Each day children spend time working on reading independently.   Everyone has a reading bag with several emergent reading books.  Children begin by reading books with one or two sentences per page and a predictable pattern.  They gradually move on to books that do not have a predictable pattern.  During this time I meet with small groups of children to focus on specific skills and strategies. Some of the strategies we are working on include pointing to the words, thinking about the first sound in each word, using picture cues to help with unknown words, and continuing to learn sight words.

The acquisition of reading is a developmental skill and children develop as readers at different paces. I often compare learning to read to learning to walk- certain components need to be in place for children to acquire these skills, but as long as those components are in place children will learn to walk and learn to read.  However, this will happen at varied and individual paces.  Many children learn to walk by 9 months, while some don't take first steps until they are over a year old.  Some children rely on the support of furniture, large toys, etc. for months before they walk independently, while others stand up and take their first independent steps with little support.  Similarly, some children will spend a lot of time practicing reading before actually reading many words, while others will seem to start reading overnight.  Regardless of the age a child learns to walk or the process he/she follows, children go on to be adept walkers.  The same most often holds true for reading.  To support your child as a reader, offer encouragement at your child's stage whatever it is, read to your child often and make sure he/she has access to an abundance of books, and be a reader yourself!