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Guides & Tips

Download our useful, free guides on how to read and write with children in the home, share stories with children, run a reading club and use your local library. 

When should I start teaching my child to read

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.

When babies don’t yet understand many words, sharing books with pictures, rhymes and stories helps teach them vocabulary and language – and it gets their brains thinking! It’s also a wonderful way to relax and bond with your baby.

As babies grow, the more you read aloud and talk to them, the more words they hear and very soon you’ll hear them using the words themselves! They will also find out how the print has meaning and how we tell stories. But most importantly, when parents and caregivers read often to very young children, these youngsters grow up seeing reading as fun and worthwhile. So, they are more likely to choose to read in their free time activity when they are older. This is important because the more children read, the better they become at reading…and the more pleasure they get from it and so, they are more likely to read!

But is it too late to start to read to children when they are at preschool or school? And how old should they be when you stop? Well, like it is never too early to start, it is also never too late to start reading to children – even if they can already read. You can share books together that are too complicated for them to tackle on their own.

Taking time out from a busy day read to your children is an investment in their future no matter what their age. These pleasurable times not only show your children that you enjoy their company and care about them but they build lifelong memories too!

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 your children only read at school and when they do homework, then they will learn to link reading with work and not with pleasure. We need to read to our children if we want them to learn that reading can be an enjoyable and entertaining activity. Knowing this is what inspires them to want to read − and then to read more and more. This is how they establish a satisfying lifelong relationship with books and reading. And, in addition to this benefit, there are lots of research studies to show that the more children read at home, the better they do at school.

But reading to your children can’t just happen once or twice. It needs to be one of the regular activities in your home. Here are three tips to help you make reading a part of your family’s daily life.

* Be a role model. When your children see you reading on a regular basis, they learn that reading is important, without you ever having to actually tell them this! Talk to your children about what you are reading and encourage them to ask questions about it.

* If you want them to read, read to them. Decide on a time of day that you will sit with your children and enjoy a book together – and then, do this every day! Spending quiet, relaxing times reading together, helps you connect with your children.

* Develop children’s confidence. Value your children’s attempts to read, just like you valued their first words! Give them lots of support to develop their confidence – that’s half the battle with learning. Encourage them to read to you. Listen to their pretend reading. Let them try to read something that they choose – even if it is a little difficult for them. Unless they ask you for help, just enjoy listening to them read, without correcting them. Children need to behave like readers to become readers

  •  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.
  •  If children have been exposed to books from an early age, then often by age 9 they have developed a preference for books of a particular genre. Some children like stories about characters in real-life situations; others like fantasy. Some children like adventure stories; others like science fiction. Developing a preference for a particular type of story is a completely natural process and is part of maturing as a reader.
  • Share chapter books by reading two or three chapters together each day.
  • Remember to share other reading material too: magazine articles, poems and newspapers  as well as material you may have downloaded from the Internet.
  • If your children prefer to read on their own, set aside a short time in the week when you all discuss the books that they are currently reading. Or, you can find out about what they are reading more informally by asking them what happened in a previous chapter asthey settle down to continue reading their books.
  • Keep reading to your children – even when they are competent independent readers. Choose books that are slightly more advanced than the level at which they are currently reading on their own. You might want to set aside a special time each week for reading together and allow others regular times – like just before going to sleep at night – for silent reading.
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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! As with all other areas of their development, children develop at their own pace, so decide which of the ideas below best suit your children’s previous experiences and current abilities with books, as well as what interests them the most. In other words, try to match how you share books with your children with where they are ‘at’ because reading should always be meaningful and enjoyable for them. And remember to continue to find ways to read, write and tell stories with your children and to keep offering them encouraging words as they start to read and write on their own.

  • Read to your children. Throughout this phase of your children’s literacy development, continue to read to them – this provides them with a model for how we read. As your children get older, choose those books that they are not yet able to read on their own, to read to them.
  • Letting them read to you. As your children learn to read for themselves, create opportunities for them to read to you. For example, take turns reading aloud to each other just before bedtime. Also suggest that they try out their new skills by reading to a younger sibling. This is a great confidence booster and creates an opportunity for children to bond.
  • Hearing the sounds. Singing songs, saying tongue twisters and reading rhymes together help children to become familiar with the different sounds in words which assists them with their own reading and writing. Fun games, like ‘I spy with my little eye..’, provide an opportunity for you to focus on letter names and their sounds in a relaxed way.
  • Going beyond the story. As you read to your children or they read to you, help them make connections between what they are reading about and real life. For example, if the book they are reading is about a child’s first day at school, link it to your children’s first day at their school. Also, extend stories by asking children to think about why characters behaved in certain ways and what they might have done if they were in the same situation.
  • Don’t stop telling stories. Create a story that you all contribute to. For example, start telling a story on the way to school and then take turns to add to it each morning.
  • Writing and reading go together. Try to always have paper and pencils available for your children to experiment with writing. Encourage them to write their own stories and also find real opportunities for them to write – for example: thank-you letters, birthday cards and shopping lists. Try not to worry about whether letters are perfectly formed and spelling is correct. Remember that we write to communicate our thoughts and ideas so this is what we should encourage in children.
  • Everywhere you go. Don’t let your children leave home without a book with them. Encourage them to read in the car or on the bus and while they are waiting, for example, at the clinic or doctor’s surgery.
  • Read it again. Continue to read stories to your children when they ask for them again and again but also encourage them to read their favourite books and stories over and over again themselves. This helps them to read accurately – but remember, it needs to be something they want to do otherwise it will become a chore and we want to encourage children to read for enjoyment!
  • Choosing books. Help your child choose books that are the kinds of stories or topics that interest them. For example, some children like animal stories while others like non-fiction. As they start to read on their own, help them to choose books that are not too difficult so that are able to have lots of successful reading experiences. Keep the more difficult books for you to read to them!
  • Older children, longer books. Expose older children to chapter books. Read a chapter or two each day. Children who are ready for chapter books very often find a series they like and then want to read all the books in that series. Don’t worry about this – you can introduce other authors once there are no other books left in the series to read!

