If you have a child, you know that reading is a major part of their life. School is now having children read more and more often which I think is GREAT but often times even with tons of reading…Not much improvement is seen. Have you experienced this before?
We have many parents come into Education’s Finest telling us the same things over and over…
“My child reads every day but they are still 2-grade levels below where they need to be!”
Although, reading often is great, there are a few things you can add today that will tremendously help your child get improvements and go from where they are today, to where they need to be.
1.) Add subtitles To TV shows and movies
This is something that I must credit to one of our great tutors Alvaro. I heard him discussing this idea with a parent and thought it was brilliant! When you are watching TV with subtitles, what usually happens? You can’t stop reading the words, right? haha
With this being said, it is a great way to have TV/Movie time but also have your child read. This is great because often times they will hear words that they don’t quite understand but will have the opportunity to hear it and read it. This is my first tip for you.
2.) The 10 Minute per day rule
Honestly, the true secret in getting great at anything is consistency. I call this the 10 minutes per day rule because it is 10 times more effective to read 10 minutes a DAY then it would be to read 1 hour every Friday. Make sense?
The reason this is much more effective is because you need to have some consistently where you do something or see something, each and every day. When is the last time you got great at anything without practicing it on a consistent basis? Probably never!
3.) Read out loud
When reading with your child, make sure that you are reading OUT LOUD. This is crucial to seeing success because we have noticed a few consistencies when we read out loud with our students…
– Students tend to read too quickly
– Students tend to skip over big words that they don’t understand
– Students tend to anticipate the endings of sentences and not actually read it
– Students tend to read to FINISH and not for enjoyment
These are things you need to be watching out for when reading with your child. Once you identify which one of few of these things your child may be doing, you can then work on correcting the problem and instantly start seeing improvement.
Bonus Tip:
Have your child read something that they are INTERESTED in. This doesn’t mean picture books or books that are overly simplified for their level but this means something that your child loves. (Racecar books, dinosaur books, animal books, anything that your child enjoys). This will help them be able to be consistent in their reading!
My 30-day challenge for you and your child:
I challenge you for the next 30 days to do these 3 things every single day. If you do each of these things written above for the next 30 days you are nearly guaranteed to see improvement in your child’s reading. Let us know! 🙂
