6 Ways to Turn Your Children Into Readers

Posted April 23, 2018 by Prairie Wife - 41 comments

cowkids reading good night booksLast week I recorded a live Facebook where I showed a bit of our preschool homeschool lesson.

The response was waaaay more than I imagined, and I was reminded of how many parents want to help their children succeed in school but are overwhelmed with all the information out there.

I wrote this post about Homeschooling Your Three Year Old, but I understand that this simply isn’t an option for many families out there. I encourage you to scroll to the end of that post and print out the Alphabet Chant. It takes maybe 5 minutes, and if you use it three times a week, your child will have all their letters and sounds down in no time!

I thought it would be helpful to give you a quick list of things you can do with your younger children (birth – 5 years) that will help you to turn them into readers!

  1. children are made readersRead to your children early and often.
    • It’s never too early to start reading to your kids. From birth on, the best thing you can do is read to your children. Board books are a great way to start, they’re short and really fun to read.
  2. Let your children pick the books you read.
    • Let your children pick the books for you to read, it gets them excited, and they LOVE to be in charge!
  3. Have your children hold the book.
    • When your children are old enough, let them turn pages and hold the book. One of the benefits of reading with your child is that they learn how to “use” books.
  4. Read the same books over and over.
    • Every parent has a dozen books they can recite by heart because they’ve read them so many times. Trust me when I say this is a good thing! The first few times your children are likely focused on pictures, it takes many re-reads for them to truly begin grasping the story.
  5. Let your children “read” to you.
    • Encourage your child to read the story to you. Chances are they will simply look at the pictures and retell the story, don’t worry, this is a HUGE part of reading. Also, if they have a book memorized and tell you they can read it, don’t respond with “all you did is memorize it.” Simply cheer them on. After all, memorization (knowing T.H.E. is the word the) is a big part of learning to read.
  6. Allow your children to see you reading.
    • Talking about reading and setting a good example by reading yourself is huge. Even mentioning that you are “reading the grocery list” or “reading a post on Facebook” will show them that reading is an important part of everyday life.

As I said before, reading to your children from birth on is one of the most important ways you can create a child who loves to read. One of our family favorites is the Good Night series of books. Every time we travel, we try and find one of the Good Night books that go along with the place we have visited. It’s the perfect souvenir. Head over to their website and check out all the books they have…and don’t forget they have books in Spanish as well!

good night books giveaway

NOTE: THIS GIVEAWAY IS NO LONGER ACTIVE

We are super excited to announce that THREE lucky readers will have a chance to win a Good Night Board Book.

The three books we are giving away are…

Good Night Yellowstone

Good Night America

Good Night Baby Jesus

All you have to do is comment below with the title of one of your favorite children’s books AND tell us what book you’d like to win.

You can earn more points towards the giveaway by following us on social media using the Rafflecopter form below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You can find more great giveaways at https://www.bloggiveawaydirectory.com/

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41 thoughts on "6 Ways to Turn Your Children Into Readers"

  1. Robyn says:

    These are so cool! I’d love to win goodnight America for my kids

    1. Prairie Wife says:

      That’s such a fun one! Thanks for stopping by Robyn!

  2. Jenn B says:

    My 3 kiddos and I LOVE Llama Llama. I would like to win the Good Night Baby Jesus to share with them.

    1. Jenn B says:

      ps. great post 😉

    2. Prairie Wife says:

      We love the llama llama books, did you know there is a TV show now?! And that Baby Jesus one has great pics!

  3. Beth M says:

    I just love this! We have struggled with our toddler enjoying any part of reading time, even from the time she could sit up. She is not one to sit still for any amount of time but as she’s grown and seen my husband and I reading every night and making her stories a part of the bedtime routine has truly helped her grow. She loves Brown Bear Brown Bear and would love to see Good Night Yellowstone!

  4. Krystal says:

    We have a few favorites 🙂 Pete the Cat and Dinosaurrumpus are definitely near the top of the list! I would love Good Night Baby Jesus.

