Reading Activities

Reading Activities Make Reading Fun

There are a lot of reading activities you can do with your kids to make reading fun and inspire them to improve their skills. Here are a few ideas:

Create your own Book Club . These are great for developing reading comprehension and listening skills. Click here to learn more about how to start a book club.

Color with your kids. Coloring teaches children to hold a canyon/pencil properly. It also develops the muscle coordination they will need when they learn to write. ( Find out more about coloring here .) In addition, alphabet coloring pages help your child become more familiar with letters of the alphabet.

Make scrapbooks with your kids that they can read. Kids love reading stories about themselves, so make sure you journal your pages so that they can read all about themselves while looking at the pictures.

Let your children write their own stories. This is a simple activity, but kids love it. Just take some plain paper and a piece of construction paper or colored cardstock for the cover. Fold them in half and put a few staples close to the fold. Let your children dictate their story to you or write their own (depending on their age)and then let your children draw their own illustrations.

Give your children their own personal journal . Kids love writing about themselves and things that actually happened. It can be as simple as a spiral-bound notebook -- that makes little difference to kids. Just give them a book to write in, and they will be happy.

Give your children the opportunity to write letters . Chrildren love to write to people, whether it is a thank you note, a simple "hello", or even Happy Birthday, they love to write it then stick it in the envelope.

Explore Nursery Rhymes with your kids. Nursery rhymes are a great way to introduce reading to your children. Make use of the activities on our Nursery Rhymes page, including coloring pages coloring pages and a fun game called "Homonym Phrases."

Plan a treasure hunt with your children. You can help your children write and hide clues, or you can create a treasure hunt for your children to follow. No matter what the "treasure" is, kids love participating in treasure hunts.

Make a roller box. This is similar to a slide show where your children get to illustrate the stories themselves. It is a fun way for your children to view a story and a great opportunity for them to get involved in drawing their own illustrations.

Plan seasonal activities. Kids love to make the most of any holiday season. See our Holiday Reading Activities page.

Start a reading program. These are fun ways to get your children involved with reading. You could try our own Reading Club, or local libraries will often offer reading clubs, reading programs, or reading calendars.

Do some role-playing with your kids. You can watch them present a puppet show or play. Or better yet, get involved yourself and let your children "direct" you!

Practice interactive reading skills while reading with your child. Learning to read should be a joint effort. These are suggestions for reading with your child, not just reading to them or having them read to you.

There are many other reading activities, such as letter mazes or word mazes, word searches, and (for older children) crossword puzzles. Discovery School is a great website for many games. You can make a crossword puzzle, a word search, or other puzzles with your own words and clues.

In addition to the reading activities listed here, you may also want to think about the interests of your own child. You may want to develop your own reading activities based on those interests.

You may also want to check out our ideas for Reading Games. (You will find a few ideas that were previously listed on this Reading Activities page have been moved to our Reading Games page.)

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