Reading

Hearing your child read is important because reading is such an important life skill. Reading is everywhere, from reading your favourite story book, following a recipe or instructions to communicating in online games and the more they do it better they become at it.

Listening to your child is good, but checking understanding is also essential. You can do this by discussing what is going on and asking questions. Here are some examples of questions we might ask in school:

What kinds of people are in the story?

Where does the story take place?

What is this text about?

Where does the character live?

Explain something that happened at a specific point in the story? (you choose the point)

Find something that interests you in the text – why did you choose this?

What kind of things would you expect to see in this book?

Who are main characters in this book?

What does the main character look like? (can they answer this without the pictures?)

When does the story take place?

Who would you most like to meet in the story and why?

Can you find examples of words which tell you the order of something?

How does the author encourage you to read the rest of the text?

Can you think of another story that has a similar theme (i.e. good over evil, weak over strong)?

I hope these are helpful.