Make reading fun

Reading at home needs to be fun and easy – something you both look forward to, a time for laughter and talk.

• find a comfortable, quiet place away from the TV for the 2 of you to cosy up and read for 10-15 minutes
• if you or your child start to feel stressed, take a break and read the rest of the story aloud yourself – keep it fun
• make some puppets – old socks, cardboard tubes, cut-outs on sticks – that you and your child can use to act out the story you have read. Or dress up and make it into a play
• play card games (you can make the cards yourself)
• read songs, waiata, poems and rhymes - sing them together, too.

Here's a tip - when they are reading, your child will still be coming across words they don’t know. When this happens, you could remind them to think about what they already know to do when they get stuck. If that doesn’t help you might ask "What word would make sense that starts like that?" or "What do you know about that word that might help?" If they still can’t work it out – tell them and praise their efforts.

Talk about reading

• Talk about the story and the pictures, other stories you have read, and experiences you have both had that are like those in the story
• Sometimes you can be the listener, sometimes the reader and sometimes you can take turns. They might like to read to the cat, the dog, their teddy or a big brother
• All children like to be read to, so don’t stop reading to them – no matter how old they are
• Encourage your child to read all sorts of things – the TV guide in the newspaper, street signs, food labels. Simple recipes are great – you get to eat what you’ve read about, too.

Here's a tip - talk with your child all the time – and give them time to talk with you. You can use your first language.