You love reading. You want your child to love reading too. Those who love reading know what a magical experience it is to hold a novel and let your imagination take you places no one has been before. So you really want your child to be able to experience this kind of joy, but you know it’s not an easy task when they still can’t even read yet! So what do you have to do? You have to make it fun! One great way to make reading fun for everyone is to let the kid within you shine. Don’t be shy about using funny voices, varying your pitch, or making lots of sound effects. However, if your children are older and verbal, research shows that there is a particular reading aloud technique that has the most benefits. It relies on making a reading interactive, and is really easy to follow. While reading together, you prompt your child to say something about the story by asking a question or leaving out a word so they can complete the statement. You then evaluate, affirming a correct statement or amending an incorrect one. Follow up by expanding on what your child said by rephrasing and adding information, and finally, repeat the process throughout the storytelling. What you’re basically doing is engaging your child in conversation as you read, inviting them to participate in the storytelling process rather than being just recipients. Maybe you can sing and dance along to a “reading” song together to let them know you’re going to get a book and read now (example: Barney’s “books are fun”). Kids love songs and pictures and imagination, we assure you, reading together will make all that even more fun because it’s with mommy.