Building Confidence for Early Readers - Usborne Books

It's a magical thing to watch a child learning to read. The whole process fascinates me. But it can be a laborious process for some children - sounding out so many new words is quite tiresome!

Usborne Books have a great solution for early readers. In some of their series, they write dual-line text intentionally to be shared by a caring adult and a beginning reader. The child reads a short line of text at the top of a page, and the adult reads 1-2 sentences on the bottom of the page. You can see an example here.

This gives the child confidence as they successfully read short phrases. It allows them to progress more quickly through the book, so they don't get bored or frustrated. And it allows the opportunity to build on supportive relationships between the two readers.

You could alter almost any book to fit this model, alternating lines or sentences or pages between the child and adult reader. And reading is a great way to build the "Commitment to Learning" Assets.

For more ideas related to reading with young children, check out our new book: "Building Character from the Start: 201 Activities to Foster Creativity, Literacy and Play"

(Thanks to Julie M for sharing this great resource!)