As parents, we’re always asking how we can do more for our children. One suggestion is to let your children see you and other family members reading regularly. Be it newspapers, magazines, books or letters, being seen to read is a subliminal encouragement for your child to follow suit! It’s often far more effective to follow this approach…
With Christmas literally just days away, we’re sure you’ll find plenty of opportunities to encourage your child to read/write. Ask your child to help you with tasks like writing last minute shopping lists, selecting favourite programmes from the TV guide and Christmas cards need to be written after all! These are activities of daily living and not a formal spelling/writing lesson…
Christmas is also a great opportunity to give fun presents such as comic annuals. Great examples of these include publications like the Beano or the Dandy which have short snappy sentences in speech bubbles accompanied by great illustrations to stimulate your child’s interest. Older children might also enjoy books like the Guinness Book of Records, which is full of interesting facts and great photo’s to rouse their interest in the text.
Christmas is always a great opportunity for families to spend time together. The children are off school for a couple of weeks and hopefully parents will get a couple of extra days off too. One great way to pass this time is to play board and/or word games together. Junior Scrabble, Countdown, Monopoly are just a few examples, remember learning doesn’t have to be all about lessons!
As children many parents will remember that St Stephen’s Day was the time to write your thank you letters. Often we’d receive a set of notelets for Christmas along with a writing set, ie a pen & pencil, sadly it wouldn’t be long before these were all used up! These days sending a short e-mail is often just as acceptable and will help your child keep up to date with their friends and family just as effectively.
Most of all, remember to have fun together. Christmas is a time that forges memories that will last a lifetime, so make it a good one and don’t forget to save the stamps off those Christmas cards and send them in to the Offaly DAI. As a large supermarket chain likes to say “Every Little Helps!”