One of the most important times spent with our children is the time spent curled up together with a good book. Create special places throughout your home especially for reading with piles of picture books filled with top quality illustrations; bursting with good stories, rhyme, rhythm and beautiful words. Even when they are young you can read ‘chapter books’ out loud to let them create their own pictures in their head. Make up stories together where someone begins a story, tells it for awhile then the next storyteller takes over. If children are immersed in real books and beautiful words they will learn to read the same way they learned to speak.
Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox
Listen to this lovely book read aloud to you online.
Wander though Mem’s website. It is full of insights into letting children learn to read in a similar way to how they learn to talk. You might even purchase her book Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to our Children will Change their Live Forever