• Making the Most of Reading Minutes
• Creating Your Child's Own Reading Library
• Brain Waves: 10 Ways Reading Can Stimulate Learning
• An Age-Appropriate Guide to Books

Making the Most of Reading Minutes
A little planning can help busy mothers and fathers make the most of even a few minutes of bedtime reading:

• Read daily. Go to the library on the weekend and pick out several books for the week. Schedule special reading time to share one book with your child every night. This shows your child you value reading and your time together.
• Talk about it. Talk about the story after reading time and again in the morning. This reinforces the special time you spent together and is a great educational exercise.
• Try variety. Tell a story that you know or make one up together. This helps stimulate creativity. Another option is to sing familiar songs together at bedtime to help your child explore and develop rhythm and language.
• Teach the concept of time. Let your child choose books according to how much time you have to spend together (short, medium, long). "Tonight is a short book night. Can you find a short book that you want to read?" This teaches your child about time and involves your child in the decision process, which is empowering.
• Build excitement. If using a longer book, you can read a chapter or two each night. This helps build continuity and suspense for what's to come.

Brain Waves: 10 Ways Reading Can Stimulate Learning
Reading is a wonderful bonding and learning experience for children. How you approach and carry out your bedtime reading routine can enhance cognitive development.

1. Create a Bedtime Reading Zone
   • Read in your child's bedroom, surrounded by her favorite things: a blanket, stuffed toy, night-light.
   • Why? Being in a familiar place stimulates all the senses at once, making the experience pleasurable and memorable and creating positive associations with reading.


2. Get Close
   • Have your child sit next to you or on your lap to provide him with a feeling of security.
   • Why? When a child feels insecure, the body releases a hormone that can interfere with learning. Creating a warm, close bond makes the child comfortable and can help him learn.


3. Find Your Child's Pace
   • Start with short reading sessions and slowly build up to longer sessions.
   • Why? There is a difference in what a child can do with guidance (potential development) and what a child can do without assistance (actual development). Building up reading time keeps your child challenged and helps your child transition from reading with help to reading independently.


4. Act Out
   • Act out the characters and use variation in your voice while reading the story.
   • Why? This helps your child develop critical listening skills and makes reading time more fun.


5. Read with Your Eyes and Fingers
   • Run your finger under the words as you read.
   • Why? Running fingers under the text trains a child's eyes to follow words and symbols from left to right. Also, one of the first steps when learning to read is hearing sounds in the words. This teaches that speech is made up of different individual words and sounds.


6. Be Repetitive
   • Read favorite books more than once.
   • Why? When a child reads a book over and over, he can learn to predict the outcomes and recognize patterns. This helps your child learn and store new information and builds upon his memory.


7. Make a Point
   • Point out pictures, shapes, colors, and page numbers.
   • Why? This develops an understanding of printed material.


8. Word Power
   • Enunciate your words, but speak as normally as possible while reading aloud. Pay close attention to grammar as your child is paying close attention to you.
   • Why? When listening to a parent read, a child listens to spoken language. This helps his ability to express thoughts and communicate using correct grammar.


9. Share and Compare
   • Make comparisons as you read. For example, "Which tree is taller?" Or, "You have blonde hair. What color hair does Goldilocks have?"
   • Why? Comparing and contrasting helps children create connections and find meanings in these connections.


10. Play a Game
    • After finishing a story, ask the child what happened in the beginning, middle, and end.
    • Why? This stimulates higher-order thinking because your child has to analyze the story and tell you in her own words what happened. This will also enhance your child's listening and reading comprehension skills.

Creating Your Child's Own Reading Library
How to Choose Books:

• Look for books based on your child's interest. What are your child's favorite things or activities? What does he talk about?
• Find your child's favorites. Observe what types of books grab your child's attention when at the bookstore or library. Does your child have a favorite author/illustrator or primary character?
• Choose situational books. Choose books that relate to what is happening in your family. Are you going to the beach this summer? Will you be visiting grandma?
• Use books to learn about and celebrate special events. Is it the first day of school? Are you having a new baby? Are you celebrating a special holiday?
• Choose a book appropriate to your child's development. Can she easily handle it, touch it, or mouth it? Are the pictures bright and attractive? Can she relate the stories to her own life?
• Look for books that initiate independent reading. Wordless picture books allow a child to "read" the pictures and follow the story.
• Choose the right reading level. Your child should be able to understand the vocabulary, the sentence structure and comprehend the story. If your child has a book that is too hard for him, you or an older sibling can read the book to the youngster.
• Organize by categories. Help your child organize her library arranging books in different categories: picture books, long/short books, books that the parents read to the child, books that the child can read by herself, etc.

