Motivate Your Child To Have Fun With Reading (NAPSA)—Throughout our lives we read directions or instructions to perform a task, we read newspapers and magazines to be informed, and weread stories, poetry, plays and other enjoyable materials for the literary experience. Developing solid reading skills as a child is essential to completing job-related tasks or reading for enjoyment as an adult. “Parents play a key role in developing the solid readingskills that are critical for lifelong reading functions,” says Richard Bavaria, Ph.D., vice president of education for Sylvan Learning Center. “Children exhibit certain reading behaviors at a young age and by understanding and nurturing these behaviors, parents can make reading fun and motivate their children to develop a lifelong friendship with books.” Education experts recommend that parents spend at least one hour per week—10 to 15 minutes a day—reading with their child. To help parents nurture their child’s reading behaviors, the experts at Sylvan Learning Center offer these grade-specific tips: Pre-kindergarten and kindergarten Make cookies together. Read the recipe aloud to your child. Read directions to your child when completing a project. Pick a storybook character (Arthur, Strega Nona,etc.) and pretend that character is coming for dinner. Help your child plan activities that character would like. Help your child relate readaloud stories to eventsin herlife. Grades one through three e After reading a non-fiction story, ask your child why he thinks the author wrote thestory. eS Parents can help children develop solid reading skills by making it fun. Help your child create charts and posters about topics of interest to her. Read picture books by the same author (Tomie DePaola, Bill Martin, Jr., etc.) and compare and contrast them. After reading a book with your child, discuss the book with her—ask herto identify the characters, setting and problems in the book. Grades four through eight Help your child with the latest experiment in his science book. Talk through each step and discuss what you're going to do next. Research and select books about your child’s interests—such as a sport or hobby. Makea trip to the library a weekly “date” with yourchild. Read the newspaper with your child. Elicit his opinion about current events. For additional ideas on how you can help your child develop a love of reading visit www.educate. com/info or call 1-800-31-SUCCESS.
