Teaching you preschooler to read is just like teaching them to say “please” and “thank you.” It happens slowly and with repetition and practice. Help your child become a better reader by engaging them in their favorite stories and focusing on the foundational skills that will allow them to improve as they practice reading. With time, patience, and perseverance, reading will become second nature to your child!
Create an Interactive Experience
Children, preschoolers especially, love interactive learning. The more engaging you can make story time, the better your preschoolers’ early reading skills will become. Create an immersive and interactive experience when you read by making the story come to life!
Make storybook inspired crafts like finger puppets that resemble the characters in the book, use different voices for the various characters in the book, or use your tone and volume to mimic the ups and downs of the story.
Expand your preschooler’s library and create even more opportunities for interactive story time by subscribing to a book subscription box for kids like Tiny Humans Read. With Tiny Humans Read, each month your child will receive new books with activities that go right along with that month’s stories.
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Ask Questions
Talking to your kids in general is great for building early reading skills because reading is a language skill. Taking it a step further, though, engaging your preschooler in the story builds on that language foundation. Ask questions throughout the story, and see if your child can summarize the story later. Who was the main character? What conflict did they have to overcome? How did the story end? Would they have changed the ending? What do they think happened next?
Asking questions and talking about the story and characters build reading comprehension skills that will be key to reading as your child grows. Your child may even love to fill out this fun little book review worksheet with you!
Talk About Letter Names, Sounds, and Sound Pairings
Sounding out words is one of the fundamentals of learning to read. Beyond sight words, preschoolers need to know how to work their way through new words. Create a foundation to good reading by teaching your child letter names, the sounds of each letter, and the way letter sounds change when paired with other letters like when T and H become TH.
Engaging activities can make learning about letters even more fun! Try making letter shapes out of playdoh, using flashcards, and talking about the sounds at the beginning of different words. Reading is such an essential skill for preschoolers to learn, but it’s also one of life’s greatest pleasures, and your efforts to help your child learn and improve will continue to help them for the rest of their lives.
As Walt Disney once said, “There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” Don’t forget to check out Tiny Humans Read and use your discount code (TEACH) to give your preschooler the gift of new stories every month!
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