Back to school can be a busy yet fun time, and in this blog post, I will share several back to school reading tips to keep reading fun and enjoyable as your child starts a new school year. I hope your child had an awesome first day!
1) Establish a regular reading routine.
Starting a new school year is a time for new beginnings and a fresh start. With this fresh start, there is often an increased motivation to work hard and be successful. This is a good time to establish a regular reading routine. When setting up a reading routine, you have to do what works for you and your family. Maybe reading for 15-20 minutes after school with a snack is what works for you and your child. Perhaps you read right before going to bed or first thing in the morning before school. We often read before going to bed at night and sometimes in the morning. Our reading time will often consist of Tim reading 1-3 short books to me and then I will read to him. I would say that our reading time lasts between 15-30 minutes depending upon the night. My next post will focus on details on what we read during our reading time so stay tuned!
2) Be flexible.
While, it is important to establish a regular reading routine, be sure to be flexible. Family events, activities, sleep and time with friends is important too. It is okay to switch your reading time to fit your schedule, shorten it, or if need be skip it altogether. As long as your child is reading or listening to books on a regular basis (at least 4-5 times a week if you can), your child will benefit. We will often change our reading time to the morning on weekends because we sometimes have evening time with friends or activities. Sometimes we shorten our time on a school night if it is late and Tim is exhausted. I want to make sure he has enough rest to be available for learning at school the next day.
3) Read aloud to your child even if your child can read independently.
Read aloud to your child even if your child can read independently. Reading aloud is a great way to model fluency, discuss what is happening in the story and read to several children at once. Select books that you were read to as a child and enjoyed. Have your children help you in picking out read alouds. Tim loves listening to the Magic Tree House books now. I also, recently read Charlotte’s Web and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to him and he enjoyed both of those!
4) Have your child read aloud to you.
Have your child read aloud to you even in the higher grades. This will allow you to help your child break up longer words, offer support, discuss story events and help them with their fluency. Having your child read aloud to you will help you know if your child is struggling. Oftentimes your child will bring home books from school that have already been read in school. Having your child read these books to you will help your child practice what they are learning in the classroom, and give you a sense of how your child is doing with reading at school as well.
5) Keep it fun!
Be sure to keep reading fun! Try reading in a tent, with a flashlight, in a special chair or with a special snack. Create or download a reading incentive chart. See this post from over the summer for fun reading chart ideas! https://learningtoreadtogether.com/how-do-you-help-your-child-stay-motivated-to-read-this-summer/
One last tip… Here is an article from Parenting Today that might help you with back to school routines in general! I thought this article has some great ideas on how to help kids settle into a back to school routine. https://childdevelopmentinfo.com/holiday-seasonal-family/back-to-school-tips/#.W5kpTuhKjIU
Hope these tips help! Stay tuned soon for my next post about details on books that Tim reads at night and that I read to him!