Congratulations to Year 2D (Susan Maher’s class) - all the girls are PRC readers! They are enthusiastically reading their books and at the same time, improving their reading skills.

We want to raise confident readers so here are some ideas to boost language and literacy …

Read aloud to your children. Reading is a wonderful way to lay the foundation for developing literacy skills. Younger children can learn to pick up words through repetition. So while you may be tired of the same story over and over (and over) again, children are actually making some fantastic connections! Meanwhile, when you read to older children you expose them to more challenging words and give their imaginations a great workout.

Have your children read to you. Help your child build her confidence at home by reading to you, a sibling or even a pet. The idea here is that your child practises in front of an audience.

Have books around the house. You know the old saying, “practice makes perfect?”

Let your children see you reading. Seeing you read for pleasure can have a big impact on how your children view reading.

Give children control. Let them pick out the stories. Ask them what they’d like to read even if it’s a comic book. Comics are a great way to practise reading.

Make it part of a daily habit. Pick some time every day to read.

Bond over books. Share your favourite stories from when you were younger.

Avoid making reading time into quiz time. It’s okay to occasionally ask questions as the goal at home is to reinforce reading for pleasure.

As parents, we can’t control everything but we can help shape things. By creating a home environment that celebrates the printed word, hopefully we can help the next generation grow into thoughtful, confident readers.

Mrs Robyn Hirst, 

Junior School Learning Resource Centre