Family Literacy: Families Read Better When They Read Together

Family Literacy helps boost a child's individual literacy skills.

For tips to increase your family's literacy from the NCFL (National Center for Family Literacy), CLICK HERE.

More ways to build family literacy:

Listening to audiobooks with your child(ren). Audiobooks allow families to listen to the same story and then to practice the skills listed in the NCFL tips website. Time spent in the car or preparing meals becomes a rich literary experience when audiobooks are added to the mix. Audio books are great for reluctant readers and help "hook" them and keep them engaged till the end of the book. They also increase listening comprehension.

Have siblings (or other family members) read to younger siblings or to each other. We now have a new series of books at CCPL called We Both Read that is perfect for this kind of activity. These books come in a variety of beginning reading levels, from pre-kindergarden to Level 2-3. The left hand page is for the adult or fluent reader and the right hand page is for the beginning reader.

Read poetry with your children. Poetry helps engage younger children and reluctant readers. Short humorous poems are fun and appealing to children and can be easily memorized. American poetry is found under the call number, "J 811" and British poetry, such as the classic, A Child's Garden of Verses, by Robert Louis Stevenson, is found under "J 821" in the Children's section.