Making reading fun
Making reading fun
Getting the ability to read can be a challenge for some children. Just about everyone from the teacher to parents, friends and relations can get excited excited just waiting for them to learn to read. All this pressure and expectations from “grown ups” can easily put off the child. This is turn can lead to the child losing the desire to read. If as parents can find ways to lift this pressur by making reading fun and enjoyable, they’ll be more willing to sit down and read a book together.
Here are some ideas you can do to make reading fun .
Popcorn Reading
This is a fun way for a child to read the words they know and pass on the words that are causing frustration. While reading a book together, each of you take a turn reading aloud. When the one who is reading says the word “popcorn” (or some other word to create a bit of fun), it is the other persons turn to read.
Reading Friend
Pair your child up with an older “reading friend” and have them read a book out loud together. We all have had times where an explanation of something made more sense coming from someone who was not an adult, maybe a brother, sisiter or friend of around the same age or slightly older. This gives them the chance to practice reading without an adults watchful eye causing them to be nervous or self conscious.
Highlight Heaven
Get hold of an children’s book and a highlighter and get your child to highlight every word on the page that they can read. After the words are highlighted, take a moment and have them look and see how many words he/she can actually read. This is a real confidence booster.
Flashlight or Torch Reading
Before your child is too tired at the end of the day, take some time and read in dark room. Take a torch with you and read the book by its light – the novelty of this will appeal particularly to little boys.
Reading Corner
Make a “reading corner” somewhere in your house. . To get “ownership”, let the child be a part of decorating it and picking just the right spot to place it, Add some bean bags or pillows, maybe a favorite poster on the wall or even some family pictures. This can be your special place wher you share the experience of reading
Take a break and just read to your child sometimes.
Pretty obvious really – just make sure you make the time available.
Picture Detective
Get them to flip through a book and look at all the pictures and tell you what they think is going going on and what will happen next. Read the story and see how close they were.
Pop-up word
Choose a word that your child has a hard time with and each time they read that word, both of you stand up or do some other action like making a silly noise. This will help them remember the word because an action is associated with it. A phsical action works particularly well with kinesthetic learners )whereas a noise will work well with auditory learners(a child who seeems to be interested in the sounds of things).
Star of the Story
Sometimes you’ll come across a story book where your child’s name happens to be a central character in the story? This is a unique way to get them excited about a book. In these kinds of books, your child’s name can make them the star of the story! How motivating is that? They’ll need to read the book to find out what kind of adventure they’ll be going on!
Sometimes all it takes to make reading fun is some imagination and a change of scenery.
What really matters though is that the child regards reading as a pleasureable and enjoyable experience and anything that you can do to achieve this will greatly be to the benefit of you both.