Tips to support reading at home:

Here are more of our top tips to encourage family reading time at home:

• Try to prioritise reading in your own life. Children who see their parents reading regularly, are far more likely to become readers themselves
• Read to your child every day. The importance of reading to your children cannot be underestimated. We can sometimes forget about this and will just hear our child read their school reading book, but reading to our children is so important! Most children – even the older children – love listening to books read aloud. Even if it’s just 1 page a night
• Involve your child in choosing the book. Choosing from a variety of books (fairy tales, history, nature, science, mysteries etc…), will soon have your child developing a preference for a certain book or genre
• Re-read their favourite books often. Young children love hearing the same books read aloud over and over (and over) again! This re-reading helps the child to learn parts of the book off by heart and eventually they will begin to join in with their favourite parts
• Use different voices for the characters – this makes it fun!
• Make it quality family time together. For younger children, use this time for a cuddle or sit them on your lap. As they grow, have them snuggled sat beside you on the couch.
• Keeping their attention is key. Allowing children to doodle, draw or even colour while listening is ok and can actually help many to focus. No games, phones or screens though!
• When reading chapter books, don’t feel like you have to finish an entire chapter in one sitting. But do try to end at an exciting part so everyone is eager for the next day’s reading time.
• For those most reluctant readers – try using magazines instead. These are a great way to grab your child’s attention.

And finally, but most importantly, have fun!  Bring the books to life. There’s nothing more children love than dressing up and acting out their favourite stories. Even some of your everyday household objects could open up your child’s imagination and have them begging you to read more the next day.

The National Literacy Trust has some fantastic resources worth exploring:

https://literacytrust.org.uk/free-resources/