Does your child love books? Do they avoid books? Do you want to learn how to do more with books with your child? Then Pages and Stages is what you are looking for! Pages and Stages is a virtual book club series that brings literacy to life. It was developed by therapists to teach parents how to help their children engage with books through combining Guided Reading with movement activities, turning book reading into a whole-body literacy experience.
Pages and stages helps promote increased vocabulary and concept development, pre-literacy skills, following directions, attention as well as fine motor and gross motor development that helps children foster a connection to each story book. It is designed for children age 2+ who love books, hate books, are not yet reading or who are already reading on their own. It is for everyone! Sign up today to get started right away.
Frequently Asked Questions
Reading with your child allows them to learn new concepts, new vocabulary and expand their understanding of the concepts and vocabulary they already know. They learn about the world around them when they are not able to physically be present in the same kind of experiences presented in books. It introduces them to problem solving, predicting and inferencing. It builds their imagination and perspective taking. It also helps develop pre-literacy skills to help them to become readers themselves.
When we read books with our kids, we want to do more than just read the words on the page. Guided Reading helps give us a method to do that. With Guided Reading, we talk to our kids about the pictures and the storyline. We pause to ask them questions about the pictures and the story to make sure they are understanding and making predictions. It gives children a more active role in reading to increase their engagement in and enjoyment of books.
We hear from parents all the time that their kids don’t like books. Some kids don’t, and that’s okay. Pages and Stages adds activities to reading that may help these kids find new ways to engage with books. Some kids have difficulty attending to books. We incorporate movement activities that are related to each book so it gives children the opportunity to be active with the story. Some kids are more visual and just want to look at the pictures. That’s ok too. Pictures are a great place to start! You can add the story later, just talk about what you see on the page. You can still use the related activities to bring those pictures to life.
That’s ok! We want to help kids learn to enjoy and engage with books because of the benefits they get from them. If the activities are not ones they enjoy, don’t do them. Our goal is not to force the activities we have created. Our goal is to help parents understand and learn how they can do different things with books besides reading word for word. You can just listen to the story, you can turn the volume off and just look at the pictures and talk about them, you can pick the activities that your child enjoys most and just do those- let them pick, it will be more meaningful for them! There is no wrong way or right way to read with your kids. The important thing is being flexible in how you engage with books!
Your child may not like every book that’s offered within Pages and Stages and that’s ok too! No one likes everything they read. Follow your child’s lead. If they seem less interested in a book, you can make changes in how you are presenting it, or just skip to the activities. The accompanying carry over activities are good even as a stand alone from the books for vocabulary building and following directions. Or, you can skip that book completely and move on to another and try it again later. There’s a lot of flexibility when participating in the Pages and Stages book club.
The books that are currently part of the series are ideally for kids age 3-5+. However, that doesn’t mean that older kids can’t benefit from the books as well. If your child is already reading, you can turn off the volume and let your child read, and you can include the guided reading prompts that are provided. They can still do all the activities to accompany the books. Younger kids can also enjoy these books with less focus on the story and more attention to looking at and talking about the pictures and naming things they see. Pages and Stages is meant to be flexible. You can see how your child responds to the stories and make adjustments to how you engage with the books.
Absolutely! Pages and Stages is a learning tool not only for kids but for you as a parent. You can apply the Guided Reading principles to any book! Our goal is to help parents learn about and feel confident in new ways to engage their children with books. You can use the same methods with books you own, books from the library and even virtual books online.
Because Pages and Stages is online, it’s also mobile! You can take it with you on vacation, you can listen to the stories in the car, you can do some of the activities virtually anywhere to further experience the story in a variety of settings. You can take it at your own pace and make it work for your family. Flexibility is key to enjoying Pages and Stages!
How do I get started?