Why read to children not yet at school? Well, because it will help their minds to expand and their hearts to sing! Read with your children regularly and you will witness just how much they learn and what they can do with books! Here are some ideas for sharing books together:

Reading tips for 3 to 6 year olds:

  • Read the title of the book and the name of the author and illustrator each time you read a book to your children. The first time you read a book with your children, ask them if they can guess what it might be about from listening to the title and looking at the illustration on the cover.
  • Read aloud for your children until they feel they want to try reading books on their own. When you read aloud for them, you are their reading role model, teaching them invaluable knowledge about how we read books.
  • Read with as much expression as you can. You may feel a little odd about doing this in the beginning but your children will appreciate it!
  • Being able to guess what comes next as you are read is a skill competent readers use all the time. As you read a story with your children, develop these prediction skills by asking ‘What do you think will happen next?’  at different points in the story.
  • Deepen your children’s understanding of the stories you read by asking other questions too. You might want to ask some of these questions as you read a story, while other questions can be discussed after you have finished reading. Questions like ‘What does that remind you of?’, ‘Why do you think he did that?’ and ‘What would you have done?’ help children to explore books. Talking about stories in these ways helps children to understand how stories work – another essential literacy skill!
  • Introduce your children to as wide a variety of books as possible. Share books by the authors that they most enjoy, but introduce them to new authors too. Click here for more information on how to choose books to read with your children and some of the books that your children might enjoy.
  • Repeat children’s favourite stories as often as they ask for them! As they get to know the stories better, invite them to read along with you. Suggest that they ‘read’ (recite) the repeated phrases and sentences like I’ll huff and I’ll puff and blow your house down’or ‘Trip, trap, trip trap’.
  • Set aside a special time each day when you can enjoy books together. Choose books that you like as well as ones you think will be of special interest to your children. And, of course, also make time to read the stories that your children choose themselves.
  • Introduce your children to as wide a variety of books as possible. Share books by the authors that they most enjoy, but introduce them to new authors too. Click here for more information on how to choose books to read with your children and some of the books that your children might enjoy.

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. Learning to read and write are learned in similar ways, because like listening and speaking, they are also language. Reading to your baby offers her other opportunities to develop oral language and she also starts her reading adventure, learning what books are about and what we can do with them.

Even if your baby cannot talk, read and share a book together. Sharing books with babies:

  • Helps you bond with each other
  • Develops their language skills
  • Stimulates their cognitive development.

Reading tips with your baby:

  • A baby’s eyesight is only fully developed by about four months, so it’s good to choose books for very young babies that have simple pictures with strong contrasts (like black and white) or photographs of babies’ faces. Repetition and routine makes young babies feel secure so you can read the same book over and over again in exactly the same place each day without boring your baby! You can also say different things than what is written on the page as long as you and your baby are enjoying yourselves with the book.
  • Until your baby can sit independently, it’s easiest to put her on your lap with her back against you and to hold the book in front of her.
  • Don’t forget to give your baby some attention as you are reading – even when you’re half way through! A kiss and a cuddle during book-sharing time help to build a positive association with reading and books.
  • Even from before, and definitely from about six months, your baby may enjoy books that have songs and rhymes in them. Read the words to her but also talk about what is in the pictures and name some of the objects and colours. Don’t forget to make lots of interesting sounds too – for example,  ‘mooing’ when you look at a picture of a cow. Babies love to hear different sounds!
  • As soon as your baby sits, you may wish to introduce books that can be read in the bath. Board- and cloth books work best when you want to allow your baby to handle books on her own – for example, during nappy changes or when she is in her pram or safety seat in the car or during a taxi or bus trip. These books can be chewed, pulled, patted and bashed without breaking!
  • By about nine months, many babies enjoy books with flaps, pop-ups and buttons that you press that make sounds. You’ll probably notice that your baby begins to engage more with what is going on in the book. For example, she might point to things on the page or try to turn a page. You can use these moments to encourage her to join in, at story time.
  • Between one and three years, babies’ and toddlers’ ability to understand and use language increases dramatically. Young children of these ages seem to enjoy all the books from their first year as well as ones that have stories. Click here to see some of the books that your child might enjoy.
  • Continue to set aside a special time each day to read with your child, choosing a wider variety of books. Choose some stories that have other children in them as well as ones that are about family and familiar everyday experiences. Rhyme and flap-books continue to be popular with toddlers. Use wordless books too. Talk about the pictures with your child and make up your own story.
  • As you read a book, draw your child’s attention to how the characters, plot and illustrations work together by pointing to something and asking simple questions like ‘Who is that?’, ‘Where is he?’ and ‘What is that?’. Make comments like ‘I wonder why she did that?’. These invite your child to make meaning from the story you are reading together.

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.

Things to do before reading

  • Sing a song or say a rhyme linked to the content of the story.
  • Spend some time looking at the information and illustration on a picture-book cover. Ask your children to use the book title and illustration to predict what the story is about. (You can follow this up after reading the book by asking your children to think about how accurate their predictions were!)
  • Older children often enjoy finding out more about the author or where the story is set. (You can do this as an ‘after’ activity too!)

Things to do during reading

  • As you read, help develop your children’s prediction skills by asking, ‘What do you think will happen next?’.
  • Ask your children to comment on the illustrations or to find particular people or objects in the pictures.
  • If children can already read, take turns in reading different parts of the story.
  • Encourage younger children to join in with pretend-reading (or reciting) parts of stories that they know well.

