Get news via e-mail

Reading to Kids News

January 15, 2001  

Reading by 9: 36 Parent Tips for Reading!

1. Read to your child every day because children not only learn new words, they also learn about new and interesting places and things.
2. Keep an easily accessible basket of books for every child with their names on them. Frequently exchange or rotate the books in the basket.
3. To help with learning the alphabet, call out a letter and have your child lie on the floor in the position of the letter’s shape.
4. Give your child a set of plastic alphabet letters to play a guessing game where you close your eyes and identify the letters by shape.
5. When reading, turn the pages slowly and ask your child to talk about the pictures in the story.
6. Label furniture and other household items to help children learn and spell new words.
7. Play "I spy" and ask your child to point to letters in the alphabet when you are driving, walking, shopping or reading.
8. Take your child to story-telling times at your local library. This will make reading a fun activity.
9. Keep books, magazines and newspapers around the house. This creates a reading environment.
10. Help your child find letters on things you see every day: cereal boxes, food packages, signs, etc.
11. Read a book over and over again. Children love repetition and learn from it.
12. Encourage your children to make their own books as gifts. They can write and draw a story on pieces of paper stapled together.
13. Look at a magazine with your child. Ask him or her to find a picture that starts with the letter "A" sound. Then find a picture that starts with the "B" sound, and so on.
14. Don’t leave reading to the schools. Studies show that kids who read outside of school are far more likely to succeed than those who don’t.
15. Give books to your child as a reward. Remember to write a special message inside the books that you give.
16. Make an alphabet dictionary scrapbook and label each page with a letter of the alphabet. Then ask your child to cut out pictures from magazines with things that begin with each letter. Label the pictures so your child has his or her own dictionary.
17. Restrict the time your child watches TV. Read instead.
18. Start your own book of the month club with your child. You could take turns choosing the books or choose them together.
19. Say a word that begins with the letter "A." Ask your child to think of a word that begins with "B". Continue to alternate turns until you complete the alphabet.
20. Take your child to the library to get a library card and check out a book.
21. Take books wherever you go: in the car, on the bus, to the doctor, to the market, anywhere.
22. Say a word and ask your child to say a word that rhymes with your word. Continue taking turns adding words that rhyme (bat, cat, rat).
23. Send your child greeting cards and read them together. Pick out greeting cards with your child in a store. They show how words express feelings and ideas.
24. Make sure your child sees you reading so he or she knows that reading is important.
25. Young children enjoy the time you spend together. When you read together, they learn that reading time is special because it is shared with you.
26. Change your voice when you read different parts of the story. Voices bring the story to life.
27. Tailor reading activities to your children. Have a librarian help your children choose books about their special interests.
28. Set an example. Children copy what they see. When they see you turn off the television and read a newspaper, a magazine or a book, your child learns that reading is important.
29. Shop at garage sales and encourage books as gifts. Your children will learn to appreciate books and their value.
30. Read everything you see from directories to maps to instructions and recipes. This will help your children see that reading is important in everything that you do.
31. As your children learn to read, you can take turns reading pages. This helps them feel that learning is a partnership.
32. Expose children to different uses of language and expression by varying their reading material. Alternate reading them stories, poems, fiction and nonfiction.
33. Make a time and a place for reading. The average American child watches an average of three hours of television a day. It shouldn’t be too hard to find some time every day to read.
34. Liven up the action by making the noises that correspond to what’s happening in the story. For instance, you could knock when there’s knocking or you could try flickering the lights when there’s a storm. This will captivate your children and spark their imaginations.
35. Help your child become an active reader. Share what you think about the story. Did the character do the right thing?
36. As your children get older, ask questions about what they read on their own. When they tell you the story, they learn to organize and remember the information.