McCain have been working in partnership with Words for Life, part of the National Literacy Trust, to come up with
a short video aiming to encourage more families to read with their
children. It's full of handy hints and tips to make reading with
children easy and fun and I was honoured to be asked to set a question for Abigail Moss, Deputy Director of Words for Life, to answer in the video. Read on for more details about the campaign, as well as news of more than 100,000 Ladybird books being given away for free with packs of McCain Smiles this summer, and make sure you watch the video to see which question I asked !
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New video showcases mums’ top tips for reading with children
Research*
by the National Literacy Trust shows that nine out of ten parents would
like to spend more time developing their child’s literacy skills, yet a
shocking one child in three does not own a book.
Help
is at hand with a new video featuring tips from mums on how to make
reading a fun and effortless part of the everyday routine. The
fly-on-the-wall-style video captures the conversations of a group of
mums as they debate the joys and challenges of reading with kids. You can view the video here :
The
video was created by McCain Smiles in conjunction with the National
Literacy Trust to mark the launch of a massive book giveaway hitting
supermarkets from 18th June. The film also features advice from National
Literacy Trust’s Words for Life expert Abigail Moss.
The
campaign invites parents to revisit a set of ‘Treasured Tales’ with
their children, as more than 100,000 Ladybird books are given away for
free with packs of McCain Smiles this summer.
The
exclusive set of six Ladybird books include Cinderella, The Three
Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood and are great to read with
younger children or for older, more confident readers to tackle
themselves.
To
take part in the promotion, look for unique codes on the leaflet inside
all promotional packs of McCain Smiles, sold at major supermarkets.
Simply collect two codes and head to www.mccain.co.uk/smilesfreebooks to choose from six fairytales on offer – your choice will be posted to you free of charge.
*One Poll survey of 1,000 parents, February 2012
To finish off, here is a list of great top tips for reading with your kids.
Smiles
of fun! Top tips for reading together
Read
yourself
Your
kids copy you all the time so make sure they see you reading. By
copying they will gain confidence and get to be great readers too.
Make
time to read
Make
sure you have a regular slot in which to read every day. This makes
sure you don’t forget and stops everyone forgetting the storyline.
Be
positive
Praise
your child for their efforts reading – it’s fine for them to make
mistakes. It’s supposed to be fun!
Point
with a finger
Encourage
them to follow the words with their finger.
Give
them time
Let
your child make a guess before you tell them the word. Help them to
get the first sound or try breaking the word up into smaller
sections.
Get
them to read aloud...
...to
you, friends, pets or even their toys. Hearing their own voice helps
your child practice their speaking and builds confidence.
Let
them read their favourites
It’s
good to read the same books over and over again as repetition helps
to build your child’s language.
Involve
the whole family
Get
older children to read to younger ones – not only some valuable
time off for mums and dads, but younger kids will follow their
example and practise their own reading.
Don’t
just read books
Encourage
your child to read newspapers, TV guides, comics, cookery books and
magazines too.
Do
the voices
Liven
up story time by making each character talk differently – this
makes the story come to life for your children.
For
more ideas and activities visit www.wordsforlife.org.uk
Other reviews you may be interested in :
smiles for tea then :)
ReplyDeleteWell done on getting your question asked :-)
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that getting kids reading is vitally important. Mine have always had books, even before they could sit up I would buy brightly coloured books and put them in their eye line.
Teaching kids to read has to be the biggest thing you can do for them. Let's face it, even if they only ever want to do the most mundane job you can imagine, they will need to be able to read the ad for it!
I'm a huge reader & have over 500 books in the house, and I'm determined that my son be able to read before he goes to school - I firmly believe in the importance of good literacy, and with boys I think you need to read them something that interests them, whether that be about football, dinosaurs, trains...whatever!
ReplyDeleteAn excellent campaign by McCains. I'm not an avid reader but my eldest daughter is.
ReplyDeletewill definately get some of these - we can never have enough books in this house!
ReplyDeleteI love things like this, it is so important that parents get thier kids reading from as young as possible. Too many kids nowadays are starting from square one when they start school..... Give them a fighting chance..... GET THEM READING :D xxxx Toni
ReplyDelete