10 Tips to Make Your Home a Place For Young Readers

Learning to read is an exciting accomplishment in a child's life. Unlike talking, reading doesn't come naturally. Literacy skills take practice and need to be developed over time. The informed parent has ample opportunities to enhance pre-reading skills in their young children.  Below are 10 tips to make your home a place for your young reader.

1. Choose a quiet time for reading to your child, as in before a nap, bedtime, or after dinner.
2. Choose a special place for family reading, like a comfortable chair or pillows piled on the floor.
3. Let your child select the book for you to read aloud.
4. Hold the book so that she or he can see the pictures. If possible, also let her or him turn the pages.
5. Take time to look at and talk about the pictures. Don't just read the story: talk about it. Let your child point out letters, shapes, colors, and animals.
6. Understand that reading begins at home. Children read their environments, so make your home a print rich environment.
7. Read! Don't expect reading to be important to your children if they see that it's not important to you.
8. Invite your child to read to you. If he or she is a pre reader, he'll often interpret his own story using illustrations and his imagination.  
9. Make lists, lots of them. Make them for grocery shopping, books to buy and things to take on trips.
10. Read aloud to your child every day.

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