1) Have fun with the subject of the story while your child is reading with phonics books! Is it about camping? Then you and your child can read the story while sitting inside of a tent (real or homemade with blankets over chairs), and read with a flashlight. S’mores afterwards!!
Maybe it’s a story about swimming? Save that book for a day that your child has swim lessons, or can have fun going swimming with a friend after reading time.
Some books come with corresponding activities, like Miss Wendy’s Favorite Phonetic Books. If not, you can try to find a simple activity for the main theme of the story your child is reading.
This helps your child to connect with the storyline, and you can even use the activity to test their comprehension skills: “This is just like that part in your story! Do you remember what happened next in your book?”
2) Encourage your child to read and reread the story. If they are just beginning, reread the same story another day, so as not to overwhelm them.
Rereading can help your child’s fluency as they practice finding their “voice”, which in turn will develop stronger comprehension skills.
You may also want to interject comments as they reread… “Oh I love this part!” “Oh no! Do you remember how they got help?” This is a great way to help your child to engage with the story.
Q: How many times should you let your child reread the story?
A: As many times as they would like! If your child has a favorite story that they want to reread over and over again, that’s great!
If it’s obvious that they have memorized the story, just suggest that after they reread that one, they also need to read a new story during reading time. This gives them the opportunity to reread a beloved story for pleasure, as well as working on their phonics skills with a new one!
3) As your child reads, pause here and there and ask questions that help them to engage with the story. This helps them to develop critical thinking: “What do you think will happen next?” “Why do you think he did that?” “Is that what you would have done? Why?”
It’s also helpful to ask questions of what they just read to evaluate their comprehension of the story. You can take it page by page for beginning readers, asking simple questions about the content of each page as they read. Then later after they are a more confident reader, save the questions for after the whole story has been read.
Some good comprehension questions would be: “What was the man’s name?” “What happened to the sled after they went outside?” “Was color was the bus?” “How did he help Helen feel better?”
4) Use a whiteboard or chalkboard! What kiddo doesn’t love to draw on whiteboards or chalkboards?!
When reading with phonics books, like Miss Wendy’s Favorite Phonetic Books, they may not be illustrated. Your child may enjoy drawing a picture of what they read. This can be a fun activity for after reading time!
As you encourage your child to draw pictures of what they just read, it will also help you to test their comprehension level of the storyline. How closely does the picture they draw reflect what was happening in the story?
5) Don’t worry if your child struggles to read the entire story. Take it slowly at first and only allow them to read the first few pages, or first half of the book. This allows your child to relax and not get too overwhelmed.
This is also a great way to get them curious about what happens next! Make it an exciting cliffhanger: “I wonder what happens next?! Oh well, I guess we will have to wait until tomorrow…”
You may even want to mention it again later in the day, or at bedtime. “I can’t wait to find out what happens next in our story tomorrow!”
As you excite your child’s anticipation, they will begin to have an understanding that reading can be fun and something to look forward to, even as they find it a bit challenging.
Reading with phonics books will help your child to develop their reading and comprehension skills. As you find fun ways to spark their interest and excitement about reading time, you may discover that you are enjoying reading time more as well!
Miss Wendy