Things to do after reading

  • Invite younger children to draw a picture of the part of the story that they liked best. Ask older children to draw a map of where the story is set.
  • Ask older children what they liked about the book and if there is anything they wished was different.
  • Act out the story or a portion of it together.
  • Get children writing! Let them write a letter or type an email to the author and actually send it! (You can do this by sending the letter to the publisher of the book who will pass it on to the author.) Suggest that they write a poem describing one of the characters or write a review of the book, which we could feature in ourbook review section.

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!

Learning to read is a journey of discovery. As you travel through the world of storybooks with your children, you’ll uncover different treasures and pleasure along the way. You might notice that your child, who used to run off when you tried to read to him, now has a favourite picture book which he brings to you to read − over and over again! Or maybe you’re surprised the first time that your older child sits down with her younger brother and pretends to read to him from a familiar picture book.

If you read regularly with your children, you will notice that their book habits change over time. Here are some of the “signposts” that point out a successful reading journey.

  • Babies may become quiet as you start to read a book to them, showing that they are listening, and sometimes they may clap or kick their legs to show their excitement. Some babies make sounds as you read to them. They are trying to imitate you.
  • As children start to try to “read” on their own, they often turn the pages of the book, looking at the pictures while they make up their own story. (Sometimes they tell a different story each time!) This shows that they have learnt that the pictures give clues to what the story is about.
  • Are there some storybooks that your children ask you to read again and again? You may find your children “reading” these books on their own by looking at the pictures and telling the story. They may use a mixture of their own words with some of the actual words from the story. This is an important step in learning to read because it means that children realise that written words stay the same each time you read them.
  • As children begin to read aloud for themselves and come across an unfamiliar word, you may notice that they try to guess what the word is by using what has already happened in the story to help them. Or, they may use the accompanying picture to give them clues to what the unfamiliar word might be. These are clear signs that your children are well on their way to being independent readers. They know that reading is about making meaning.

So, how do you know when your children are “really reading” rather than pretending to read? When you go on a journey, you are not called a “traveller” only when you reach the destination. Learning to read is exactly the same. It is a journey and at every stage of that journey your children are behaving as readers, even when it seems that all they are doing is looking at the pictures and telling their own story!

Reading to your children – even after they have learnt to read for themselves – is the best and easiest way to help your children become readers. Make reading a daily habit and celebrate each attempt your children make on the journey to reading independence.

We all have hopes and dreams for our children – that they will live happy, healthy and successful lives. And we know that achieving these dreams takes effort on our part.

The wisest investment we can make in our children is to give them our time – to listen to them, to talk together and to do things together. All of these things happen quite naturally when we spend even a short time each day telling and reading stories together. When we share stories with children we help to expand their world and we build a firm foundation for their futures. How about investing in your children in some of these ways?

1. Read in their mother-tongue. Reading stories in your mother-tongue makes reading easier and more enjoyable. Try our growing collection of stories in a range of South African languages on the Nal’ibali website (www.nalibali.org) or mobisite (www.nalibali.mobi).

2. Read what they love. For children to love reading, and to want to read every day, they need to enjoy what they are reading!  Some children may like real-life stories while others like fantasy. In fact, developing an interest in reading particular types of books is a sign that your child is maturing as a reader. So, whatever sparks their interest, let them read it!

3. Read printed books. Young children learn a great deal through their senses. It is therefore very important for them to have the experience of touching and holding printed books and turning their pages. After all, nothing beats the feeling of curling up together with a book.

4. Read together… or on their own. Choose books to read together that are slightly more advanced than the books your children are currently reading on their own. But, if children prefer to read on their own, encourage this as well. Take the time each week to talk about what they are reading.

5. Read on their cellphones. Twenty-nine million South Africans use cellphones! For older readers and teens, this technology is especially exciting, and being mobile means that they can read at any time − at home, or on the way to and from school. The FunDza mobisite has a growing mobi-library catering mainly for teens (http://fundza.mobi/). And for parents with children and babies, don’t forget to visit our reading and storytelling section for tips and ideas on reading with your little ones; as well as stories to share with them in 6 South African languages!

Whatever it takes, get your children reading every day and help them find material that interests them. Once you have helped them to unleash the power of reading in their lives, no one can take this magical gift away from them! Plus you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you have invested wisely in their futures.

As parents we do whatever we can to encourage our children to read. But sometimes, without realising it, we also do things that stand in the way of our children becoming readers. Here are some of the ways in which we may sometimes discourage our children from reading without realising it, as well as suggestions of what to do instead!

1. No books at home: Children need to have books around them if we want them to learn to read. You can’t learn to read without books! Of course, the more books children have available at home, the more likely they are to find some that will interest them enough to make them want to read. Build up your supply of books at home by buying books for your children as birthday gifts, saving the cut-out-and-keep books in each Nal’ibali supplement and borrowing books from the library.

2. Locking books away: If you keep books on high shelves that children cannot reach, or lock them away in cupboards, children have to ask for books when they want to read. They need to be able to pick up a book whenever they feel like reading! So, keep books in places that are easy for children to find and reach.

3. Only reading aloud to younger children: Reading aloud to children is the best thing you can do to help increase their literacy skills – and this applies to all children. Keep reading to your children even when they can read by themselves. In this way, you’ll keep them motivated to read and you’ll spend time relaxing together and connecting around books.

4. Not letting them choose their books: We are more likely to want to read a book that we have chosen ourselves. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t ever suggest books for your children to read, and it is important that you show them how you find out about a book by looking at the front cover and reading the blurb on the back. But, at least some of the time, your children should choose the books they would like you to read aloud to them and the books they want to read on their own.

