Five Tips Which Helped My Son Become A Reader
I have refrained from sharing mommy tips, on raising a reader, till I saw for myself that they worked on my son.
Or that he has grown up to be a reader.
Or now that a reading assessment test, administered by Scholastic to students, determined his reading lexile as 830—a bit higher for an eight-year old.
I come from a “reading family.” I have siblings whom I knew as achievers in school, mainly because, they loved to read.
The love for reading does not happen over night. It takes time. I know that a child’s introduction to reading is crucial.
Either he will love to read or he will totally detest reading.
I made sure that my son’s introduction to reading would remain a happy thought.
1. While reading out aloud (to a toddler most especially), point out the words to him.
Point out words to him, as you tell the story.
Read the words slowly, so as not to distract him from the flow of the story.
Put emphasis on the more common words in the book—words that he would use in daily life.
If it is a storybook, do not forget to point out the name of the character in the story. He will remember it the most.
Read out aloud, the action words and the adjectives.
Most importantly, when you point out the words to him, make sure the words are within his range of vision.
It is very important that you point out the words to him while reading them. It is because he will not just memorize the words but by looking at them, he will be able to remember the sounds. He will also remember how they were spelled, what they meant or how they were used in a sentence.
Later, he will not have a hard time with his CVCs in school.
( It might be a daunting task for you as a parent but later on you and your child will reap the rewards—like homework would not be as challenging.)
My son started identifying the words, ” help, come, go and stop,” as early as one year old.
2. Use flash cards with pictures that have their corresponding name words, beneath it.
Point out the words first, then the picture.
Even before my son could talk, I started familiarizing him with words. I would talk to him and read to him. I pointed out words to him.
I discovered, especially with the younger kids (like when my son was two) retention was faster that way.
I pointed the word first, before I pointed the object it represented.
Long before my son might have known how an elephant looked like in reality.
He already knew the word, ” elephant.”
And that it can be seen at the zoo, as well as in Africa.
It is effective— for he started “wanting” to visit Africa.
As for myself, as a young kid, I encountered the words “tumble-dry” on my brother’s shirt tag.
It said...”on washing machine, wash cold with like colors, do not bleach and tumble-dry”
Back then, we never owned a “live” washing machine and I have never seen one that time.
But I knew for sure that there was a word spelled as “washing machine” and somehow, somewhere, it is an appliance in somebody else’s household which can tumble-dry clothes.
3. Surround your child with books.
How else should you surround your child with books?
Build your own bookshelf.
Hang out with him in book stores. Let him go through the books shelves alone.
When going to the mall with your child , include the book store in your itinerary.
But as your child grows older, he will be choosing his own books and he will be begging you to buy them for him.
4. Read to him or let someone else read to him ( just make sure a lot of reading is going on)
For the many times and for the different persons whom I have asked to read to my son, they all left an impression on him.
My son, at three years old then, once said, “Why mom, everyone knows how to read, except me!”
I guess that was what inspired him to read, too.
Someone has just to be there beside him, when he starts reading, especially when he asks the meanings of words.
5. Last but not least, enable your environment to be a reading environment ( even if you think you lack books).
The love for reading books was uniquely introduced to me by my mom.
In my blog piece entitled Read Me, I wrote how my mom enthralled me with her storytelling, of Rumpelstiltskin.
(She memorized the story and recited it to me-without the book that is.)
But when she was halfway through her story, she decided not to finish it.
She piqued my curiosity by not finishing it.
Later on, as a gift, she gave me copy of the book. So, I could read and finish it, myself.
In addition to that, she made sure that my surrounding enabled me and encouraged me to read.
We would read labels of grocery items, texts on t-shirts, road signs and street names.
Even without knowing Dolch and Fry sight and frequency words, my mom and I were starting our own sight words.
*Speaking of sight words, I remembered how my son used to memorize words from his books, when he was three years and three months old:
