Watching your child develop and make progress is fun. Reading and reading regularly with your child is one of the most important things you can do to help a child start life on the upside.
As parents our daily routines and work life often make it difficult to sit down every night to read to our little children. Sometimes you will even find the child is so tired after school or nursery that you feel its not right to burden the child anymore. Its all understandable.
Approached the right way, supporting your child at an early age is a win win for all. You will not only enjoy seeing your child read but you will be glad you help.
To support our parents in Bradford city; here is our top tips for reading with your little one:
- Don’t force it – there is no point reading with your child if he or she is not in the mood. Choose the time and ensure it’s the time you can get their attention. If you ask for a reading session and its also the time your child is desperately doing something else you are sure it will not go well. Usually straight after school or nursery doesn’t help. The trick is to find a time when both the parent and the child are relaxed. In the end you want to make sure your time is not wasted and the child equally make most out of it.
- Let it seem like a treat not a chore – the key here is how you sell reading time the child. You want it to sound like brighter or special part of the day when the two of you get the chance to share and have a conversation on a new subject. So instead of “Lilly its time for you to do your reading” a butter option will be “Lilly you ve got a new book shall we read it together”. What you will be doing here is to get your child to engage without feeling it’s a chore.
- Build in Games that helps children read – there are loads of games out there you can introduce your child to. A lot of these games can introduce children to high frequency words, tricky words, phonics etc. There is a website called Twinkl; it’s a good starting point to do this. Missing reading games alongside traditional reading makes the whole thing fun for children.
- Read a Bed Time Story – yes sometimes it looks demanding but each time you share a bedtime story with your child you are modelling what a good reader looks like to the child. You are teaching and reinforcing how important books and reading are life skills.
- You don’t have to restrict reading to only books – One of the exciting thing about children is once they begin to read they want to give a go at any word they see. Encourage your child in this moment to pronounce and help introduce them to new words. Usually they won’t just mention the word; they want to know the meaning of the word which can spark another good conversation altogether from history to sports etc.
Making time to support your little one to read is always a great investment. Have fun!
By
Admin – Little Horton Lane Nursery
Visit our web page for similar blogs (www.littlehortonnursery.co.uk) Call us on 01274557143 We provide childcare at Bradford City centre 2 min away from Bradford Uni. And 3 min away from Bradford interchange.