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Many studies have shown that reading is critical to school success. Beginning in kindergarten, if your child reads 20 minutes a day at home, he or she will have read (or heard) 1.8 million words per year, totaling 851 hours by 6th grade. And they will likely score higher than 90% of the other students on standardized tests!
As important as reading is, it can be a challenge to get children to sit and read for 20 minutes! Here are some tips that might help:
- Sit and read with your child. Make it a family fun activity. Turn off the TV and create a quiet space that is special for the two of you—a comfortable chair, couch or pillows—you could even go outside and sit under a tree. Let your child choose the spot.
- Set a regular time for reading. Read after school, after dinner or just before bedtime. Stick to the schedule each and every day.
- Let your child choose what to read. Provide plenty of high interest reading materials, and let him choose which book, magazine article or newspaper section he or she wants to work with.
- Take turns reading. “I read, you read.” You can do this with sentences, paragraphs, pages or the whole article.
