HELP YOUR CHILD DEVELOP AN APPRECIATION FOR BOOKS

HELP YOUR CHILD DEVELOP AN APPRECIATION FOR BOOKS

Reading is essential to a child’s learning. Instilling into your child a love and enjoyment of reading is a skill that will follow them into adulthood. The love of books and reading can begin as early as infancy as you begin to read to your baby.

TIPS ON INSTILLING APPRECIATION IN BOOKS

• Children particularly love the closeness they feel when they can cuddle up with you as you read them a story.

• Allow your child to be able to see and touch the book.

• Children often request the same book to be read over and over. When you do this you are reinforcing vocabulary and a familiarity of the words being used.

• Make your reading time fun and interesting.

• When reading to your child ask questions such as: What do you think is going to happen? How do you think______ feels about _________? Chant together repeated words or phrases.

• Show your child how books can be used to learn things.

For example: Your child is interested in dinosaurs – Read together books about dinosaurs.

• Make books with your child. Use old magazines to cut out pictures or draw pictures.

For example: Make a book about animals, find and cut out pictures of animals and glue them on construction paper staple the pages together to make an animal book.

• Provide a cozy corner with a bookshelf filled with your child’s favorite books where they can curl up and look at the books by themselves.

• Play together acting out your favorite books.

• Have books that have bright colors, simple illustrations, and textures

• Have books that introduce different cultures

• Model how to properly care for and handle books. Show your children how to turn pages from front to back. Show them how to turn the pages slowly so they do not tear.

• Give your child the responsibility to put the books back on the shelf after reading them.

• Take your child to the library. Often library’s children’s room will have activities related to books and story time where books are read to the children.

Reading to your child is the beginning for your child to learning print awareness. They begin to learn the concept that the words printed on the page are what you are saying. They may begin to recognize certain words like “stop” or “McDonalds”. They learn that words are read from left to right. All these are important elements of reading and writing development.

Learning to read can be a challenging process for most children. Teaching your child an appreciation for books will give them a motivation to learn to read. Additionally, an the more a reads the better reader they will become.