Rhyme with me! It's fun, you'll see!
Learning Stages
Rhyming is one of the first steps to learning to read, because rhyming helps children to listen carefully to the sounds in words.
When choosing new children's books, make sure to pick up some rhyming books for kids. Also play with rhyming words, play rhyming games, or sing rhyming songs (see our suggestions below).
Help your child develop an ear for rhyme with these rhyming activities:
- Play rhyming games and sing rhyming songs with your child. Many include hand-clapping, playing with balls, and playing in groups.
- Read rhymes to your child. When reading a familiar one, stop before a rhyming word and encourage your child to fill in the rhyme. When he does, praise him.
- Listen for rhymes in songs you know or hear on the radio, TV, at family or other gatherings, and sing them with your child.
- Find and play rhyming games on your computer.
LeapFrog recommends:
Animal Crackers: A Delectable Collection of Pictures, Poems and Lullabies for the Very Young
Edited by Jane Dyer
Little, Brown
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
By Bill Martin, Jr., illustrated by John Archambault
Simon & Schuster
Diez Deditos: 10 Little Fingers and Other Play Rhymes and Action Songs from Latin America
By Jose-Luis Orozco, illustrated by Elisa Kleven
Eentsy, Weentsy Spider: Fingerplays and Action Rhymes
By Joanna Cole and Stephanie Calmenson, illustrated by Alan Tiegreen
Mulberry Books
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
By Eileen Christelow
Clarion
Read Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young
By Jack Prelutsky, illustrated by Marc Brown
Knopf
My Very First Mother Goose
Edited by Iona Opie, illustrated by Rosemary Wells
Candlewick Press