Study 1: Children read to everyday are more likely to perform better when they enter school, and experience less behavior problems.
Study 2: Children read to more frequently in their first year of primary school scored higher in an international assessment exam at the age of 15.
[Sources: The Telegraph (study group of 8,000) and The New York Times (study group of 5,000), respectively.]
Did I drive home the point?
Reading is an essential skill for both personal and academic development, as seen in these studies. Start the reading habit as early as possible, so your child can reap the benefits later in life.
But what if my child doesn’t seem interested in reading?
This is a common question parents have. After all, each child is unique; therefore, their interests vary.
If this is the situation you’re in, don’t fret! Here’s a great – not to mention FREE – way to get your little one to enjoy reading. Whether you have a toddler, preschooler or school age kid, this is sure to work:
Take the story outside the book.
How does it work?
There are many ways to do this, but today, we’re focusing on doing activities or crafts within a story’s theme.
- Read a story with your child or have him read it, if applicable.
- Create your easy and free craft with materials you already have at home.
- Recreate the story with your fun creations.
Here’s what the kiddo and I were up to the past few days.
1. Three Little Pigs
Materials: Links to short story and piggy sheet, scissors and crayons
Instructions: Print piggy sheets, color, cut and assemble them.
2. Humpty Dumpty
Materials: Link to short story, shoe or cereal box (which becomes the wall), paper, crayons, scotch tape, egg and plate
3. Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Note: This clever oatmeal clay idea comes from Anna of The Imagination Tree. Do check out her blog after reading this post; I’m sure you’ll love it!
Materials: Links to the story and to the easy no-cook homemade clay recipe, and 3 bowls
That’s it!! See how easy it is to make stories come alive? It makes for great conversations, and wouldn’t you know, costs nothing too.
Your challenge…
…should you choose to accept it, is to set aside 3 days this week for each story and craft.
Are you up for it?
If you think another mom would want to encourage her children to read, please share this now using the buttons below. My goal is to make reading easy and fun for both parents and kids, so they can read often.
About Anne Mercado
Great ideas, Anne! I love this. Another way to tell a story, holding their interest is to have them interact with parts of it. Last week when I was teaching the preschool bible story each day at vacation bible school for our church, I got to do this with the kids. When we talked about Jesus calming the storm while on the boat with the fishermen, I had the kids build a pretend boat out of paper grocery bag “bricks” (stuffed with newspaper) for all of us to “sit in” for the remainder of the story. During the story they did things like pretend to pull fishing nets in and out of the boat and count how many fish they caught. Interactive stories are a great way to engage the child and help them remember the message.
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This is also a great idea, Rosann!! I’ll be doing a series on how to make reading fun so this will definitely be another way to encourage young ones.
Anne, I did these kinds of activities around reading with all of my kids when they were little. Now, as adults, they are voracious readers. You will never find them not reading a book! This is a great post…great ideas!
Blessings,
~Erin
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Now it’s your granchildren’s turn
Im not the most crafty, so I need help for this type of stuff! Try the books Five in a Row – they are really, really amazing at bringing the books to life and my 2 year old and 6 year old are both equally (though differently) engaged!
Twitter: stealingfaith
Hi JJ! Thank you for the book recommendation! I’m the opposite of crafty, but realized that it’s good for the kiddo as well. Will check out the book soon.
We’re homeschoolers in the Philippines and we use Five in a Row! It’s such a fantastic curriculum and really makes books jump out of the pages, becoming part of our lives.
Ann, what a great post! I hope to inspire parents to do exactly this through my blog, whether they’re homeschooling or not. You make the idea accessible and easy to do.
On another note, I also have the following tips for everyday reading
http://www.thelearningbasket.com/2012/06/bring-out-diva-in-you-making-stories.html#axzz1yu01IJfQ
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Hi Mariel! My goal is to simplify things for parents because I know they’re busy but also care for their little one’s deeply!
I also was going to mention 5 in a Row but I see someonw else has already. 5 in a Row takes specific children’s titles and gives you an abundance of activities that you can do that could also be considered learning. It’s a great way for children to engage more deeply into a story and not forget it.
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Now I’m really curious about 5 in a row!
Anne you are just fabulous!!! These are fabulous ideas and will try them with my Calley girl. {which the Lord has blessed with the gift of reading at a young age. Calley, not even in kindergarten yet, has basically taught herself how to read! I have even given her my book to read to see if she was just memorizing the story… she wasn’t. We are blessed!}
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It’s nice to hear that Calley is reading at an early age – and reading well! Also glad that you will try the activities with the little princess. For a while, I’ve been trying to figure out how my post can be of use for you (and I’m serious about this)!
Would love to hear back from you on how you and Calley find the story plus craft combo. Have a great day!
This is so awesome, something i would have never thought of myself, I will be doing this for homeschool with my boys they will love the story even more!
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Wow, Pamela. Cannot tell you how thrilled I am to learn that YOU will use this! I have deep respect for moms who homeschool
Would love to know how your boys find the story plus craft combo.
These are great ideas! It’s funny, as a third-grade teacher I was always thinking of extension activities like these for the stories we read, but it doesn’t always occur to me to do it with my own little guys–maybe because they are so little (4 and 2). But of course they would love this stuff! It also makes me think of an idea I heard recently of having a preschooler book club–everyone reads the book ahead of time then gets together to talk about it, maybe act it out, and do a related craft. Uh-oh–you let the teacher in me out again!
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The book club idea sounds great, and your last line got me laughing
Why hello there, teacher in you. Nice to meet you. Hope you get to do this with your little ones, but most of all, hope they enjoy it as much as I did – I mean, as much as my kiddo did.
You are a freaking genius! This is simple and fun!
I bow to your superior knowledge
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Twitter: http://sharon-moms-madhouse.com/
Real simple and fun; that’s why I couldn’t wait to share it with you guys. Glad you (seem) to like it. You may now rise, Sharon. There is no need to bow for your knowledge and wit are far superior than mine. I now bow down to you.
Ang galing mo naman! I absolutely LOVE your Humpty Dumpty.
Twitter: earthlingsmama
Haha, thanks Rone. Humpty Dumpty was a bit overcooked the next day, though. Guess it’s why the kiddo didn’t gobble him up
Thank you for dropping by!
I like the Humpty Dumpty… you could also read Green Eggs and Ham the same day so you can make green eggs and ham with the “fallen” Humpty =)
SUPER POST!!!
My kids make me laugh……..
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Pamela, you gave me a great idea! I’ll round up another set of books and craft ideas and will include Green Eggs and Ham
Thank you for the idea!! Will credit you for that one in the post. Hugs!
And yeah, I should have eaten fallen humpty with the green eggs, huh? You are clever!
I try!!! =) You post is along the lines of my Pam’s Playhouse post…taking children’s songs and finding fun activities to do with them. Humpty was what I was working on for my next post–it was fresh on my mind =^D
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