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You know that reading aloud to your child is super important already, right? Because it’s really, really, really important. Reading should be a fun activity and a time that both you AND your child look forward to daily. Here are my some of my best read aloud tips for parents.
Get silly.
One of my idols, Mem Fox says this in her book, Reading Magic: “The fire of literacy is created by the emotional sparks between a chid, a book, and the person reading. It isn’t achieved by the book alone, nor by the child alone, nor by the adult who’s reading aloud-it’s the relationship winding between all three, bringing them together in easy harmony.” PREACH IT MEM! There is nothing special about this book or that book or ANY book. It’s you and your child make the magic. Get into the characters. Make silly voices. Read with expression. Be loud. Have fun. Laugh.
Give your child undivided attention.
Make reading a special time where your child knows that they will have your complete attention. If your child associates reading and books with your undivided, snuggly attention; then of course they are going to love and look forward to this time.
Talk about the story.
If you only read the words in the book, you are missing the point of reading. Real reading goes way deeper than just the words on the page. Thinking and getting into the story is what makes reading fun for all ages. Talk about what you see in the pictures. Talk about the characters. Make predictions. Good readers ask questions and think about the books they are reading. Model this for your child.
Bring the book to life.
This study looked at interactive book reading and what happened when parents or teachers talked about the book they were reading and also insured that the child could play with concrete objects that were represented in the book. The children who were engaged in this type of book reading had larger vocabularies and better language skills. Reading a book about a vegetable garden? Plant a vegetable. Reading a book about animals? Visit the zoo. Have you ever read a book that involved some type of food and then at the back of the book seen a recipe for it? Make it! This cake recipe is from my favorite version of The Red Hen.
Act it out.
I can’t tell you how many little hands have played with and loved these little monkeys! One of my classroom stations involved retelling. I just put this board book, these monkeys and a picture of a bed in the bucket and you would have thought it was gold. It one of the most popular station in our classroom! Five Little Monkeys is one of my favorite books for little ones. It incorporates song, repetition, counting and it’s perfect for little ones to retell. The whole treasury is great! Give your little one a familiar book and some props to go with the story and watch the magic unfold! This is so powerful for memory and language.
Mix it up your read alouds.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with reading the same book over and over and over. That repetition is powerful in your child’s development. We all have a favorite book! But, don’t let your child get burned out of reading at age 5 because they are sick of all the same books. Get your happy little family to your local public library, sign up for a free library card and some new books to read! Speaking of the library…
I can’t take credit for this song. I learned it at Mother Goose Time at my local library, but I absolutely love it! It’s a great song to sing while picking out a book for bedtime. You can also add in sign language for some of the words in the song like: more, read, book, your, my and happy!