Children who are read to regularly become better readers, develop larger vocabularies and perform better in language arts at school.
Read every day
Make story time part of your daily routine. The easiest way to do this is to pick the same time every day – be it first time in the morning, after lunch or at bedtime. Most people like to make it bedtime as reading is a great way to wind down from an active day.
Read many different kids of materials, be it fiction and non-fiction in different formats: books, magazines, newspapers, catalogs, etc. For example, if you are baking cookies together, have your child read the recipe as they help to measure out the ingredients, mix and bake the cookies.
Keep books within your kids’ reach so they can look through them at any time. An initial interest in flipping through and looking at the pictures leads to an interest in learning to read the words.
Most kids have that one book they want you to read with them over and over again. Indulge them. Repeated reading of the same text is one of the ways kids solidify their reading skills. Repetition makes perfect.
During reading time
First and foremost, have fun when you read with your kids. Change your voice, make funny sound effects, read fast and slow, make up silly words together.
Take the time to answer your kids’ questions as you read. Disruption is good as that means they are paying attention and are actively engaged in the story. Don’t make your child wait until the end to respond to the question.
Involve your kids in the story. Ask them what they think will happen next, have them describe the story based on the questions, have them tell you what they would do as a character in the story.
Reading comprehension worksheets
Once your kids are ready to branch into reading comprehension, we have a dedicated section of stories with question and answer sheets for kids in kindergarten to grade 5. This page is a good starting point for an overview of our reading comprehension worksheets:
