What to do on a summer day when there’s no school, nothing on TV, no friends around, and it’s too hot to play outside? Slow down, cool off, and chill out with a good book! Go on an armchair adventure, bring the outdoors in, create in the kitchen, explore some science that isn’t usually found in school, tickle your funny bone with a bit of a math problem, and more.
Children deepen their learning when they make connections between what they read and what they already know. One method parents can use to help make these connections is called a think aloud, where you pause to talk through your thoughts as you read.
Fostering a creative spirit will give your child experience identifying a problem and coming up with new ideas for solving it. Here are four ways to encourage creativity in your young child.
Think-alouds have been described as “eavesdropping on someone’s thinking.” With this strategy, teachers verbalize aloud while reading a selection orally. Their verbalizations include describing things they’re doing as they read to monitor their comprehension. The purpose of the think-aloud strategy is to model for students how skilled readers construct meaning from a text.
The initiative develops and disseminates evidence-based, parent-directed programs that encourage parents to harness the power of their words to build their children’s brains and shape their futures.
