Children are made readers on the laps of their parents. -Emilie Buchwald

With these words as a starting point, a group of 25 parents gathered together on a Friday morning to explore ways in which to make home reading time both authentic and engaging for young readers and their parents.

The initial discussion centred on the difference between learning to read and loving to read, and while both are home-school partnerships, the home environment is more conducive to fostering a love of reading.

We focused on ways to make home reading enjoyable as well as manageable for busy families. Establishing reading rituals such as a special place or time of day, using expression and silly voices or talking about the pictures all establish strong connections to books and reading.

While reading is often thought of as a shared experience between a child and parent, it can also take the form of a child reading to an older or younger sibling, a pet or a favourite toy. It can also be via Skype or Facetime with family and friends overseas, or a travelling parent.

Parents had the opportunity to explore a variety of genres such as books without words and books without pictures, as well as rhyming books, pattern stories and multilingual books. We also addressed the importance of non-fiction in developing a child’s interest in books and reading, and how rich illustrations and photographs engage a child’s interest in reading, even though they are not able to read the text independently.

The workshop concluded with a visit to the TK library, where parents browsed the shelves, enthusiastically identifying the different genres and writing styles presented earlier. They eagerly checked out a range of books to bring home and read with their child(ren), some selecting classics from their own childhood, others choosing from the non-fiction sections. Hopefully they will all be back soon, to find new books to share with their emerging readers.

The library is available to all TK parents, Monday to Friday 7:45am to 8:30am and from 3:30pm to 4:45pm, so please drop by and explore our collection, which includes books in a range of languages.

A final thought, with a slight modification, the last lines of a poem called The Reading Mother.

You may have tangible wealth untold;

Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.

Richer than I you can never be --

I had a parent who read to me.

- Gillian Strickland

***For parents who missed this session it will be repeated in February - watch the WAG for details after the December break.