Can I tell you a secret I believe deep in my soul? If you did nothing more than read educational stories with your child daily through this time, it would be enough.
Here’s how our daily reading time is structured:
❤️ Each child gathers a stack of books and brings them to the couch. (5-10 books)
🧡 I read a few (2-5ish) books aloud to them. Sometimes I select the read aloud books, but most of the time I let them choose what they want me to read.
💛 Then we begin independent reading. The first day we did this, I set a timer on my phone for 3 minutes. Now we're up to 15 minutes! (Expectation: sit and look at your books quietly.)
💚 Even my 2 year old independently reads some of the time. If he gets bored, that's fine. He sits with me and watches me read or wanders off to play quietly.
💙 Whenever we make a consistent habit of this, they begin to know what to expect and look forward to it. If we go a while without this in our routine, it becomes a chore again. The key is consistency. This works for us, and the kids learn so much through asking questions and being asked questions!
‼️CRITICAL ELEMENT: I read my book during this time. They need to see you reading, not on your phone!
How does reading time look in your house right now?
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