5. Bribing and punishing: If you link reading to punishment (“You didn’t read, so now you can’t watch TV!”) or use it to bribe (“I’ll give you a slab of chocolate, if you read that book.”), children will not see reading as something that is enjoyable. And, we need children to want to read if they are going to be life-long readers!

6. Not enough time: If children have too many chores to do, or their weekends and afternoons are filled with lots of activities, then they are not going to have enough time to read. It is important that children have some time every day where they can just relax and read!

7. Not reading yourself: Children learn from what you do and they copy you! They need to see you reading regularly.

Have you heard the saying “practice makes perfect”? Well, this certainly is true for reading! Children who are read to and who read for pleasure themselves, get better at reading and want to read. Unfortunately the opposite is also true: children who are not read to or who read very little themselves, usually avoid reading where they can and so they struggle with it.

It is never too early to start reading to children, but if your children are not hooked on reading yet, it isn’t too late to help them develop a love of reading. Here are some ideas for getting and keeping your children hooked on books. Remember, though, that children are individuals and what works for one child might not work for another.

Five tips to get and keep children hooked on books 

1. Be a reading-loving home. Stock your home with different books, newspapers and magazines for your children to read. Use the mini-book pages in the Nal’ibali newspaper supplements to create your own bilingual books. Add to your book collection by visiting the library regularly together so that your children can choose their own books. And, of course, be a regular reader yourself and show your children your own enthusiasm for reading.

2. 15/7. Set aside 15 minutes each day of the week to read to your children. Make this a relaxed and enjoyable time in which you all take a break from your busy daily lives.

3. Involve your children. Encourage your children to bring a story or poem to life in a fun way like acting out or drawing different parts. Encourage older children to become reading role models by using their skills to read aloud to younger brothers and sisters.

4. Introduce the bookmark. Remind older children – especially reluctant readers − that they don’t have to finish a chapter or a book in one sitting! They can stop when they want, bookmark their place, and carry on tomorrow.

5. Use the power of technology. Encourage older children to read stories using everyday technology – cell phones! You can find fun stories for the whole family to read at www.nalibali.mobi and teens and young adults can enjoy FunDza’s stories at www.fundza.mobi.

Here are 30 fun ideas that incorporate reading and writing to keep your children busy and entertained during the school holidays. The idea is to enjoy yourselves so use the language/s you and your children feel most comfortable with.

1.  Keep a holiday journal. Use an exercise book or staple sheets of paper together to create a journal in which your children can draw and write about their holiday activities, thoughts, ideas and feelings. Encourage them to do this each day, either with you or on their own.

2.  Going on a journey?  Create a travel map for your children. Draw a simple map and put the towns or landmarks on it. Your children can use the map to keep track of where you are in your journey, without having to ask ‘Are we nearly there yet?’ all the time and to add new places of interest to them!

3. Join a library holiday programme with your children. Borrow a book by an author that none of you has ever read or more books by your favourite authors.

4. Create a family book chain. After each person has read a book, they write the book’s name on a new chain which you add to a paper chain. Put up the growing paper chain along a wall or hanging from a door frame. At the end of the holidays, remember and talk about all the books on the chain!

5. Create personalised gifts for friends or family members. Think about how you would describe a friend or family member and then look through magazines and newspapers to find words that describe them. Arrange and paste these onto a sheet of paper together with a photograph or drawing of the person.

6. Borrow books of fairytales or folktales and read one to your children every day of the holidays.

7. Create holiday memory boxes using old shoeboxes. Let your children cover and decorate their boxes, and write their names on them. When their boxes are ready, they can collect anything that represents a holiday memory for them: for example, train tickets, photographs, drawings, letters and cards from friends, the names and authors of books they have read.

8. Have a book party. Invite your friends and family to come to your home with their children. Ask each person to bring a storybook with them and then spend time sharing these books with each other.

9. Make Reconciliation Day words. If it’s the December school holidays, look up the word ‘reconciliation’ in a dictionary on 16 December. Find out what it means and see how many new words you and your children can make from it?

10. Try some tongue twisters! Get your children to write down tongue twisters and share them with their friends. Here are some to get them started – say them over and over again, as quickly as you can: She sells seashells on the seashore./ Flash message, flash message/ A proper copper coffee pot/ I saw Esau sitting on a seesaw. Esau, he saw me./Toy boat, toy boat/ Six thick thistle sticks/Good blood, bad blood

11. Make up silly stories. Take turns to pull out of a hat, a collection of words you’ve all written on pieces of paper (eg:  blue, fox, umbrella, bag, moon, girl, flew, jumped, shone, sang, coat, grabbed.). Use them to help you create and tell a silly story, either all together, or separately.

12. Cook together. Find a recipe with your children for something interesting that you haven’t eaten before. Read the recipe and make the food together – then enjoy eating it!

13. Remember your favourite childhood stories. Tell them or find them in books to read to your children.

14. Write a story. Make books by stapling blank sheets of paper together and write stories with your children. Younger children can draw the picture. Offer to write the words they tell you but also encourage them to try and write for themselves. Allow older children to draw and write on their own. Read your books to each other – and to children who visit!

15. Plan a picnic. Write a list of things to take with you.  Encourage your children to write their own lists as you write yours – involvement is more important here than neatness or correct spelling! Let them copy what you write if they want to. Before you leave, use the list to check that you have everything with you.

16. Picture it. With your children, cut out interesting pictures from newspapers or magazines. Each person thinks and writes what they like about a picture. Then share what you’ve all written.

17. Make song posters.  For younger children, write the words of one of their favourite songs on a large sheet of paper but let older children write the words themselves. They can draw or paste pictures around the song. Display the posters where they can see it and then sing the song together while you point to the words.

