Photo By: Sean Dreilinger
From just a few months old, babies are captivated by being told a story. Looking at the pictures and listening to the differing tones and inflections of the reader’s voice helps them build a better picture of the world, from even when they are too young to start speaking for themselves.
As parents, involving yourselves in your child’s education has been proven to raise their grades in school as well as helping them develop a lifelong love of learning.
We’ve hunted around the internet to find some of the most helpful tips to help you encourage your child to read more at home.
Reward Them
Studies have shown that by raising a child’s educational aspirations, parents can boost their child’s achievements in school and encourage a lifelong love of learning.
Playing an active role in boosting your child’s ambitions starts at home, and for kids, nothing says ‘a job well done’ quite like a shiny sticker on a reward chart.
So why not try discussing some mini reading goals for your child and explain to them how they will be rewarded if they put in the extra effort?
By setting high aspirations for them, they will follow and hopefully set high aspirations for themselves.
School Stickers has a range of reading rewards to encourage your little bookworms, which can be customised to include your school or child’s name or a personal message of praise.
Read aloud to your child every single day
Including bedtime stories in your child’s routine is enjoyable for both the child and the adult and this activity really puts them in the mood for a good night’s sleep. Taking the opportunity to read to your child often has also been found to improve their imagination, vocabulary and listening skills.
It doesn’t have to be for very long, 15 minutes is fine, and it doesn’t even have to be at bedtime. On a nice day, why not have story time in the garden or at the park?
Set a good example
If you want to encourage your child to enjoy reading, then it makes sense that you should also show a personal interest in the activity, by making sure that you always have a book on-the-go in quieter moments around the house.
Reading newspapers and magazines in front of your children will also have a positive influence on their associations with reading, so don’t worry too much about the material (although perhaps that copy of Fifty Shades… is best left on your night stand, to avoid any awkward questions regarding plot).
Play some word games
Sure, a young child may not be a great opponent in a game like Scrabble, but there are many other word games, and child versions of the classic board games, you can buy that will get the whole family laughing, bonding and most importantly, reading together.
You don’t even have to go so far as buying an actual game to get your child working on their literacy skills. For instance, you can get your child to read the road signs as you drive in the car and then get them to come up with as many words that rhyme with the signs.
Hey, you never know, by doing this you might avoid entirely the ‘Are we nearly there yet?’ questions from the little passengers in the back seat!
To make off-the-cuff word games a bit more game like, why not use our Sticker Making Tool to create your own merit stickers to use as prizes? In this example, we have used a wizard image to praise the child for having a magical way with words.
Read to the Dog
It may sound silly, and your dog may not understand a word of what your child is saying, but by encouraging your child to read a story to your pet, you can give them a captive audience, an audience that won’t criticise or judge them if they stumble on a word.
Special ‘reading education assistance dogs’ became a feature at Oakhill Primary School in Tamworth and the scheme was proven to be a great success.
You can and should of course have your child read to humans as much as possible, but if you’re busy and Fido is curled up in his basket for long enough, why not give it a go?
If you have any tips on how you can encourage reading at home, share your thoughts and tips below.