How You Can Start a Reading Club for Your Child

I have a step son who struggles with his reading. At school he is in a special classroom for his reading. Reading comprehension is one area where he is really struggling. I learned that in a casual setting away from the classroom, he does so much better grasping what he is learning. A reading club really helped him to advance quicker.

This school year you can really help your child with their reading by starting a reading club. A reading club will allow your child to not only strengthen their reading skills but allow them to do so with friends. With having friends there to interact with and learn with in a casual sitting your child with grasp more from reading.

To start a reading club you can send invites to your child's classmates that are at the same level or slightly above or below your child's reading level. You don't want to invite a child who is accelerated in reading if your child is struggling with reading. In the same sense you don't want to invite a child that is really struggling if your child is more at the advanced reading level.

Just pick an afternoon or evening that acceptable for you and the parents of the other children and host your reading club time in the living room in an informal atmosphere. Remember this is about learning through having fun. Provide snacks for everyone throughout the reading club meeting.

There are a lot of different things that you can do at your reading club meeting. Make sure that you offer something different at each reading club meeting to keep it fresh and entertaining for the children. I personally learned the more you mix it up each time, the more the children will learn.

Poetry night is a fun meeting theme for us. I just run by the local library and the children's librarian helps me to pick out poetry books for their age group. Then I set the meeting area up so that each child gets the chance to read a poem out of the book. Poetry is an emotional form of writing and while reading their poem, I encourage the child to express the emotions that the poem is trying to convey.

In doing this the children are learning new words they are not familiar with, the flow of poems and how to use their emotions to convey what is really being said. When watching this you would be amazed at how well even a young child can comprehend how to use emotions to convey what they are saying.

Another great thing is what I call character theme. I pick out a book that has different characters talking throughout it. Then I assign a character to each child. The child must then find a character voice for his/her character. When reading what their character is saying they must use their character voice. The children love this one and are so eager to pay attention and learn.

Just remember to keep your reading club meetings simple and enjoyable. The main point is that they are reading and the more they read the more they are learning. What ever you do, please don't try to use a classroom atmosphere for this; the children get enough of that at school.

For more suggestions on what to do at a reading club meeting, read my article "Ways to Make Reading Fun for Your Child". The article gives some great ideas on how to liven reading up for children and these suggestions are great at a reading club meeting.