18. Donate a story card. Encourage your children to cut out a story from an earlier Nal’ibali supplement and paste it on a sheet of cardboard or part of a cereal box. Let them share their story with friends or those who live in a children’s or old age home. Remember to leave the story card with them so that they can keep a piece of your story magic!

19. Write a review. Help your children to review of a book they have read and liked a lot, and then share it with us. Send your review to Nal’ibali, PO Box 1654, Saxonwold, 2132 or letters@nalibali.org or post it on Facebook: www.facebook.com/nalibaliSA

20. Create a 2012 newsletter. With your children, write about events and achievements of each family member of the past year and then email or post it to friends and family, especially those who you do not see often.

21. Change a story. As you tell a story that your children know, change the title, characters, or beginning or ending to make it different. Young children love it if you use their own names, and those of friends and family members as characters. Ask your children for different ways to end a story: sad, silly, happy, unbelievable.

22. Make a New Year’s gift. Together with your children, follow the instructions in a how-to book to make some New Year gifts for friends. Your children will learn how to read and follow instructions as well as how to make something.

23. Make a joke book. Collect jokes to write and illustrate joke books. Here are some to start you off: How do porcupines kiss? Very carefully. Why do bees hum? Because they don’t know the words. Why did the crab go to prison? Because it kept pinching things! What do you give an elephant with big feet? Plenty of room!

24. Make a riddle book or poster. Here are some to use: What has a face and two hands but no arms or legs? A clock. What has a neck but no head? A bottle. What gets wetter as it dries? A towel. What has to be broken before you can use it? An egg. Why can’t a woman living in Gauteng be buried in Limpopo? Because she’s still living!

25. Go on a treasure hunt. One person writes up the clues that tell everyone what they have to do next to discover where the treasure is hidden. He/she places them in different places and everyone else uses each clue to get one step closer to finding the treasure!

26. Name the story characters. Invite your children to draw a picture of their favourite story character, keeping it secret as they draw. Put their pictures up and then see if other family members are able to guess the characters’ names and which stories they are from.

27. Create a menu. Each of you creates and writes down your most mouth-watering menu for a pretend restaurant or a family supper you could all enjoy.

28. Make an alphabet book.  Do this with your younger children or invite your older children to make one for a younger sibling or baby you know. Write each letter on a separate sheet of paper and then draw or find pictures of familiar things for each letter: for example, an Aloe or aardvark for ‘A’.

29. Make a songbook. Ask family and friends to write down the words of their favourite songs. Learn them together and sing them!

30. Theatre time. Choose a well-loved story with exciting characters and a strong story line. With your children, write down what each character says and let them choose who they want to be! Provide props like pieces of fabric, hats, shoes or clothes and act out the story.

 
For more easy Nal’ibali holiday reading activities, click here!

What we believe our children can do and achieve, influences what they see as possible for themselves. When you believe that your children will succeed at reading and writing, and you let them know this, you help them to see that this goal is within their reach. And, as you take the time to read and write with them, they experience the ways in which reading and writing can be satisfying and useful.

How adults respond to children’s attempts to read and write either encourages or discourages them. Giving them positive feedback as they try, helps to motivate them to keep at it – and the more they do it, the better they get at it! Here are some examples of what you can say and do to encourage your children as they learn to read and write.

* Talk about learning. Let your children know that because they are still learning to read and write, what they can do at the moment is not supposed to sound or look like someone who has been doing it for a long time.

* Acknowledge their efforts. Respond positively to every effort to read or write, no matter how small. For example, you could say, “I love hearing you try to read that all on your own!” or “I really liked your big bad wolf voice!” Also comment on the pleasure your children feel when they have completed something they set out to do, for example, “I can tell you really enjoyed writing your birthday list!”

* Be interested and proud. Show an interest in what your children are reading and writing and tell them that you value their attempts, whether or not they do it perfectly. For example, say, “I’d love to read the names you’ve written on your list.” or “What are you reading about?”

* Offer support. Support your children’s attempts to work on their own, without jumping in to correct every mistake they make. Rather, let them focus on understanding as they read and on communicating a message in their writing. Remember that correct spelling and punctuation come in time as a child reads and writes more and more.

* Motivate them. When you spend time reading and writing with children, they learn that these activities are worthwhile and they want to do them too. Read together. When your children bring you a book to read to them, take the time to do so – even if they have to wait a few minutes for you to first finish what you are doing. Also find opportunities to write together. Work together to write party invitations, shopping lists, reminder notes for members of the family and anything else you can think of!

What you say and do matters! When you read and write with your children and respond positively and with real interest to their attempts, you are building the foundations for their success as readers and writers.

When adults write, we do so for a real reason: to write a shopping list, to leave a note for someone, to fill in forms, to communicate with a friend in a letter or email, to create a story. Children learn to write most easily when they write forreal reasons too rather than because an adult has told them what they should write about.

Like all other things worth learning how to do, learning to write is a process. We can help our children develop their skills at writing by understanding where they are in their development and encouraging them.

Drawing as a first step

  • Drawing and painting are useful ways for young children to express their ideas and feelings. They need lots of opportunities to do this. You can help young children understand the connection between drawing and writing by asking them to talk about their pictures and then later on, asking what they would like you to write about their pictures. You can write about their picture under it. This helps them to understand that written language has meaning.
  • Encourage them to use writing in the fantasy games by making sure that writing and drawing materials are available. For example, in the game ‘shop-shop’, leaving a notepad and pencil around encourages them to ‘write’ a shopping list.
  • Ask children to draw a picture about a story they have heard or to draw their favourite part of a story you have read together.

