Teaching reading is a process that involves many different steps and there are many different ways to teach people to read. The ability to read is one of the most fundamental skills we can give to a person. It helps people in many ways throughout their lives including learning new things and increasing their knowledge. It helps people make decisions about what they want to do. Reading helps people express themselves and communicate with others and helps people feel better about themselves. Reading also improves a range of skills including memory, attention span, and problem-solving skills, and reduces stress and anxiety. That’s why it’s important to have the best books for teaching reading.
Did you know, from the time they are born, children are learning how to read and write? They learn through exposure and experience. And the good news is reading is a skill that can be learned by anyone, anywhere, at any time. So if you have reluctant readers fear not, there are wonderful ways to get them excited about reading.
The Science of Reading
The science of reading is a fascinating one. It has been proven that reading to your child has many benefits.
One of the most important benefits of reading to your child is that it helps them develop their vocabulary. When you read to them, they learn new words and concepts, which in turn helps them learn how to read on their own. Another benefit of reading to your child is that it helps with their development in the long term. Studies show that children who are read to early on are more likely to be successful in school and have higher grades than those who were not read to as often or at all.
Reading to your child is also one of the best ways to promote literacy in the early years of life. It teaches them about language and how it works, as well as teaching them new words and encouraging an interest in reading.
Teaching Reading
There are different approaches to teaching reading, but the most important thing is that the student enjoys the books they are reading. This will ensure they will want to read more and read better. Some of the most popular methods of teaching reading are using phonics, using reading programs, and using graphic novels or comics as a way to teach literacy skills.
The first step in teaching someone how to read is picking out appropriate books for them to read. A great book can make all the difference to a child. The next step is introducing them to the alphabet and showing them how letters correspond with sounds. After that, children need to practice recognising words and sounding out syllables with help from adults or peers. Finally, children should be able to understand what they are reading, which requires a lot of practice.
What are Book Bands?
Book bands are grade levels based on your child’s reading ability and represent the different levels of difficulty for readers. The more difficult the book is, the higher the band it falls under.
Book bands are a way to help parents and teachers choose books that are appropriate for their children’s reading level. Each book band has its own colour so you can easily identify the band by looking at the band on the spine of a book or checking out a list of book bands online.
Reading Chest: Best Books for Teaching Reading
It can be very difficult to get a variety of books to keep young readers interested and engaged. A library is a great option but the choices are sometimes limited and it can be a pain to drive out to swap books. However, buying reading books for your child at the difficulty level they are currently at ends up being really expensive. That’s where Reading Chest comes in!
Reading Chest aims to make it easier for parents to help children enjoy learning to read. By no means do they wish to replace the home school book lending system, but they aim to boost the supply of good reading books at home when needed. They truly believe in the importance of the parental-school relationship but also support those parents who want to get more involved in their child’s reading journey.
Reading Chest opens up choices to parents and children by providing affordable access to a fantastic range of fiction and non-fiction books at an appropriate level. Ultimately they want to help children enjoy reading and make progress. Reading chest will help encourage independent reading with favourite books arriving through the post!
How does Reading Chest Work?
Reading Chest is a book swapping service for children learning to read. After an initial delivery of 4 or 6 reading books depending on your subscription package, you simply return the books in the pre-paid envelope and wait for some more to arrive in the post.
To ensure your child enjoys reading and makes the best progress, selecting the right book band during the joining process is important. Reading Chest has lots of examples of book bands so you can select the right level for your child.
Once you have selected your child’s book band, the Reading Chest Team will select books at your chosen book band from their vast collection of reading schemes used in schools, such as Oxford Reading Tree, Collins Big Cat, Rigby Star, Bug Club Phonics, Big Cat Phonics, Floppy’s Phonics, Project X, Engage Literacy.
If your child has particular likes or interests, you can personalise your book choices in your Reading Chest account as much as you wish. You can:
- Choose particular reading schemes
- Choose fiction or non-fiction
- Choose particular titles using the ‘favourites’ feature
- Exclude particular titles using the ‘book bin’ feature.
Don’t worry about making the wrong selection though as you can amend your account preferences at any time.
My first book order arrived the very next day so there was no waiting around. There’s a constant supply of great books. You can choose different subscriptions for as little as £9.95 a month, based on the number of book swaps you would like to do each month. Some subscriptions allow you to create a book list for more than one child so the allocation of books can be shared between siblings.
Who is Reading Chest For?
Reading Chest is aimed towards young children as it can be difficult to find reading material for this age group. They have a range of carefully levelled books, perfect for early readers to fluent readers (reading ages of 4 to 9).
Reading Chest is ideal for reluctant and struggling readers who might need inspiring books and other incentives, such as stickers and certificates, to get them going again. It is also ideal for more speedy readers who love reading and just never seem to have enough books! It is also great for homeschool educators who don’t have access to any school reading book lending service.
What do you receive with Reading Chest?
Depending on your subscription you will receive the allocated amount of books. In our first delivery, I was also really happy with the extras which included a reading bag to keep the books in, a bookmark and a really cool star chart with star stickers to encourage reading.
Reading Chest: Our Verdict
I have a six-year-old and I can only say I wish I had found Reading Chest two years ago when he was first starting to learn to read! My son gets easily bored and distracted so the few children’s books we have for reading don’t inspire him to want to read. The variety from Reading Chest is excellent! It means he has a selection of different books each month to enjoy. He had three fiction stories and one non-fiction/factual book in our first delivery and so far he’s reading a book a day. If there’s a new word in the book he’s not familiar with we look at the word together and it also reinforces his learning of sight words.
In my opinion Reading Chest is a wonderful idea and will help kids with their reading comprehension, word recognition and phonological awareness whilst enjoying a good book, and great stories and developing a love of reading and a love of books.
Reading Chest Gift Voucher
Reading Chest now has Gift Vouchers available. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends can purchase a gift voucher for a child, so rather than just buying a book for Christmas they can buy a continued supply of books – it’s the gift that keeps on giving!
You can learn more about Reading Chest here: READING CHEST
Top Tips to Teach Your Child to Read
Read to your child
Reading to your child is a great way to strengthen the bond between you and your child. It also helps them develop their reading skills.
It is important that parents read to their children every day, even if they can’t read very well themselves. The important thing is to make it fun, interesting and interactive for the child. From picture books to chapter books, engage your child’s imagination.
Let your child know that bedtime stories are here to stay, no matter how good they get at reading. Developing their reading skills will not mean that your special time together snuggling up reading a story to your child won’t end.
Don’t read when they are tired
Find a time when your child wants to read. If they read when they’re tired they will feel frustrated and struggle with the words. Keep reading times short and sweet so they don’t lose interest.
It’s not just about books
When you’re out and about see if they can read any signs or shop names. Or if they are playing games can they read the instructions? It’s not just about books and it can be fun to find words to read other than in books.
Use the notes in the book
Most reading books have very helpful notes for grown-ups to support their children when reading the book. The notes will advise the best way for your child to get the most from the story.
