Helping our children to love reading
Just as we need a balanced diet for our health, our children need a balance between books and other forms of entertainment. Explore these strategies to help your child develop a love for reading amidst the digital distractions.
The world our children live in today is filled with so much stimulus from television and so many forms of entertainment on social media platforms. It is no wonder reading from a book can seem so mundane and boring. It can be a challenge to excite and motivate some children and therefore not an easy task for parents.
Here are some ideas to encourage and stimulate your child’s interest in reading. We all need to eat a balanced diet and in this case our children need that balanced diet between books and other forms of entertainment.
Consider:
Create a Cosy Reading Nook: Designate a special, comfortable spot in the house just for reading. It should be well lit and very inviting to the child. Fill it with soft cushions, good lighting, and a variety of books. Only use it for this purpose.
Model Reading Behaviour: Let your children see you reading regularly. This sets a positive example and shows that reading is an enjoyable activity. Leave a few books scattered around the house. This gives a strong message that reading is encouraged.
Start a Family Book Club: Choose a book to read together as a family and discuss it. This can be a fun way to bond and share insights about the story. Perhaps it can be read over dinner. This could become a family ritual to read together.
Incorporate Reading into Daily Routines: Integrate reading into everyday activities, such as reading a recipe while cooking, signs while driving, or instructions for a game. Encourage your child to do the reading and to give you guidance from what they have read.
Visit Libraries and Bookstores: Make trips to the library or bookstore a regular family outing. Let your children explore and pick out books that interest them. Spend time together just browsing.
Read Aloud Together: Take turns reading aloud with your child. This can make reading a shared, enjoyable experience and help with their fluency and expression. Also talk about the story together as you each read a section.
Use Technology Wisely: Leverage e-books and reading apps if your child is tech-savvy. Interactive and animated e-books can be particularly engaging for younger children.
Offer a Variety of Reading Materials: Provide access to different genres and types of reading materials - comics, graphic novels, magazines, and newspapers can be just as valuable as traditional books. It is all about the enjoyment of reading. Take care not to influence their preferences.
Set Reading Goals and Rewards: Create a fun reading challenge with rewards for meeting goals, such as stickers for each book read or a special treat after finishing a certain number of books. Celebrate the reading of books in the family.
Create a Reading Schedule: Designate a specific time each day for reading. Consistency can help make reading a habit.
Connect Books with Interests: Find books that align with your child's hobbies and interests. If they love dinosaurs, get them dinosaur books; if they’re into space, find books about astronauts and planets.
Encourage Storytelling: Have your child create their own stories. This can spark an interest in reading as they see the connection between storytelling and books. Invite them to simply make up stories and enjoy listening to them.
Make Reading Interactive: Ask questions about the story, make predictions, and relate the content to your child’s experiences. Engaging with the text makes it more enjoyable and meaningful.
Celebrate Authors and Illustrators: Learn about the people behind the books. Sometimes knowing about the author's or illustrator's life can spark a deeper interest in their work.
If your family is a reading family then it may be an easier process for your child to read with ease and pleasure. Sometimes less motivated children do need a push and to set up routines so that they learn the habit of reading in one form or another. A child exposed to books will at some point come to value reading.
“We read to know we are not alone.”
Helping your child learn to read
When a child struggles with reading, it can really hold them back. Their confidence takes a hit, and they might start feeling like they're not as good as other kids. Discover some fun ways to teach reading with Gail Smith and help your child become a better reader!
Recent surveys have claimed that one in three children are struggling to read. Without the gift of reading, life for a child begins to shut down and their connection to all that happens at school is limited. Confidence declines rapidly and personal self worth suffers as well. A child who cannot read is very much a disadvantaged child.
There are many way you can help your child to read. There are many styles of teaching reading and as the parent you can make quite a difference to your child’s ability to read.
Consider the following:
Be a reader yourself. Model the fact that you enjoy reading and it is important in your life.
Place books, journal articles all around the house. Make it visible that reading is a way of life. Make it a print rich home. There are some tools in technology that can help.
Read to your child each day. Most parents enjoy reading at bedtime as it is such a warm and inviting time to be around your child. Ask question when reading a book. Listen to their answers and talk about the interesting words.
Read segments out of the newspaper and ask your child to cut out letters and words. This can be a fun activity.
Have a word a day or a week that you learn and use together as a family.
Play scrabble with your child or other word games that are available. There are many resources in this area.
Invite your child to read to you. Sometimes a family can have a book they are reading together. Each night at dinner perhaps each child reads a little.
Label in your young child’s room all the objects you can see. This could be bed, table, lamp etc. have fun with your child learning all the words. Play games to memorize high frequency words.
There are some excellent phonetic charts that you can get in various educational stores. Display these around the house and refer to them from time to time.
For younger children use songs and nursery rhymes to build phonetic awareness.
Play word games in the car or at home.
Letter magnets are fun with younger children.
There are some tools in technology that can help where children are regularly rewarded for completing activities.
Make it fun but keep up the fun regularly. The school is working hard using their initiatives and skill to formally teach reading. Your job is to support their work and tap into the teacher to see if they have any recommendations to specifically support your child.
“Once you can read you are liberated from ignorance and can breathe in new life at each read.”
