Do you enjoy reading to your child? Try it if you aren’t doing it on a regular basis. The advantages to you and your child are too many to count! Just imagine this – you snuggling up with your child for a bedtime story session. What better way to end the day?
Now contrast this with a TV watching session before bed. Your soothing voice compared to the TV blaring; the “child appropriate” content of the book you are reading to your child compared to what’s on TV. Let’s face it, there isn’t much for children on the electronic media, and I’m often horrified to see “miniature adults” instead of children on TV shows.
So, back to books. As far as possible make it such an interesting experience that your child looks forward to it every time. If his/her face lights up whenever you mention “story time”, you know you’re doing it right. Get into a cosy corner, place a rug, have lots of cushions around, keep a stack of your child’s favourite books readily accessible, make sure there’s ample lighting, and you’re set.
There’s no age to start reading to your child! In fact, the earlier the better.
For small children, pick books that have more illustrations that text. Big books with lots of colourful pictures are what you need. Children love the comfort of familiar routines and repetitions, so don’t be surprised if they want to read the same book every day. In fact if you ask them to pick, you can be sure it’ll be the same one day after day after day. It’s ok!
Use appropriate voice modulation and gestures to make the narration more interesting. Stop midway to ask questions or to allow your child to make a comment or ask a question. Get your child to make predictions at several points in the story. Ask “What do you think is going to happen now?” This is a very important skill to be developed in children.
Build up a book collection and teach your children to treasure it. Teach them to care for their books – no tearing pages, no spilling food or water on books, no dog ears on pages – use bookmarks. In fact if you and your child make bookmarks at home, it’s more likely that they will be used. You could also make a “book caterpillar” by joining several green circles. Draw eyes and a mouth on the first circle to make the face. Every time you complete a book, show your child how you write the name of the book on one circle of the caterpillar’s body. The more you read to your child, the longer your caterpillar will become!
Happy reading!
