The Best Reading Resources for Parents

This list of the best reading resources for parents will help you make the most of your family reading time, and help you raise kids who love reading!

I get asked all the time about things that parents can do to make reading fun for their kids. This list includes some of the best tips for raising readers and sharing a love of words, books, and reading!

Reading Aloud From the Beginning

One of the best ways to get kids interested in reading is to start reading to them from the very beginning. This list shares some tips for reading to kids as early as the first night home from the hospital!

The Importance of Asking “Why?”

Find out why it's important to engage with your kids when they go on a marathon of "why" questions. If you are a parent, you have answered the question “why?”. You have probably answered it thousands of times – sometimes in one day. As annoying as the “why” stage can be, it is so important to stop and take the time to engage with your kids when they ask “why?”. So I wanted to share my strategies for dealing with the “why?” questions.

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How to Use Children’s Books to Teach Empathy

Learn how to use children's books to teach empathy and emotional intelligence. One of the things you hear all the time nowadays is that our world needs more empathy. So teaching kids to be empathetic is an important task for parents and teachers. As those entrusted with raising the next generation, it’s our job to teach them how to be good human beings. Little Bookworm is a very empathetic kid. She is the first to run to help someone in need, and she often takes it upon herself to defend those who are being picked on. So I wanted to share how to use children’s books to teach empathy, and how we have made it part of our daily conversations.

Books about Balancing Screen Time

Do you want to know how to balance screen time as a family? Check out this list of books about screen time for kids and parents!Raise your hand if you are worried about your kids having too much screen time! Raise both hands if you are even more worried about screen time now that most schools are doing virtual learning! This past year has brought us more screen time than ever before. From virtual schooling and virtual holidays to less options for entertainment outside the home, there has probably never been a time when we have used screens as much as we have lately. For parents who are worried, we wanted to share our favorite books about screen time to help come up with a plan as as family.

Printable Valentine Bookmarks for Kids

These printable Valentine bookmarks for kids are perfect for classroom Valentine's Day parties!Valentine’s Day is right around the corner! To help kids spread the love this Valentine’s Day, I decided to create some fun printable Valentine bookmarks for kids to share with their friends. From dinosaurs and monsters to bears and woodland animals, there is something for everyone!

Spread the love this Valentine's Day with these printable dinosaur valentine bookmarks for kids! #printablebookmarks #printablevalentines #valentinebookmarks

Printable Dinosaur Valentine Bookmarks

These dinosaur themed bookmarks are perfect Valentines for the Dino lovers in your child’s class.

Children’s Books about Language Arts

These language arts books for kids are great for teaching reading and writing. I love teaching reading and writing with fun children’s books about language arts. Since Little Bookworm is currently learning to read, we have been learning about grammar, punctuation, and phonics with some fun characters like the ones in these kids books about language. We have previously shared lots of fun books about punctuation and grammar, and we are excited to share our new favorites today!

Awesome Reading Gifts for Bookworms

This list of gifts for bookworms is full of gift ideas for book lovers on your shopping list!I’m sure it is no surprise to anyone who follows this site that I love creative book and reading gifts. I love to give them, and I love to get them. This list is made up of some of my favorite reading gifts for bookworms that I have found recently. No matter their ages, you are sure to find something fun for the bookworms on your shopping list!

For the Littles

Roar-some Reader Bag

For kids who love to read, this cute tote bag will give them a sturdy way to transport their dinosaur sized reading pile from place to place.

The Best ABC Activities for Kids

Teach kids the ABCs with these alphabet activities for kids!There are so many ways to make learning the alphabet fun. We are a big fans of silly alphabet books, and we have even practiced the alphabet in other languages. But we especially enjoy creating alphabet artwork and activities inspired by our favorite books. So this post is full of some of our favorite alphabet activities for kids inspired by children’s books! Click on the photo or title under the image to view the full activity post.

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Letters in Nature

Use items you find in nature to create the letters of the alphabet. This activity was inspired by the book The Anywhere Artist.

Strega Nona Spaghetti Letter Search

Kids will love this fun activity that encourages them to dig into a bowl of pretend pasta to find the letter “meatballs” and identify the letters.

Strega Nona Spaghetti Letters

Encourage kids to practice making letter shapes with the pretend pasta and meatballs inspired by the Strega Nona books.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

This activity, inspired by Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, helps kids work on their fine motor skills while practicing to create letter shapes.

Sprinkle Letters

This activity inspired by the book Grandma’s Kitchen uses colorful sprinkles to practice letter formation.

