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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 read and encourage them to read often


  • My going to library regularly and buying books to read to my daughter to help her read


  • My 5 year old, is struggling to learn to read and even though I do readers with her, I found it a struggle to learn to read and spell etc, so I am finding it challenging to teach her.


  • We answered yes to the anxieties of learning to read so we spend time to come together for the joy of reading. At bedtime we snuggle up and I read books about adventures and stories that make them laugh.


  • Reading is a simple gift to give to any child. My 2 year old is learning to read on his parent laps. We read and read books we make it a priority. We read and talk about signs and things we see out and about.


  • We read together, sometimes I read and sometimes she reads, sometimes we take turns reading the one book. It’s a great way to spend time together and learn at the same time.


  • Helping my child become a better reader is to encourage them to read every night for at least 20 minutes, this would help them build their word database in the brain and also helps them put better sentences together in conversation and when doing writing and spelling at school.


  • i take my children to public libraries when and where possible and they love and care bookd


  • We do lots of sight words and I do modelled learning where I read the book to my child first and then have them read it back to me. Any words they don’t know we talk about and sound them out. We do this every night during the week.


  • I would get them to try and sound the word out and then try to break it down to smaller words eg Father (fat her), Mother (moth er) .


  • We have magnet words on the fridge, and sound out the words as we put them up.


  • I read with my children every night and also get them to read back to me. I try and stay calm without making them feel like I disapprove.


  • I would read to them at bedtime and give them the love of books from an early age.And when shopping they used to help point out and tell me what the items where.


  • I read with my son every night before bed, we started off with me reading to him and now since he has started school I encourage him to read to me and help him with the big words.


  • I always read to them and when they started school, they read to me


  • Could aid my little grandson.


  • I read small book every night before my girls going to bed.I always going to my local library twice a moth and let my kids to choose what ever book they like to read.


  • I help my kids to read by reading to them and getting them to read it with me and then once they gain confidence they read it to me! Best bonding time together.


  • I run a daycare business as well as a family of 4 children. My boys don’t like to read much I would love advise and would love to read how to help them.


  • Spell out their names as we are walking and talking. Alphabet fridge magnets are great. Reading the same story every night seems to help. Because when you leave a line out, they know.


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