teaching children to read

It is time to start an epidemic in your home!  Teach your children to love books!  This is one crazy world we live in, but you can create an island of tranquility, free of commotion if you teach your child to love reading!  It is never too early to begin creating a great reading environment in your home and it is never too late, either!  Here are some tips to help you get started:

1. Read aloud to your children at least once a day…more if possible.  Choose a story that will grab your child’s interest and read it with enthusiasm!  Link the story to life and other books.  Ask your child if they can predict the outcome.  Talk about and discuss the book.

2. Put your children to bed and tell them that they can keep the light on and read for half an hour.  They will think you are giving them the gift of extra time to be awake but what you are really giving them is a gift of a lifetime – the habit of reading yourself to sleep.

3. Talk to your child about whatever they are reading whether it is a book or a cereal box!  You could even read some of it together.  Turn your child into a compulsive reader – one who reads whatever print is in front of them!

4.  When you are reading, say “Hey, listen to this!” and then read an interesting tidbit from your book or the newspaper.  This will help get your children interested in reading.

5. Leave books around.  Stack books beside the bed. Stack them beside the bathtub. Keep books and magazines in your car.  Leave newspapers and magazines lying around.  Who cares about a prize in tidiness?  You create a prize when you raise a reader!

5.  Put a sign on the refrigerator:  We are going to the library!  What books do you want?  Have each family member write down their book choices.

6. Put a map on the wall.  All reading doesn’t come from books!  Look for places that your friends and family live.

7.  Put up a bulletin board and stick postcards, menus, notes, etc.on it.  These are items you can read!

8. Read music lyrics, poems, rhymes, verses, riddles, jokes, commercials, birthday cards….anything you can read aloud to your child.

9. Establish a time that your entire family reads at least a couple of nights a week with no TV!!  You will find that your children will eventually look forward to this time.

10.  Help create a private reading space for your child.  Children feel cozy in their own little world when they are wrapped up in a blanket behind the sofa!  Help them to create a snug-as-a-bug-in-a-rug nest….a place to go with their books.  It might serve as a good “time out” spot too.  Let your child spend time in her cozy spot by herself.

A child that associates books with love is a happy child.  Help your child develop a positive attitude toward reading.    I carry many happy memories from my childhood and many of them stem from my own love of reading!  Nothing can ever take the place of a good book for me.  It is truly a great way to escape the doldrums of life!

Ideas and suggestions for this article came from “Let’s Read About – Finding Books They’ll Love To Read” by Bernice E. Cullinan