“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”
— Frederick Douglass
Fostering a love of reading in children: Ages 6 to 8 years
At this age, your little baby has grown and changed in leaps and bounds and her appetite for knowledge is almost insatiable. She is able to understand feelings and relate them to other people (no longer being as self-centred as she was before now), as well as being able to see things from other people’s points of view. Her imagination at this age is astounding.
- Choose books that have pictures directly relating to the written words.
- Find books with slighter smaller text and also with more words per page than the ones you would have read to her when she was small.
- Talk about what you read together; ask questions that are specific to the text and also those that go beyond the text and make predictions about the story.
- Introduce simple joke books at this age as well as basic riddles and verbal word puzzles (what animal’s name begins with ‘g’, ends with ‘t’ and rhymes with ‘boat’?)
Related articles:
- Developing a love of reading (Birth to 3 years)
- Developing a love of reading (Ages 3 – 5)
- Reading games for pre-school children
- Reading games for foundation phase