How to Help Your Child to Be an Avid Reader

by Alvin Poh Hee Kwang

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Reading is the most efficient and economical way to help anyone to acquire information, knowledge, skills and improve on one self. And it is most wonderful to help your child to be a great reader as young as possible.

The best way to help a child or any one to learn a skill and be good at it is to create a Supportive and Conducive Environment to make it easy for her to learn. Here are some suggestions that you may find helpful:

1. Have lots of good books in the home at all times. You can either buy them or borrow them from the library. The National Library has tons of excellent books suitable for children of all ages – story books and information books (you can find books on all kinds of topic, e.g. books on animals, seasons, famous artists and people, human body, interesting places, occupations). For our family, we make it a routine to visit the library every week if not every fortnight. It is a great family outing for all of us.

2. At your home, have the reading materials and books easily accessible to your child so that she can get hold of them at her convenience. The best way is to have an open book shelf that is of the right height for your child. Providing her a proper place to keep her books and stuffs is also a good way to teach your child about responsibility – teach her to care for her things by getting her to put them back in the right place after use.

3. Adults at home (especially parents) must set good examples by reading books regularly. Children learn by observing what their parents do. Be a good reader yourself. I’d recommend non-fiction books – e.g. books on parenting, self-enrichment and improvement etc. (By the way, newspapers are not considered because there is simply too much negative news and sensational but non-useful information in each publication – they are not good to our brain and personal growth.)

4. Read to your child daily. Make it a routine, like before bed time. The best persons to read to the child is her parents and that is you. Reading together with your child is also one of the best ways for bonding with your child.

5. Carry books with you when you bring your child out so that you can read to her when an opportunity arises, e.g. while waiting for someone, at the petrol station, on the MRT/ subway.

6. Give lots of encouragement and praise when the child make the effort to read by herself. Encouragement helps to boost your child’s self-esteem and help her want to do even better.

7. Make learning fun and enjoyable. Discuss with your child about the things she has read and has fun with her by acting out some of the scenes in the books. This will help to fill your home with lots of laughter and love.

Article by Alvin Poh, founder of The Parenting Network For The Achievement of Human Potential. To learn how you help your children to develop and excel in their natural potential, go to: http://www.alvinkh.per.sg/parentingnetwork

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8 Simple Tips To Help Your Child Read

By Linda Ogier of Fox Copy

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Take away the skill of reading and not only books become a mysterious and foreign world, but reading train timetables, ordering from a menu, understanding bank statements, and any number of straightforward daily activities become virtually impossible.

If your child is struggling to read, the effects of their problem can reach into adulthood, be humiliating, and extremely limiting.

The world of a non reader is a mixed up place where only those who know the ‘secret code’ can decipher the strange symbols around them and fully participate.

A sad, lonely, and stressful place indeed.

The time to catch your child’s reading problems and support them in their quest to become a confident and capable life long reader is Primary School. Preferably before they reach Grade 3.

Your school will be monitoring your child’s progress and implementing a detailed plan to improve their reading skills and strategies. But, if you’re worried that the school is not, then an appointment with the teacher is a must to thoroughly explore your concerns and issues.

Do not put this off!

After Grade 3 it is more difficult for children to bridge the gap, learn new patterns of reading behavior, and develop appropriate reading strategies.

Encouraging them while they’re young is vital, and there are some things you can do at home to complement and support your school’s efforts.

Here are 8 simple ways to help your child if reading is a struggle for them:

1. Make your reading time a regular activity at a specific time each day. Children love structure and will look forward to the closeness and bonding this time brings.

For some children this may be the only intimate one-on-one time they get to spend with a parent on a regular basis. Making reading together a special time for just the two of you only takes 10 or 15 minutes a day, and the rewards are tremendous.

2. Vary how you structure your reading time together. Don’t always expect your child to read to you. Read to them sometimes. Take turns reading. Read out loud together! Make sure it’s a stress free and enjoyable time together.

3. Use the 3 P’s. Pause, prompt, praise.

Pause when your child comes to a word they don’t know. Don’t jump in straight away by telling them the word or getting them to sound it out. Let them think.

Prompt your child if they haven’t answered after about 10 – 20 seconds. Say ‘Make your mouth say the first sound’, or ‘ What word would make sense there?’, or ‘Can you tell me what would sound right there?’. Only sound out the word if it can be effectively sounded out.

If your child doesn’t get the word after a couple of prompts or an attempt at sounding out, tell them the word straight away. You want to avoid feelings of failure, plus make sure they get on with the book while they can still remember what the story is about.

