FAQs

Reading aloud for at least 15 minutes a day, starting at birth, can have a profound affect on a child's future.

Read it again works to expand vocabulary, improve comprehension, strengthen imagination, and build a lifelong love of reading.

The regular reading and re-reading of books helps children develop a love not only for books, but also a love for accessing new information.

Reading aloud to young child enhances language skills and promotes cognitive development.

When chosen carefully, children’s books can expose a child to diverse cultures and perspectives.

1. Once you’ve purchased and downloaded your Beyond the Book Resources file, (Subscribe or purchase an archived title) download the file and locate a copy of the story.

2. Take a little time to get familiar with all the great ideas within your download.

3. Decide what follow up activities you’d like to tackle over the next few days and gather any supplies that might be needed.

4. The first step of course, is reading the story. I like for my first read with a child to be uninterrupted. It's just about the story, no hidden agenda or predetermined plan for learning.

5. Follow up your first reading with an activity from this file.

There’s no particular order to the activities, but the comprehension questions are easy and don’t require preparation. The flashcards include 10 different ideas for use and may also be a fun first activity.

6. Try to find time to read the story again…two to three times (if not more) over the course of the next week.

It's even okay to read a book multiple times in a single day... we actually encourage it!

You want your child to love the book and want to hear it again and again.

7. Try to follow-up each of your readings with one of the activities from the download.

It’s within this layering of reading and follow-up activities that the real magic begins to occur.

● One Great Story

● Multiple Readings

● Fun & Educational Follow-Up Activities

Possibly, but teaching your preschooler is not our goal. We’re here to get your child excited about learning.

Experts say that most children learn to read by age 6 or 7 and some may learn much earlier.

However, a head start on reading doesn't mean that your child will stay ahead as he progresses through school. Abilities tend to even out in later grades.

Instead, focus on spending time together while reading aloud, strengthen your bond and allow your child to see that reading is a positive experience.

If you force your child, he may learn to read, but he may also develop a negative attitude towards learning.

A robust vocabulary improves all areas of communication — listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Vocabulary is critical to a child’s success for the following reasons:

● Vocabulary is directly related to school achievement.

● The size of a child’s vocabulary in kindergarten predicts the ease in which he will not only learn to read, but also, and more importantly, whether he will be able to comprehend what he eventually reads.

● Vocabulary helps children think and learn about the world.

● Expanding a child’s knowledge of words provides unlimited access to future learning.

Absolutely not.

As a rule and for the best outcome, we would like you to try and complete at least 3 or 4 of the activities provided.

Read through your entire Beyond the Book Resources file and choose a few follow up activities you feel comfortable completing with your child. The level of prep required for each activity varies.

In the top left corner of each of the “writing” pages, you’ll see a note that addresses this concern.

In the most simple of terms, you are the scribe and your child is dictating what should be written.

Bloom's taxonomy is a classification system used to define and distinguish different levels of human cognition

We’ve created and divided our questions based upon Bloom’s Taxonomy. There are six levels of cognitive learning addressed within this model. The six levels are remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. The levels represent the levels children pass through as they learn.

Basic recall questions are at the base of Bloom’s Taxonomy and this is where most preschoolers are working. However, after reading the book multiple times and discussing the story, you might be surprised by how high your child climbs within this hierarchy .

No.

The basic recall or remember questions are where most preschoolers are working. However, after reading the book multiple times and discussing the story, try going further up the pyramid.

Start conversations around the more difficult questions and model how you would answer a question. Don’t push too hard… all the questions don’t need to be answered.

We are not definitely not fans of forcing a child to learn to read, we want your child to simply view learning as something that’s enjoyable and rewarding.

Keeping this in mind, begin by using the picture cards for the activities. Later you could use a small number of the word cards and talk about beginning letter sounds. Or, group all the cards that have the same ending sounds… this could be done with the picture cards first and later the words cards.

Conversely, you could decide to not use the word cards at all. You are the expert on your your child!

Flashcards sometimes do get a bad rap. However, we are crazy about flash cards because they can be used in so many different ways and more importantly, because they work. It’s all in what you do with them. We’ve provided plenty of great ideas!

Begin with the picture cards and that might be all you work with for a while. The word cards can come into play later.

Many ask why some of the words are difficult or obscure. Again, we are working to build your child’s vocabulary. We want to pull out strange new words or concepts to give your child a head start on comprehending what they read. Some children learn to read and can “word call” all day, but they don’t understanding what they’re reading.

Vocabulary knowledge is more important than the ability to decode and call words. If you decode a word, say it correctly, and keep reading without understanding what you’ve just read, what is actually gained?

These pages are designed to add another layer to the learning that’s been designed around the book. When a child connects his learning with other aspects of his life, or other activities that have been completed he begins to truly learn and connect information.

What a great idea!

Just include the name and email or mailing address of the person you’d like to receive the monthly titles.

Yes!

Go to the Shop tab and select “Archived Titles” and you’ll see all of our past subscription titles. Individual titles may be purchased and downloaded for $5 each.

We LOVE requests!

Click HERE to send us the name of a favorite book that you’d like to see in the lineup.

No, subscribing isn’t required. It just automated things and you don’t have to worry about ordering each month. It’s also 15% cheaper on a title by title basis.

In short, you do you!