5 Steps to Raising Readers in a Non-English Setting

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Raising children who read well, read often, and read enthusiastically has been a huge goal of mine! Partly because of my own love of reading, but also because of the way a good book opens doors in the heart and mind that our limited daily experiences are just incapable of.  By the time my daughter was a preschooler, I realized that living in Asia was perhaps not the easiest place to teach her how to read in English. We went through our Letter of the Week preschool that I had carefully put together after hours of thoughtful research and preparation. But when we left our home, there was not a single “A” or “B” or “C” around for me to point out to her. I began to feel discouraged. There were no signs written in English, no labels on food boxes. I can still remember practicing on all those things as a child when I was learning to sound out words.How would my own kids learn to read without the plethora of language around to give them opportunities for practice? Thankfully, I discovered that there are ways to create a language rich environment wherever you are.#1: Letters, Letters, Everywhere Make sure you have the alphabet in an easily viewed location in your home. Now I know many people really don’t want their house to look like a kindergarten classroom. I understand, it’s not ideal but it’s worth it! You want to have both lowercase and uppercase letters, and you want it to be somewhere that you can easily point to and name them throughout the day. Alphabet magnets on the refrigerator are also a great tool for manipulating the letters.#2: Build a Home Library Books are heavy. You can only fit so many into a suitcase before your entire weight allotment is used up. It’s a bummer, but heavy or not, stockpiling great children’s literature is a must! If you don’t have an awesome public library full of English books with a convenient inter-library loan, you need to build your own home library. This takes time, but is absolutely worth the effort. A great way to go about it is asking for books as gifts. I keep a list of books that I’d like our family to have, and when birthdays or holidays come around, I make sure to add one or two titles to any wish list we give out. What books should you buy? There are lots of great book lists out there, here is the link to my recommendations.#3: Read The Books (☺) So you have some books, now get to reading! Start when kids are really young (I mean just 1 year old or even earlier if they’ll stay still long enough) and read as much as you possibly can. Read poems during snack time. Sit near the tub and read a story during bath time. Don’t go anywhere without a book in your bag! Read in taxis (if you don’t get car sick), waiting at the Embassy, at boarding gates, on airplanes, in restaurants while you’re waiting for food. Our family has created incredible memories by reading books together on vacation. One time in Thailand the kids were so into Charlie in the Chocolate Factory that they got out of the swimming pool and begged me read to them before they swam some more. Our evenings in our little hotel room were super cozy with us all eagerly listening to see what would happen next (as a side note, make sure you have a supply of chocolate bars and candy readily available before you read that book!).#4: Get a Good Phonics Program Use a curriculum that teaches the rules behind phonics. That way your child will have the tools he needs to sound out the words he encounters. For us it also worked best to postpone any reading or writing in the local language until after our kids were pretty comfortable with English phonics. You want to minimize confusion between the languages.#5: Consider a Kindle Once they can read decently on their own, I suggest investing in their own personal kindle as a birthday gift or a milestone “you can read!” gift. This way you can have TONS of books available no matter where you are, both from online (and many are free) or from your own home public library.Keep in mind that every child develops at his or her own unique pace, and there is no magic age, such as 6 years and 4 months, when kids should have mastered reading. Just delight in the process, and enjoy the wonderful stories and characters you will meet along the way!Do you have any tips you would like to share?  A particular curriculum that worked especially well in a non-English environment?  We would love for you to share your wisdom below in the comments section.