Our Reading Journey

Here are some helpful hints to get your children reading more 

Babies & toddlers – they should be exploring books, looking at pictures and being read to.

Pre-school – set a “reading time” for your child. They can quietly play with their books, telling stories to their siblings, their stuffed animals or to you. This is not the time to give them an ipad.

Early Readers – your child will be beginning to read at school. It is important to make the reading at home “pleasurable”. There should be a set reading time, but it should be books of their choosing. My son and I used to take lots of non-fiction books out of the library. He would sit and look through them for a long time.

Readers – I’m sure their school assigns reading each night as part of their homework. 

· If possible, establish a “family reading time”, so everyone is reading at the same time.

· Read the same book that your child is reading, then you can have discussions about it.

· Get an audiobook of the book your child is reading, and they can read along while listening.

· Read aloud more advanced books. Give them several options and let them pick. 

When my daughter was in 2nd grade she wanted to begin reading the Harry Potter books, but she knew they were about Wizards and was hesitant because she thought they would be too scary. So, I told her we could read them aloud, then I would be there to help her through the scary parts. She agreed. We read Books 1-5. It took us a long time to get through Book 5 – its about 800 pages. When we were finally done, she looked at me and said “I’m done”. She read Book 6 and Book 7 within 10 days.

Happy Reading!