Reading for pleasure

If you can encourage your child to read for pleasure, they will really reap the benefits. It might not seem like a particularly important task, but actually, research shows that reading for pleasure can be directly linked to children’s success throughout their time at school and even into adulthood.

Reading for pleasure opens up new worlds for children. It gives them the opportunity to use their imagination to explore new ideas, visit new places and meet new characters, as well as dramatically improve their vocabulary. Interestingly, reading for pleasure also improves children’s well-being and empathy. It helps them to understand their own identity, and gives them an insight into the world and the views of others.

Here are some ideas for encouraging your child to read for pleasure:

• •  Set aside a special time – just a few minutes a day is enough to create a reading habit.
  •  Get caught reading yourself – show that reading for pleasure is not just for children.
  •  Read to each other – if your child really doesn’t want to read on their own, then read together. You read a page, then they read a page. Or one of you could read any dialogue. Be brave and put on different voices.
  •  Value the books they choose to read – all reading is valuable for a child’s development. Some of us prefer non-fiction; some of us prefer comics. One child might like superhero books; another might a book of football statistics.
  •  Set a challenge – can they read ten books before they’re ten? Can they read a book from six different genres: a comic, an information book, a funny book, a sci-fi book, a classic and an instruction manual?
  •  Reading buddies – reading to a younger sibling can boost your child’s self-confidence and communication skills.

Q

Q

Questions for Reading Bookmark

As part of our reading at school, we discuss the book and stories we read with the children in detail . These are the types of questions we ask.

So, whilst reading with your child at home together, maybe this is something you could do to support your child? Try to choose one question from each section. You could ask more than one type of question per page. This will check that your child really understands what they are reading and will support your child to continue to make progress with their reading.

Thank you, Year 3 Egypt Team