Early writing

When children realise that writing communicates meaning, they begin to experiment with it. They use writing for different real purposes in their lives. Most commonly they:

  • Try to write their name
  • Write to label things in their pictures
  • Use writing to organise different parts of their daily lives – for example: writing a list of children coming to a birthday party, or of the things they would like for their birthday or another occasion
  • Write to communicate messages to important people in their lives
  • Write to imitate the ways that adults in their lives use writing – for example: filling in forms or competition entry forms.

When children first start to write they usually use scribbles on a page. From here children often begin to use symbols that look more like letters and then they start to use real letters (even though they may be back to front sometimes!) together with their own symbols. These are exciting first steps because they show that children are aware of a difference between drawing and writing.  You can support their attempts at writing by asking them what the writing says.

Using conventional writing

Next children start writing in words, using the letters of conventional writing. They usually choose letters that they think match the sounds in words they are trying to write. Through experimenting, they gradually become more aware of how we write from the top of the page to the bottom, and from left to right and also how numbers are different to letters.

Encourage children’s writing by reading it aloud or asking them to do so, displaying it around your home (for example, on the fridge) and by writing back to them!

Over time, as children are exposed to examples of writing in their environment and in books you read with them, they gradually incorporate the use of punctuation in their writing and use conventional spelling more and more. They even begin to pick up ‘mistakes’ in their own writing and rewrite words or letters. While they start out writing mainly to record and communicate messages, if you keep reading with them, you will find they begin to write their own simple stories!

Reading aloud to children stimulates their imagination and curiosity and develops their language and knowledge as they experience the pleasure of stories.  But reading aloud – whether it is to your own children or a group of children in your class or at a reading club – is not something that comes naturally to everyone. Here are 10 tips to help you:

1. Choose books to read that you enjoy but also ones that match your children’s changing interests.

2. Reading aloud is always a performance! Put lots of expression in your voice to create the mood!

3. Practice makes perfect so if you’re new to this, read the story aloud before you read it to a group of children.

4. Try to be aware of your listeners and don’t read too fast! Allow time for them to look closely at the illustrations or to create a mental picture as you read.

5. Books with rhyme, rhythm and repetition make good read-aloud books for young children and to introduce a new language. As they get to know the story, encourage children to join in as you read. Picture books are useful when reading to children of different ages, like all the children in your family or at a reading club. Even teenagers enjoy picture books!

6. Children may need time to settle before you begin reading. Young children respond well to singing a song or saying a rhyme or guessing what the story might be about from the cover picture and title. Ask older children to recall what happened in a novel at the end of your last read-aloud session.

7. Start by reading the name of the author (and illustrator) so children appreciate that books are created by people just like them!

8. We all have to learn how to listen to and engage with a story. Draw your children into the story: for example, ask them what they think might happen next, discuss one of the pictures or ask them to turn the pages for you.

9. When you read a picture book, make sure that all the children get a chance to see the pictures. You might like to pause to show the pictures and allow comments or questions as you read or after you’ve read the whole book through once.

10. If you are reading a novel aloud, read a chapter or part of a chapter each day. Find a place in the story to stop that will make your listeners eager for you to continue tomorrow.

“Read this to me, please!” are the words we all love to hear from our children because they mean that they are interested in stories and books, and are on their way to becoming independent readers. But do you often wonder whether there are ways that you could improve your reading-to times with your children? There are no correct or incorrect ways to share books with a child, but here are some ideas you might like to try:

Choosing books. If you have lots of books to choose from or are at the library, let your children choose which books they want you to read. If you are helping them to choose books, suggest ones that suit their interests.

Timing is everything. Find a time when your children find it easy to settle. This might be after bath time or just before they go to sleep at nap time and/or at night.

Read together in bite-size chunks. Younger children find it difficult to concentrate for long periods of time or when they are tired. If your children become restless or lose interest, stop reading and try again later or the next day. Remember you want to encourage them to develop an interest in stories and books, so don’t make it a chore!

Babies and books. Children under a year old explore their environment using their senses. They will enjoy story times where they are give opportunities to touch the pages of the book, watch you point to specific things in the simple pictures, hear you sing or say rhymes… and even pat and chew the book a bit!

Don’t skip the cover. Read the title of the book and the name of the author and illustrator each time you read a book to your children. This helps them to realise that real people create stories. If it is the first time you are reading the book with your children, ask them if they can guess what it might be about from listening to the title and looking at the illustration on the cover.

Ask questions. As you read the story, ask your children questions about it. ‘What do you think will happen next?’ is a great question to develop children’s prediction skills, which are very important literacy skills. After you have read each page, ask your child to find different things in the picture.

Read it again! If your children ask you to read a story again… and again and again, do it! This shows them that you respect the choices they make for themselves and it allows them to discover new things about the story each time you read it.

Reading the words together. As your children become more familiar with a story or as older children are learning to read, ask them to help you read the story. Younger children are often able to recite parts of familiar stories – especially if the words rhyme or a phrase is repeated. Let them do this while you point to the words. Read along with older children as they attempt to read the words on the page with you, pointing to the words as you go.

Reading together is for older children too. Once children can read, don’t stop reading to them! Choose books that are more difficult than the ones your children can read on their own. Or, ask your child what has happened in the book she is reading at the moment and then take turns in reading a chapter to each other.

Sharing books with your children gives you the opportunity to build a strong and loving bond with them while also helping to develop the literacy skills that are so important for their success at school.

Reading helps to open your children’s eyes, hearts and minds to other people and to different situations. And, when you read to them, you help to establish reading as something they will continue to do for pleasure throughout their lives. So really, reading to your children is just good parenting!

Here are some tips for sharing books with your children, no matter what their age.

* Invite your children to read with you for at least 15 minutes every day.

