Tips for Success

Read clearly and with enthusiasm.

Interest children before you start reading a book by discussing the title and pictures.

Keep them thinking about the story by stopping occasionally and ask:

Why did this happen?

What will happen next?

Play a game while you read, such as using puppets to help tell the story.

Use books with lots of photographs, faces, and colorful pictures with few words on each page.

Read short, rhyming stories.

Read shorter stories for younger children and don't demand that they pay attention for the whole story. Reading should be fun, not boring or forced upon children.

Make reading a "cuddle-up together" time.

Read aloud while they are napping.