Reading - Helping your little one at home
'Books are a uniquely, portable magic'
Your child will be bringing home books from the school reading scheme. When a book comes home please:
• Choose a time to read when both you and your child are calm, happy and ready to have a lovely time. Reading together shoulf be an enjoyable thing for you both.
• Discuss both the pictures and the story content
• Help them to focus on the print by pointing out words which they might already know
• Let your child turn the pages at their own pace and if there is repetitive text ask them to join in. After the book has been read several times your child may feel confident enough to try reading it.
• Encourage your child to re-tell the story in their own words
• Help your child to find known words or phrases within the text
• Talk about some of the characters in the story
• Talk about some of the major events in the story. Above all it is important that your child enjoys the books that you are reading with them or that they are looking at alone. They need to receive lots of praise for any and every effort that they make.
Remember that reading shouldn't be a fight. And you are certainly not limited to reading the books that come home from school. Get lost in the library! Big books, no word books, one page books or no picture books! Don't be afarid to read the book to your child, to read a page each, to 'read' a picture in another book, to listen to an audio story, to 'read' social situations, to read the same page over and over... just have a lovely time! :)