Reading will seem more like chocolate cake if it’s something that parents themselves take part in happily and regularly.
“When I’m sitting there on my couch, reading a book, and my kids are
doing their own thing, I like to think, ‘I’m parenting right now—they
can see me reading this book."
- (Maria Paul, "How to Raise a Reader")
I am exploring the phenomenon of 'home reading' in this blog (see previous entries): Snapshot: How Home Reading Became One More Thing on the 'To Do List' for Families (Sept. 8/19) What Do Parents Need to Notice and Know about Home Reading? (Sept. 15/19) Strategies for Home Reading with A Child - What Makes Sense for a Parent? (Sept. 23/19)Reading at Home with Early Readers (Sept. 29/19)Why Reading at Home Makes Such a Difference for Children Learning to Read (October 8/19)Hopefully, these entries will help families support this enormously important and relatively untapped resource for helping children develop as lifelong, successful readers.
Sometimes, as parents, we think 'home reading' means 'homework' and we treat it like homework was treated when we were kids (which may vary from generation to generation, but for me, growing up, homework was not considered the 'fun' part of being home from school - just saying...). We assign a time to it, we pre-empt other, more fun-focused activities until 'after home reading is done', we sigh when we talk about it with our children like it is a chore similar to loading the dishwasher, we get impatient when our child doesn't rush to get the book and read it magically well and it shows in our voices and our body language. We ask where the sign up sheet has gone like losing it means the end of the world. And all this negative wrap-around makes home reading sound and feel like it is something to be avoided at all costs that will never be enjoyable or truly worthwhile. Our children see and hear this and they mimic our body language, our voices, our expressions of frustration and do all they are able to avoid getting caught reading that home reading book again...
There are some easy things to do to ensure children experience reading at home as an enjoyable activity they might want to learn to do independently and celebrate as a positive and rewarding life skill. They will be looking to us, as parents and teachers, for the cues as to what is a fun-filled recreational activity and what is a chore and it won't just be our words that carry the strongest message; it will be our faces, our voice tones and our body language that send the message 'reading is a wonderful thing to do' or 'don't make me read that again - I don't like reading at all!' Just like we smile and coo at infants to get them to smile and vocalize back, how we engage in the acts associated with home reading will elicit responses from our children that reflect our personal values associated with reading for pleasure.
First of all, don't wait for a recording sheet of books/minutes read by your child, or instructions on how to engage your child in home reading, to be sent home from your child's teacher. Just start - or continue - reading to them and with them as you always have. Children usually love to be read to - hearing a favoured adult's animated voice sharing a story with them is positive attention on steroids! If you already read with your child regularly, all that is required is a bit of a shift in what you are reading and doing while reading. Begin to encourage your child to choose a book they can share in reading in addition to the ones you are already sharing - this could be an easy reading book, a board book or a much-loved picture book - but preferably it will be one they are familiar with and are beginning to recognize the words, sounds, rhythm of the story. Stopping to point out a familiar rhyming word or sound, pointing to a picture and asking about what's happening there, focusing on the meaning of a particular word - these are all simple ways to begin drawing a child's attention to the text.
In the beginning, it is not important whether or not they are sounding out or decoding text because what's really happening is building familiarity with text over time - understanding there is a permanence of text features that are reliably always present. Even as a seasoned grade 5/6 teacher with over 30 years experience, I continue to be surprised at the number of children who simply have not yet developed an appreciation for the permanency of text features, such as uppercase letters to begin sentences, names, places, etc or what it means when quotation marks are present. They may even be able to identify what a particular text feature is while not understanding why it exists. It takes time and repeated revisiting to understand text features. And reading orally and with humour and play while learning text features is a reliably positive experience with young children. It is also not important whether or not a beginning reader 'reads' the whole text, not even a short picture book with simple words. Usually a good rule of thumb is when they lose interest, move away from the 'home reading text' and back into the read aloud story. We want reading to be pleasurable, not a task to be measured at home.
