Reading to Children

Quoting a quote of an excerpt here [Source: The Week magazine (UK) quoting The Times newspaper (UK) ] but still useful information for anyone with a child in their life:

Jim Trelease, author of The Read Aloud Handbook, offers these tips for making your child enthusiastic about reading --

• It is never too early too start - reading to a baby in utero helps it associate its parents' voices with comfort and security
• Read books with repetitions to infants and toddlers
• Encourage involvement - ask the child to turn pages and fill in key words
• Occasionally challenge children by reading above their intellectual level
• Try to set aside at least one regular time each day for reading
• Don't read stories you don't enjoy. Your dislike will show and defeat the purpose
• Don't stop reading aloud to children too soon. Children understand on a higher level than they can read themselves. Read aloud to adolescents

Overall my wife and I follow these guidelines with our daugther today and have already seen the "reading above their intellectual level" effect. Our daughter likes to have me read a history/profile book of the State of Iowa which is probably written at a high school reading level but she likes to discuss the photos with me and to have me sing the Iowa song to her.

For opportunities to help children read in some of the world's poorest countries please visit this website for Room to Read which builds libraries -- www.roomtoread.org

Open a new chapter for your child,

Todd