By Lauren OBrien
As a parent of a little one, we know you’ve done your research on the importance of building early literacy at a young age.
You’ve built literacy into your daily routine — maybe over breakfast, during bath time, and that nightly story before bed. But, do you know the importance of exposing your child to storytime outside of the home? Specifically, storytimes where your child is part of a group and there is someone else reading?
When you take your child to a group storytime, they are actually building DIFFERENT early literacy skills than the ones you work on at home!
Here’s why…
- Listening to another adult narrate a story. Everyone reads differently — different tones, different character voices, etc. By watching and listening to another person read, you child is learning social queues and body language expression.
- Allowing others to pick the story. Not only does this mean YOU could get to hear a new story (aren’t you tired of reading Cinderella for the 100th time?), but your child gets to hear new authors and genres that maybe they wouldn’t otherwise have been exposed to otherwise.
- Building social skills. Reading in a group exposes your little one to the experience of participating and sharing their ideas. It gives them an opportunity to practice their listening skills, use learned vocabulary/language skills and build confidence.
- Learning new things…for you! That’s right! During story time, you might learn new rhymes, songs, reading games that you can do at home.
Visit your local Gymboree Play & Music, where we bring storytime to life!
