Spring is a great time to revitalize your family reading time. The number one tip is to make reading aloud a priority. All ages of children can enjoy hearing a variety of stories read aloud. Perhaps the time after dinner is the perfect opportunity to take fifteen minutes while your children are still alert and institute a tradition of reading aloud. If you have a child in early childhood classes and an elementary school age child you can include your older child in reading aloud a picture book to your younger child. Often the younger child will enjoy playing nearby while you read a chapter book aloud to your elementary age children.
When reading aloud, the following strategies are helpful in bringing the book alive for your children and increasing their engagement in the reading experience.
- Preview the book by exploring the cover and looking at the pictures in the book.
- Set the purpose for reading the book by stating whether the book is nonfiction or fiction and having your child make a connection to similar books.
- Have fun as you read and use different voices for the different characters.
- Your child can echo lines from the book that contain rhyming words or patterns.
- Pause after every couple of pages to talk with your child about the characters, setting or plot when reading a fiction book. If the book is nonfiction, have your child talk about facts that they already knew and facts that are new for them. Then have them generate questions that they hope will be answered as they read the book.
- When finished reading, ask your child, what part of the book really stood out for them or what was their favorite part and why.
Bedtime reading is a time to be treasured. This is a time where reading a book will allow your child to follow the story in a more relaxed manner as they prepare to fall asleep. Families and children who read at bedtime often remember these encounters with books as a wonderful experience.
The following links are for booklists that offer great suggestions and include age suggestions.
https://www.goodreads.com/list/tag/read-aloud
Take a moment and remember some of your favorite books to read or listen to as a child. These books are wonderful selections to read with your child. They will be very excited to listen even more closely knowing that you loved this book when you were a child.
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