5 Ways to Get Your Child Ready to Grow as a Reader This School Year

Pool parties, BBQ’s, family trips, summer camp! Summer is jam-packed with so many essential and invaluable activities and experiences that create long lasting memories for your child. 

Whether you set out with the intention of helping your child stay consistent with their reading routines this summer, or you're wishing they had gotten in a bit more reading time and are worried about them falling behind this school year, the end of summer is an important time to reinstate or begin some routines of reading and literacy skill-building at home. 

As the school year approaches, here are 5 easy ways to start getting your child prepared to make some great strides as a reader this school year:

1.      Set up a cozy reading space in the house: 

·       Find a nook in your home that is comfortable with adequate light. 

·       Have your child or teen help decorate and individualize the space to make it really feel like it's theirs.

·       Decorate the space with pictures of their favorite books or book characters.

·       Put a visual timer or a sand timer next to the nook so they have an idea of how much time they have left. Your child' s teacher will usually provide an amount of time your child/teen should read for each afternoon/evening. Have them set the timer. Being able to see the time can make their reading session feel more structured and less aimless and serves as a motivator.

2.      Designate a family reading time:

·       Make a commitment that at a certain time each afternoon or evening, everyone is off of their device and engages in family reading time. 

·       Modeling reading for your child and making it the “norm” helps them to see reading as a part of their daily routine rather than a chore.

3.      Play fun reading games at home to support literacy: 

·       Incorporating reading into your family bonding time is a great way to make reading fun and get the whole family involved!

·       There are so many popular games that are already literacy-focused and a few that are a bit more targeted to certain reading skills. You’ll have so much fun playing these games, you’ll forget they’re extra literacy practice! We gave some games listed below!!!

4.      Set up a reading reward system to encourage good reading habits:

·       For younger children this might look like each successful timed reading session gets a sticker on a chart and 10 stickers= a family game night, movie night, ice cream party, etc.

·       Have some guidelines of what a successful reading session looks like. For example:

“I read for the full amount of time.”

“I tried my best to sound out each word and asked for help when I needed it.”

“I read x amount of pages in my book.”

“I stayed focused on my book the whole time.”

“I answered all the questions in my reading log.”

·       For older children/teens, each time they finish a book, they add a marble to a jar. After X amount of books read and marbles in the jar, they get a reward of their choice.

5.      Become regulars at your local library and pick out books you can read together:

·       Go to the library and let your child pick out any books of their choosing regardless of their reading level. In this case, it’s ok to judge a book by its cover. The goal is to get them excited about books and understand which genres they gravitate towards. 

·       Find a few you can read together at bedtime or during your family read time. 

·       As you’re reading, ask them questions:

What do you think will happen next? 

Who’s your favorite character? What do you like about them? 

Why do you think that character did that?

This reminds me of a time when we did something like this. Do you remember that?

Feeling like your child may need some extra reading support this year? Schedule a free 30 minute reading screening at Sunbreak Therapy Services with one of our reading specialists and start the school year off right with reading intervention support. 

Pssssst...Here is the list of games that are literacy focused and fun to play!

Reading, Spelling and Letter/Word Decoding Practice

Blah Blah Blah- TK-2nd Grade - (the literacy equivalent of UNO!)

Zingo Word Builder - TK-2nd Grade- CVC Words (Building three letter words)

Scattergories (great for older children and teens to practice phonemic awareness and spelling)

Vocabulary Building Games

Vocabularious - 3rd-5th Grade (Excellent vocabulary builder with great visuals!) 

Is or Isn’t - A Game of Synonyms and Antonyms (Great for older children/teens to expand their word arsenal)

Apples to Apples Jr. (A classic game - silly and educational)

Storyteller’s Card Game (Very similar to Apples to Apples, made by literacy specialists for extra vocabulary practice)

Scrabble and Bananagrams (Another classic game of strategic literary creativity!)

Creative Story Games

Story Cubes (Roll and create a silly story together)

Telestrations (Kind of like pictionary but even better!)