Baby Steps to Reading shows how to help children by reading and writing for them and with them.

Just as children learn to write when their teachers write with them, children learn to read when adults read with them.

Some of the best books for emergent readers present songs or nursery rhymes that children can sing by heart. Can Bo read books with predictable sentence patterns like Stop! Can she recite, “Pease porridge hot”? If she can, she will probably enjoy reading a book or chart of the verse. If you copy the verse onto chart paper, a small group of children can learn to read the verse together. Print out and read the version on the website if you’re working one-on-one with a preschooler.

Pease Porridge

Pease porridge hot.
Pease porridge cold.
Pease porridge in the pot
Nine days old.

Some like it hot.
Some like it cold.
Some like it in the pot,
Nine days old.

How can you help a child read “Pease Porridge”? Have fun with it just as you do every day exploring the world with your child. Chat conversationally as you show Bo how to learn to read this nursery rhyme. Don’t try to mimic the dialog here. Instead, read to develop your own way of talking to help your child read such poems. You will often read like this with the child until she can read independently.

1. Say, “You can chant this poem. And in a little while, you’ll be able to read it, too. Listen and watch as I read it first.”
2. Read through the rhyme slowly but expressively.
3. Point under each word as you read it.
4. Say, “It would be fun if we read this rhyme together. You join in by reading the words you know.”
5. Read the poem again, touching under each word. (Don’t block the child’s view of the words.)
6. Read the poem several times together.
7. Quit before the child tires.
8. Review the book later in the day or the next day.
9. Continue reading the book until the child can read it accurately and expressively.

As soon as the child can read a rhyme like “Pease Porridge,” you can review the rhyme to explore the problem of how to read and spell, as discussed in “Playing With Sounds and Letters.”

Many adults encourage children to trace alphabet letters. Others ask children to join dotted outlines of letters. Baby Steps to Reading shows that the fastest way to teach children to print-based on 80 years of research-is to show them how to print a letter and encourage them to copy it freehand. And forget that special lined paper and those fat primary pencils!