Start the New Year with good reading habits to get your children ‘reading fit.’ Helping your children learn to read is the most important activity you can do to help with their education.
1. Read aloud to your children as often as possible. This is particularly important for struggling readers who will see that reading can be enjoyable and exciting, rather than another piece of homework to be ticked off.
2. Listen to your children read every day. Just ten minutes a day will make a huge difference to their progress. If children are tired or struggling with a book, help them out by sharing it. Ensure your children have access to good quality, inspiring books at the right reading level. They will lose interest with books that are too challenging and will not make progress if books are too easy.
3. Play more board games. Most families get the board games out over Christmas, but they are often forgotten about once busy working lives continue.
4. Make time for reading yourself – and let your children see you. Research shows that the impact of parents’ reading, has a huge positive impact on children’s reading. If children never see their parents reading, they are much less likely to pick up a book themselves. Boys are more likely to pick up a book if they see they see their dads reading.
