Tips on Reading With Children 1. Begin reading with your children when they are infants. Children this age love to hear the sound of your voice and look at illustrations. Between the ages of one month to two years, children's language development is almost perfect. Thus, the new vocabulary and concepts introduced in books is great way to introduce new words to your child. 2. Try to pick a regular time and place to read with your children. Bedtime is great, but there may be other times which help to calm your child down and focus in on reading with you. This gives children something to look forward to and tells them that you value this special time enough to spend it with them every day (or every other day). 3. As much as possible, let your children help select what you will read together. This helps children feel empowered by the process of reading, land helps them understand that they have choices about what they read. Of course you always want to be introducing new books for them to love, but by letting kids choose, they will be very exited and look forward to reading. 4. Interact with your children when reading. It's important not to get too carried with "telling the story." Rather, it's more important to let kids ask questions and answer your questions about the story. It's also a great way to understand what your child is thinking. If you just read the story and don't ask questions along the way, you may miss the most interesting part of reading together - your child's imagination. 5. Have older siblings help with reading. It's fun to have the whole family reading together. Older sibs can read stories with different voices or even act out parts of the story. Drama helps children remember and enjoy a story for a long time. 6. Take regular trips to the library. Show your children where and how to get their own books. Reading patterns are developed at an early age. If kids learn that they can go to the library and take out their own books, you will help them understand this free resource and get them to become lifelong learners. 7. Many children love to hear the same story again and again. Much like many other stages in life, this is a stage of reading development. By hearing the same story repeated, children not only learn to memorize the story, they memorize the words on the page. This is how many children learn to read at home. 8. Show your kids that reading is important to you, too. Have plenty of reading material around the house. In addition, pens, markers, crayons and paper help kids see that writing is a process that comes from reading. This will help give your children the message that both things are valued by you. sumber: www.pbskids.com
