Parents
Why Read Aloud?
Just like healthy bodies need healthy foods, our growing children need books and conversation to grow healthy minds and to be successful readers. Recent studies show that the roots of reading skills are started in oral communication. Language skills are learned when you talk and listen to children and as they talk and listen to you. When you listen, speak, sing and read you are helping to foster your child's language skills.
Reading aloud to children is important food for the mind. According to the National Commission of Reading, "The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children."
When you are reading to a child you are not only feeding his mind, you are participating in a positive activity that nourishes relationships. It strengthens communication skills. While you are having fun, children build listening skills, grow their vocabulary, sharpen their memory and get ready to learn to read for themselves.
Recommended Reads for Parents
Want to learn more about how reading positively impacts your relationship with your child and his or her academic success? The following titles are excellent informational texts for parents and educators. The first two particularly belong on any parent's bookshelf!
Also, check out the audio book sections of the public library for stories. Take an audio book on your next family road trip or listen to a book on the way to and from taking your child to school each day!
Don't limit yourself to reading books aloud. Share the comics over your Sunday morning cereal. Read a newspaper or magazine article with your child and discuss what you each think about the issue at hand.
The following websites offer an array of reading possibilities;
A Book and a Hug
Read Kiddo Read
ALSC Childrens Book Awards
The Association for Library Service Children (a branch of the American Library Association) selects the best in children's literature annually. Books, videos, and recordings are categorized for younger readers, middle readers, older readers, and all ages.
ALA Award Winners
Online Safety
You teach your children how to be safe in the real world (i.e. how to cross the street safely, not to talk to strangers, to be kind and polite to friends and acquaintances, not to give out personal information to strangers, to avoid dangerous places, etc.) Parents and educators have to work together to teach children similar safety measures in the online world. See Common Sense Media: Parent Concerns.
When you are reading to a child you are not only feeding his mind, you are participating in a positive activity that nourishes relationships. It strengthens communication skills. While you are having fun, children build listening skills, grow their vocabulary, sharpen their memory and get ready to learn to read for themselves.
Recommended Reads for Parents
Want to learn more about how reading positively impacts your relationship with your child and his or her academic success? The following titles are excellent informational texts for parents and educators. The first two particularly belong on any parent's bookshelf!
- The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease
- How to Get Your Child to Love Reading by Esme Raji Codell
- The Power of Reading by Stephen Krashen
Also, check out the audio book sections of the public library for stories. Take an audio book on your next family road trip or listen to a book on the way to and from taking your child to school each day!
Don't limit yourself to reading books aloud. Share the comics over your Sunday morning cereal. Read a newspaper or magazine article with your child and discuss what you each think about the issue at hand.
The following websites offer an array of reading possibilities;
A Book and a Hug
Read Kiddo Read
ALSC Childrens Book Awards
The Association for Library Service Children (a branch of the American Library Association) selects the best in children's literature annually. Books, videos, and recordings are categorized for younger readers, middle readers, older readers, and all ages.
ALA Award Winners
Online Safety
You teach your children how to be safe in the real world (i.e. how to cross the street safely, not to talk to strangers, to be kind and polite to friends and acquaintances, not to give out personal information to strangers, to avoid dangerous places, etc.) Parents and educators have to work together to teach children similar safety measures in the online world. See Common Sense Media: Parent Concerns.
