Reading is one of the most crucial school subjects, it can be lots of fun, but some children can struggle. Whether your child takes to reading right away or needs a little encouragement, these tips will help you to support your kids.
1 . Plenty of reading together
Practice makes perfect, if you want to improve your child’s reading skills you’ll need to do plenty of reading together. Read aloud to your child, and have them read to you too. When you’re reading, focus on fun character voices and vocab recognition. Ask your child questions along the way, to check their understanding. It’s important to choose books carefully, if you pick something that’s too difficult, you could put your child off of reading.
2. Play vocab games
If you’re keen to improve your child’s reading skills, vocab games are a great shout. You might like to make up your own games or check out a few online resources. Improving your child’s vocab skills will improve their reading and writing at the same time. Vocab skills also contribute to social and emotional development. Whether it’s word memory games or spelling tests there are so many different options.
3. Check out reading apps
Lots of kids enjoy playing on apps, and there are plenty of educational ones to choose from. To start supporting your child today, these children’s apps are a fantastic place to start:
- Reading Eggs: This application focuses on reading activities, reading games, and plenty of digital storybooks.
- Reading Raven: The Reading Raven app offers pre-reading or reading sentence activities, (depending on your child’s level and age).
- Hooked On Phonics: Another great app to learn phonics, this app has plenty of cute characters to keep your kids entertained.
4. Create a reading corner
The more that your child practices, the more that their reading skills will improve. If you want to encourage them to read it’s a good idea to create a cozy reading corner. You can do this using a soft armchair and a few bean bags. You might also add cuddly toys, a rug, and a nice bookcase. To make the area extra special, why not decorate the space, using story-themed artwork?
5. Focus on what they love
Ask your kids what their favorite books are, help them to discover their interests, and experience these through reading. If your child isn’t sure what they like, you might want to share with them the books you loved as a child?
6. Practice writing activities
Practicing writing activities will help your kid to improve their reading and vocab. You might try writing stories or writing games. If your child finds writing hard, it’s important to give them lots of praise. Offer plenty of kind words, or reading prizes. If you’re particularly concerned about how your child is struggling, you might consider talking to their teacher.
7. Ensure that reading is fun
If you want to improve your child’s reading skills you’ve got to make sure they are having plenty of fun. There are plenty of ways to make reading more fun, for instance, you might try acting out the story books? Alternatively, you could take your child to some of reading-based extra curricular activities for kids, for example:
- Try checking out reading workshops at your local library.
- Take your kids to literacy-based exhibitions.
- Let them try creative writing workshops.
8. Keep on learning
If you want to support your child’s learning journey, you need to keep on learning yourself. There are plenty of inspirational tools you can find online, these are a few good places to start:
The Read-Aloud Revival:
If you want to provide your kids with a great reading experience this is the podcast you need. Learn about kids’ literacy and hear from experts. Here you’ll get lots of tips to encourage your children.
The Guardian Children’s Book Podcast:
This is a fun podcast for kids and adults alike, expect interviews with popular kids authors. One of the best features is that your kids can send in questions for the authors to answer!
Homer:
The Homer website has plenty of learning resources for children. Here you can learn about plenty of useful topics, from early phonics activities to how to check your child's print awareness.
Supporting your child’s literacy skills can take a little time and patience. Remember, plenty of positive praise is key, especially if your child is finding things hard. From educational apps to vocab games, there are so many options for parents.
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