6 Family Reading Time Activities

Posted on August 20 2019

6 Family Reading Time Activities

Get the whole family reading together with these fun activities.

Discover these 6 family reading time activities to get the whole family reading together.

Reading with your child can help improve their comprehension, focus, and overall attitude towards reading and learning. In honor of Family Fun Month, we are highlighting six ways to make reading part of your everyday routine, while also strengthening family bonds. Here are family reading time activities to incorporate into your routine:

Cook together
Act out a scene
Hit the road
Take turns reading aloud
Play games
Create a scavenger hunt

Keep reading to learn more about these family reading time activities.

Cook together

Aside from reading practice, cooking as a family can be beneficial in many other ways. From helping to encourage healthy eating habits and honing fine motor skills to passing down family traditions and making memories, time spent in the kitchen can be a world of wonder for little ones. Along the way, your child will be exposed to both math through measurements and reading through recipe directions. To get the most from the experience, consider allowing your child to read the instructions to you and help execute them. You may also want to use the Check-A-Roo, a reading tool for kids, to “check off” when each ingredient has been added to the dish.

While the delicious creation will undoubtedly take longer to prepare and clean up with an eager helper, slowing down when you cook can be a fun way for growing minds to learn. After all, food tastes better when it’s made with love!

Get more helpful tips for cooking with your kids from this article from Today’s Parent.

Act out a scene

Head over to your local library and help your child pick out a book with a scene to act out, perhaps related to their favorite movie or TV show. Flip through the pages while you write down all the characters’ names and learn more about their personalities, challenges, and desires. Encourage your child to assign each of these character roles to the family (even narrator can be a role!). If you have the time, find fun costumes for each character. Then, as a family, read the book slowly and act it out together. Use the Eye-Lighter as a tool to help your child read without losing their place. Storytime has never been this much fun!

Hit the road

When it comes to family reading time activities, feel free to take them on the road! If you struggle to find the time to read together at home between work, school, and extracurriculars, consider turning your commute into an educational opportunity. For instance, you could play the license plate game where the person who finds the most plates from different states or countries in a set time earns the most points. Another variation of this game is to invent funny sentences with words that begin with the letters you see on a plate. For example, GBD 465 could turn into “Gorillas buy donuts.”

You could also look for road signs with words and work together to come up with as many rhyming words as possible. If you’re on a long road trip, take turns pronouncing all the cities you pass. As you select the games to play on the road, be sure to adjust the rules based on your child’s reading and comfort level.

Take turns reading aloud

Help your child become a more confident reader by leading by example. Reading aloud together gives you the opportunity to gently correct pronunciation and model fluency. Be sure to take your turn too. Not only will it give your child a break, but it can also help them with their phonetic understanding.

Using the Toobaloo Whisper Phone can help your reader to hear themselves so they can self-correct as they work to improve articulation, fluency, and pronunciation. It’s also fun! Watch the Toobaloo video to learn how it works.

Play games

Some educational board games have a strong reading component, which makes them ideal family reading time activities. On your next family game night, choose something to play that encourages reading skills. Sequence Letters, Hedbanz, Boggle, and Apples to Apples Junior are a few examples that are fun and literacy-boosting at the same time. You may also want to ask your child’s teacher or speech therapist about other board games that can help nurture their reading skills.

Alternatively, if your child loves video games, help them select one with content appropriate to their age and reading level. Examples like My Word Coach, Reader Rabbit, and Bookworm made the list of educational video games popular among homeschoolers. If you’re unsure what is appropriate or what to expect from a video game, you can usually find examples of the gameplay online before you buy. Checking reviews from other parents is another helpful way to discern whether a game will meet your child’s needs.

Creating a scavenger hunt

If you’re looking for a family reading time activity that is both educational and fun, create a scavenger hunt! Start by splitting the family in half with at least one strong reader/writer on each side, then have each side create a series of written clues for the other team. Hide the items referenced around the house, and then hand the opposing team the first clue. Take the time to let each child read the card and consider the answer. Scavenger hunting is a great game for reading comprehension and delivers a good dose of healthy competition for the entire family!

These family reading time activities can help students discover the joys of reading. Through cooking, road trips, games, and more, your family can work together to strengthen your child’s reading skills while having fun at the same time.

To help the children in your life who struggle with reading or speech, shop our affordable learning and reading tools for kids online, or call our customer service team at 877.819.2541. For more reading tools, tips, and tricks, continue to our blog.