Our Blog

Let’s look at different age groups to see how oral language, reading, and writing all add up to create a literate child: Infants: Oral Language: Have conversations with your baby! After you say something, pause and give your baby time to respond. Reading: Read to your infant. Even if babies do not sit and listen […]

I love babies. Babies do a lot of adorable things – cooing, smiling, laughing, and snuggling. But there’s something babies can’t do – read. But you’d never know it. We’re surrounded by messages that make us think babies are supposed to be doing “academic” work younger and younger. And that worries us. Are our babies […]

Is Literacy More than Just Reading to My Child? YES! Let’s look at different age groups to see how oral language, reading, and writing all add up to create a “literate” home: Infants: Oral Language: Have conversations with your baby! After you say something, pause and give your baby time to respond. Reading: Read to […]

Strategies for Successful Learning This is the third and final installment in a three-part series that looks at the learning process. Previous features included “Part One: Create a Safe and Nurturing Environment” and “Part Two: Enable Children to Lead Lessons.” Part Three: Monitoring Your Child’s Progress During each stage of your child’s development, our teachers […]

This is the second in a three-part series that looks at the learning process. Last month’s issue featured “Part One: Create a Safe and Nurturing Environment.” At La Petite Academy, teaching is a science as well as an art. Science comes into play as we plan experiences for young children based on what we know […]

This is the first in a three-part series that looks at the learning process. Be sure to check back in February for the next installment. What your child learns today is helping lay the foundation for a lifetime.  Stimulating early childhood experiences where children learn to solve problems, make difficult decisions and assess the consequences […]

Absolutely! Look around. Children are using computers, tablets, smart phones — all the latest technology. You may think your child is only playing game, but look again: you will be surprised to see how much learning is taking place. The Learning Process in the Earliest Years The learning process starts at a young age when […]

Literacy is an amazing thing. It helps us read the instructions on a shampoo bottle (wet, lather, rinse, repeat) and make sense of the latest e-mail “good luck” chain (send this to 10 people, or else). As I have discussed in previous posts, oral language, reading and writing all come together in this idea of […]

Learning Care Group When my niece was six years old, she spent a week with me. Her favorite game was to write random letters in a line, push them in front of me, and ask, “What does this say, Aunt Shelle?” I would string the sounds together into a nonsense word that would send her […]

Learning Care Group I remember the day that I considered my son an official “reader.” He was in second grade and we were visiting Santa Claus at a local mall. There were banners detailing the history of Santa strung along the path on which we waited. I watched in utter amazement (and with a flash […]

“Grammy, the geese came back!” my four-year-old granddaughter exclaimed in a recent phone conversation. And while I am always delighted to talk with her, I was especially pleased to hear her story about seeing the geese this autumn. The story she told made it clear that her oral language abilities have reached a level that […]

I, like most parents, want my children to have all the tools they need to be successful in this world. And, what we know, is that literacy is so important in both academic and life pursuits. As a parent, and an early childhood educator, I know that we need to support children in becoming strong […]