0 – 3 Years: Your child will have been listening to their parents’ voices even before birth and will continue to enjoy hearing them throughout their early development. You may think that a child only a few months old will not gain much from being read to, but this is far from true. Your child will respond to your voice and it is crucial to begin sharing different words and stories as early as possible.

Begin with picture books with few words and remember to repeat the words. The child will respond to the various pictures, but will also start to respond to the words, aided by repetition, which is vital at this stage. Make a scrap book of images and relative words and go outside to find the things in the books to see if your child responds with the right word or points to the page when seeing the thing outside. Make the things simple like a tree or a bird.

3 – 5 Years: Your child will find the transition from home to school far easier if you introduce and familiarise them with books as early as possible. Read to your child and encourage them to follow the words, perhaps by trailing your finger as you read, and let them turn the pages as they are completed. Using character voices and animal noises can also be great fun for the both of you! Keep reading sessions relatively short, no more than 15 minutes, to ensure concentration is maintained.

It is a good idea to make a link between the pages of the story books you read the outside world. For example, if you read something like The Jungle Book, then a trip to the zoo will allow your child to find the animals within the book and try to remember the character names.

A fun game to play is cutting out different images of things from magazines, mixing them up, writing down the corresponding word and playfully challenging your child to match the images with the word and say the word.

5 – 8 Years: At this age it is time to get your child to read their favourite stories to you. Encourage them through praise and make it clear that everybody makes mistakes. Introduce new words into your child’s vocabulary whenever possible. A visit to a museum is a great way to find new words to learn from diverse geographical locations and time periods, giving your child a richer understanding of history as the story of our world.

Mix up your child’s reading. Allow comics sometimes, but encourage history books, art books and other educational reads with enough fresh facts and interesting images to stimulate curiosity and learning. If your child has a particular interest in a certain TV cartoon character or sport, find a book featuring their favourite thing to carry that interest forward into the act of reading.

Finally, try to stimulate a day to day interest in the news. Find interesting topical stories and share them with your child. This will strengthen your child’s engagement with the ever changing world around them.

Make the most of quality time with your kids with a stay at chessington world of adventures hotel – enjoy the zoo and the theme park activities together.