5 Tips for Getting Your Kids Reading

Megan Daley is an author, teacher librarian and blogger and has just released her first book Raising Readers: How to nurture a child’s love of books. She shares her top five tips for getting your kids reading with Practical Parenting.

5 Tips for Getting Your Kids Reading

1. Read aloud with passion! When a child is read to by a loved adult, they are hearing the rhythm and flow of language, building a rich and diverse network of words and seeing a love of reading modelled.

2. Keep buying books. Continue to build up a home library full of adored books. School reading material is designed for teaching the skill of reading whereas recreational reading is all important.

3. Talk about book choices. Talk with your child about why they have chosen books from their school library, the classroom or the bookstore in order to develop an idea of your child’s reading interests.

4. Read the rainbow! Embrace any book or series your child is keen to read, while gently encouraging them to expand their reading horizons. A balanced reading diet is the healthiest by far.

5. Bring books to life. Research author visits via your local bookstores and libraries. Meeting an author helps form a bond between the child and their favourite books as they gain insight into the ‘story behind the story’.

Megan Daley is passionate about children's literature and sharing it with young and old alike. In daylight hours, Megan is a teacher librarian at St Aidan's Anglican Girls School and was recently awarded the Queensland Teacher Librarian of the Year by the School Library Association of Queensland, as well as the national Dromken Librarians Award, presented by the State Library of Victoria. A former national vice-president of the Children's Book Council of Australia, she is on the Queensland chapter of the board of the Australian Children's Laureate and on the Publications Committee of the National Library of Australia.