Reading Activities That Kids Can Do at Home
Most teachers would agree that literacy is a foundational skill that is among the chief aims of early childhood education but the quality and frequency of home reading support makes a drastic difference in academic language success at school. "Reading is the key that unlocks virtually all other learning," states the U.S. Department of Education. Reading activities that kids can do at home build their vocabulary and expressive abilities, preparing them to communicate fluently in the classroom.
Other People Are Reading
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Read-Alouds
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The simplest home reading activity is reading to your kids from the time they are young. Starting with simple tactile and colorful picture books when they are infants, you can move into more complex story lines and chapter books that tie into your child's natural interests, motivating her desire to read on her own. Point to pictures to draw connections between the visual and the text. By running your finger under the text as you read, you will reinforce the left-to-right text orientation. Ask your child to predict what will happen next to develop awareness of plot structures. Then, you can turn the tables and let her read to you.
Audio Books
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An easy twist on the read-aloud is to have your children listen to audio books. Listening gives them a good sense of the flow and rhythm of language, enhancing how they express their own thoughts and feelings. A child understands what is spoken to him long before he can read the words that are used, but if he has heard the words before he tries to read them, it is easier to learn to recognize them in print. Listening to good children's literature exposes your kids to a greater variety of words than they might hear in their immediate environment, equipping them with a formidable vocabulary with which to build their literacy success.
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Book Talk
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If you want to raise kids that read, let them see you reading. When you make reading a family affair, you open the door to discussions about what all members of the family are reading. Whether it be the newspaper, your favorite sports magazine, a DIY manual, a cookbook or a novel, share your thoughts about it with your child and ask her what she is reading. Elicit dialogue on favorite parts, what surprised her, confused her, made her happy or sad and other aspects of the story. You should try to keep the discussion light and open-ended with no right and wrong answers.
Recipes
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Many children are eager to try out their kitchen skills, wanting to imitate what they see the important adults in their lives doing. You can harness this interest and turn it into a reading activity by having your child take charge of reading the recipe and following the instructions. Ask your child to retrieve the ingredients from the cupboards and read the labels. Read a picture book such as "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" by Judi Barrett or "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak, and let him prepare some of the story food.
Closed-Captioning
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According to reading specialist Jim Trelease, closed captioning on your TV is an economical way to expose your kids to print, letting them "absorb the sight of the words and their sounds, making connections to how print is used." When your child has developed some decoding skills, try it with the sound off to engage her mind in finding meaning through the text rather than audio reception.
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