Today is Teacher Tuesday! Please welcome Hilda Stevens of Successful Innovations who is sharing four great tips on how to encourage your kids to read at home. Thank you Hilda!
Great Ideas to Make Reading Fun
By Hilda Stevens
Reading is a vital part of your child’s success in school. Providing opportunities to read at home will help to increase your child’s ability to become a strong reader, and a better student overall. Here are some suggestions you can use to make summer reading fun for your child.
1. Make a place in your home just for reading and writing.
This space can be in any room of the home. You will want this space to be comfortable so have pillows, blankets, or a favorite stuff animal to stretch out with. The idea is to allow your child to enjoy books without distractions. Fill this space with magazines, paper, pencils, crayons, markers, scissors, newspapers, and books. A plastic container makes the perfect storage box for all of these materials. With the lid in place, now your child has a portable desk on which to write.
2. You can help your child make his very own reading book about the family.
Collect photographs of the family and help your child glue or tape these to construction paper. Now you can help your child write about each picture. Depending on the age of your child, sentence dictation would be appropriate for younger children. Older children can write their own sentences describing the events in the photos. Now you can help your child to assemble the pages into a book form. The pages can be stapled or tied together with yarn. This family album will become a treasure for your child to read over and over again.
3. Have fun reading for information, in the kitchen!
Why not get cooking with your child? Let your child help with baking cookies or a cake by reading the recipe. Help your child learn the words: ingredients, directions, recipe, and temperature, to name a few. Your child will enjoy the time spent making plans for the special food dish that you will be preparing for the family and at the same time, learning to read for information.
4. Schedule a weekly family “No TV Night”.
Gather the family on a blanket or couch and enjoy this time reading and talking about some good books. Have your child read to you, as well. This will build confidence in his reading ability and make him feel special to be able to read aloud to an adult.
Be creative and think of other ways to engage your child in reading opportunities in your home. You are encouraging your child to see the joy of reading in all aspects of life.
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Hilda Stevens is co-founder and lead national educational consultant for Successful Innovations, Inc.. She has experience consulting and leading professional development workshops at the state and national levels. As a former Virginia educator with over 30 years of public school experience, Mrs. Stevens has had extensive training in Response to Intervention Strategies, Literacy Coaching, and Differentiated Instruction.
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