FIND THE TIME reading initiative
Sometimes, as a busy parent, reading with your child can be reduced to a few stressful minutes of reading his/her school book between all the other demands of the day.
While we know reading has innumerable benefits for our children, it can be so hard to FIND THE TIME. Check out our tips below to help you find those few minutes and use those random moments as valuable opportunities to enjoy reading together!
Hopefully, you'll have a chance to try out some of these ideas and have a new kind of fun with your child!
If you have any feedback, positive or negative, anonymous or including your name, we would love to hear it - come talk to us or complete the form below!
Caitriona, Principal
Anita, literacy coordinator
Aoife, FIND THE TIME coordinator
While we know reading has innumerable benefits for our children, it can be so hard to FIND THE TIME. Check out our tips below to help you find those few minutes and use those random moments as valuable opportunities to enjoy reading together!
Hopefully, you'll have a chance to try out some of these ideas and have a new kind of fun with your child!
If you have any feedback, positive or negative, anonymous or including your name, we would love to hear it - come talk to us or complete the form below!
Caitriona, Principal
Anita, literacy coordinator
Aoife, FIND THE TIME coordinator
FIND THE TIME tips for families with children in Junior or Senior Infants
- Sing songs, read rhyming books, and say silly tongue twisters. These all help children become sensitive to the sounds in words.
- Connect what your child reads with what happens in life - if reading a book about animals, relate it to your last trip to the zoo.
- Point out the link between letters and sounds. Say, "John, the word jump begins with the same sound as your name. John, jump. And they both begin with the same letter, J."
- Play language games with puppets. Have the puppet say, "My name is Mark. I like words that rhyme with my name. Does park rhyme with Mark? Does ball rhyme with Mark?"
- Have your child use a finger to trace a letter while saying the letter's sound. For more fun, why not do this in sand or on a plate of sugar?!
- Have paper and pencils available for your child to use for writing. Working together, write a sentence or two about something special. Encourage her to use the letters and sounds she's learning about in school.
- Practice blending sounds into words. Ask "Can you guess what this word is? m - o - p" Hold each sound longer than normal.
- Go ahead and read your child's favourite book for the 100th time! As you read, pause and ask your child about what is going on in the book.
- Help your child learn the names of the letters and the sounds the letters make. Turn it into a game! "I'm thinking of a letter and it makes the sound mmmmmm."
FIND THE TIME tips for families with children in 1st class
- Bring along a book or magazine any time your child has to wait, such as at a doctor's office. Always try to fit in reading!
- Encourage your child to re-read favourite books and poems. Re-reading helps children read more quickly and accurately.
- Ask your child questions about the story you've just read. Say something like, "Why do you think Clifford did that?"
- It's difficult for reading to compete with TV and video games. Encourage reading as a free-time activity.
- When your child is trying to sound out an unfamiliar word, give him or her time to do so. Remind your child to look closely at the first letter or letters of the word.
- Help your child pick books that are not too difficult. The aim is to give your child lots of successful reading experiences.
- Have your child sound out the word as you change it from mat to fat to sat; from sat to sag to sap; and from sap to sip.
- Take turns reading aloud at bedtime. Children enjoy this special time with their parents.
- When your child makes a mistake, gently point out the letters she overlooked or read incorrectly. Many beginning readers will guess wildly at a word based on its first letter.
- New Word a Day: Talk with your child every day about school and things going on around the house. Sprinkle some interesting words into the conversation, and build on words you've talked about in the past.
- Ask your child to help you write out the grocery list, a Thank You note to Granny, or to keep a journal of special things that happen at home. When writing, encourage your child to use the letter and sound patterns he is learning at school.
FIND THE TIME tips for families with children in 2nd class
- Children love to hear stories about their family. Talk about a funny thing that happened when you were young.
- Fill a box with drawing and writing materials. Find opportunities for your child to write, such as the shopping list, Thank You notes, or birthday cards.
- Ask your child to read aloud what he has written for school. Be an enthusiastic listener.
- When your child has sounded out an unfamiliar word, have her re-read that sentence. Often children are so busy figuring out a word that they lose the meaning of what they've just read.
- Fold pieces of paper in half and staple them to make a book. Ask your child to write sentences on each page and add his own illustrations.
- Take turns adding to a story the two of you make up while riding in a car or bus. Try making the story funny or spooky.
- Explain how related words have similar spellings and meanings. Show how a word like knowledge, for example, relates to a word like know.
- Use new words your child has learned in lively flash card or computer drills. Sometimes these help children automatically recognize and read words, especially those that are used frequently.
FIND THE TIME tips for families with children in 3rd class
- Turn reading into something special. Take your children to the library, help them get their own library card, read with them, and buy them books as gifts. Have a favourite place for books in your home or, even better, put books everywhere!
- Find ways to encourage your child to pick up another book. Introduce her to a series like The Boxcar Children or Harry Potter or to a second book by a favorite author, or ask the librarian for additional suggestions.
- Let your child see you use a dictionary. Say, "Hmm, I'm not sure what that word means... I think I'll look it up."
- Talk about everyday activities to build your child's background knowledge, which is crucial to listening and reading comprehension. Keep up a running patter, for example, while cooking together, visiting somewhere new, or after watching a TV show.
- Read different types of books to expose your child to different types of writing. Some children prefer non-fiction books.
- Show your child how to summarise a story in a few sentences or how to make predictions about what might happen next. Both strategies help a child comprehend and remember.
- Use the time spent in the car or bus for wordplay. Talk about how jam means something you put on toast as well as cars stuck in traffic. How many other homonyms can your child think of? When children are highly familiar with the meaning of a word, they have less difficulty reading it.
- On a journey: Play the double alphabet game. Players must go through the letters of the alphabet one by one, thinking of words that have at least TWO instances of each letter. A: 'AlligAtor’, B: 'BlueBerry', and so on. This game can be played in any language.