How To Encourage
Early Reading

It's unlikely that your child will begin to learn how to read before the age of three or four, but there are things you can do from birth to encourage early reading. Teach your child to love books and he or she will be reading before you know it. There are several ways you can do this, and they are fun, easy, and worth every minuet of your time.

Read To Your Kids

Reading to your kids regularly is the number one way to encourage a love of books in your child. It helps them to develop their imagination more than any video or software program can. Reading out loud allows you to spend good quality time with your child and makes them feel important. Lastly, reading to your child helps them make the connection between written words and spoken language. All of these things associate positive feelings with reading and encourage a love of books.

Make Reading Personal

Children love to hear stories that relate to them and their lives. Choose stories that directly reflect the personal events or feelings of the child. For example, if your child is crazy about Barney, Sesame Street, or Blue's Clues, then read books that have those characters.

Planning a trip to the zoo? Read zoo or animal books. Visiting Nana's farm? Read farm books. Is your child facinated with bugs? Read stories about bugs. Learning new concepts, celebrating holidays, childhood phases, etc. all provide great reading opportunities and will help your child learn to love books.

Keep Materials Available

My kids really love books. We read to them almost daily and we have made reading a very personal experience for each of them. Having said that, I honestly believe that the reason they have really connected with books and reading is because we've made so many books available to them. From the time they could sit up on their own, they've had board and cloth books as part of their toys. Although they mostlychewed on their first books, it set a precedent of books being toys and equally as fun. They have books in their rooms to read and look at when they can't sleep, and they often choose books to read during free-play time. Books are a big part of their lives... which brings me to my last point.

Children Value What You Value

My husband and I both love to read. Our children see us reading whenever we have a spare moment. They know that we value books and reading... they know we think they are both very important. That plays a big role in how our children see their relationship to books. Love of reading is one thing you can definitely lead and teach by example. If you love reading, your children will eventually love it too.

The bottom line is that if you want your kids to be early readers, then you have to teach them to love books. The ability to read is a great gift to give your children. It is a gift that will make a lifetime of learning rewarding, easy, and fun for them.

When your child is ready to read - Finally, your child starts asking about reading, recognizing letters, putting sounds together with words... Now what do you do? You don't want to hold them back, so you take the next step.

Turn a Child's love of Animals into a love of Reading! - Zoobooks Are A Great Way To Make Reading Personal. I never met a child of any age that wasn't totally fascinated with animals!

This is the ultimate way to make reading personal! - This is the ultimate way to make reading personal. I remember when I was a child, my aunt gave me a personalized book for my birthday. I thought I was sooo special everytime I saw my own name in the book. It was the first book I learned how to read.

Make Material Available Without Breaking The Bank - I was very skeptical about joining a kid's book club. I remember the old days where you got sent a bunch of books you didn't want and had to buy tons of books to fulfill your committment. Those days are over! Children's Book of the Month Club is so easy - you do everything online, including deciding if you want the editor's choice for the month. Just log in. The number of books available is great, you only have to commit to 4 books in 2 years, and the prices are comparable to what you see on Amazon. Joining this book club was one of the best things I've done for the kids!

When you can't read to them - My children each have their own LeapPads and they play with them every single day. Younger children love the sounds and music, and older children use this as a tool to help them put letters, their sounds, and words together. LeapFrog makes a My First LeapPad and a regular LeapPad. My oldest has the regular one, and my son "owns" the My First LeapPad. The regular LeapPad says 4 years and up, but my two year old plays with his sister's LeapPad whenever she's not looking. He likes his, it has been very sturdy and easy for him to use, but it doesn't have as many books and after about a year, it has started having problems responding correctly. These were one of the best "toy" purchases we ever made!

Frontline Phonics Review - Read why I really like this program and think it is the best reading program available for young children and emergent readers.

Hooked On Phonics Review - Read why I think this program is probably not right for your child if they are just beginning to put the whole reading thing together.

How To EncourageEarly Reading

Read To Your Kids

Make Reading Personal

Keep Materials Available

Children Value What You Value

How To Encourage
Early Reading