6 Things To Do When Reading Aloud to a Child

1) Add dimension and Props- When reading to a child electronically make sure that you add a few props to go with the story. You can also end the story by sharing a food related item, for example when you are reading a book that is based on cookies throughout the story (ex: When You Give a Mouse a Cookie), enjoy a cookie on your end while the child enjoys the same yummy snack from their end. 

2) Bring The Author to Life- Before you read the book online, take a few moments to learn about the author or illustrator. Many authors/illustrators have uploaded content to our website, just click their name from their book page to read a short bio and explore their social media links.  If for some reason you can’t find the info here on Be There Bedtime Stories, do a Google search.

3) Read The Book to Yourself First- Take an extra five minutes and browse through the book by yourself first.  This advanced reading will help you refine the story so that you can leave out material you might want to shorten or possibly even emphasize. This can also help you read through the book with ease, once you have had a “practice” reading.

4) Slow Your Reading- The most common mistake in reading aloud whether the reader is a five year old or ninety-nine is reading too fast. Read slowly enough for the child to build mental pictures of what they just heard you read. Slow down enough for the child to see the pictures on the screen without feeling rushed. If you read too fast, it leaves no time for the child to vocalize and express their thoughts and feelings about the story.

5) Play The Cover Game- the first time you read the book, take some time to discuss the cover illustration, ask the child what they think the story is going to be about based on the front cover illustration. This is a great way to have a deeper conversation outside of the story with the child you are reading to.

6) Say More Than Just Goodnight!-  As you read the story, keep the child involved by occasionally asking them what they think is going to happen next.  This prompts them to use their imagination and gets them thinking about the story on a deeper level. Reference locations or things that you have shared in your experiences with them. For example: if you’re reading a book about the ocean, then recall when they visited you on the west coast last summer. That way, you keep those memories fresh and they have a personal relationship to the content in the book. At the end of the book, remind them about any upcoming visits or refer to something going on in your life that they may be familiar with, such as “I was in my friends garden yesterday and she has daisies, just like the ones that we planted in your garden together last summer!” Take advantage of the video recording and ‘Say More Than Just Goodnight’.

Tips provided by BeThereBedtimeStories.com

Making the Time

Well, I guess it’s official, Washington D.C. has received the honorable title by USA Today as the most literate city in our nation. One might ask, “How would they determine this lofty accolade (I know the question popped into my mind)?”  After looking at measures for newspapers, bookstores, magazines, education, libraries, the Internet and to what extent the populations make use of them, the honor went to our nation’s capitol.

USA Today quoted researcher Jack Miller, president of Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Conn. In saying “What difference does it make how good your reading test score is if you never read anything?”

This statement got me thinking about a recent analogy regarding reading achievement made by a former colleague. It just made so much sense to me I will never forget it. It was this: You can have the absolute best swimming coach in the world. We are talking Olympic class, uber-talented. That coach can give you all kinds of direction and ‘coaching’, but if that coach does not let his/her team swim, swim, and swim some more, there is no way they will get any better, is there? The same applies to reading.

Students can have the absolute best reading teacher, but if that teacher does not provide her students the time and opportunity to read, read, and read some more, they will not get any better. In order to make this reading practice enjoyable students should be reading text at a level that they have mastered. The higher-level reading should be saved for small group instruction with a teacher or having a book read to them.

Making reading an enjoyable past time is a goal I aim for at home. I don’t want to ‘force’ my kids to read, I want them to choose to do it because they enjoy it. I also know that they LOVE for me to read before bedtime. After all, let’s be honest, their choices at that time are pretty limited, so a story from mom looks pretty appealing. I take full advantage of their undivided attention at that time of day and will not force it at other times of day. We have to realize that reading may not be the first choice of activity for all kids.

Be There Bedtime Stories can be yet another format to expose our kids to the power of a story being read to them. It can play a part in effort to make reading an enjoyable pastime, not a tedious chore. It may not be long before that child is recording and sending out their own stories. Be There Bedtime Stories is just one of many opportunities to make reading an enjoyable pastime.

Valuable Connections!

One of the easiest ways to make more of your reading time is to use the reading strategy of Making Connections. This is a strategy used in many classrooms across the country and it is very simple to do. Basically there are three types of connections a child could make while reading any book; text to self, text to text, or text to world.  It is easy to make these connections! The following are examples I have made with my girls while reading some books from the Be There Bedtime Bookstore.

Text to Self connection:  In the book Blackberry Banquet by Terry Pierce, there are many animals enjoying the tasty treat of blackberries. One of my daughters LOVES blackberries, a passion she does not share with myself. I said “Wow, these animals sure love those blackberries just like you do! Do you remember how much you love to eat blackberries in the summer?”

Text to Text Connection:  In the book Penelope and the Humongous Burp by Sheri Radford, I compared two characters from two different books when I said to my daughters, “Penelope reminds me of Junie B. Jones. She is a hilarious character, isn’t she!”

Text to World Connection:  In the book A Day in the Salt Marsh by Kevin Kurtz, the crabs running in the sand reminded me a a recent vacation we took. I said, “Seeing those fiddler crabs reminds me of when we saw that crab crawling across the beach in Galveston last year! Do you remember that?”

Making connections helps readers to comprehend text more fully. The reward lies in the fact that soon your young reader will be making their own connections naturally and easily. This will make reading more engaging and entertaining for them. If your young reader is making connections, their reading comprehension will be stronger for it!  

I have no doubt that you have already made connections many times before with your child. Now you know how valuable it is for their reading comprehension! Model this powerful reading strategy often for your young reader and be on the lookout for them doing it back for you!

Environmental Print for preschool children

Environmental Print is one of the first types of reading your toddler/pre-schooler can do. Encourage them to identify the signs of common stores you frequent. Some more commonly identified signs may be Target, McDonalds, Home Depot, or even the Be There Bedtime Stories email they receive regularly etc… . You may have already seen your child exhibit this early reading. Encourage your child to call out the name of the store as they see the signs driving by. This naturally opens the door to asking your child what letter the store’s name starts with and then what sound that letter makes. This is empowering and exciting for your young reader!

Do you have a young author at home?

Be There Bedtime stories is full of great stories that have the power to inspire young readers AND writers. After reading a really entertaining story (or being read one), many kids feel they may want to take a turn at writing a story themselves. One way to make writing a story more accessible to young writers is to have the child dictate their story to someone at the computer. This alleviates the labor of physically writing it themselves, and the young writer is freed up to put their thoughts and ideas down in a quick and easy way. After their story is typed out on the computer you can help your child to read it back and even help them with editing their work. And then may come illustrations!

On a personal note, both of my daughters, (now 4 and 6) have written many an exciting tale with this method. If I hadn’t been there to type out their thoughts and ideas for them they wouldn’t have had the stamina to finish most (if any) of their stories.

A simple framework to keep in mind for a good story is to have them include:
1. An interesting setting
2. Interesting characters
3. A problem (which helps to make it interesting)
4. A solution to the problem.

Outside of coaching them on this basic framework, I try to let them fill the story with all of their ideas. It is also a great time capsule to keep so that your child can revisit their early authoring!