When you’re with your child and a friend, ask what the friend reads, and start a conversatio

Never Grow Up by Roald Dahl 9780241419427 Paperback

When you’re with your child and a friend, ask what the friend reads, and start a conversation. Your child may want to read what friends are enthusiastic about. Your child is already surprising you with independent tastes and opinions.

What Are the Benefits of Reading to My Toddler?

This little boy has a brilliant time taking part in all the Halloween fun, but just like any other day, Mum and Dad are on hand to make sure his reliable nightly routine stays on track. The articles illustrations are sweet and the book has lovely singsong rhymes. Second, Willingham said, these fluent decoders benefit from having wide-ranging background knowledge about the world.

Toddlers love to choose and look at books on their own. Keep books in a basket on the floor or on a low shelf where your child can reach them and look at them by themselves. Keep some books in the car and always have a few handy in your bag for long waits at the doctor or lines at the grocery store.

More on Reading to the Youngest

Kids make big leaps in vocabulary during this time, and learn about letters, shapes, colors, weather, animals, seasons. Choose books with many pictures your child can point to and name. Todd lives in a suburb of New York and speaks frequently at schools. “You don’t need a lot of money to fill your home with books … it’s very hard to have a bored child when there are always books around,” she said. Too many words, and too few or too finely detailed pictures will try a baby’s patience.

How to teach your child to love reading

We love Harry Potter, but also feel there is no reason to read Harry Potter out loud to your child. If children are attracted to fantasy, they will come to love Harry so much, they’ll want to read the books on their own. In other words, Harry Potter is the dessert, not the vegetables. There are a lot of great books for kindergartners, but even the miestokate first Harry Potter book is not one of them. In fact, the sweet spot for the first four books in the series is the second through fifth grades; it’s fifth through seventh grade for the later books.

Middle Grade Books

And being read to is one of the best ways to hear language. Students draw a picture and write about what they want to be when they grow up and why. There is an adorable book by Al Yankovic called "When I Grow Up" that I like to read before students complete the activity. It's a great text-to-self connection activity that aligns with the Common Core. Sign up to our newsletters full of updates, activities, ways to support us and fun ideas to inspire children to read.

Books about bedtime, baths, or mealtime are all good choices; so are books about saying hello or good-bye. Keep active hands busy with lift-the-flap pages and textures to feel. The Sea is a story about a girl and her family who go to the beach to escape the heat. She soon realizes how much fun it is playing with waves.