​A large reason why I had become disenfranchised with the education system was due to the fact that we (as a society) are constantly putting developmentally inappropriate demands on children.

When I heard that libraries were investing their time and energies in Every Child Ready to Read, I was thrilled.  Caregivers are a child’s first teacher and a child’s biggest advocate.  ECRR empowers caregivers and also gives the word “play” it’s due.  Play should receive the amount of weight and respect that is given to the words “reading” and “math.” The play of children has academic value and I love that ECRR is acknowledging this.

My A-Ha! Moment that pieced together the components of ETM and ECRR happened last July when I was attending ETM’s week-long study in California.  After spending several hours a day thinking about ETM and literacy and speaking with several bright individuals, I realized that ETM addresses the big picture, the whole child if you will.  ECRR helps address the pre-literacy skills and caregiver instruction/empowerment.  Together, the two approaches go together like s’mores and campfires.

When we examine a majority of early childhood (Preschool-Kindergarten) standards and curriculums, the starting point for literacy instruction often begins with:

• Letter idenfication - the naming of the letters and the sounds they make
• Phonological awareness - can the child play with the sounds of language?  Can they break down and identify the sounds in a three letter word?
• Vocabulary - the words that the child has acquired from being spoken and read to since birth 

Somewhere there is a disconnect between literacy skill acquisition and instruction.  ETM bridges the gap beautifully. 

ETM is able to build a strong foundation in these areas:

• Aesthetic
• Attention
• Motivation
• Motor development - fine motor and gross motor
• Auditory processing 
• Speech processing

Why are these areas important to making sure that children start off on the right foot in school?  They are the foundation that every child needs.  ETM provides the necessary experience and context that will help make it possible for a child to learn and thrive in school.  

The overarching goals of ETM and ECRR are to foster a love of learning and reading in children.  If ETM is used regularly in storytime programming in conjunction with ECRR, I believe that it will lead to a strong foundation in reading skills. 

​Next week I will begin to dig into my favorite component of ECRR - Singing.  I plan to discuss how singing the songs of ETM can help cultivate an enjoyment for music while simultaneously building the auditory and speech processing systems in young children.

 When we think about early literacy and Every Child Ready to Read (ECRR), we need to think about and emphasize the importance of experience.

​Let’s think of experience in terms of Pre-GPS and Smart Device times, which we will call “The Before Times” - A friend invites you to their house for the first time.  You are not familiar with the area - so what do you do in order to prepare for your drive to your friend’s house for the first time?  You look at a map and familiarize yourself with the streets and necessary turns.  You get in the car and begin to drive to your friend’s house.  You pay close attention to the street names, landmarks, and turns.  You may even pay attention to the mileage.  After you have been to your friend’s house a few times you find that you do not need to pay close attention to every little street name and landmark.  Why?  Because you have experienced driving to your friend’s house.  You have stored away all of the important streets, landmarks, and (if you are like me and get lost easily) you know which turns not to take.

Even as adults it takes us a while to learn something new despite the fact that we have acquired several years of background knowledge.  We know how to read a map and drive a car, but that is only a small piece of the equation when it comes to driving someplace new.  We still need to have the experience of driving to our friend’s house for the first time in order to learn how to get there. 

So, if adults need experience to learn something new - why do we expect a child that is only five/six years old to read and understand the words on the page of a book?  

Those Littles have only been alive and in this world for five - six years.  That’s a drop in the bucket compared to an adult! 

As adults, we need to remember two very important things:

1. Children are in their bodies before they are in their heads 
2. Children learn best by doing.  In other words, experience is key.

In ETM, a child’s “experience” bucket is filled up through playing the Song Experience Games (SEG).  In an ETM SEG there is movement, thinking, social interaction, music, and language. 

You may be wondering - What does that look like?  How does it work?

Let's take a look at one of the songs that I use as my weekly hello song in my Tales for 2's and 3's storytime - “Come Along and Walk with Me” 

Come along and wave with me
Come along and wave with me
We’ll wave and wave
and wave and wave
So come along and wave with me

Come along and hug with me
Come along and hug with me
We’ll hug and hug
And hug and hug
So come along and hug with me

Come along and twist with me
Come along and twist with me
We’ll twist and twist
And twist and twist
So come along and twist with me

Come along and stretch with me
Come along and stretch with me
We’ll stretch and stretch
And stretch and stretch
So come along and stretch with me

Come along and wiggle with me
Come along and wiggle with me
We’ll wiggle and wiggle
And wiggle and wiggle
So come along and wiggle with me

If we were to dissect "Come Along" into the “five pillars” of an ETM SEG we would see:

Movement
Wave, hug, stretch, wiggle

Thinking
Children need to think about when/how they will move
​Children are thinking about the words that are being sung and they are interpreting them 

Social Interaction
They are waving to me, their caregiver, to their friends, to other children 

Music
singing

Language
“Come along” = follow me!
Wave, hug, stretch, wiggle 

​The ideal situation would be to fill up each and every child with playful, meaningful, and language-rich experiences when they are very young so that they have a GINORMOUS bucket full of experiences.  

If they have all of these experiences of being read to, talked to, played with - what will happen?  
They will have this wealth of experience to draw from when we tell them that “oats, peas, beans, and barley grow” they know that these are types of plants that grow in the ground because they pretended to be a farmer sowing seeds, when they see the word “creeping” they know what it is because they have experienced creeping around the room with that goofy Librarian lady, Ms. Nicole, or when we ask them to write an essay or book report, they will be able to do it because they have this GINORMOUS bucket full of words and experiences that they can draw from.

Storytime is a great way to fill up a child’s experience bucket. When we look at the fabulous components of ECRR in storytime we plan for and lead activities that have singing, playing, reading, and talking.  In other words, we provide the children that come to our storytimes with an environment where they can have playful, meaningful, and language-rich experiences. ​

I will leave you with this parting thought:
"I have to see it,
I have to say it,
I have to hear it,
I have to do it."

All roads lead to experience.