks on a paper
• a young toddler may make random scribbles
• an older toddler may actually be able to draw some shapes and lines
• by about 3 years, a child's writing can sometimes take letter-like form

Babies and toddlers also show an understanding of the purpose of writing by showing interest when others write, experimenting with different writing utensils, and verbally labeling what they have written ("that's a dog").

Tell me about your writing journey!!!  How do you inspire your child to write?  Any great writing activities you have tried?  Does your child enjoy reading or writing more?

Do You Know What a Haberdashery Is? My Toddler Does: 5 Fun Ways to Learn Vocabulary

I came across two very fun books at the library that I couldn't pass up:

Big Words for Little People

by Jamie Lee Curtis and illustrated by Laura Cornell

AND 

13 Words

by Lemony Snicket and illustrated by Maira Kalman

At first glance I wasn't sure if baby bookworm would be "into" these books since they are on the longer side and the story lines are a lot more involved than your typical baby/toddler book.  But, to be honest, while baby bookworm loves her lift-the-flap and board books, she's really outgrown them.  I even think she might be outgrowing some of her "simplistic" picture books too.  So, I thought we'd give these "advanced" books a try.  I am a firm believer that children should constantly be challenged, and that they should be engaged in some activities that are actually slightly above their ability level.  Plus, I could tell these books would be a super fun way to sneak in a lesson about vocabulary, which is also super important. Why is learning vocabulary so important?  Well, vocabulary knowledge is related to success in school; children with larger vocabularies tend to have better success in Kindergarten.  Vocabulary knowledge is also related to reading comprehension; children with larger vocabularies are better able to understand what they read.

Teaching your child new vocabulary words doesn't have to wait until he is in first grade and has a first vocabulary test!  In fact, you may not realize it, but things that you are doing with your newborn and/or toddler are influencing his vocabulary development every day. 

There are a few easy "tricks of the trade"- however - that can help to speed your baby bookworm's learning along. 

1. Talk.

In fact, talk your child's ear off!  Research conducted by psychologist Janellen Huttenlocher has shown that babies whose mothers talk to them more have larger vocabularies in toddlerhood than babies whose mothers were less talkative. The difference between the two groups amounted to 131 words at 20 months, and a whopping 295 words by the age of two. 

Secondly, use varied vocabulary.  Research published in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology (Nov/Dec 2006) has revealed that fathers of two year olds who used more varied vocabulary when speaking with their children showed better expressive language skills at three years of age.

Need ideas of conversation starters?
*While you are bathing your newborn, narrate exactly what you are doing:

"Let's wash now behind your ears.  Now let's scrub that tummy of yours.  How about those dirty chubby toes?  Let's count them...." 

Of course, you can extend this activity to just about anything you are doing.  When baby bookworm truly was a "baby" I loved to narrate while I was cooking dinner. 

*While sitting down for dinner, recap the activities of the day with your child.  Baby bookworm and I do this daily - it's our way of bringing daddy bookworm up to speed on what he might have missed. I usually begin by saying something like,

 "Tell daddy what we did today,"  or "tell daddy about the animals we saw at the zoo," or "daddy wants to know about the books we read today...."  

Then we ask daddy about his day.

*Talk about your memories.  Talking about something in the past not only helps a child to remember that event, but he also gains important narrative language skills and new vocabulary.  I feel like I'm constantly saying to baby bookworm something like:

"Remember when we visited the beach and you had an Easter egg hunt?" or "Remember the day you got lucky money for Vietnamese New Year? Do you remember what color the envelope was?"

2. Label.

This shouldn't be too difficult if you have a toddler because I'm sure you have heard the words, "What'z that?" or "What's this?"  Toddlers are so naturally curious about their surroundings.  When baby bookworm was about a year, I'm pretty sure these were her favorite words. 

Take advantage of your baby's curiosity as a way to introduce new vocabulary.  You will be surprised at some of the words that your baby can actually understand and say.  Productive vocabulary grows at an incredible rate between 18 months and 2 1/2 years. Children as young as two also use a process known as fast mapping, where they can infer a word's meaning from the context (both linguistic and nonlinguistic) in which its used to make a quick and accurate guess.  It's amazing when you really think about it!

3. Play. 

Break out those dress-up clothes, trucks, cardboard boxes, and play kitchens and pretend away!  Research conducted by psychologists Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn has shown that children who engaged in more pretend play over the course of a three year time span scored better on tests of expressive and productive language development than children who played more with non-pretend toys (e.g., puzzles, blocks, peg-boards). 

It turns out that pretend play provides more opportunities for vocabulary enriching-interchanges. 

4. Do. 

Children often learn through doing.  While many of your child's first words will be nouns, as your child's productive vocabulary increases, verbs, adverbs, adjectives and function words are likely to make more of an appearance.  While it's easy to point to something like a ball or a chair to teach your child the words for them, abstract words might be more difficult to grasp.  Here's a few fun ways to help your child understand new vocabulary.

Want to teach action words?
*try using them in a song.  For example, ring around the rosie is a fun way to learn the phrase "all fall down".  The itsy bitsy spider and open, shut them are also full of action words that are associated with hand movements. 

Want to teach a few new adjectives?
*try doing a "hands-on" learning project.  For instance, if you want your child to know the word rough, get out a piece of sand paper and run his fingers along it.  If you want to teach the word cold, play with some ice cubes.

Want to teach emotion words?
*try using the words in context and acting things out.  For example, if you want your child to learn the word sad, tell him about a time you were sad, and show him your sad face. 


.......................................and drum roll please........................................................

5. Read. 

Oh, you saw that one coming, did you?  Well, this is a blog about learning through books so I guess there aren't many surprises.  And truthfully though, reading is one of the best ways to learn new vocabulary. Check out my post on rare words for several methods to increase vocabulary knowledge through reading. 

Or, better yet....Check out these two fabulous books where the authors have done a lot of the hard work for you.  These books specifically highlight some pretty fun vocabulary words; while some of the words in these books are simple like bird, cake, or love, others are more grandiose such as despondent, stupendous, or panache.  I even promise you that you'll learn a new word too (I mean, I didn't know what a haberdashery was until I read 13 Words). 

In BIG WORDS, the vocabulary is written in a different style or colored font in order to stand out.  Definitions of the words are learned through the context of a wonderful rhyming story.

13 WORDS actually numbers each of the 13 words.  New vocabulary is also learned through context and pictures in this quirky (um...very quirky) tale about a bird (word number 1) who is despondent (word number 2) and how his friends try to cheer him up with cake, hats (from the haberdashery - word number 9), and a song from a mezzo-soprano (word number 13). 

I would say that baby bookworm truly understands now what it means to be "irate," "despondent," and "stupendous" thanks to these books.  Oh, and her new favorite word by far from these books is disgusting, which she tells me means "ick like poops in a diaper".  I highly recommend both of these vocabulary-teaching tales!  


Read these books already or hungry for more? 

You might want to check out A Rattle of Bones: A Halloween Book of Collective Nouns by Kipling West.  It's highly appropriate for this time of year, and highlights fun words for groups of things.  Apparently a group of crows is actually called a "murder".  I didn't know that!

One Foot, Two Feet by Peter Maloney is also on our to-read list.  It's a counting book that cleverly introduces irregular plural nouns. 

Now go show off your new vocabulary, and I hope someone tells you how "stupendous" you are.