4 Ways to Make Reading Fun for Your Toddler

Reading is essential for toddlers. Reading helps develop a child’s language and vocabulary, improves their concentration skills, and gives a child a genuine thirst for knowledge. Reading, however, isn’t always fun, but you can change that. There are plenty of things you can do as a parent to make your toddler enjoy reading time; here are some of them.

Don’t think you have to read traditional books all the time. Add a few wordless books to your library. Wordless books are great for keeping your child engaged and excited because they allow the child to tell their own story. 

Additionally, these books are also excellent for breeding creativity and imagination in a toddler. For pre-readers, wordless books are fantastic for introducing the child to the concept of stories and reading. Allow your child to read traditional books, but maybe make one day a week all about wordless options. 

2. Set the Stage

Bring the story to life. Make the words more than something your child can see or hear, but also something they can experience. Decorate your reading area with elements from the book to set the stage. For example, if you’re reading a book about fish, you could cut up pieces of construction paper to resemble waves. 

You could even cut out fish from the paper. If you want to bring the story to life, even more, you and your child could dress up as characters from the story. Adding a real-life experience to the story keeps your child engaged and excited about reading. 

3. Celebrate Your Reader

Give your child praise when reading. Toddlers love to receive admiration from their parents. Praising your child when they do something awesome is excellent for building self-confidence, but it’s also great for building their reading skills and can make a child happier about reading. 

When your child recognizes a letter or sight word, stop the story and let them know that they're doing an awesome job. Let your child show off their skills to other family members to make the child even more thrilled about reading. 

4. Let Your Child Pick

Resist the urge to pick books for your child. Sure, it’s okay to pick out what books you want your child to read on occasion. However, you should let your child take the lead sometimes. Toddlers need independence, but they also want it and thrive from it. 

The joy your child feels from walking over to your home library and picking their own book will make them eager to read. Allowing your child to choose what book to read is also a great way to help a child discover new interests. Just make sure you keep your library stocked with different options.