Preschoolers: Most Important 15 Minutes You Spend A Day: Reading to Your Child

http://www.raisingareader.org/

Parents often ask what they can do to help their children prepare for school.  The first thing I always tell them is to read to their children.  Take 15-20 minutes each day and read books to their children and talk to their children about things in the books.  Talk about the pictures in the book, name objects on the page and tell what they do, ask the child what he/she sees, or even ask a few simple questions about the story.

Let your child lead the book reading activity.  Letting children choose books helps you learn about things they are interested in.  They may choose to read the same book for many nights.  You may get bored with the book, but they don't.   

Reading the same book over and over has many benefits:

First, it helps your child learn new vocabulary.  Children need to hear words many times before they retain and fully understand them.

Second, it helps them learn about story structure.  They learn that there is an order to the story, such as a beginning, middle and end.

Third, they learn about the characters in the story, how they act and what makes up that character.  To change things up when you read the story, try to focus on something different each time.

For example:
The first time you read a book, talk about the title and the author (the person who writes the book) and the illustrator (the person who draws, paints or made the pictures in the story).  Read the story and talk about a few pictures in the story.

The second time you read, talk about the pictures and see if your child remembers a new vocabulary word they may have heard the first time you read the book.  To do this, point to the object and ask if they know what it is.  Then talk about something else in the story that would help your child learn about the world we live in.

The third time, bring your child's attention to something different in the story.  You can even tie in math with counting things on the page...maybe there are apples on a tree.  You can talk about apples: their colors, where they grow, that it is a fruit, you can count them on the tree, or maybe even give your child an apple as a snack after the book.

Have fun with the story...play with your voice too.  This can make the reading more interesting and fun for your child.  This is the perfect time to be silly and really engage with your child.  Let you inner child out!