Letter Cookie Flipping 

Teaching Kids about Voting

Teach kids about the election with these resources and kid’s books about voting!
The presidential election is coming up. So it is the perfect time to start talking to kids about voting and elections. My daughter has started noticing lawn signs on neighbor’s yards, and asking me questions about the election. So I was thrilled when we received two new children’s books about voting to help me explain the process to her.

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V is for Voting

Written by Kate Farrell and illustrated by Caitlin Kuhwald

This informative and inspiring kids’ book about voting takes readers through the alphabet, offering voting related concepts for each letter of the alphabet. The lyrical rhyming text is paired with colorful illustrations featuring a diverse cast of characters. Several of the pages feature cartoon versions of famous people who have played big roles in civics and government throughout the history of the country. The back of the book includes information on the importance of voting, the important people from history pictured throughout the book, and a timeline of voting rights. Overall the book is a great introduction to the importance of voting for little ones  It is also an inspiring call to action for everyone to have their voice be heard.

If You Go with Your Goat to Vote

Written by Jan Zauzmer and illustrated by Andrew Roberts

Once your kids understand the importance of voting, the next step is teaching them how to vote. This fun animal themed voting book for kids uses parent and child animal pairs to walk the reader through the process. Each two page spread highlights a different pair of animals. The text uses the adult and child names of the animals, and a fun play on words that relates to the animal and voting. The story takes the reader through the whole process, from considering the choices, to mailing in a ballot, going to the polls, signing in, going to a booth, even staying up late to watch the results. The back of the book includes stickers with animal related spins on classic “voting” related sayings.

Introduce kids to the President’s job

Get kids interested in the election with these fun president books for kids! #electionforkids #kidsbooks #presidentbooks

The President’s job is a complicated one. From representing the country to making big decisions, there are tons of ways that the president can make a difference. Check out this list of kids’ books about the Presidency to introduce the job to young ones, and encourage them to dream big with a printable booklet about their own Presidential goals.

Talk to kids about being an American

The Most Important Tip to Change Your Reading

Learn the most important tip for reading aloud to kids, and make your family reading time more enjoyable! #familyreading #readaloud #readaloudtipsImagine sitting down every day as a family to enjoy some quality family reading time together. Everyone rushes to snuggle up together and waits excitedly to start the story. Is this what happens in your home? Some days it may be. Other days it may be a bigger struggle. It definitely is in our house some days. If you long for the days of peaceful time reading to kids, but struggle to make it happen, then I am here to help. Today I’m sharing the most important tip for reading to kids.

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Loosen Up!

 

This may seem obvious, but with the growing push for kids to read earlier and read more, parents can often feel the strain too. We are constantly being told that kids need to be reading by a certain time, should be reading a certain number of pages or hours a day, and a certain number of books per year. It can be hard to “loosen up” and take reading lightly when there are always new benchmarks being introduced.

But guess what? Meeting all of those benchmarks won’t mean anything if we don’t make reading fun for kids.

Foster a Love of Reading

I am often asked how to get kids to read more. The answer is to make reading fun. We have to shift the focus from the amount of pages, words, books, or hours, and instead focus on fostering a love of reading. Once kids love reading, tracking the numbers will be easier and more fun, instead of a chore. Think about it in terms of your own reading. If you are reading something you enjoy, you can probably fly through it. But if it’s a textbook on something you don’t care about, each page can take forever!

There are lots of ways that you can make reading fun for kids and raise a bookworm. Reading to your kids is the first and most important step to raising a reader. From the very beginning, reading to kids helps them connect reading and books to positive feelings of love. In addition to this simple but lasting side effect, reading to your kids every day also offers you the opportunity to show them that reading can be fun, and to model the behaviors of good readers.

Related Post: Reading Aloud from the Beginning

read aloud tip

Have Fun with It

Don’t take your daily reading too seriously! Every read aloud doesn’t have to be a big life lesson or a lesson in reading skills. Some days my daughter and I read deep and meaningful books that help her learn coping skills or help her to deal with big emotions. Other days we happiily read the silliest books we can find and spend the day laughing at nonsense. Both types of books have a place on our bookshelf and in our daily reading. On those days when I am making silly voices and reading ridiculous books, she is reminded that reading can be a lot of fun, and those will become treasured memories to her. I still have fond memories of my parents reading silly books to me and my sister. And those nights spent reading made me the reader that I am.

Making reading fun can be easy!