The first—and best—tip for sharing books with young children is to possess fun together! children are learning if they are engaged and enjoying themselves. It can motivate them to continue seeking out books and other literacy materials as they grow when children have positive interactions with books, they’re developing good feelings about reading.
Here are other ideas for nurturing early literacy skills in your baby or toddler:
A Few Minutes at a Time is OK. Don’t Worry If You Don’t Finish the Story.
As young children grow, they’re going to be able to sit longer, although they can only sit for some minutes for a story. Let your child decide what quantity (or how little) time you spend reading. And you mustn’t read every page. You’ll find that your child contains a favorite page or perhaps a favorite picture. She might want to linger there for ages, so switch books or activities. Babies could want to mouth the book! That’s okay. The reading experience is more meaningful after you let your child explore books within the ways in which interest her.
Talk or Sing About the Images
To inform a story, you do not need to read the words. Try “reading” the images during a book for your child some time. When your child is sufficiently old, ask him to read the images to you!
Let Children Turn the Pages
While an 18-month-old will want to present it a try, and a 3-year-old can certainly bed alone, babies cannot yet turn pages on their own. Remember, it’s okay to skip pages!
Show Children the Quilt Page
Explain what the story is about. Ask them to guess what the story could be about if you have got an older toddler.
Show Children the Words
As you read them from left to right, run your finger along with the words.
Make the Story Change State
Create voices for the story characters and use your body to inform the story.
Make It Personal
Talk about your family, pets, or community once you are reading about others in a very story.
Ask questions about the Story, and Let Children Ask Questions Too!
Use the story to possess a back-and-forth conversation along with your child. Discuss familiar activities and objects you see within the illustrations or examine within the story.
Let Children Tell The Story
Lots of children like to be creative through storytelling and children as young as 3 years old can memorize a story.
Create Books Together
Make photo books of relations. Cut pictures out of magazines or catalogs to form word books. By having fun with crayons, markers, and paints, make a color book. As your child gets older, have him or her dictate a story to you and so draws pictures to travel with the words.
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Make Books a Component of Your Daily Routine
The more likely they’ll be to determine reading as a pleasure and a present, the more that books are woven into children’s everyday lives.
- At Meal Times: Sing or read a story during an instant of quiet nursing or to assemble the children around the noisy table.
- In the Car or on the Bus: Keep some books within the car or in your diaper bag to stay your little ones quiet and busy.
- At Child Care Drop Off: with a favorite story or lullaby, calm a crying child at good-bye time. Just so your child can flip through it when she is missing you, leave a photo book with pictures of loved members of the family at child care.
- At the Doctor’s Office: within the lounge and sing or talk through the scary parts of the visit, read or tell a soothing story to your infant. Before the visit, read books about visiting the doctor so your child knows what to expect.
- At the Market: Put some board books within the pushcart or tie a cloth book to the cart so you’re not cleaning up books from the ground as you go!
- At Nap Time: Familiar routines always help babies settle down. To quietly ease your baby to sleep, use books and stories.
- At Day’s End: You are exhausted, the baby is fussy. Change posture on the ground surrounded by books. Play a book on tape for your baby. Sing a song together while you all try and relax a small amount.
- At Bath Time: Plastic bath time books are great fun and should help a fussy baby enjoy the bathtub a bit more.
- At Bed Time: with babies who fight sleep, soothing books and stories can work magic!