Reading Tips

Making the Most of Reading Minutes
A little planning can help busy mothers and fathers make the most of even a few minutes of bedtime reading:

• Read daily. Go to the library on the weekend and pick out several books for the week. Schedule special reading time to share one book with your child every night. This shows your child you value reading and your time together.
• Talk about it. Talk about the story after reading time and again in the morning. This reinforces the special time you spent together and is a great educational exercise.
• Try variety. Tell a story that you know or make one up together. This helps stimulate creativity. Another option is to sing familiar songs together at bedtime to help your child explore and develop rhythm and language.
• Teach the concept of time. Let your child choose books according to how much time you have to spend together (short, medium, long). "Tonight is a short book night. Can you find a short book that you want to read?" This teaches your child about time and involves your child in the decision process, which is empowering.
• Build excitement. If using a longer book, you can read a chapter or two each night. This helps build continuity and suspense for what's to come.
  

   

   

  Activity Idea: Poetry in motion

  When children "act out" a good poem, they learn to love its rhyme, rhythm, and the pictures it paints with a few well-chosen words. They grow as readers by connecting feelings with the written word.
  

  What you'll need:

  Poems that rhyme, tell a story, and/or are written from a child's point of view.
  

  What to do:

• Read a poem slowly to your child, and bring all your dramatic talents to the reading. (In other words, "ham it up.")
• If there is a poem your child is particularly fond of, suggest acting out a favorite line. Be sure to award such efforts with delighted enthusiasm.
• Suggest acting out a verse, a stanza, or the entire poem. Ask your child to make a face the way the character in the poem is feeling. Remember that facial expressions bring emotion into the performer's voice.
• Be an enthusiastic audience for your child. Applause is always nice.
• If your child is comfortable with the idea, look for a larger setting with an attentive, appreciative audience. Perhaps an after-dinner "recital" for family members would appeal to your child.
• Mistakes are a fact of life, so ignore them.

Poems are often short with lots of white space on the page. This makes them manageable for new readers and helps to build their confidence.