The Cougar Connection
Ways to help your child in reading
September 10, 2021
Create a Love of Reading
Read to them. As kids are growing up, make reading aloud part of your daily routine. Kids will make positive associations with reading and spending time with family.
Keep books in the house. Kids who grow up in homes with lots of books read more. If your family has an e-reader, keep it stocked with new books. You can even check out e-books from the library.
Set aside time daily for your kids to read. Research shows that spending just 20-30 minutes a night will help increase your child's knowledge in all areas-critical thinking, vocabulary, stamina, writing, and even math. Prioritizing reading by making time for it, even as kids get older, has a huge impact.
Read! Parents who read more have kids who read more. Don't save your reading time for after your kids are in bed. Read in front of them, and make going to the public library a routine for you and your kids.
Audio books. This can be done everywhere - in the car, at the grocery store, even when sitting at a sibling's baseball practice. This is great for kids that may be reading below level, because they are still getting to experience texts that are on and above their reading level.
Improving Reading Comprehension
READ-STOP-THINK
Vocabulary is important
Increasing Vocabulary
The biggest factor influencing vocabulary is the sheer volume of reading performed. Studies show that regular independent reading, and reading a rich variety of texts, provides the most positive impact on vocabulary. Students who develop a habit of reading at a young age, develop large vocabularies and have a greater ability to understand written and verbal communication than students who don't read regularly. It's just a fact, people with extensive vocabularies typically read a lot.
Developing an extensive vocabulary requires reading publications covering various subjects and texts, including magazines, textbooks, novels, etc.
Instead of consulting a dictionary every time your child encounters an unfamiliar word while reading, try to determine word meaning by evaluating the context of the sentence and surrounding words. Searching for clues in surrounding text will not only help them decipher word meanings, it will cement in their memory what a word means and improve their recall for future recognition and use.
Online Resources
Here are some useful reading related websites:
https://www.weareteachers.com/best-reading-websites/ This website gives you 34 free or low-cost website for practicing reading.
https://www.readingrockets.org/ Great resource for parents. You can also sign up for a newsletter that will send you monthly tips to help your child with reading. (https://www.readingrockets.org/newsletters)
https://www.pbs.org/parents/learn-grow/all-ages/literacy PBS Parents offers a wide variety of educational activities, videos, and games for children ages two through eight.
https://www.biblionasium.com/ This website allows students to read and write book reviews, watch book trailers, join book challenges, and keep up with the books they are reading.
You can access great e-books and audiobooks
Use this link to register: https://cowt.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/ecard
This will give you access to thousands of e-books and audiobooks.