How to help your child improve their literacy skills.
The magic of reading and writing is something that every child should learn about at an early age. As a parent, one of your responsibilities is to support your child’s literacy so that they can do better in school in the future.
This is actually not too difficult to accomplish. To help you get started, we’ve put together some simple tips on how to improve literacy skills that you can begin implementing with your children immediately:
How to Improve Your Child’s Literacy Skills
Learning how to improve literacy skills in your child is one of the most important things you’ll do as a parent. That’s because the better a child’s literacy is, the more successful they’re likely to be. Here are some simple ways to get started:
Encourage Reading Early
There’s really no such thing as a child being too young to start learning about reading. Even infants can soak up information, so feel free to read to them as much as possible. This can actually help create a foundation for literacy, believe it or not. They may not understand anything that you’re saying for a while, but it will teach them about language.
Get Them to Read Every Day
As your child begins to read, this is something they should do every single day. Books are the most important thing, of course, because they can teach vocabulary, syntax, grammar, etc. But try to get your child to read everything they see, whether it’s a sign on the street or an information label on the back of a shampoo bottle in the bathroom.
Read to Them If They Are Very Young
As your child moves from infant to toddler and beyond, you should read to them on a regular basis. Many parents read to their kids just before bed, which is a great idea. But you can actually read to them at any time. The more you reach them, the better their literacy and reading comprehension skills will be as they get older.
Help Them with Difficult Words
Everyone knows that getting a child to sound out a word is the best way for them to learn that word. However, the English language is very tricky.
Sounding out the word might not be enough. If they seem to be having difficulty, be sure to help them. Maybe even write down the word and quiz them about it later.
Have Them Tell You a Story
Reading is a wonderful way to improve a child’s literacy, but having them tell you a story goes much further. This gives them the opportunity to form their own thoughts and understand how words fit together to form sentences, ideas, and concepts.
The plot of the story doesn’t matter. What matters is how they present the story to you. If you can incorporate some word games, that’s even better.
How The Happy Hollisters Improves Literacy
The Happy Hollisters have been around for many decades and delighted millions of young children. Each story has a mystery to be solved, and kids will learn about the love and teamwork that the Hollister children and parents exercise every day. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why these wonderful tales are effective in improving a child’s literacy:
Healthy Vocabulary
The Happy Hollisters is a mystery series for kids, but that doesn’t mean that it has a simple vocabulary. Some somewhat advanced words are interspersed throughout each story so the kids can be challenged. By being introduced to this vocabulary in an exciting tale of mystery and adventure, they’ll be given a lesson in literacy without even knowing it.
Engaging Mysteries
The best way to improve a child’s literacy is to provide them with stories that engage them in some way. Since The Happy Hollisters is a series of youth mystery novels, this isn’t too difficult. These books invite them to use the clues presented in each story and then try to solve the mystery before the main characters do. This level of engagement helps them focus on the words that are being used, thereby improving their literacy.
New, Exciting Cultures
Much of what a child learns when reading through The Happy Hollisters novels concerns other cultures. Kids find these stories especially intriguing because they introduce concepts that they have often never even heard of before. This also helps them stay focused on the words and concepts that are being used, which will have a dramatic impact on their literacy.
Contact The Happy Hollisters to Learn How to Improve Literacy Skills
The Happy Hollisters is a classic children’s book series written by Andrew E. Svenson. If you have any questions on how to improve literacy skills or would like to join The Happy Hollisters’ Book Club, call us at (727) 945-7002 today.