Spending some time reading a picture book with your child is a great thing to do. Here are some simple guidelines to help you assist your childâs learning while spending quality time with each other.

READ THE PICTURE BOOK BEFORE YOU READ IT WITH YOUR CHILD
Adults can read a picture book in a matter of minutes. Knowing how the story line will develop and how it will end enables you to maximize the learning content.

LET YOUR CHILD HAVE THE FIRST WORD
Always let your child have the first say. As you turn the pages of a picture book he or she might have things to say. Listening to what your child says will provide you with a better understanding of how your child is looking at the story.

ASK QUESTIONS TO GET ANSWERS
Asking many questions is very important for the following reasons.
1. Your childâs answers will indicate if he or she needs help understanding the story line
2. The answers will allow you to check understanding of vocabulary

How to ask the right questions
1. Ask questions your child can answer successfully. It is important to make your child feel good about his ability to answer your questions.
2. Relate good answers back to your child, reinforcing their self esteem
3. When your child tends to answer with isolated words, model how to turn the answers into complete sentences and sometimes ask your child to repeat after you.
4. Remember to point at the pictures you are asking the questions about.

Example
A. "Whatâs happening now?" B. "Fighting"
A. "Yes, they are fighting. Can you say that?" B. "They are fighting."
A. "They are fighting. They are having an argument. Why are they fighting?" B. "He took cookie"
A. "Whose cookie?" B. "Girl"
A. "He took the girlâs cookie!" That was not nice, was it? How is she feeling now?" B. "She is sad"
A. "How do you know that?" B. "She is crying"
A. "Very good! She is crying because she is very sad·"

TALK ABOUT THE PICTURES FIRST
Children (and adults) look at the pictures before they look at the text. Let your child say everything it has to say about the illustrations. Then ask questions about things your child might have missed. Pictures provide an excellent opportunity to review vocabulary. Check for shapes (circles, square·), colors, moods (happy, angry, sad, jealous·), actions (kicking, shouting, smiling ·).

POINT AT THE WORDS AS YOU READ THE TEXT
This helps your child to start recognizing the letters and words as you read them. After you have read the story once, you can let your child try and have a go at it if he or she is already reading.

BE A LIVELY READER
Mimic voices, animal sounds, use gestures and anything else that comes to mind that will make the story livelier.

DEVELOP IDEAS IN THE STORY
The pictures and words of a story can lead you to discuss things unrelated to the story. When the story is set in a snowy environment, you and your child might end up talking about snow, ice, Antarctica and before you know it he or she will want to know why penguins canât fly.

It is great to develop ideas away from the actual story line as long as it is obvious that your child is still interested. When your child is no longer interested, just pick the story up where you left it. The point is that you are spending time together, having fun and learning new things all at the same time.

DONâT LIE TO YOUR CHILD - BE SINCERE
If your child would really ask you why penguins donât fly, donât make up an answer if youâre not sure. Tell your child youâre not sure but that you can go and find out the answer in the library, or write the question on a piece of paper and tell him or her to go see the librarian the next day. Itâs our job to help out and we love doing it!

When stories deal with serious emotions such as friendship and love, kids love to be silly as a coping mechanism because deep down they understand these are very serious issues. This is a great opportunity for you to be sincere and show them how to deal with real emotions in life. Donât miss it.

READ THE STORY AGAIN AND AGAIN, AS MANY TIMES AS YOUR CHILD WANTS TO AND YOU CAN BEAR TO HEAR IT!

Any time you can use some help, let us know. We are here to help you.

Wouter Laleman - Taeko Yasuhara
Nagoya International School Librarians