Families Education TURNING YOUR CHILD INTO A BOOKWORM

Is your youngster a reluctant reader? Despite tempting them with every type of book, do they still only read when they ‘have’ to and not for pleasure?

The long summer holidays are an ideal time to work with your child. Hopefully, they’ll soon be ditching their screens and curling up with an engrossing story book instead.

We all understand the importance of reading in a child’s development and teachers are always looking for ways to engage children in reading. If you can duplicate their efforts at home, that just might make all the difference. So let’s get started:

CREATE A READING DEN

Every home should have a reading corner or den; a place that is inviting and excites children. Choose a quiet spot and add some pillows, bean bags or cushions to curl up on. Perhaps you could put up some posters to get them in the mood for imaginative thinking. What about: Under the Sea, Rainbows, Castles, Transport, In the Jungle?

USE TELEVISION SUBTITLES

Put your child’s favourite programmes on with subtitles and no sound. Can they read along and understand what is happening?

TRY KARAOKE WITH LYRICS

Host karaoke sessions so that children are challenged to read and sing lyrics on the screen.

LEARN A POEM TOGETHER

Why not learn a topical poem alongside your child: find one about holidays, the weather or beaches to fit the season!

HOST A BOOK ‘CAFE’ PLAY DAY

Put a range of books and reading materials on a table and encourage children to sample them and then discuss with one another.

FILM YOURSELF READING A STORY

Think of it as CBBC bedtime stories. Use your phone to film yourself reading a story and send in the video to your child’s teacher. If other parents do the same, the whole class can enjoy a story read by someone other than their teacher!

USE TECHNOLOGY

Children can also listen to stories with different forms of technology depending on what you have available: a tablet, iPad and CD player are all options. If you have the budget and are feeling fancy, there are some fabulous story telling devices such as a Toniebox or Yoto player too. These are really child friendly and great for a range of ages.

GET THE WHOLE FAMILY INVOLVED

Children take pleasure in reading with younger or older children and this can have a great impact on children’s progress. If you have more than one child, encourage siblings to get involved by recommending and sharing the books they love.

Provide a broad range of reading materials

Try to provide the broadest possible range of reading materials. This includes everything from recipe books to graphic novels, blogs and instructions, as well as traditional books. It matters far less what your child reads than whether they read: if a cereal box is what they enjoy, that’s fine. Once they’re reading for pleasure, they’ll move on to more traditional reading material.

Children enjoy reading about characters that they can relate to. Make sure to include picture books, and those that depict children from different family structures, cultures, religions and also physical abilities.

Friends and family may have books their children have enjoyed that they will be glad to pass on to you. Charity shops are also a fantastic source of very affordable reading material.

Make a habit of regular library visits. Most have comfortable seating corners where families sit and read before choosing more books to take home. And of course it means there’s a constant selection of new stories and fact books to discover - for free.

By Emma Shingleton

And why not enjoy a book yourself? Leading by example and being seen reading for pleasure every day will encourage your child to do the same. Tell them what your book is about and why you are enjoying it. Reading doesn’t have to be the traditional reading of a book in silence. Discuss what you read as a family.

When you read to your child, encourage them to think about characters and how they might be feeling, or how they themselves would react in a certain situation. Bring characters to life by asking questions throughout the day about how the children think a character would react. For example, when resolving a sibling dispute, you could ask how they think the wicked witch would solve the problem.

Emma Shingleton is a former primary school teacher who now writes for PlanBee (www.planbee.com) about issues affecting teachers, schools and pupils.

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