Raising a Reader

Raising a Reader

 

From the PBS's "Between The Lions"

 

Below you will find some tips to help children develop a love of reading!

 

1. Visit the local library!

Not only does the library carry books and movies to borrow FREE of charge, they also carry puzzles, books with puppets, magazines, newspapers and offer lots of special FREE events that are family friendly!

 

2. Let your child see YOU read!

Whether it's the newspaper, a book, or an online article. Children watch their parents to see what skills are valuable in life. YOU are their role model, so go ahead and dive into print!

 

3. Show your child how people use reading ALL the time!

Point out street and store signs, maps, billboards, menus and labels on packages. Environmental print is important to point out to children so they can generalize skills they are learning in the classroom to the community!

 

4. Set up an area in your home where a variety of reading materials are within easy reach!

Encourage not only reading a variety of texts, encourage children to respond to their reading through writing or drawing pictures.

 

5. Encourage a love of words!

Play rhyming and word games, singing silly song poems together and reading stories together!

 

6. TALK!

 About daily activities or tell stories about your family or culture to help children's language skills.

 

 

Visit pbskids.org for more tips on raising readers

 

Other ways to encourage your children to read is to:

 

*Create your own books (use paper, crayons, pencils, stickers, colored paper, self pictures, etc) to create funny stories, scary stories or biographies of each family member. Children LOVE being authors and illustrators!

 

*Check out books that are based upon your child's favorite TV show. Many Disney movies, shows and series are in book form.

 

*Allow children to read comic books! Many more graphic novels (comic books) are available to children at many different reading levels. The pictures help children continue to follow the story line and many use higher level vocabulary that is great exposure to the child reader.