Top 10 ways to Improve your Child's Reading Skills

Sponsored by iQAcademy.com
"Where Education Clicks"

iQAcademy has made a list of ways for you to help your children become more effective readers:

1. Establish daily reading routines – Reading is a part of a vital part of daily life. Studies show that regularly reading out loud to children will produce significant gains in reading comprehension, vocabulary, and the decoding of words. Whether your children are preschoolers or preteens, it will increase their desire to read independently. Here are two activities that are easy ways to provide reading practice--

• Read as you work – Invite your children to read aloud to you while you are performing a household chore, such as washing dishes or sorting laundry. Be sure to ask questions about what your children are reading and compliment them on their reading skills.
• Talk about newspapers/magazines – As you read these, read aloud some of the interesting and appropriate things you find. Include the flyers and other parts that interest your children, including the comics.
• Have your children write their own newspaper about daily events that they experience.

2. Organize a family reading time – Set aside 15 to 30 minutes every day when the family reads together silently or out loud. When your children see you reading, it will inspire them to read. Just 15 minutes of daily practice is sufficient to increase their reading fluency. Reading support in the home is essential to your children's success. Here are a few tips for reading with your children--

• Take turns reading. Read a book together alternating readers with each page or paragraph.
• After you finish the book, talk about what happened in the story or what could happen next. Have your children write a continuation of the story.
• If your home school program is religion based, combine this with religious readings. Multi-task!

3. Develop the library habit.

• Entice your children to read more by taking them to the library every other week to get new reading materials. The library also offers reading programs for children of all ages that may appeal to your children and further increase their interest in reading.
• Visit your local library and introduce your children to the children's librarian. Almost every library has at least one librarian who is very knowledgeable about children's literature. He or she can suggest book titles, guide your children through research projects and keep you informed regarding any special reading events that may be planned at the library or elsewhere in the community.

4. Encourage your children to build their own library.

• From stamps, comic books, autographs, baseball cards, and stuffed animals, children have always been natural collectors. By encouraging book collecting and the creation of a personal library, you introduce your children to a world of resources.
• Create a personal library for your neighborhood. Children of different ages and abilities can pass along books they no longer read. Children can recommend their favorites to each other.

5. Use a variety of aids to help your children.

• To help your children improve their reading skills, use textbooks, computer programs, and other materials.
• Have your older kids write their own newspaper and their younger siblings/relatives/friends read it.

6. Encourage a wide variety of reading activities.

• Make reading an integral part of your children's lives. Have them read menus, roadside signs, game directions, weather reports, movie time listings and other practical everyday information. Also, make sure they always have something to read in their spare time when they could be waiting for appointments or riding in a car.

7. Expose your child to the rhythm of the language.

• This will help them read with some animation in their voice instead of just a monotone. It also helps them develop rhyming skills.
• Read nursery rhymes to your child.
• Use finger plays. Finger play books are available at your library.
• Share music with strong rhythms and songs with rhyming lines.

8. Be knowledgeable about your children's progress.

• Find out what reading skills your children are expected to have at each grade level and track their progress in acquiring basic reading skills. iQAcademy follows state and grade guidelines and meets and exceeds the requirements of the states in which they offer educational opportunities. Consider aligning your teaching with such a program.

9. Explore Different Forms of Reading Material

• Many children's literature books and books for young adults are available on tape, CD or digital recording forms. By having your student read along in the book while listening to the same book on tape, you are providing excellent reading benefits. The student sees and hears words and phrases together, a good way to reinforce sight-word recognition.

10. Read! Read! Read! – The top way to increase reading skills is to read more. Use every chance you get to have your children read, whether it is a book or a traffic sign.

iQAcademy believes that encouraging your children to read helps transform reading from a basic skill to a learned behavior and an intellectual habit. In so doing, you will not just be teaching your children to read, you will be raising a lifelong reader.

____________________________________________________________________
About Our Sponsor:

iQ Academy offers a public, tuition-free online education backed by 30 years of distance learning experience. iQ Academy provides a standards-based curriculum taught by certified teachers to elementary, middle and high school students in various states. iQ Academy offers a high quality, personalized education that successfully educates students at all levels of the ability spectrum. iQ Academy accomplishes this by providing a complete learning package which includes a standards-based curriculum, an innovative virtual learning environment and an extensive support system involving teachers, a learning coach, guidance counselor and staff who are personally committed to helping students realize their greatest potential. Visit www.iqacademy.com to learn more.