1.  Provide a wide selection of age-appropriate books. Don’t limit books to your child’s play space. Consider making some available in their bedroom, on the lower shelf of a “grown-up” book shelf, on the coffee table, etc. Be sure to place the books within their reach.

2.  Be sure your child has a cozy reading spot. Consider making an area in the family room or playroom with a comfy cushion or child-sized chair, stuffed animals and a big basket of books to choose from!

3. Consider serving snacks or meals that relate to the stories your child enjoys. Add just a drop or two of green food coloring into scrambled eggs and you could serve green eggs and ham for breakfast!

4.  Read to your child at every stage. Some parents begin reading to their child before they are even born!

5.  It’s never too late to start a reading routine with your child. Set a goal of reading at least one book per day with your child–even on the busiest of days!

6.  Include a bedtime story as part of your everyday routine. But…

7.  Don’t limit reading to bedtime. Cuddle up and enjoy giggling with your child over a funny book.

8.  If your child has a tough time sitting still for story time, encourage her to color or manipulate play dough while you read the story.

9.  Point to the words as you read. This helps children start to associate sounds with letters.

10.  Ask your child questions as you read. “How do you think that made her feel?” “What color do you think he will choose?” Be sure to also answer your child’s questions as you go along.

Stick to simple board books with one picture per page and contrasting colors for the youngest readers (Infant to One Year). Make exaggerated faces to express emotion, change your voice, describe everything and point to the items on each page as you make your way through the book. Watch your child for clues as to what part of the book is his/her favorite.

As children grow, so can their stories. Progressively move to longer books and allow your child to interact by pointing to items, turning the pages and even reading some themselves, if developmentally appropriate. Continue to make faces and change your voice for characters or make sounds for objects and animals. If they’re still learning to sound out words, help them along by annunciating sounds in a normal tone and prompting them to repeat after you.

Together, you and your child can learn, laugh and create fond memories as you beat the winter blues, book after book.

Some great winter books to check out: Biscuit’s Snowy Day by Alyssa Satin Capucilli, Welcome Winter by Jill Ackerman, Winter Friends by Carl R. Sams and Jean Stoick and Winter by Gerda Muller.

Reading begins with language and how it relates to your child’s world. Creating a language-rich environment will help your child’s vocabulary grow. Language develops with every interaction you have with your child — infants begin by reading their parents’ facial expressions while older children develop their vocabulary by listening and eventually repeating what their parents say. Verbalize your child’s world and he or she will begin to repeat sounds and syllables — be sure to pause, speak and alter conversation style.

A print-rich environment may also help prepare your child for reading by making the connection between your child’s world and the symbols we use to communicate, so make your home an active learning environment. Start by labeling household items with pictures and words so your child will learn to associate everyday items with their symbols. Lead by example and let your child see you read often. Teach your child to respect books — while pages will rip and bindings will break, your child will learn to value books and their content if you set a high expectation for their care.

Remember, it takes many interactions with the alphabet and phonemic awareness for reading skills to develop. While it may be difficult to remain patient, be assured that reading will happen when your child is ready.

By third grade, children develop their own learning style, drawn from their early patterns of exploring the world.  Some explore by looking, others by listening, tasting, moving, or touching.  The favored mode of exploring shapes later preferred learning styles.  Your child may resent reading because it draws on one of his less-preferred exploration modes.  Give him a break and let him strut his stuff instead.  Can he teach the family a game or share a discovery?  We can’t all be bookworms – we’re simply not born that way.

Parent Tips:

• During early infancy, reading helps babies build neural pathways that will eventually provide language development and acquisition.
• Reading aloud to children encourages association with happiness, love and enjoyment. All of this can lead to children’s greater interest in reading and can result in larger vocabularies and better literary skills.
• Choose a childcare environment that encourages storytime as an important aspect of the school’s routine.
• Reading aloud to children also helps them with pronunciation and phonetics. Some children are able to recognize letters and numbers before they can speak, but if they are left to this without guidance their weaknesses can lie in pronunciation and sounding out words.
• When children speak incorrectly they should be gently corrected so that they are encouraged to use proper grammar and pronunciation. Reading books can help children learn the proper format of sentences which they often mistake in late toddlerhood.
• Children who are read to regularly, are more likely to continue reading throughout their lives.
• Children who read are more likely to have better writing skills and be placed in higher level classes.