* Find somewhere quiet and comfortable to read. Beds and couches make good indoors reading places. Turn off the radio, TV and computer.

* Ask your child to choose a book for you to read together. This shows that you care about what they think and they are more likely to engage with a book that they have chosen!

* Sit close together and encourage your child to hold the book themselves or to help you do this. Younger children enjoy turning the pages. Invite older readers to read the words of one of the characters or a paragraph or two of the story.

* Try different things to make stories come alive! Use different voices for different characters. Read softly in quiet, gentle parts of a story. Read quickly if a character is in a hurry, or is being chased. Read in a big, booming voice for loud noises in the story.

* Talk about the story together. Encourage your children to share their opinions of the ways in which the characters in the story behave and the choices they make. Develop your children’s prediction skills, but asking, “What do you think is going to happen next?” at different points in the story.

* If the book has illustrations, enjoy looking closely at them together. Comment on things you notice and like in the illustration and encourage your children to do the same.

* But most of all, simply enjoy sharing different books together. Relax and do whatever it takes to make these times fun for all of you.

The holidays are upon us and it’s the perfect time to kick back, relax, and share a little bonding time. Vacations should be focused entirely on family, friends and kids. And we know that getting children to read during holidays can be a challenge.

The trick is simple: Make reading a treat, not a chore.

Children often associate reading with the tediousness of schoolwork. At home, you should strive to break that negative association. We’ve come up with eight easy ways you can get your child excited for bedtime books:

1. Try out togetherness

Find stories to read together. Borrow library books by authors that you have never read, or borrow more books by your favourite authors. Read our stories on www.nalibali.org and www.nalibali.mobi. All these resources are available – all you have to do, is be present. Make sure that you and your child have a set time every day, or every week to relax and unwind. Read their favourite type of story, discuss it, let them ask questions. The results will be astounding.

2.Become a storyteller

Make up stories. Start telling your family a story that you have made up, then add another instalment each day to continue the plot. You can all take turns adding each day’s instalment until the tale ends. You and your child can even take turns to weave the narrative. Not only does is this a fun bonding session, but you get to spark kids’ creativity and imagination.

3.Create a reading corner

Encourage your children to find a place at home that they can make into a holiday reading corner. Let them use cushions and blankets to make it comfortable. Decorate it with their drawings and other pictures. The more they associate reading with comfort and safety and beauty, the more inclined they’ll be to read.

4. Change chore time into storytime

Let a family member read aloud from their favourite book while others are preparing meals or cleaning up afterwards. Take turns being the person who reads aloud.

5. Create a menu

Children love the detail in a story. They enjoy hearing about what the character’s favourite colour is, or their favourite smell. They love talking about what kinds of clothes and food the characters enjoy, and what their favourite lolly pop flavour is. So make a game of this: Imagine the foods your favourite story characters would like and write a pretend menu for a supper you would invite them to.

6. Write a story

Make books by stapling blank sheets of paper together and write stories with your children. If your little ones are very young, just get them to draw the pictures and offer to write the words they tell you. Let older children draw and write on their own. Read your books to each other – and to children who visit!

7. Make a production

Choose a well-loved story with exciting characters. With your children, write down what each character says and let them choose who they want to be! Provide props like pieces of fabric, hats, shoes or clothes and act out the story.

8. Find reading spots

How many different places can you read or tell stories in during the holidays? How about in a car or bus, under a tree, or on the beach? Keep a list and at the end of the holidays, share your list by posting it on Facebook. Tell us the names of the stories you enjoyed too!

If you’re looking for more fun and simple ways to bring home the power of stories, click here for 30 more holiday activities. Happy holidays!

Have you noticed how young children seem to learn without very much effort at all? Think, for example, about what six year olds know and can do with language before they even get to school!

Babies start off not being able to use any language at all and then gradually by observing, listening and copying those around them they begin to talk. Of course their first attempts are not perfect, but over time they get better and better at using spoken language. They start to talk because they want to communicate with those around them and they get better at it because the adults in their lives help them by encouraging them, and by talking and listening to them.

Learning to write is not very different from learning to talk! When children see print around them and watch the people they love using writing in their daily lives, they become curious about writing. They see us using writingto communicate and interact with each other and then, when they have something they want to communicate, they give writing a try! Their first squiggles may just be “pretend writing” and may not look anything like the letters we use, but these are the first steps in using writing to communicate. And then, just like with learning to talk, children get better and better at writing when we encourage them − by writing with and to them, and by reading what they write.

Here are five easy ways to help develop your children’s writing.

* Show them that what we say can be written down and then read. For example, when they have drawn a picture, ask them if they would like you to help them write something about it. Write down the words they tell you under their picture and then read the words back to them.

* Show them the different ways you use writing. Let your children see you writing – making a shopping or to-do list, writing appointments on a calendar, writing a letter or an email, keeping a journal in which you record your thoughts, ideas and/or feelings.

* Show them that we write to communicate. Write a short note to your child telling them how much you love them and then put the note in a place where they will find it – in their school lunchbox, on their pillow, or in their cupboard.

* Show them that you value what they write. If your child writes something to you, write back to them. Also, display their drawings and writing at home – the front of the fridge makes a great display gallery!

* Show them that you are interested in what they are communicating. Read what your children write and comment on what they have written about rather than how they have written it. Writing from left to right with beautiful handwriting and correct spelling all come naturally over time as children read and write regularly with you and others.

Raising readers means raising empowered children. And empowering kids in this way always starts at home. There are a few easy steps you can take to harness the power of stories, in the comfort of your own home:

Some children naturally enjoy sitting still for a long bedtime story, while others often find their attention wavering. Some kids take to books immediately, and others need a bit of encouragement. This is entirely normal. Each child’s experience of a story is different, and what they enjoy changes vastly as they grow older. But as Frank Serafini said —

‘There is no such thing as a child who hates to read; there are only children

who have not found the right book.’

