Reading
Learn Reading through play.
Reading with a young child is less about the words on the page than about what happens around them: stopping to look, guessing what comes next, going back to a favourite page for the fortieth time, and being allowed to say the last word of the rhyme.
These activities are ways of doing that on purpose — book-based games, picture hunts, retelling with props, reading the same story in a different voice. Some are for children who cannot read a word yet. Others are for early readers who need a reason to keep going when it is still hard work.
Rereading is not a waste. A child asking for the same book every night is doing the thing that actually builds fluency, however tired of it you are.
Activities
-
Spooky Shadow Puppets
Cut a bat and a cat from card, tape them to straws, and put on a show against the wall with a torch.
-
A Post Box for Kind Notes
A cereal box with a slot cut in it. Everyone posts a note about somebody else, and you read them out at dinner.
-
The Red Boots
A story for a child who is starting to read some of it themselves. Short words, short lines, and a puddle.
-
Make Up a Story With Three Things
A character, a place, and something going wrong. That is enough for almost any child to be away.
-
I Spy, But With Sounds
The same game you already know, played with the sound a word starts with instead of the letter. Needs nothing at all.
-
An Egg Hunt That Works for Every Age
The same hunt, three difficulty levels, so a two-year-old and a seven-year-old can play together without either being bored.