Read and write with children

Supporting learning at home actually works

Do you ever wonder how old children should be when you start reading to them? Maybe you think you should wait until they are being taught how to read in Grade 1 before you start. But would you wait until a baby understands what you are saying before you talk to him or her? No, because that would make learning to talk difficult! Well then, you shouldn’t wait for a child to be taught to read before you read regularly to him or her.

Is your home a reading home? Are stories part of your family’s daily life? Reading to your children helps them to discover the magic of books. When you read to your children, you teach them that books allow us to explore other people’s lives and to go on adventures to different places without ever leaving our homes!

•  If you have just started reading to children of this age and they are not yet able to read independently, try choosing picture books to read together to start with. Books of fables or traditional stories often have illustrations in them which make them suitable for late-starters or reluctant readers. Once you are in a routine of reading together regularly, you can introduce short novels as these often have simpler plots and fewer lengthy descriptive passages.

Between the ages of six and nine, many children move through the stages of emergent reading to independence, so a lot happens in terms of literacy development!

Why read to children not yet at school? Well, because it will help their minds to expand and their hearts to sing!

Do you think your baby would learn to speak if no-one ever spoke to him or her? Exactly! Babies learn to talk because older people talk to them.

Here are some activities for children to do that deepen and extend their experiences of the books they read. Some of the ideas are suitable for all ages while some are better suited to older children.

Do you and your children spend time enjoying storybooks together? And, do they also enjoy looking at or reading books on their own? When children spend time in these ways with books, they are learning to be readers!

We all have hopes and dreams for our children – that they will