The Christmas season brings excitement and wonder to children. Everywhere you go, there are visual reminders that Christmas is just around the corner. It also provides additional time with our children as their normal hours often slow down during this time. The children who are resting from school are delighted with the time change. However, it is often not long before they get bored and start to U.S to get ideas of what they can do. We can use this time to be busy chasing gifts and decorations, or we can slow down a bit with them and give the gift of our time. Let me give you some ideas to make the most of your time with your reading challenged child (Zane is mine these days):
4 tips to help your child with reading problems during the holidays:
- spend some time reading together. Children love to have books read to them. Make rhyming holiday-themed books to improve phonemic awareness in a fun way. Titles like Dr. Seuss’s ‘How The Grinch Stole Christmas’ or ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’ offer stories told with rhythm and rhyme. Which is an important listening skill for struggling readers. Check your library for more options. they want to choose a classic like the Charles Dickens classic, “A Christmas Carol” for a family read aloud night. Hearing books read to them can create a love of great stories and increase their own desire to read.
- Spend some time cooking together. Grab the family cookbook or go online for some holiday recipes and spend some time baking all those treats. Encourage your child to read the directions when he can. This not only gives you the opportunity to read more, but also shows your child that being able to read fluently can open doors for them to be shown how to do so many fun things.
- Create cards and gifts to give away. Children especially love giving gifts that they have made themselves. Making cards can also provide some writing and spelling practice during these often stagnant weeks. The internet is full of great gift ideas. Gift-making boosts your child’s self-esteem (something kids with learning disabilities need in spades).
- take some time to play together. Word games like Hangman or Bananagrams can keep those newly acquired spelling skills going while spending time together, but any game will boost everyone’s critical thinking skills.
Therefore, take some time to think about the future. Before your little ones have a chance to start nagging about having nothing to do this holiday season, why not pull out some books, games and recipes and make this holiday season mean more than ever? In the end, even The Grinch realized that the holidays are the gift of time. together. Knowing this (as The Grinch), Zane and I can have the best Christmas ever.