Often, the idea of the “reluctant reader” makes people think that these kids are “less able” readers – which can’t be further from the truth. Kids who don’t like to read often include very bright children who have never connected with specific books, who speak very little English, or those who simply haven’t grown up in a reading culture. The state of literacy in South Africa include the fact that the books in circulation here are mostly in English, and based on Western lifestyles. And in a country as diverse as South Africa, the limited number of multilingual and multicultural reading material is often a big challenge – which makes it tough for children to connect with the current books on hand.

The bottom line when it comes to encouraging reluctant readers is to give them books and material that they connect with. We know that the more our children read, the better they get at it and the more they enjoy it. The first simple steps you can take to:

  • Get kids stories in their mother tongue
  • Read aloud to them regularly

But what if you’ve done all these things and your child can read, but chooses not to? How do you “switch” them on to reading again or for the first time? Here are a few suggestions − some of them from children who stopped reading for pleasure for a while, and then reconnected with it.

1. Focus on their Strengths, not their Weakness

Some kids find reading challenging, so it’s less likely that they will choose to read for pleasure. They often start to feel insecure about it, fearing that they’re falling behind their peers. One of the most damaging things that you can do at this stage is to draw attention to this. Instead, try to bring back the enjoyment of the process. Remember that people are intrinsically fascinated and connected to stories – whether it’s in movies, our grandmother’s tale, or telling someone something funny that happened to you. Children also understand the world in this kind of narrative. So find a story that they like. Do they prefer comic books? Gogo’s stories? Cartoons in magazines? Maybe they want you to make up a story for them!

Father and Son Reading Together — Image by © Randy Faris/Corbis

Books and magazines with more pictures than words can also make reading seem like less of a chore. Read together only for as long as your child seems interested – then leave the book or magazine lying around so that they can choose to look at it later.

2. Bigger Exposure

Visit the library or bookshops and let your children choose books that they want to read. Reading something is better than not reading at all, so don’t worry if the books your children choose seem too easy for them, or are on subjects that you don’t think are important. Respecting their reading choices helps them to grow as readers.

3. Make it Personal

Most of the time, children associate reading with school work. This negative association is what causes dread in many kids. We also understand that access to fun, colourful books is not as widespread in South Africa as we’d like. In addition to our free multilingual stories, you can also write to your children. Leave them little notes in their lunch box. Leave them a poem, or a fun game on a piece of paper. Once you start making reading and stories a personal activity at home, children will start developing a positive relationship with reading.

4. Storyplay

The interest in reading and stories starts with at a very young age. Even before they can read, there are ways that you can start developing a love of stories in 1-5 year olds. The concept of storyplay is an easy way to get your kids to explore there imagination. Read them a story, and instead of ending it there, you can start a mini-play: Give them the role of one of the characters, and you can play another character in the tale. Act out the story and discuss the characters with them! This way, through play, your child will get to have fun exploring different roles and characters, stimulating both their imagination and their cognitive development.

Often, when people talk about the importance of reading to children, they mean reading to children who are three years or older – some people even mean children over the age of five! But more and more research is showing that it is better to start reading to children from birth.

Doctors all over the world are giving the same advice to new parents: start reading to your baby immediately and keep reading to him or her. Why? Because we know that children’s brains develop the most from two weeks after the baby is conceived to the time the baby is three months old. Recent research also shows that reading to children under the age of three, helps them to meet important brain development milestones. In fact, the later you leave introducing your children to books, the more difficult it is for them to develop the literacy skills they need to be successful at school.

When babies don’t yet understand many words, sharing books with pictures, rhymes and simple stories helps teach them vocabulary and language – and it gets their brains thinking! It’s also a wonderful way to relax and bond with a baby.

As babies grow, the more you read aloud and talk to them, the more words they hear, and very soon you’ll hear them using the words themselves! They will also find out how the print has meaning and how we tell stories. But most importantly, when parents and caregivers read often to very young children, these youngsters grow up seeing reading as fun and worthwhile. So, they are more likely to choose to read in their free time when they are older. This is important because the more children read, the better they become at reading … and the more pleasure they get from reading, the more likely they are to read!

These are all great reasons to follow the doctors’ orders: read regularly to babies and children and keep giving them books!

For the past two years, Nal’ibali has been encouraging you to read to your children regularly – just 15 minutes a day, every day! But why is this very small action so very important? Here are some of the reasons:

  • Things that are part of the rhythm of the everyday life of a child, soon become a habit. The easiest way to instil the reading habit in children is to use their love of stories. When you read with them every day, they come to see reading as natural and something that people do every day – just like eating, sleeping and brushing your teeth!
  • When children are read to every day, they learn that their lives include the pleasure and satisfaction of a good story. Looking forward to story time is an important step in becoming a lover of books and a life-long reader.
  • Reading to children every day no matter how busy you are, means you are making time for them. This shows them that they are important to you. “Come! Sit here with me and let’s read this together,” sends them a loving message. The memory of spending relaxed and satisfying story times with you, will stay with your children throughout their lives.
  • Children learn to read by first being read to and then learning how to do it for themselves. When you read to young children, you show them how books work – how the pictures and words work together to tell the story, how the words in a book stay the same every time you read them, and how the words we read have meaning. Knowing these things helps children learn how to read for themselves later on.
  • Reading to your children every day – no matter what their ages − is also a good way to get to know what interests them and to let them know what interests you. It’s not only reading together that makes a difference, but also the discussions you have about the characters and things that happen in the story. Talking about these things develops their thinking, imagination, language and their understanding of people. It helps them to develop into thoughtful and compassionate human beings.

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