Helping your child with reading at home

Top tips for reading at home

We want to encourage you to read with your child for at least 10 minutes every day. It really does make a difference to all their work in school.

Remember to write in your child’s reading diary – some classes offer rewards for reading at home.

Talk about illustration, book titles/authors, the type of book (e.g. fiction, non-fiction, plays, poems) – as these all build up valuable reading skills.

Remember to ask questions about the book you read with your child. It is all about reading and understanding the book.

Read anything! Remember newspapers, comics, recipes, instructions, traffic signs, shop notices, shopping lists etc… all count as reading!

Sharing a bedtime story is a lovely end to the day – your child gets to hear an adult read to them. You can talk about the story, make a prediction about what might happen and look at the pictures. These are all important comprehension skills.

Visit the library – it’s free and you can borrow a whole range of books and CDs to read at home. They also run story time sessions and other book related activities.

Play word games like ‘I spy’, sing the alphabet song, play ‘pairs’ with tricky words that you can’t sound out.

Oxford Owls is a free website for you to use at home. You can read 250 free books on-line. Have a look at www.oxfordowl.co.uk - you need to set up a user password.