Reading = Learning

Hello all,
Reading is a fun activity that you can engage in with your child at any time of the day. It is a great way to spend some time together and to really get your child interested in reading.

When children are very young, you will be doing most of the reading and your children will enjoy listening to you. Remember to choose books from a variety of genres and topics. Choose books that have rhyming words in them (Dr. Seuss books are a good choice for this). My personal favourite authors include Robert Munsch and Eric Carle. Also, I always encourage parents to have their own library of books at home that children can choose from. Your local public library is also a great place to get books from. You may also consider speaking to the children's librarian to get some ideas of authors that children enjoy.

While reading is a good way to wrap up the day or to just have fun, there is a lot you can do to support your child's learning. The following are some basic strategies you can use when reading to your child:

1. Read the title of the book. Talk about why the title is important and emphasize that it sets the stage for the story that follows.

2. As you read each page of the story, go on a letter hunt with your child. Ask them to find the letter "a" or the letters that makes the "sh" sound.

3. Have the children predict what will happen next. Talk about whether the prediction was accurate or not. Emphasize that predictions need to be logical and that it is important to use information from the story (the context) and information they can draw from (their own experiences, knowledge, etc.) to make these predictions.

4. At the end of the story, have your child retell the story in his or her own words. Model how this is done for the child, and use words like "first," "next," "then," "after" to guide their retelling of the story.

By no means is this an exhaustive list of the kinds of things you can do when reading to your children, and this list is only meant to provide you with a general guideline to use when reading to your child. Be sure to talk to your child's teacher about what you can do at home to support your child's developing skill and interest in reading.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to share them with me.  Until next time, keep reading!