10 Tips to Help Your Child with Reading

10 Tips to Help Your Child with Reading (Tips for Kindergarten to Grade Three)

(from the Government of Ontario's ABC123 Tips to Help Parents website http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/abc123/eng/)

This resource describes ten cost-effective, easy to implement ideas for how parents can support and encourage their child’s reading at home. Each idea or activity can be repeated multiple times and suggestions are made for how parents can cheaply buy, make, or borrow the materials needed. Many of the tips presented also encourage the adult to be a reading role-model. The tips include:

1. Cuddle up and read.
2. Public libraries today are worlds to explore so try to go regularly.
3. Make your kitchen part of your “reading zone”.
4. Words are everywhere – take everyday opportunities to read with your child.
5. Games can be great learning tools.
6. Computers are reader friendly too!
7. Books make great gifts.
8. Subscribe to a magazine.
9. Be a reading role model.
10. Keep books, magazines, and newspapers handy.

Parental Use of the Resource

There are a number of ways parents can utilize this resource:

• These tips encourage parents to reflect upon some of the choices they are making in terms of how they spend their time with their children. Reading together or reading alongside one another is a great alternative to t.v. watching and videogame playing during family time.
• In today’s times of economic uncertainty, the suggestions offered to parents are easy and effective without much cost. Borrowing literacy materials from the library and requesting books and magazines as gifts do not cost parents much money but the literacy gain for children is monumental.
• Adults today are busy and this resource may encourage them to unwind at the end of the day with a book instead of the internet or t.v.
• These ideas are active and hands-on, hopefully helping to dispel the idea that language (specifically reading) needs to be taught and practiced by children with rote-learning, pencil and paper tasks such as printing worksheets.

Teacher Support of the Resource

There are a number of ways teachers can support parents with using this website:

• These tips could be a great addition to a classroom or school newsletter in order to support student reading at home and introduce families to the Ministry of Education ABC123 website.
• These tips could also be specifically provided to families of students who are in need of extra support (e.g., identified or flagged on early literacy classroom tools such as DIBELS or Marie Clay).
• Families who ask a teacher for ‘homework’ or extra worksheets in order to help children practice language skills at home could also be referred to this website as it encourages developmentally appropriate reading activities that can be repeated as desired.
• Families can be introduced to this website during kindergarten registration, kindergarten open houses, and family literacy nights as a way of encouraging families to actively engage children in a variety of reading activities in preparation for the start of school.