Pre-school age children can learn a lot about literacy just from their every day environment. Take advantage of the many teaching opportunities that are all around you. Start with street signs. Both the shape of a stop sign as well as the word "STOP" which is written on it are forms of literacy learning. Same with yield signs. It's been interesting to me to observe that most pre-school children readily recognize a stop sign, but they don't know what a yield sign is. Where I live, there are almost as many yield signs as their are stops signs, yet children don't know what one is. (Hint: If you teach them to recognize a yield sign, they will more quickly learn the clue I use for upper case 'Y'.) Literacy doesn't have to always involve words. Point out railroad crossing, school crossing and speed limit signs; just anything you drive past. Logos are great. Do they know what it means when they see the double arches of McDonald's, or the big hat of Arby's? There are many things they can learn before actually learning how to read. Just get them observing things around them. You can still show and tell them signs with words on them such as what it says on the grocery store, gas stations, banks, clothing stores, etc. It may surprise you what they will pick up on.
According to the Webster Dictionary, literate means, "Versed in learning and science; educated." Doing the above activities takes literacy and brings it down to a 2-5 year olds' level. It has to begin somewhere, right?
So, the next time you go somewhere, turn your outing into a pre-school literacy adventure!
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