177 Frances Street, RR#5, Mitchell, Ontario N0K 1N0
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177 Frances Street, RR#5, Mitchell, Ontario N0K 1N0 |
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Parent Corner: Books, books, books: Why we love books!
We read for entertainment, to pass the time, to visit other worlds, to grow our sense of what is possible. We hunt for treasure. We are seeking new things we can hope to be, as well as clues and answers to what our lives are meant to be. At best we read to challenge ourselves and to be changed.
Reading is important for many reasons. Some of these reasons are very practical, while others are not so obvious. When we teach our children to read at an early age and to improve their reading we are preparing them to be productive adults in the future.
Not only is reading a required skill to complete school and then university it is also a needed skill in adulthood. The ability to read and learn new things throughout your life keeps your brain young and health, and some studies even say protects against diseases like dementia and Alzheimer's.
When you know how to read you learn, understand and comprehend new subjects that you have never known about before. Maybe you have always been interested in snakes. When you can read you can learn anything you want about snakes!
It’s a known fact that the more children read the better they can read. The better your reading skills the better you can understand what you are reading and then reading becomes enjoyable and fun. Reading actually becomes much more than something you need to do. It becomes something you enjoy doing!
If you get your children to read out loud they will learn proper grammar and pronunciation. Reading out loud improves their spoken language development and helps them learn to express themselves clearly.
By exposing your children to books, magazines, and the internet your children will be exposed to new words. Even if they don’t quite understand the word they will figure it out by understanding what the other words on the page are saying. They can also use a dictionary. This not only allows their vocabulary to grow but it deepens their level of understanding of what they are reading.
Reading opens doors for your child that will continue through to adulthood. They can learn about things that interest them but that they are not able to physically explore. Books also allow children to role play. They can pretend they are a king, a great warrior, a caveman. They can place themselves in the story and become a part of the story. Reading can also enhance a child’s social skills. Reading can be a social activity and a parent reading to a child encourages social interaction. We talk about the books as we are reading and we talk about books after we have finished reading. Think about all those book clubs that have been created and all just to talk about books!
Finding
what your child likes to read
Make
reading a positive experience. Find books on topics your child
likes/finds interesting
Read with your child each day, but when your child becomes frustrated or tired take a break.
Don’t feel like you need to finish a book. If your child is not enjoying the book you are reading, put it down and try another one. We want to make reading enjoyable and not always ‘work’.
Try a variety of types of reading material, like non-fiction, fiction, magazines, comics, read signs, flyers, mail, cereal boxes, shopping lists, the list goes on!
Ask your child what they would like to read about, or have your child select the book
Types of Books to read:
1. Non Fiction
- Learn new vocabulary
- Broaden their understanding of the world
- Don’t have to be read front to back or all at once; start anywhere in the book your child might be interested in.
2. Wordless
- Great pictures
- Encourages imagination and creativity
- Builds narrative skills ie. tell a story
- Develops understanding of story structure ie. beginning, middle (climax), end, characters, plot, ect
- Opportunity to be creative or silly together
3. Alphabet Books
- Introduce and practice learning letters
- Some have intricate artwork and can develop vocabulary through new objects beginning with particular letter (ie. Yak for Y)
4. Magazines
- Owl, Sports Illustrated jr., National Geographic.
- Generally speaking, there is a magazine available for any topic a child might be interested in. Check online or go to larger book chains, such as Chapters/Indigo for less familiar magazines or topic-specific options.
- Many magazines have child-friendly websites which can allow for more interaction and usually contains games.
5. Books about Feelings
- Help children understand and express their feelings
- Develops understanding that others feel that way too (children aren’t alone)
6. Concept books
- Books that cover abstract items, such as over/under; few/many; numbers; colours, ect.
- Help to discuss items you may have a harder time explaining or reinforces the explanation you already gave.
What should you focus on?
Vocabulary
Introduce new words (vocabulary) to your child
Non-fiction and fiction books provide more new vocabulary than a regular television show
A larger vocabulary will help children when sounding out words; children need to
know words for this action since
English is not an overly phonetic language ie. carrot isn’t pronounced car rot
Increased vocabulary will assist children in understanding and expressing feelings and
abstract concepts
Narrative Skills
Tell your child what you did that day, in order, or retell a story you read, heard on the news.
Modeling story telling will help children learn the concept- ie. beginning, middle, end- start at beginning, ect.
You can ask children what they did in their day or to retell a story they heard, ect
Talk about books- details, can you predict what will happen,
Tell stories with props
If your child has a favourite book have them tell it to you
Repetitive phrases- point it out and have children “read” them
Wordless books will help children learn to tell stories (begin by asking questions about what is going on in picture, scaffold, eventually have child tell own story themselves to you).
How do we read to our children?
1. Read
Expressively.
2. Read
book the same way every time.
3. Animate you eyes: scared, happy, frustrated, angry- many things we can do to
our eyes to keep our children listening.
4. Voice: loud and soft; fast and slow; and high and low. We can p-a-u-s-e.
The words on the page will tell us which of these to choose. We don’t need
speech training. We simply need to pay close attention.
5. Children learn as they listen: Setting the story telling example will teach
children how to read, as well as how to read aloud and share a story. They
will pick it up through their ears (as will tentative parents!)
6. The Ending: d-r-a-g o-u-t t-h-a-t l-a-s-t l-i-n-e. The more slowly we say
it, the more satisfied our listeners will be!
References:
Minar, J. (2006) Reading books is important to development. http://www.articleclick.com/Article/Reading-Books-Is-Important-To-Development/3238
Fox, M.http://www.memfox.com/reading-magic-and-do-it-like-this/ accessed on September 23, 2009.
Ideas provided by the Early Literacy Specialist
To view previous Parent Corner topics click below:
Activities for cold winter days
Lunches and Snacks with appeal
Perth Care For Kids is committed to supporting the importance of early childhood education and development by offering a variety of flexible, quality programs and services for children, families and caregivers.
We are proud to be the host agency for the Perth-Middlesex Early Years Centres.