Helping with homework
As your child goes through school, homework will become an everyday experience.
Your child’s school will advise you of homework expectations and will work with you to establish good homework patterns at home.
Each school sets its own homework, so the amount will vary between schools. Some schools expect about 15 minutes of reading each day, while other schools may recommend up to 30 minutes a day.
Some schools may include other tasks with reading for your child to do at home. These could include things like memory-based games and other every day activities.
Have a routine
Knowing when to allow your child to play and when the best time for reading is, depends on your family’s routines. It will also depend on your child. Some children enjoy playing when they get home from school.
It allows them the opportunity to let off steam, to expend any excess energy and gives them a chance to socialise or play with other children before tackling things like reading. Other children may need your attention and the closeness that reading together brings straight after school.
Develop a routine for your child which suits your family and that your child responds to. Children love the stability that routines provide and look forward to things happening at particular times, especially if they enjoy the activity.
Reading with your child
Talk to your child about the books while you are reading them; ask your child what they think will happen next, what is happening in particular pictures, or what they might do if they were a character in the story.
Keep talking about the books after you have finished, ask your child about their favourite picture or part of the story and ask them to explain why they liked this bit.
Help your child to recognise particular letters by pointing to them as you read to them, or as they read to you.
Use different voices for various characters in the story and point to the words as your child reads along with you.
Play
Allowing time for your children to play is as important as helping them with their reading. Children need time to be kids; to play. While they are playing they are working out problems, discovering their world or just being themselves.
Some games, like Go Fish, requires a good memory. Developing a good memory helps your child to learn. Remembering things can also help them when it comes to learning to read as they have to remember letters, sounds and words in order to read.
Other games you can play, which will help your child’s reading, involve creating a list of words your child uses or says a lot. These are sometimes called ‘popcorn words’ as they are constantly popping up in your child’s conversation. Create the list with your child’s help and put it up on the fridge. Then, every time your child says the word, place a sticker or a tick next to it. Over the space of a week, see which word or words gets the most stickers or ticks. Now, try to come up with other words that they could use instead and add these to the list. This will help expand your child’s vocabulary and help them easily recognise common words that they use; an important step when learning to read and write.
