Try These Fun Family Ideas at Home for Learning, Reading, and Spending Quality Time Together!

• Read to, and with your child.  It’s a great way to connect at the end of a long hectic day.
• Use ‘drive time’ as a chance to read together.  Have your children read signs and billboards. 
• Play board games that require reading, reasoning, and counting.  Make up your own games and let your child take the lead!
• Incorporate children into your daily activities that require reading.  Making your favorite recipe?  Let your child read it to you and help you prepare the dish.  Paying bills?  Allow your children to sit with you and read the bill, explain what you are paying for, and let them watch you write checks.  This incorporates reading, math, and some practical living skills they will need later in life.
• Let your child read information on food packages as you grocery shop.  Ask them questions about the label.  Discuss nutrition, food pricing, and value. 
• Spend free time in the library or your favorite book store with your child.
• Read the newspaper together each week choosing stories appropriate to their age and ability to understand.  Ask your children how they feel about what’s happening in the world around them.  Listen to your child share his feelings and help them understand issues at their level.
• Have your child get out a favorite toy and write a story about that toy’s adventure with your child.  Read it out loud together and draw pictures to go with each part of the story.
• When picking books, consider the interests of your child.  Do they like dolls or trucks?
• Choose books with beautiful illustrations that will get, and keep their attention.
• Help your child relate stories they read to their everyday life.  Maybe your child has had an experience similar to a character in a book. 
• Set aside 15 minutes to read with your child each day.  Be sure your child sees you reading grown up books.  This sets the best example!
• Make writing materials available to your child so they can create their own stories to share with you and their friends.
• Put magnetic letters on the refrigerator and let them spell names of family members, foods, and other fun words.
• Make reading fun, and praise all of your child’s efforts to read and enjoy books!

NEW! Each month the library will publish a flyer with hints and tips for family reading at home. We will include special topics, themes, and great books on display. For October check out the selection of books on the outdoors!