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A Back to School Must Have!

When you help your child with their home readers or listen to them read, do you find that they, or you, become anxious and frustrated? Rather than being a pleasant experience, is it a tense time and you just wish it was all over? If you’ve answered ‘yes’, you’re not alone and if you’ve answered ‘no’, then we want what you’ve got!

For many parents and others who assist children as they learn to read, it’s a difficult time, especially if your child struggles with reading. Unless you have learnt how to teach children to read, it’s unlikely you’ll know how to do it. You may have a vague memory of how you learnt or what your parents and teachers said to you. Despite your best efforts, though, some of what you do as you support your child has the potential to turn them off reading.

When it comes to reading, Australian children are being left behind. International and national testing shows that Australia has the second largest proportion of children below the international intermediate benchmark among English speaking countries. Results from PISA show that reading standards have fallen dramatically this century. While NAPLAN results reveal some improvement in the percentage of children at National Minimum Standard (NMS) since NAPLAN was first introduced in 2008, children only have to get approximately 25% of the reading questions correct to be considered at NMS. Your child’s NAPLAN results may give you the impression that everything is fine when it may not be.

It’s important you say and do what will foster reading development, rather than discourage it. So, what are the best ways to encourage and support your child? Helping children become better readers … a guide for parents, caregivers, teachers and aides gives practical, and easily implemented approaches to support the developing reader. It identifies the reading behaviours of successful and less successful readers so you can see if your child is likely to make progress or not. The majority of the book is organised in the following way:

If your child … This identifies the reading behaviour

Then: This provides a possible reason or reasons for the behaviour.

So, you can: These are suggested ways to respond to the behaviour. Choose from several suggestions.

This is because: These are the reasons for the suggested ways to respond.

In a nutshell: This is a summary of the main points.

If you follow the ideas in the book, home reading will be enjoyable for you and your child your child will gain confidence, develop a love of reading and be more likely to seek a book for entertainment than a screen. Nobody persists with something they find too difficult, so it’s critical parents set their children up for success. We know that a small gap between your child’s reading level and that of others quickly becomes a large one that is almost impossible to close. Without strong reading skills, schooling is difficult for your child.

This book is available in all good bookstores and online at www.boolarongpress.com.au

This competition is shared and powered by mom.Connect

Please note this competition is open from 3rd February 2022 until 3rd March 2022 and is only available to members of Mouths Of Mums. This competition is a game of skill – answer in 50 words or less. We are unable to accept entries posted via facebook. Facebook LIKE functionality is not a requirement of entry to this competition. The winners of this competition will be published on this page. Winners’ name and address will be provided to the promoter of this competition and prizes will be sent to the address you have in Your Profile. Please ensure your details are up to date so that you receive your prize.

Winners for this competition

  1. R. WoodNSW
  2. I. HarveyNSW
  3. J. ByrneQLD
  4. P. ChandraNSW
  5. N. CartwrightVIC
  6. C. ScarfoSA
  7. H. KilpatrickNSW
  8. J. SpagnoloNSW
  9. A. O'DwyerNSW
  10. R. MashfordNT
  • I always encourage my children to read, one of the great learning skills. I would like to be able to encourage them more, so I would be pleased to read some more tips to help encourage them to do so.


  • Patience and learning daily


  • Not mum but an auntie to many … love to help them learn. Reading is most important life skill, this would help a tribe.


  • Pointing out signs throughout the day to help my son read and recognise his way. Repetition is key in helping him grow and become a good reader with confidence in tow.


  • I believe in the importance of reading especially from a young age. I have several nieces who would benefit from reading and this book should provide their parents with helpful tips.


  • Consistent commitment to regularly reading books together at bedtime and during the day


  • We like to read every night where possible – it might be one or two pages depending on how tired we are or how hard the book is.
    We will sound out any harder words or break them up (break/ing).
    We also like repeating words, sentences – this allows us to sound out and hear the word spoken.


  • I make it my mission to find THE book that sparks their interest and then I literally make it my mission to continue and extend this interest to a passion. This opens a door that hopefully never closes.


  • It is a nightly routine to read a book to our kids with the hope this will create a love of books and reading. We learnt after our first child started school that consistency was the key. Once we figured that out her reading improved significantly.


  • Ever since they were little, I would read to them every night, sometime pointing out the words, as they got a little older, I would get them to take turns in reading to me.


  • My toddler has just start to really listening to reading books but it is never to young to connect and engage them for a life skill.


  • I really wanted to put my child into montessori but when I read the pre requisites I don’t think she is ready or able.
    I would love to help her learn to read but I don’t know if she’s just not ready to start learning or if she doesn’t want to.
    I’ve tried using the iPad as well as books but she just doesn’t seem interested!


  • To sound out the word and try to break it up to smaller words example Father (Fat her) and Mother ( Moth er).


  • Regular stories reading every night when young. Showing words as we go sometomes picking one out and sounding it out .. some books were read so much we knew them all off by heart


  • I didn’t have to! He could probably teach me! He was reading at a Year 7 level when he was in Year 2. Need I say more?


  • Reading books, when Jaxon says something to me I’ll usually repeat it back, I talk to both Jaxon and Adalyn all the time I truly believe I drive them nuts! It’s healthy though as I’ve learnt it helps to talk it out


  • I really need this resource as I struggle helping my son read. He hates reading, I think as he gets bored way to quick, and sorry, my tactic of bribery doesn’t work.


  • I’ll help by reading to him and he likes to “read” to me


  • I just lay in bed with her every night before bed and read to her whether she is paying attention or not.


  • This would be a great gift for my daughter to help her kids to read. Reading to them at bedtime and getting them to help read along is one good idea.


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