Here are some great tips and advice from Miss Joanna for encouraging young readers.
Parents are always very excited and eager for their children to read, and this is totally understandable as reading is fundamental to future learning as well as being very exciting!
In our kindergarten room, we provide an environment full of reading opportunities all day long, such as:
– Question of the day on the whiteboard
– Morning message
– Labels on toys, baskets of markers, furniture, etc.
– Phonetic games and activities
We provide an environment filled with literacy and teach it explicitly, but it always seems that for each child individually, it “clicks” when it “clicks.” Typically, this happens when children are 5 or just turning 6, but not always.
One of our top tips for parents is not to pressure their children or force them to practice. We find that, more often than not, this ends up pushing children away from wanting to try. We see time and time again that, once it “clicks,” children take off and often progress incredibly quickly towards reading full sentences and more! It’s just about waiting patiently (while they’re in the right environment) for it to happen.
With all this being said, here are some gentle activities you can work on at home to start a positive foundation for your child’s reading journey:
- Starting sound: look for things around you with a certain starting sound (ball, bubble bath, broom, etc.)
- Reading signs while in the car or out in the world – especially things they might recognize already: STOP, EXIT, Walmart, their street, etc.)
- Writing letters or high-frequency words with interesting items: sidewalk chalk, in shaving cream, bath crayons, or make it out of snack foods
Lastly, the most important thing you can do to encourage a young reader is to model behaviour of what you want to see. Let your child see you read, either to them at bedtime or, even more importantly, for pleasure while on the couch. Children want nothing more than to be like the adults around them. Let them see you enjoy the wonder of reading, and they’ll be more inclined to do it too!