Where to Get Books:

• School book fairs.
• Garage sales, second hand stores.
• Create a "book club" to share and trade books between family and friends.
• Bookstore gift certificates make great presents.
• Local library. You can "test run" books before you buy them. You can also ask your librarian to keep you posted about book sales or fairs.

An Age-Appropriate Guide to Books
Your bedtime reading routine will evolve as your child develops physically and intellectually.

Birth to Toddlers

• Developmental Stage: As babies, children learn by using their five basic senses to explore the world. By age 2 years, a child can use his oral language skills to identify objects and communicate ideas.
• Bedtime reading suggestions:
  • Sing lullabies and songs.
  • Choose picture books with 1 or 2 pictures per page that are clear, simple, and filled with vivid colors. Repetition with these books helps foster language development by creating familiarity and associations.
  • Use board or plastic books and allow the child to explore the pages.
  • Help the child discover her senses through textured (e.g. Pat the Cat), scented ("scratch-n-sniff"), or squeaky books.
  • Play with rhythmic activities like clapping rhymes and knee bouncing.
  • Relate story time to nighttime/bedtime through simple "good night" books.
• Recommended books:
  • Time for Bed, by Mem Fox (fosters early language development)
  • In the Small, Small Pond, by Denise Fleming (uses language that rhymes and repetition)
  • When Mama Comes Home Tonight, by Eileen Spinelli (introduces rituals)
  • Hush Little Baby, by Sylvia Long (details and reinforces the parent/child bond)

3 to 5 Years Old

• Developmental Stage: Children in this age group learn that words represent objects and things. They are able to understand shapes, numbers, colors, and seasons. This is a time when children see themselves as the "center of the universe."
• Bedtime reading suggestions:
  • Read stories that repeat catchy phrases, inspire creativity and make reading enjoyable (rhyming, nonsense words).
  • Look for sturdy, pop-up and pull-tag books to help coordination.
  • Choose short stories that relate to everyday events.
  • Introduce books focusing on the ABCs, counting, colors, and shapes.
  • Kids this age love non-fiction. Read books about dinosaurs, trucks, and farm animals.
  • Select simple folk tales to expand a child's world.
  • Begin to introduce longer stories and more detailed pictures.
  • Look for stories that can be acted out, such as The Three Little Pigs.
• Recommended books:
  • On the Day You Were Born, by Debra Frazier (story includes nature)
  • The Relatives Came, by Cynthia Relant (creates an association with family)
  • Cowboy Dreams, by Kathi Appelt (includes repetition, rhythm, and word play)
  • Guess How Much I Love You, by Sam McBratney (encourages different and new ways to express an idea)
  • There's Something There!, by Mercer Mayer (ideas that center on the child)

6 to 8 Years Old (Beginning Readers)

• Developmental Stage: This age group is "grown up" and has many capabilities. They have a good command of language, have well developed imaginations, and are able to describe feelings and events. They like to read about things and events that are real. This is when children start to be able to see things from another person's viewpoint. Parents and teachers of this age group should encourage children to read on their own as well as with a parent.
• Bedtime reading suggestions:
  • Choose short stories with more words per page, pictures that match text, simple chapter books, and big print in chapter books.
  • Let the child choose books with subjects that interest her.
  • Begin to read real-life stories, simple biographies, and mysteries.
  • Have fun with joke and riddle books.
  • Introduce simple magazines.
• Recommended books:
  • The Patchwork Quilt, by Valerie Flourney (story involves multi-culturism)
  • The Tale of Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter (one of the longer editions; introduces fantasies that seem real)
  • May We Sleep Here Tonight?, by Tan Koide (plot that focuses on fear and resolution).
  • The Sneetches, by Dr. Seuss (story that involves stereotypes and encourages conversation)

Adapted from Reading Tips for Parents, developed by the National Center for Family Literacy