Top tips for reading to your child
Top tips for reading
- Bedtime routine
Encourage a consistent bedtime routine including shared stories before bed.
- Encourage your child to read
Reading helps your child’s wellbeing, develops imagination and has educational benefits too. Just a few minutes a day can have a big impact on children of all ages.
- Read aloud regularly
Read to your child every day. It is a wonderful time to cuddle up and enjoy the wonderful world of stories. Stories matter and children love re-reading them and talking about the pictures and characters. Add props and different voices to bring the story to life.
- Encourage reading choice
Try reading different materials and add these to different areas of the home. For example, read a magazine, a recipe when cooking, a shopping list, a secret code, a clue on a treasure hunt, a poem, a non fiction book to learn more about their favourite animal, a story, an instruction when playing a game.....
The possibilities are endless.
- Read together
Life can be busy but prioritising time to share books together can be calming for all members of the family. Children will mirror what they see, so watching you enjoy stories and books is hugely important.
- Create a comfortable space
Find or make a comfy reading area, snuggled on the sofa, in a duvet, on a beanbag. Reading doesn't need to be formal. Why not try finding how many different places you can share a book or the most exciting/unusual?
- Make use of your local library
Library's have some fantastic books and great activities. Don't forget the Summer reading challenge.
- Talk about books
Talk about the front cover or blurb and make predictions. Ask them what they think of the story and if they would change anything, perhaps they could create an alternative ending? Talk about how the book makes you/them feel and if they remember anything similar.
- Bring reading to life
Play games with stories, pretend to be characters, make different voices, use teddies.
Try using reading in everyday routines such as cooking, shopping or daily walks.
- Make reading active
Play games that involve making connections between pictures, objects and words, such as reading about an object and finding similar things in your home or going on a treasure hunt.