Home Reading
Reading at home is the most important way that parents can help their child. Make sure your child has regular reading practice and check they understand what they read. Here are some more tips on helping your child with reading:
- When you read to your child, make the experience interactive - ask questions about the story, the pictures and what they think of the characters.
- As their reading skills grow, gradually let them turn the tables until they're reading to you.
- Keep an eye out for the themes that catch your child's imagination at school - and help follow it up with more reading
- When you come across an unusual or funny-sounding word, help your child find out what it means and write it on the fridge door with magnetic letters.
- Reading is a great family activity so everyone can join in!
WHAT BOOKS SHOULD I CHOOSE?
• Reading together should be fun! Pick books that you both enjoy.
• You can share picture books, chapter books, poetry and non-fiction.
There are lots to discover once you find out what interests your child.
• If you are struggling for choice pop along to a bookshop or your local
library and choose books together. Ask friends or teachers for their
recommendations. - WHERE SHOULD WE READ?
• If you’re at home, why not sit closely together somewhere cosy and
quiet so you can immerse yourselves in the story.
• Sharing a story together is also great if you’re out and about. You can
share books anywhere – on a train, in the park, or while you’re waiting in
a long shopping queue! - HOW DO I GO ABOUT IT?
• Try using funny voices and making silly noises, especially if you’re
reading with little ones! Your child loves the sound of your voice so try
not to be embarrassed or shy. Just remember to make it fun and laugh a lot!
• Let your child join in and tell you what’s happening. Ask questions like
‘What’s going to happen next?’ and ‘How do you think she feels about
that?’
• Try to relate to your child’s own world and experiences – it’s a great way
of starting a conversation. - WHAT ELSE COULD I DO?
• Try telling your own story. Children love old classics like fairy tales or
you could rediscover the stories you enjoyed as a child together, or make
up your own story. - •As your child gets older encourage them to pick up other books around the house to boost familiarity with 'grown-up' language. Suggest a reading list, and encourage your child to write down thoughts on the books they have read.
- 7 Reasons why reading aloud to your child is so
- important!
- 1. It’s time spent together. Reading time is time when you’re focusing on no one else and nothing else but them. It’s impossible to read to your child and look at your smartphone or watch TV at the same time. Try and read to each of your children separately before bed. This lets you spend quality time with them individually. It makes for a longer bedtime ritual, but it's worth it!
2. It’s a conversation starter. Books always give us a reason to talk with each other, even if we don’t feel like we have anything to talk about. It keeps communication open.
3. It’s a great way to talk about emotional health. You can talk about the things that happen in the stories, how you would feel if they happened to you, and how we might deal with such events the same or differently. Books will help you broach topics that you might not have thought to raise if it weren’t for the subject matter in the story.
4. It’s a great way to honour the individuality in your children. Try and read different things to your daughter than to your son. Go to the library and let them pick out books about topics about which they are interested. Through paying attention to what they want to read, you can learn more about what their likes and dislikes are, including what they might want to be when they grow up.
5. You can open up new worlds for your kids. Reading allows you to introduce your children to things that their school curriculum just doesn’t have the time or perhaps even the interest to cover. If your child expresses an interest in industrial design, go on a hunt for cool books about the design of cars and about architecture. Dear publishers: Please publish more books for young readers about these things!! We don’t just need stories about zombies and vampires.
6. You get a wealth of information on where your children might need help. Through reading aloud to your children you will able to teach them the meaning of words they still don’t understand. They will have better vocabularies. They will have better comprehension skills and understanding of abstract concepts. Reading will allow them to excel not just in language arts, but in all of their subjects.
7. It can lead to a lifelong love of reading in your children. If you do it right, by reading like you mean it — which means getting into the story, changing your voice to reflect what is happening and not droning on like you hate what you’re reading — your children will learn to love reading on their own.
Reading is awesome, and even better, it’s accessible to all through our country’s public library system. So please, get out there and read to your babies and, most importantly, don’t quit.
