Teach Your Kid How To Read With Interest, Not What Books To Read

Having a full book list is not a guarantee that your child would turn out as the next Shakespeare or Einstein. Your child may read every book in the world but if he/she doesn't understand a word, it only accounts for wasted time you could have used for a more productive activity. It's summer season now, the time when you're child is away from school and thus, the best months to turn your child into a lifetime reader.

In her The Washington Post article, preschool teacher Erika Christakis gives tips on how you can help your kids make a habit out of reading; thus, improving their literacy level. We simplified it down to five tips for you to follow through easily and apply it to your child rearing.

1. Know The Way Your Kid Thinks.

The first thing to do, according to Christakis, is to enter your young kid's mind. You have to first understand how your child's mind works before you can make her genuinely interested with reading.

According to Child Development Institute, one way to understand your kid's mind is through observation. Watch him/her as he/she sleeps, eats or plays. Take note of the things that interest him/her. You have to be a keen observer.

2. Teach Your Child The Art Of Conversation.

The next step is to teach your child how to talk and listen. Christakis writes, "It's easy to get worked up about when and what exactly our kids can decipher, but if we want our children to be able to crack the letter-sound code with ease; to make casual inferences; to synthesize new knowledge; and to make creative leaps across cognitive domains, we need to cultivate the art of conversation, and we need to give children meaningful things to talk about. The foundation of literacy is playful, exploratory and social experience."

3. Give Your Kid Books That He/She Will Understand.

The third course of action, according to Christakis' The Washington Post article is to give your kid stories that he/she is comfortable with and that his/her current literacy level can keep up with. If you give your kid a book beyond his/her comprehension, he/she would read every word but won't understand any. Simply put, no new knowledge entered his/her brain.

If you need help in assessing the reading comprehension skill of your kid, Raz-Kids is a good online site that can guide you. After determining his/her comprehension ability, you also have to figure out a book's reading level. As per The Bottle Tree, one way of knowing is through using some online tools such as Scholastic Book Wizard and AR. 

4. Know The Content That Peaks Your Kid's Interest.

The fourth step is to be mindful of the content that your kid is interested in. Being a preschool teacher, Christakis observed that her students like literary themes such as smallness, scariness, personification of animals and objects, and a sense of lightness. She also notes that children are also drawn to real things that are small and flying such as insects.

5. Let Your Kid's Mind Float Away Every Once In A While.

It's normal that your kids would have their downtime. Instead of reading, they'll stare at a blank wall or look up the ceiling which might bother you, but allow these breathing moments because they will help your kid in unmeasurable ways, as according to Christakis. Don't worry about lost reading time. Your kid's mind is wandering because it is thinking.

Christakis ends her piece with these beautiful words to take into mind and heart: "We need to engage with children deeply on their own terms, with loving respectful conversation about things that genuinely interest them. And we need to get out of children's way so that they can discover on their own the enchantment that fuels not only a love of reading, but a love of life."

Are you ready to develop in your child a genuine interest to read? Do you have any plans how your reading sessions would go or specific book titles in mind for your kid to enjoy and learn from? Share those below on the Comments section and follow Parent Herald for more news and updates.