Readers Are Leaders

Reading with your child is one of the key fundamental skills to school readiness. Children learn so many things from reading aloud with adults. Reading helps develop and build vocabulary skills. Books are useful tools to introduce number, letters, colors, and shape concepts. Children develop better listening and memory skills from reading with adults. Children learn about the environment and the world around them through reading. Reading aloud with parents and other adults help children make different connections with and to books.

Helpful Reading Tips from www.Kidshealth.org:

• Cuddling or reading with your child in your lap helps them feel safe, warm, and connected to you.
• Read with expression, changing your voice higher or lower where it's appropriate or using different voices for different characters.
• Stop occasionally and ask questions or make comments on the pictures or text. (Where's the kitty? There he is! What a cute, black kitty.") Your child might not be able to respond yet, but this lays the groundwork for doing so later.
• Sing nursery rhymes, make funny animal sounds, or bounce your baby on your knee - anything that shows that reading is fun.
• Little ones love - and learn from - repetition, so don't be afraid of reading the same books over and over. When you do so, repeat the same emphasis each time as you would with a familiar song.
• Teach your child how to properly care for books and about different types of books (picture books, board books, paperback books, fiction, and non-fiction books).