Lesson 5

While going through this lesson I was actually reflecting a lot on my own family. We are expecting our first baby this fall and a lot of the things that we have talked about in raising our children were brought up in this lesson. My husband speaks Spanish and so we have debated on whether or not to teach our children both Spanish and English. I also love to read and already have a large collection of children's books that I am building to help develop that love in our children. So it was interesting for me to consider all of these different pieces of information from a teacher's point of view.

As an adult I tend to speak to younger children with simpler language. However, this lesson brought to my attention that it is important to use more complex language to help children develop their language skills. There are times when I teach dance and use bigger words and those big words always grab their attention. I think by introducing new vocabulary it keeps kids excited and engaged. However I also think it is important to not introduce too many unfamiliar words at once as that could be overwhelming for the students.

I also really liked how it stressed the importance of reading and reading together. It is important for kids to hear how words should sound while seeing the word at the same time. I also think it is important that children get to choose what they are reading. My husband used to hate reading but I introduced him to some books that I thought he might find more interesting. He has found that he actually loves to read when he has the right book in front of him! I think if more children were able to choose what they read they would develop that love of reading as well.