Reading and Children

making the most out of bedtime

Teaching a child to read is a great thrill. I love the looks on their faces when they sound out a few letters for the first time and say the word dog. This is not a moment I would want to save for a teacher, this is my special moment.

Children should be well on their way to knowing the alphabet and sounding out words long before they arrive at kindergarten. It is easy to teach and a lot of fun. Letters and phonics can be used in many different games. Using games, flash cards and daily reading time, letter and word recognition should come to your child early in life. The sooner the better and the more they read the smarter they will become.

I teach the love of reading very early in my children's life by getting into the habit of a bedtime book. This becomes a very special time for me and my children. It is the one time they can count on to have my undivided attention. It ends their day with a good feeling and getting them to bed on time is much easier when they know they get a story and a little one on one. I read once that the last waking moments in a youngsters life is played back to them many times in their dreams that night. The last impression of the day becomes a very important time to make sure your child is feeling good about life, family and themselves. A story, hug and a big kiss send them off to dreamland with the right feelings. Spanking, screaming and yelling "get to bed before I kill you" is not something I would want my child to think about before they fall asleep and dream about all night. Make bedtime special with a book.

As the children grow the bedtime story at our house becomes a mutual effort. I read this book and you can read that book, or I will read every other page and you read the rest. It requires a lot of patience at first, when their pages seem to take forever, but it does get better. The more you can get them to read and the more they enjoy it the better life will be for them in the future.

Reading at Home Tips

See if you can adapt some of this advice into your daily reading.

Read with expression:  Try using different voices whenever possible, become the characters in the book.

Talk about the pictures:  Take time to talk about the illustrations in the book.  Make note of the different colors, shapes, animals and scenes.  Does the illustration make you feel a certain way?

Read it again, and again:  Children love hearing the same book over and over again, far more times than you will enjoy reading it.  This can, however, be turned into fun if you let it.  Let your child start to tell the story, even if they can't yet read the words.  Try to memorize the text so you no longer have to read.  It is fun to watch your child the entire time you are reading to them, fascinating actually.

Engage the child in the story:  This means not rushing, stop to ask questions that will keep your child involved.  After rushing through a long stressful day it is sometimes hard to slow down for the night time story.  Take a few deep breaths, shift gears and enjoy some special time with your child.

Here are a few tips to make reading an important part of your child's daily life.

Combine activities with books:  Do you have a trip to the zoo planned?  Read a few zoo books first.  The event will be anticipated more and enjoyed more when you involve the magic of books.

Talk about what you read:  Talking about what you have just read is an excellent way to show your kids the importance of reading and how much you enjoy it.  Talking about it also brings up many good items for family discussions.  Talking and reading, the two things a family can never do to much of.

Lead by Example:  Or, practice what you preach.  You get the idea.  Fill your home with reading material and set an example by actually reading the magazines, newspapers and books that fill your home.

A lot has been written about reading and children.  There is just no way of stressing enough the importance of raising good readers, so please, take the time to make it an important part of your child raising.