A Guide To Reading At Home With Your Child

IntroductionAt Oak Tree Primary School we know how important it is for teachers and parents to work together to give your child the best start. Reading together at home is one of the easiest but most important ways in which you can help your child. As you share books you are helping improve your child’s reading skills and also showing them how important and enjoyable reading is. This booklet is a short guide to help you.

Where and when should I read?• Find a place to sit where you are both comfortable.• It would be great to read for 5-10 minutes every night

and once at the weekend.• Encourage reading as a pleasurable experience.

Before Reading• Begin by looking at the front cover, read the title and

talk about it.• Look through the book and talk about the pictures.• Talk about any tricky words.

During Reading• Let your child hold the book.• Let your child turn the pages.• Let your child point to the words if they need to, but

encourage them to read with their eyes.

If the get stuck• Ask if the picture might help them.• Ask if they know the sound that the word starts with.• Get them to re-read the sentence and see if they can

guess the word they are stuck on.• Tell them the word.

After reading• Talk about the story.• Did they enjoy it?• Which characters did they like?• Ask questions to make sure they have understood their

reading.

My child can read. Can I still help? YES!Children who can read fluently will often want to read in their head, this is ok. After they have read Discuss with them what they have read – about the character, about the plot, about the important parts ofthe story, about what they have learnt from the information, about their feelings as they read the story.

Your child’s reading diaryRemember to write in your child’s reading diary so that the teacher knows about all of the hard work that you are doing at home.

What else can your child read?• Comics• Magazines• Travel brochures• Instructions or recipes• What’s on television tonight• Information books• Manuals• Newspapers• Poems• Taped/CD/Recorded stories• Sports Reports• Shopping lists…..

It all helps!

Enjoy reading with your child!