Story time is often a quiet moment for your little ones to get settled before bed, but the magic of sharing these stories helps to encourage a passion for reading that can last a lifetime.
From learning, to creativity, reading has a whole host of big ticks for your child’s development, with research showing proven links between reading and academic success. So how can we encourage our children to get lost in the wonderful world reading? In the week that we release the latest Namastory from our literacy and rhyme series, we had a look at some of the great ways to help inspire a love of reading and stories in our little ones…
Find Stories to Spark Imagination
Writers like Roald Dahl and C S Lewis have created vivid worlds and characters that children over generations can relate to. With moral lessons cleverly hidden amongst the adventures, characters like The Twits both entertain and disgust, ultimately feeding into the vibrant imagination every child has. The Centre for Teaching and Learning has a whole host of titles picked out by kids, for kids, which is a particularly important part of their reading philosophy. Read more about CTL and see their child-approved reading lists.
Go on Reading Adventures with Namastories
We at Cosmic Kids love stories- you can find a short story in almost every one of our yoga adventures! Namastories brings our adventures right back to the story itself, using simple rhymes and pictures, with read-along words showing across the screen. Each word changes colour once spoken, helping even smaller children see exactly what the word they’re hearing looks like. By watching the words and listening to the rhymes, without even knowing it they’ll be learning new vocabulary, as well as enjoying the stories. Having an on screen animated element to the story can also help to keep the attention of busy, young minds! This Namastory is all about Alan, an extremely honest camel who likes to blow raspberries!
Discover New Sounds with Audio Books
Introducing children to audio books has been said to have a whole host of literacy benefits. These stories are brought to life with silly voices, music and sound effects, leaving every part of the visual aspect of the story to be filled in by the child’s imagination. Not only do audio books help to immerse children in the book, they also develop listening and concentration skills. This has been tried and tested by a number of parents, find out more on Scholartastic.
Make Way for Interactive Story Time
It was only a matter of time before story books could be turned into exciting interactive experiences and there’s a whole host of digital story time apps which do just this. With buttons to push, sounds to make and objects to move, the CBeebies Story Time app has a library of interactive stories to read with your little ones. From Peter Rabbit to Mr Tumble, their stories have the option to switch on ‘read to me’ for audio narration, or ‘read by myself’ for reading aloud with a grown up or even alone. Take a look at the Story Time app on CBeebies.
What do you find works best to get your little ones excited about reading?