As time passes, your child will begin to gradually demonstrate mastery over some basic reading strategies - how to hold the book, read text from left to right, discuss ideas for meaning, predict a word or what will happen next, make connections to other stories they have read or movies they have seen. Celebrate this - you could have a mini white board or chalkboard where you record favourite stories they are reading more or less independently - or a list of the fridge titled "Jacks Favourite Books" that you may add to as new titles become easier and more favoured by your child. There could be a small, separate bookshelf somewhere to home their favourite personal reads.
Before settling to read with your child each day, spend a few moments with the book, exploring it carefully together. What does your child notice about the pictures? Cover? Do they think the story is true (non-fiction) or not (fiction)? Why 0r why not? Share your opinion too! What do they think might happen? why? why not? Who is in the story? How many characters are in the story? Where do they think the story might be taking place (setting)? If the title has a particularly challenging word (such as 'Remember' or 'Gigantic' or something a little out of the ordinary) point to it and talk about the word and what it means. Reading doesn't have to be a guessing game your child doesn't feel successful with, it should be a shared, enjoyable experience.
Even as your child becomes a more proficient reader, these strategies still hold. What do they notice? Predict? What does the story remind them of? Why did they choose this book? Who is the author? Have they read anything else written by the same person? There are limitless possibilities for brief discussions before beginning the actual reading that activate prior knowledge and set your child up for enjoyable reading success.
If you are a reader, chances are your child will want to be a reader too. But what happens if you are not a person who is naturally inclined to reading? Talk about that with your child while making the time investment to read with them - it demonstrates interest in their learning and growth which is always a positive parenting move. And if you do your reading in magazines or newspapers or online, share that with your child too - there are many ways to be a reader.
Talk about books - at the dinner table, at the store, on a walk. When you notice your child looking at a new book, let them know you noticed - ask what the book's about or why they are interested in it, provoke a conversation. Visit the public library or any 'little free library' in your neighbourhood and invest a little time in looking at different titles, genres, authors. Give books as gifts - although my son once told me he thought he would have been invited to more birthday parties if people didn't always know they were going to get books in advance! Honestly, I think he attended more than enough birthdays so books must have been appropriate to give :) Build small collections with your child of favourite titles and authors. Encourage your child to make a banner for their room that says "Emily's Library of Favourite Books" or something similar. It is not necessary to have a lot of books, just books they love to read.
Instead of watching a movie while driving, listen to a children's audiobook. As a family we have listened to the whole Harry Potter series a couple of times during summer driving trips across Canada and the US, for example, and any Roald Dahl book makes for a wonderful audio book experience. And who doesn't love listening to 'Stuart McLean's Vinyl Cafe' stories? They are favourites with my grandchildren! Listening to an audio book with a sketch book and pencils is even better - sketching what you hear as a child helps build attention to detail and strengthen imagery skills. A word of caution, though, from last week's blog post - animated books do not build brain connections between language, visual perception and imagery skills in the same way that listening to stories or picture books does - while they may be tempting to share with children from time to time, listening to an animated story does not build the intended skills associated with home reading activities.
So, there are numerous ways to entice your young reader into engaging in home reading aside from taking the book sent home from the teacher, along with the recording sheet, and saying, 'Let's get this home reading thing over with for this evening." Homework is not home reading but home reading can be a delightful beginning foray into homework of a different flavour! What's important is your participation as an enthusiastic, positive adult, child-choices about what to read, conversation about the book prior to reading, sharing the load of decoding and making sense of text, not persisting with the text past the point of your child's interest and tolerance and shifting from home reading to parental read aloud to close out the experience. Let your child see you are enjoying the experience of reading with them even if you are doubtful about their capabilities - remember they are just learning and learning is not sequential nor predictable; it happens differently for every child. Make a video of your child reading to you each week for just a couple of minutes - and then compare them to see how much they have improved (if they are reading each day for a few minutes, regardless of their level of proficiency or engagement, there will be improvement :)
And, finally, never underestimate the power of rhyme - children love rhyming books and poems, the sillier the better. They learn about word families and predictable text from rhymes and songs and the children who figure out rhymes most easily, typically tend to learn to read more easily as well. Alphabet books, rhyming books, illustrated children's song books are also wonderful places to launch readers beginning to make sense of text. And another way to sprinkle fun into the home reading experience!
Lorraine Kinsman, Principal
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