Six ideas to help children focus on learning rather than just completing work
Here are six different ways to promote deeper learning.
Encourage Curiosity: Be spontaneous and look for occasions to be curious. Foster a sense of curiosity and exploration in your child. Encourage them to ask questions, seek answers, and dig deeper into topics that interest them. For example, if your child is learning about space, you can encourage them to research and discover more about specific planets or space missions.
Promote Project-Based Learning: Encourage your child to engage in project-based learning, where they can apply their knowledge and skills to real-world scenarios. The more they engage in real life activities the quicker they learn. This can involve working on hands-on projects, conducting experiments, or creating presentations. For instance, if your child is learning about endangered animals, they could create a poster or a short video highlighting the importance of conservation. Help them with ideas and share in their work.
Connect Learning to Real Life: Help your child understand how what they are learning in school is relevant to their everyday life. If they are learning about fractions, you can involve them in cooking or baking activities where they need to use fractions to measure ingredients.
Encourage Reflection and Discussion: Create opportunities for your child to reflect on what they have learned and engage in discussions regularly. This can be done through regular conversations about their school day or specific topics they are studying. Ask open-ended questions and listen actively to their responses. For instance, after reading a book, ask them about their favourite part or what they learned from the story. Watching the news together can be a stimulating time to reflect together on wide topics.
Incorporate Technology and Educational Resources: Utilise educational apps, online resources, and interactive platforms to enhance your child's learning experience. There are numerous educational websites, interactive games, and educational videos available that can make learning more engaging and interactive. For example, you can use educational apps that provide interactive quizzes or virtual simulations related to their subjects.
Foster a Love for Reading: Encourage your child to develop a love for reading by providing access to a variety of books and materials that connect with their interests. Take regular trips to the library, set aside dedicated reading time, and discuss books together. Reading not only enhances their knowledge but also promotes critical thinking and imagination.
You can help your child develop a deeper love for learning and an inquiring approach to life by supporting them in some of the above ways. You are an ideal partner in developing and sharing their love and passion for knowledge.
‘Show your child how passionate you are about learning and watch how that passion rubs off!’
-Gail J Smith
Simple clues on helping your child to write.
If I say now I want you to write a story on dogs, how would you go?
Most likely not too well! The idea of writing starting with a blank page and no connection to the story is so hard for most people. Even children who are great readers can find this difficult. Just simply asking a child to be creative on the spot is not generally possible when it comes to writing stories.
Often children find the task to write stories very difficult if in isolation of the classroom. As a parent, it can be difficult to help with homework tasks that require story writing.
Here are some simple tips on helping your child write with enjoyment and with a feeling of success.
Does your child struggle to write a story?
Ask them to tell you a story. Ask them to tell it to you in sections. This story is one they know and love. Then keep checking in with “what happened next?” etc.
Try putting the story in dot points. Then build some sentences around the dot points. Keep it simple and let your child add to the sentences if desired.
Sometimes children can start with a question.
“I wonder why I like dogs?” starting with a question gets them thinking and talking about the concept.
“Why did I go to the beach that day?”
Giving children sentence starters can help.
“Today was a hot day and I enjoyed ……”
Confronting a blank page can be daunting. Ask them to draw the story perhaps in cartoon form and then tell it through words.
If a child is struggling with writing a story, ask them to tell you about a time that made them happy or perhaps a funny situation. Write it down. Always keep in mind that the purpose of writing with a child should be enjoyable.
After reading a story to your child have fun with them by changing some of the plot. This can be a great chance to talk about story plots. Also, have fun changing the title of the story and some of the words.
Audiobooks are a very pleasant way of following stories and some children are very strong audio learners.
If they have a great story in their head invite them to record it and play it back to the family.
Try writing a story together. Start off with some sentences and invite your child to write a few more, building the plot together. Also, it can be a fun activity sitting in the car making up stories together.
Let them see how you enjoy reading what they write. At a family gathering time, read out their work and talk about the story written.
Look at some simple cartoons. Invite your child to write about each scene.
These suggestions are simply to encourage the child to see writing a story as a possibility. Many children, especially those who are not into fantasy or fiction, will write better when the writing has a purpose. For example, the child may write about how we pollute the earth with plastic. Here they are writing to tell you about a situation that is real and has a purpose with facts. As the child ages, school’s expectations in writing are more about writing for a purpose. As a parent of a primary aged child, simply keep their interest in writing by reassuring them that they can write and it can be in many and varied forms. There is no incorrect way of writing a story, nor is there any incorrect way of telling a story. Also, we place no value judgements on the quality of their story. It’s their tale after all.
“You can make anything by writing.”
Reading through the problems
There are many beautiful feeling books that are written for children to think through their problems.
They work well as the child sees the problem as some one else's problem and as the story unfolds and a solution is found, the child can put themselves in the place of the character.
Many good children's libraries stock these books. As well they can be purchased on line.
Remember, that when you read the story to the child, highlight how the character solved the problem and ask. "Have you ever had that feeling yourself?”
Children are very familiar with using books to tell stories that have a message. Teachers use this method all the time.
Remember, repeating the stories is also a good idea to reinforce the concepts and deepen the understandings especially with younger children.
