Reading
Teaching our children to read is perhaps the greatest gift we can give, one that can open their minds and imaginations to life-long learning.
Encouraging children to read
Reading is the single best thing parents can do with their children to enhance their learning. Ask any teacher.
Parents interested in quick tips for developing early literacy skills can use the Off to a Good Start in Literacy bookmark to share with their friends, parent advisory committees, and school planning council members.
Reading together at home gives tips from a teacher on reading with your child, and reading to your child.
Here are some experiences likely to produce readers and a love of reading in teenagers in and out of the classroom.
Suggested books
Summer reading
When the school year comes to an end, many children put away their books for the summer. But BC teachers encourage parents to help their children continue to read daily during the holidays—for the joy of it and to maintain literacy levels.
Teachers are interested in finding more effective ways to help students learn to read. Over the decades we have come to understand more about the complex process of reading, so we have become much better at educating a greater proportion of students to read at higher levels. As much as we wish they would read fine literature, children are often more attracted to comic books or other pop culture publications. Teachers advise letting children explore their own literary tastes for their personal reading, and saving the more challenging books for times when parents read aloud to the youngsters.
Reading tips
Here are a few teachers' tips for parents who wish to help enhance their children's literacy skills during the summer:
- Whether you're lolling about in the hammock or at the beach, set aside time daily for reading. Set a good example by reading yourself and talking to the family about what you've read.
- Visit the public library often. Most libraries sponsor summer reading clubs with easy goals for pre-school and elementary students.
- Read the same novel as your teenagers and discuss it with them. This helps build thoughtful, insightful readers.
- Take delight in the spoken word. Read to your children and encourage them to read aloud to you. When they do, be an avid listener.
- Borrow talking books from the library before a long road trip, and the miles will fly by.
Media literacy
The concept of literacy is expanding beyond the printed page to embrace media literacy, computer literacy, and other ways in which we find meaning from words and images. Here are a few suggestions for building your children's media literacy skills:
- Watch television with the children and discuss what you've seen. What are the themes of their favourite show? What are the messages in that cool advertisement? Encourage them to evaluate, then accept or reject, programs or commercials.
- Help younger children understand the difference between fantasy and reality on television.
- Encourage youngsters choose programs suitable for their age level.
- Set family policies about TV, with a maximum time per day, but be flexible.
- Participate in TV Turnoff Week.
Many children spend hours watching television. Do you know how your kids are watching? has suggestions for teachers and parents about active television viewing and development of critical participation and appreciation.
Video Games
Video games are increasingly popular among young Canadians however there is little research into the effects video games may have on children's development and socialization. Despite the video sector being second only to the music industry in profitability, this highly interactive form of entertainment enjoys little government scrutiny or regulation. Parents raise questions such as: Is my child spending too much time playing video games ? How come my son is interested and my daughter isn't? How do I know which video games are good and which are not? For ideas on managing video game playing in the home and other issues, check out the Video Games page provided by the Media Awareness Network.
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