Reading with Your Child

My family will be moving in a few weeks. I've been so busy looking through things in the basement. Deciding what to keep and get rid of is pretty hard and time consuming. I've been going through all of my teaching things too and downsizing. Talk about painful! It has taken years to accumulate all of the teaching things that I have.

While I was cleaning this week, I found some information on reading with your child. I thought I'd share these tips with you all. Please keep in mind that some of these tips are meant for older children, but there are still plenty of suggestions that will help you with your preschooler.

Before:

• Talk with your child about the book.
• Together, look at the book's cover and predict what will happen in the story.
• Look at the pictures.
• Set up a successful reading experience for your child.
• Provide a motivating interest in the book.

During:

• Give your child enough time to problem solve.
• Provide clues such as "Look at the picture."
• If your child makes an error, give him time to realize his error. Then say, "Something wasn't quite right. Try that again." or "Does that make sense?"
• Not all errors need to be corrected, especially errors that do not change the meaning of the text.
• Remember to offer praise and encouragement such as "You helped yourself by looking at the picture. Good job!"

After:

• Discuss the story, plot, and characters with your child.
• Ask your child to tell you about his/her favorite part.
• Go back to specific things your child did well.
• Keep this part of reading with your child fun!