  5. Leah Obrien says:

    We love reading to our 8 month old and the current favourite is “Magic Beach”. Equal parts real life and imagination and it rhymes which is perfect for that age group. We’re currently on his first overseas trip ever, to the USA, so would love to win a copy of Good Night America to read him after this trip! Thanks!

  6. Mayra Hernandez says:

    Our favorite book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar and I would love to win Good Night Yellowstone.

  7. Em Mahr says:

    I’d like to win the Good Night America book. One of my son’s favorite books is “My Truck is Stuck”

  8. Jennifer Cervantes says:

    Pajama time! Is a favorite book all my 5 kids love. All the books look great but goodnight Yellowstone sounds like one my kids would love.

  9. Tammy Woodall says:

    These books are awesome! My granddaughter would love the Good Night Yellowstone”.

  10. Katherine S says:

    These sound like such fun books. I would love to read Good night Yellowstone

  11. Rachel Moran says:

    Good Night American looks awesome. I think my current fave board book is Giraffes Can’t Dance

  12. Pat says:

    A favorite is Good Night Moon. I’d like to win Good Night America.

  13. Lisa Vanhook says:

    I would love to gift my upcoming nephew with Good Night Baby Jesus..

  14. wen budro says:

    My favorite would be green eggs and ham. I would love to win Goodnight, America for my kids.

  15. Pamela says:

    We love to read any of the Eric Carle books, but each of the Good Night books look great. Our little ones would love Good Night Baby Jesus, or really any of the Good Night series! Thanks for the list of reading tips, too.

  16. Kelly McGrew says:

    I would probably choose good night America!

  17. Margaret S Porter says:

    I love goodnight Moon.. I would love to win Baby Jesus for my grandson

  18. Kayla Klontz says:

    We loveee books here, we don’t only have one favorite book, my son has many. I would love to win any one of these, he would be super excited.

  19. Darlene Owen says:

    My kids love the book Black Beauty

  20. Darlene Owen says:

    We would love good night Yellowstone.

  21. Vikki Billings says:

    My favorite children’s book is Goodnight Moon! I would love to win Goodnight America!

  22. Nancy says:

    I like The Cow Who Fell Into the Canal.

    I’d like to win Good Night America.

  23. Alma London says:

    Our favorites are good night Mom, and very veggie prayers

  24. Tina says:

    I have so many favorites. Right now, our favorites are Guess How Much I Love You and Goodnight Moon. I would like to win Goodnight Yellowstone. Thank you.

  25. meghan says:

    We are loving the Dragons Love Tacos, and my daughter loves these Goodnight Books

  26. Cassandra D says:

    Good Night Yellowstone.

  27. Lynne says:

    I would like to win Goodnight Yellowstone. One of our favorite books to read when my kids were little was “The Monster at the End of This Book” featuring the Sesame Street Gang!

  28. Stephanie says:

    My favorite childhood book is James and the Giant Peach.

  29. Donna L says:

    The book “Are you my mother?” By P.D. Eastman – Goodnight Yellowstone.

  30. Shakeia Rieux says:

    My favorite is the Berenstain Bears books. I would love to win the Good Night Baby Jesus.

  31. My favorite children’s book is The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet. I’d like to win Good Night, Yellowstone.

  32. Jenn eggert says:

    We love to read in my family. My youngest is just learning to read

  33. Jan Lee says:

    A favorite children’s book we had was Goodnight Moon 🙂

  34. Jan Lee says:

    I’d like to win Goodnight Yellowstone 🙂

  35. desiree says:

    what i would do is read them blog on them over the net and then give as gift have lot of bd coming up

  36. Jan Lee says:

    Top Mommy Blogs says you aren’t supposed to ask people to vote for your blog as a part of a contest entry! Rafflecopter is a contest entry so I didn’t leave a vote, sorry!

    1. Prairie Wife says:

      No worries, thanks for the heads up they used to have a special spot for voting for a contest they must have changed their policy!

  37. Nikki says:

    Green Eggs and Ham is my fav children’s book. I’d love to win Good Night Baby Jesus.

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