A passport to reading

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Parents are often tired, overworked. They may also not know how to even begin sharing books with their kids.

So this is a passport for parents; a Passport to Reading.  Teachers can photocopy the ‘passport’ and give one to each kid every month. Librarians can give a Passport to Reading  to families, too.

 

Parents tick each box when the activity is completed, and at the end of the month, those with every box ticked get a prize. It doesn’t needn’t be large - a gold bordered certificate ‘To a Wonderful Mum/ Dad/ Auntie (whoever signed the passport); or a chocolate frog, or a photo taken on the parents phone with the teacher or librarian and a sign saying ‘Congratulations to a Great Reading family.’

 

A Passport to Reading

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• Every night: read a story together at bedtime (28 boxes to tick)

• Every day: talk to your kids about what you are both reading (28 boxes)

• Once a week: share a household chore like unpacking the dishwasher or tidying bedroom: one person works while someone reads to them  (4 boxes)

• Once a week: visit the library together and hunt for books you might like to read. (You don’t have to read them all!)  (4 boxes)

• Every weekend: share what you’re reading with your kids. Share an item in a newspaper, magazine or cookbook, or a text from a friend, or an online article  (four boxes)

• Every weekend: find a new way to share a book, a song, a museum, a poem or a story. Get Grandma to Skype reading a story. Blu Tack up a poem in the loo. Read the dog a bedtime story. Tell the kids a funny story about your childhood, or their grandparents. (four boxes)

• Every month: give a  book to a charity or library

• Every month: lend a book you’ve love

 

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6 tips for great reading

 

1. Kids need simple books to practice reading, but they need big, fascinating books too, or they’ll think that books are boring. Don’t stop reading to your kids when they can read themselves!

 

2. Six nights a week read the book your kids would like you to read. But the seventh night, you get to choose!

 

3. Books boomerang! If you read to your kids when they are young, they’ll share books you when you are old or ill.

 

4. Many kids don’t like stories. They wan to read about real things- just like their parents or grandparents might.

 

5. Never underestimate a child. If your child  can follow complex movies or tv shows, they’ll want complex books too.

 

6. Books literally make kids more intelligent and help them understand other people. But adults don’t read because it’s good for us. We read because it is fun!

 

Books aren’t like broccoli - you don’t have to eat every bit on your plate.  Teach your kids that if a book is boring they can put it down…and get another one!

 

Ps: And show them ho and where to find them, too.

 

Eight Great Places to Find Books

 

• Your school library

• Your community library

• Bookshops, especially those that have areas  and activities especially for kids

• Online bookshops, especially those that say ‘If you like this book, you might like these…’

• Op shops

• Garage sales

• Friends who you can share books with.

• Grandparents who might have saved your books from when you were young.