10 Things to Know – Reading at Home
- Your children watch you! Let them see YOU reading and talking about what you read.
- Practice! Practice! Practice! We all get better at something by doing it regularly and often. Reading is no different. Readers get better at reading by doing lots of reading.
- Have your child read to different people. Read to a grandmother, uncle, neighbor, sister, babysitter, brother. Encourage them to read to every visitor to your home.
- Have books in your home for your child to read. Borrow from the public and school libraries. Give books as gifts. Make sure you have both story books and factual books available.
- Encourage children to read the print that is all around them as store signs, road signs, labels on food containers, recipes, flyers.
- Read other types of text such as game instructions, a recipe, a children’s magazine, a comic book, a website.
- Reading a book or text more than once is a great way to boost confidence and improve the speed of reading.
- Discuss and talk about what your child reads. Some things you might say are: Can you make a prediction? What is a question you have? What is an interence you can make? What do you think that word means? Can you tell me what has happened so far? Does that remind you of something that happened to you?
- Tell your children what they did well while reading. Some things you might say are: You read well today. You told me what happened in the story. Your questions were interesting. You learned a new word today. You did a good job on figuring out words that you didn’t know. You concentrated well. You listened well when I was reading to you.
- Read often. Read regularly. Have fun.
