Practice 20 Minutes Each Day
Encourage your preschool and school-age children to read 20 minutes each day! It doesn’t matter what they read, as long as they learn to read.
Parents can teach preschool children easy consonant-vowel-consonant words by reading and pointing to the words. Talk about the sounds of the letters and have the child point to the word and repeat the word.
School-age children need to read something they enjoy reading. It doesn’t matter if it is a dozen informational paragraphs with pictures, comic books or graphic novels (age-appropriate, of course), or chapter books. Of course, we want to get them to read chapter books. We can start with short stories then work toward chapters that lead from one to the other to tell a story at the end of several chapters.
Literacy includes math skills. Encourage school-age children to practice their addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts 20 minutes every night. The goal is to complete 100 problems in 3 minutes.
Write Notes
We were taught to underline and highlight. It doesn’t work. The best way to remember what you read is to write notes (faster if you do it in cursive, then abbreviations). Write in a reading journal. It can be divided into Reading for Pleasure or by subject.
I love “sticky notes” to write notes on and stick them out to the side of the page, if I find something I want to refer to later.
Use notecards to write quotes that are informational or interesting. Get a card box and file them by subject. Debate teams use this method.
You are 80% more likely to remember what you wrote than if you underline or use a highlighter.
Use a Dictionary
Put a dictionary near where you read. After you write a word in your reading journal, say the word (browsers will say them correctly—most of the time, so repeat them), and try to use the new word in a sentence during a conversation with someone.
Make a Checklist to Help Children Learn to Read
Checklists are great to help you to remember things! Pilots use them all the time: to start the engine, shut off the engine, emergency procedures, etc. Have a checklist for your morning routines, go to bed routines, before you leave the house routines, or when you get home from school: For example: chores, homework, play, eat, read 20 minutes, math 20 minutes.
Read to an Adult
Read out loud to an adult once a week to show them how well you can read. Practice reading to your stuffies or a little brother or sister. They think you are so cool because you can read.
The adult can read one paragraph, and the child can read the next paragraph. Then the child reads the book or chapter all by themselves.
Point to the Words
It is okay to point to the words. That way, you don’t lose your spot on the page. Use a bookmark or half a sheet of paper to cover up the lines underneath where you are reading. Another cool trick if you tend to skip or make up words: cut a rectangle out of the middle of a piece of paper about the size of the words in your story. Use that to guide you through the reading.
Ask Yourself Questions About What You Read
When learning to read, start with questions about who the main characters are, where the story takes place, what happened at the beginning of the story, the middle of the story, and at the end of the story.
Then use questions about what the main idea of each paragraph was, what the moral of the story is, and what the story is about.
The next level of questions starts with how an author used words. Why did the author write a story with different animal characters? Why was Winnie the Pooh a teddy bear, why was Eeyore a donkey, or Tigger a tiger? Were there words that started with the same letter? Were the sentences rhythmic? You get it…
Consider different sides of the situation presented in the book. Talk about the pros and cons from each character’s perspective. Which character is most like you or someone you know?
If there was a problem presented, which side do you think was right or wrong? Why?
Book Club with a Parent/Friend
You and your child read the same book, noting how much of the book you will both read by the end of the week. On the same day every week, sit down in comfortable chairs and discuss the reading you did over the week. What did you like? What did you not like? Where do you think the story will go? Each of you takes turns picking the next book.
Parents/Adults Read in Front of Your Children
We know that children are more likely to want to learn to read if they see their parents or adults around them reading. It can be anything from a magazine to the financial news to a novel to a biography or autobiography. You are important. You set the pace. Be a model for your children and their desire to learn.
Ask the Child, “What is one thing you learned today?”
It can be the population of Peru or something they discovered in science/math/social studies/language arts/or whatever subject. Reflecting on the day and discovering all the things you have learned begins with this one question. That sparks the love of learning.