Getting the Most from Your 20-MINUTE Reading Time

When leaving the school where I volunteer tutor, on their electrical sign out front, it said, "Read 20 minutes a day." From my viewpoint sitting in the car, it looked like it said, "Read 2D minutes a day."

I thought about that a minute. When we read, it IS in 2D. A flat page. But, it's important to work with your children and get them to lift the words off of a 2D page and magically turn it into a 3D image in their mind. It's better when children are little to read slower and allow the kids to imagine a bit about what they are reading. Ask them questions about the scenes they are reading; "What color do you think that is; how big is the whatever, or how high did it fly. You get the idea.

See what happens if you pause and let your child interject his/her ideas into the story. I believe it will help not only with their imagination and enjoyment of it, but also with their comprehension; and in the future, their writing abilities.