No doubt you’ve heard the message “read books with your child” but what they don’t tell you is what books to read and how to read them. Did you know it’s actually these two things – the what and how – that makes the difference to your child’s development?
We know from research that children who are not read to have poorer understanding of language, their vocabularies are smaller and their thinking skills are less advanced. And this means they go on to have trouble learning to read themselves. So, reading the right books in the right way to your child is critical to their development.
To help you out we’re going to answer the what and how or book reading with one fantastic book and our top three tips to make sure the way you’re reading is improving your child’s listening, talking and thinking skills.
Where is the Green Sheep? – Mem Fox and Judy Horacek
What’s it about?
This is a story is simply about finding the green sheep seeing what he’s been doing. As you go though each page, you will find lots of different sheep of different colours and with different interests. But will you find the green sheep?
This book is suitable for children as young as 2. It is colourful book that is quirky and easy to follow. The pictures and rhyme are sure to keep your child engaged, while the story will keep your child guessing about the whereabouts of the mysterious green sheep. This book will help your child develop language and pre literacy skills.
Our top 3 tips
-
Make the most out of the rhyme and repetition.
Mem Fox always does a great job of incorporating rhyme and repetition. Add in some expression, character voices and even gestures to make the story even more exciting. Emphasising and identifying the rhyme can help your child develop their phonological awareness, and the repetition will help familiarise them with words. It’s important that story time is fun, so why not make it fun and educational when you can?
-
Have fun with the pictures.
Storytime is meant to be fun and colourful pictures really help bring a story to life. Embrace the pictures and use them as a stimulus to ask lots of questions before you read the words “what’s that?” or “what is he doing?”. This will help your child gain a better understanding of the words when you read them.
-
Ask questions.
It’s great to ask about what’s happening in the story to hear their ideas about what’s going on in the book and make sure they’re understanding. But it’s just as important to ask about what they think might happen next, or in this case “where do you think the green sheep is going to be?”. This is a great way to build your child’s inferencing skills, helping them formulate ideas based on what they know already.
If you found this article helpful click the share button. One of your friends may just find it useful too!
