Pretend Reading: Baby Steps to Reading August 19, 2011 One of
the most wonderful things about living with preschoolers is
watching them develop their imaginations in new and exciting
ways each day. After watching you cook, a child will pretend
cook for her baby dolls. A child in the backseat will pretend
he’s driving to the grocery store. Like driving and cooking,
reading is one of those adult skills that children want to
emulate before they have the skills to do it for “real.” One of
the most joyful moments for me as a mom was watching my children
gravitate towards books and pretend to read them even before
they knew all their letters. To me this said that my kids loved
books and wanted to become readers. Children who are read to
early and often know that books are magical. They crave cuddling
with a loved one and being read to. They look forward to story
time in preschool. They will flip through books to explore the
story told in pictures. And they will eventually pick up books
on their own and pretend to r