About the Preschool Book

Navajo ABC: A Dine Alphabet Book gives preschoolers a glimpse at life as a Navajo. Simple images provide a window to the environment, culture, values, and art of the Navajo people. The Navajo culture is rich with artistic history. The natural environment of their home land plays a large role in their lives.

From the Reviewer

Preschoolers will enjoy learning about the Navajo culture. Navajo ABC is a twist on the basic alphabet book. It doubles as a simple picture of a culture, making it easy for preschoolers to understand what life as a Navajo is like. Beautiful illustrations will captivate preschoolers.

It would be helpful for parents or teachers to read through the glossary before reading the book to preschoolers. Some words from the Dine language are included but no definition is given on the page. The glossary contains definitions of the words as well as wonderful information about each word. The glossary explains the significance of each item in the Navajo culture.

More Information About the Navajo People

During WWII, the Navajo language was used to create a secret code to pass messages that the Japanese could not understand. The Navajo people who helped to create the code were called the Navajo Code Talkers. The Navajo language was one code that the Japanese were never able to break.

http://www.navajo.org/history.htm

Hi! I'm Rachel Lister, the Preschool Education writer at PreschoolRock.com. I live in Utah with my husband and two beautiful boys. When my oldest son was born, I quit my teaching job and opened a home daycare and preschool. I love to help preschoolers learn about the world around them. They make life interesting and I can't imagine doing anything different. If you have any ideas, suggestions or comments, feel free to contact me.

Helpful Tips for Parents

• Read aloud daily for at least 15 minutes. This single habit is the strongest predictor of kindergarten reading readiness and long-term academic success.

• Choose toys that grow with the child: open-ended materials (blocks, clay, art supplies) remain valuable for years; single-use toys with one correct answer produce brief engagement.

• Children's questions are assessment data. The questions a child asks reveal their current conceptual level and what they're ready to learn next.

• Avoid academic pressure before age 5. Preschool children's brains are not developmentally ready for formal academic instruction, and premature pressure backfires.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the most important educational skill to develop before kindergarten?

Executive function — the cluster of skills that includes working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control — is the strongest predictor of kindergarten and long-term academic success. Executive function is built through play (especially complex pretend play), physical activity, music, and responsive adult interaction. It cannot be taught through drills or worksheets. A child with strong executive function can learn academic content readily when developmentally ready; a child with weak executive function struggles regardless of academic knowledge.

Should my preschooler be reading before kindergarten?

Reading before kindergarten is possible for some children and developmentally not expected of most. The literacy skills that predict reading success — phonological awareness (hearing sounds in words), letter knowledge, print awareness, and vocabulary — are the appropriate focus before age 5. These skills are built through: reading aloud daily, nursery rhymes and songs, alphabet activities, and rich conversation. A preschooler who loves books, knows their letters, and has a large vocabulary is fully reading-ready, whether or not they can decode words independently.

Related reading: See also our kindergarten readiness guide and our vocabulary building guide for more ideas on this topic.

🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 📚 Pre-Reading Skills — Activities that involve letters, sounds, rhymes, and print directly build the phonological awareness and letter knowledge that are the two strongest predictors of successful reading development.
• 🧠 Memory & Recall — Remembering rules, retelling a story in sequence, and practicing skills to automaticity builds working memory and long-term recall — the cognitive foundation that learning in every subject depends on.
• ⚡ Executive Function — Planning, sequencing steps, holding rules in mind while acting, and stopping a prepotent response all build executive function — the cluster of cognitive skills most strongly predictive of long-term academic and life success.
• 🤔 Critical Thinking — Being asked "why do you think that?" and forming and defending an answer develops the analytical reasoning children need for reading comprehension, mathematics, and evidence-based argumentation.

From the Preschool Book

"We call ourselves Taa Dine, which means "The People". We are also called the Navajo. There are about 220,000 Dine today. Our land is in Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. We speak the Dine language, and many of our schools teach children to read and write Dine, as well as English. Our language is very important; because of it we are able to remember and practice many of the old ways that our ancestors taught us." - From the Foreword