Praise your child for their efforts. Say something like ‘Well done, you made it look and sound right’, or ‘Well done, you used the first sound to help you figure out the rest of the word’. If they didn’t get the word, simply praise them for trying their best… ‘That was a great try – well done‘. Be as specific as possible.

4. Not every single word has to be right. Refrain from picking on every last error unless you want to make your child feel inadequate and fearful of making too many mistakes. This will contribute to their negative attitude towards reading and make their progress even slower.

If your child is gaining the overall meaning from the story or text, then they are achieving the major goal of reading – to decipher words and receive a message.

5. Talk, talk, talk….. Ask your child to retell their favorite part of the book in their own words. Talk about what they would do if they were a person from the book. Talk about the way the characters in the book felt and why they felt like that. Talk about interesting words from the book and what they mean. This will help increase your child’s level of comprehension.

6. Be seen to be a reader. It’s surprising how many kids never see their own parents reading a book. A newspaper yes – but not a book! Kids are the greatest mimics in the world, and they especially love to copy their mum or dad.

Sit down and read your own separate books at the same time. Share parts of your books with one another by reading them out loud and telling why you chose that part. Make it obvious that reading is something you personally value and think is worthwhile.

7. Don’t cover up the pictures! Never. Ever. Using pictures is one of the ways children gather information to support their use of sound, letter, and word skills. Pictures support the meaning of a story and provide a context to help children solve unknown words.

Picture story books have pictures for a reason. Many times the text doesn’t make sense without the pictures, and asking your child to read it without looking at the pictures will often feel like trickery to them.

8. Last but definitely not least – make reading fun! The last thing it needs to be is a chore. You can‘t blame any child for being unwilling if something is hard AND a bore.

Find books about topics your child is interested in. Read craft books and make things. Get out a cookbook and follow a recipe. Get out the words to favorite songs and follow along. Create a treasure hunt with lots of clues to read…. anything that makes reading something to look forward to.
Make your reading time together regular, interesting, stress free, and fun. Your child will benefit, and so might you!

Happy reading!

Author information:

Linda Ogier of Fox Copy is an Australian teacher with 15 years experience. Fox Copy creates clever copywriting for websites, newsletters, ads, brochures, media releases, articles and more. Visit http://www.foxcopy.com.au today to outsource your business writing needs.

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Getting Kids A Restful Nights Sleep

Getting your kids a restful nights sleep is important. Not only for them, but also for you. If your kids sleep through the night, you
have a much better chance of doing the same.

New mothers tend to go through the day with one eye open and one eye shut. Sleep becomes a thing of the past and it’s hard to remember what it is. Your baby started out sleeping in spurts throughout the night and as they grew their sleeping spurts grew longer and longer until they finally slept through one whole night.

As they grow into toddlers, sleeping through the night is a habit; One that mothers welcome whole heartedly. The question though is; will they stay that way?

The following are some tips to help those mothers ensure their kids sleep through the night so they can get their much needed rest as well.

* Try to make sure that your evening is spent winding down from the day’s activities. Kids spend their day running, jumping and playing; so their energy level is up. If you can gradually bring them down to a more relaxed mode by their bedtime, sleep will come much easier to them.

* If they’re too energetic at bedtime, then they may wake up several times in the night. If they do wake up a few times during the night, try some soft lullaby music or just talk to them in a soft voice to let them know you’re still there.

* Limit sugary foods or drinks. We all know that sugary foods cause energy, so why would we want to give them more energy around bedtime? Choose healthier snacks with no sugar in them. Some experts even advise to limit fluids after 7 p.m. Again, too much energy at bedtime doesn’t help them get a full night’s sleep.

* Try softness. Read bedtime stories with a soft voice, play soft music and let them cuddle with a soft teddy bear or blanket. Softness can bring relaxation, which enables them to fall asleep easier and keep them asleep throughout the night.

* Keep bedtime routines consistent. Any change in their routine could cause confusion and that could lessen your ability to relax them at bedtime.

* Sometimes kids do wake up during the night, but don’t go rushing to their side right away. Give them a chance to go back to sleep on their own. If it does become hard for them to go back to sleep, then step in and try to help him with music or your soft voice. It’s always better for them to do it on their own if they can, but moms will be there if they need to be.

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Sleepytime Secrets
Sleepytime Secrets is an easy-to-follow step-by-step guide for learning how to get children to sleep. Put An End To The Stress And Frustration Of Sleepless Nights For You and Your Child For Good!

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