Reading has known benefits for both physical and mental health. When it comes to children, studies show it fosters critical thinking, it nurtures curiosity, and motivates them to explore the world around them. We always encourage parents to nurture a reading habit early on in their child’s life.
Children whose parents inculcate the love of reading in their early years will carry that interest throughout their lives. A strong literacy foundation will also give your kindergarten aged children an advantage in school, where they will be able to absorb lessons quicker, develop better communication and in general, boost their intellectual abilities..
Here are some easy kindergarten reading activities you can try at home with your child.:
Reading Labels and Packaging
Reading activities can start very simply, with objects you have around your home. You can encourage your child to recognise different alphabets and words printed on packages and labels. . Keep things casual, and prompt your child gently. You can encourage your child with little rewards, and be sure to keep your approach fun.
This exercise is ideal for younger children to begin recognising alphabets, and seeing how they connect to form words. Examples of words around the home that you can help your child read include food packaging labels, appliance brand names, printed words on toys and the like.
Reading Together
For younger children, it is important to keep things simple. You can begin by choosing children’s books that fit your child’s confidence level. This might mean choosing books with two or three lettered words to start.
Reading together builds their confidence, as it helps them recognise words and sounds they already know. Hearing your voice read along with them creates a supportive and accepting environment where they are free to make mistakes and learn. The key to reading together with your child is patience, and allowing them to progress at their own pace.
The Word Detective
This is a fun activity that can be done at home. Simply supply your child with some written words. It can be a newspaper or magazine page, a cereal box or even a poster. Give your child about 30 seconds to find either a word or alphabet that they know. You can even take turns, asking your child to give you a word or alphabet to find. The one with the highest scores at the end of several rounds is the winner.
Complete a Word
This little game requires you to prepare some large alphabets that your child can hold. You can buy some from the toy store, cut them out of cardboard or use letters from a Scrabble set. Start by forming short and simple words (no more than 3 or 4 letters), while excluding the first letter of said word. Your child will then have to fill in the required letter. Be sure to include words your child already knows so that they can complete this activity confidently.
In Conclusion
Building literacy skills often begins at home, with simple and fun activities. These engaging pursuits help nurture an innate love of reading, which your children will carry for life. At MindChamps Enrichment, we believe that reading skills should be imparted early on, as it has multiple benefits for their cognitive, intellectual, language and social development.
Register for a MindChamps Reading trial class and see how our Champion Mindset driven classes build a lifelong love of reading, allowing your child to grow and adapt in a rapidly changing world.