5 Top Tips for Reading with Your Child
It is a rare day that I leave a children’s bookstore empty handed. The challenge is always to select but a few. It is a healthy obsession for teachers to have I think. The delight of a story, a new adventure or a heartwarming return to a familiar book awaits within the pages. I am lucky enough to share this with so many eager little bookworms in many aspects of my family and teaching life at Ganeinu.
Books have the potential to delight, capture and enthrall even the youngest of children. As your child’s first reading partner, how can you promote, engage and build a firm reading foundation with your child?
Children take their cues from watching, mimicking and recognizing the activities and pastimes you value. Developing a positive reading attitude is a life long gift for children. Seeing you read, being read to and developing an awareness of reading as a child, sets the stage for literacy and language success.
Provide opportunities for reading together and make this a part of your daily routine. The joy of a warm lap, a cuddle or the familiarity of special time with an adult sends a powerful message to young children. Create an expectation that reading is simply part of your routine. Remember that children need repetition with reading. Familiarity creates routine and excitement whist sharing a story together each day.
Recognize that reading is playful and be a partner in this literacy and language fun. The possibility of a child’s imagination running across the page and the open-ended nature of a story transforms a child’s thinking. A child can join a bear hunt, search a forest for a Gruffalo or walk with a dinosaur, all from the comfort of a warm bed, a familiar adults embrace or a preschool classroom.
Explore the possibilities of reading with your child. It is never too early to start reading. Babies love to read. Support your child to select books that are age appropriate. A trip to the library, exploring your own bookshelf or preschool classroom, offers endless reading ideas. So whether it is the Very Hunger Caterpillar, The Cat in the Hat or The Rainbow Fish, you can be assured that your child is a reader from the first time they pick up that book.
Do not underestimate your role as the educator, the librarian, the researcher and playmate in future reading success. No amount of screen time can offer a child the same possibilities and potential as you can. As your child’s first and most important teacher, you are the best building block of your child’s reading success. At Ganeinu we provide an extension of your families values, knowledge and love of reading. Every day is book week at Ganeinu and our educators embrace every teachable moment to share the joy of books with children. Children arrive through our gates with books in hand, and so many of our interests, ideas and learning experiences are sparked and promoted by books.
So let the reading journey begin by….
* Developing a reading attitude
* Create routine and repeated reading at home
* Recognize the playfulness of reading and make it fun.
* Reading is for every child…. regardless of age
* Being your child’s reading guide and partner.
