November is known for beginning the holiday season with Thanksgiving. But did you know that November is also National Literacy Month? We all know that reading is a really important skill for our children. It’s also a really great way to keep our minds sharp as we grow older. So this is a great time to grow our family’s reading habits! Plus, My Signing Time has lots of beginning reading resources to help your kids.
What is National Literacy Month?
The point of National Literacy Month is to get families to enjoy reading together. There is a special emphasis on parents and caregivers reading aloud to their children, as there are so many benefits to reading to our kids. As we read to our children, they learn about new topics and ideas. They build communication skills and grow their vocabulary.
When we read to our children, we strengthen our personal bonds with them. We share the stories and all kinds of resulting conversations with them. Additionally, our kids build memories, not only of the time spent with us, but of the stories and the resulting conversations, laughs, and lessons that come from those stories. One really fun outcome of reading aloud with your kids is the inside jokes that you have together because of a silly situation or quote from a book.
Reading aloud to our kids helps them to develop an appreciation for reading on their own. And of course, this kind of interest helps our kids in their schooling and in their lives – all really good reasons to grow our family’s reading habits!
Ways to grow your family’s reading habits for National Literacy Month
Here are a few super easy ideas for making a big deal of reading in your family this month.
Use your library
See if your library is holding any special events for National Literacy Month and go participate in that event. Or, even if a special event doesn’t work out for you, look at the schedule for any reading times that your library has for toddlers and preschoolers. If you haven’t gone to a library reading time with your kids, it’s definitely worth trying out. You might even want to make it a permanent part of your weekly schedule.
Start with just one book
Another simple idea for growing your family’s reading habits is to read one story to your child today. Whether you choose the book or you let your child choose, take some time to read aloud today. While you’re at it, you can learn the sign for book!
And if you’re short on time, but in the car with your kids, there’s an easy shortcut for reading aloud: audiobooks! When you listen to books in the car with your kids, you still receive the relational and educational benefits, since you are still experiencing this story together.
Use the resources at My Signing Time
And lastly, check out the resources for beginning reading skills that we have at My Signing Time. We have a really fun series with the TreeSchoolers that explores letters and phonics, The TreeSchoolers: Legends of Phonetica. And we have the Mother Goose Club Schoolhouse series, which is all about letter sounds and preparation for reading.
And don’t forget, kids who learn to sign at an early age tend to learn to read at an earlier age too. So take a look at Baby Signing Time and the Classic Signing Time series. We also have several parent videos explaining the benefits of signing and how to help your kids to sign. You can find those right here.
As always, if you don’t already have access to My Signing Time, you can try it out with a 14-day free trial.
Will you try one of these easy ideas to grow your family’s reading habits this month?