Early on, we got into the habit of reading Charlie a few books every night.  He was happy to sit through the books, but I wasn’t sure if he was understanding the storylines (or even all that interested in them). So I started coming up with all sorts of tricks to test his understanding and keep him interested – and quickly discovered that he could follow a lot more of the storyline than I thought! Since then we’ve developed those tricks further, and it’s really made story time a lot more fun for all of us.  Here are the top five tricks we use regularly:

1. Long Pauses

This was one of the first tricks that really got a reaction out of Charlie. I would use it when reading a description of the Gruffalo. This is how it usually goes:

He has terrible tusks, and terrible claws,
And terrible teeth in his terrible jaws.

With Charlie, I’d read it with long pauses for all the memorable words: 

ADVERTISEMENT

He has terrible ___, and terrible ____,
And terrible ____ in his terrible ____.

Charlie loves to fill in the blanks!  Sometimes it takes a bit of time for him to learn the lines though.  The first time I used a lot of pauses while reading a book, I would turn to Charlie and he would just say, “I don’t know!” over and over. But with time, he would gleefully fill in each and every pause with the correct word! It made reading much more interactive for him, and honestly I enjoy it a lot more this way too.

Bee reminded me that the first time we used this trick was in the book, “Trains, Cranes and Troublesome Trucks.”  This is a great book for 2 year olds to practice filling in the blanks because it uses a lot of repetition. Here is Charlie at the beginning of this year filling in the blanks… gosh, I barely remember this!

2. Put Your Family In The Book

a. Name the main characters after your family.

When Charlie struggled with sharing, we bought a few books on the subject.  A friend recommended one more: an “Elephant and Piggie” book called, “Should I Share My Ice Cream?”

I got a copy and Charlie loved it! His love went up to a whole new level though, when I started changing the characters to include his family. I told him that the elephant’s name was “Charlie the Elephant” and the piggie’s name was “Olive the Piggie.” Somehow the ice cream vendor at the beginning of the story became, “Daddy the Penguin.”  I think he enjoys the book 30% more because his family is in it.

One downside to this approach: he always asks me, “Where’s Mommy?” (There are only 3 characters in this story.) So I just tell him that Mommy is hiding inside of the ice cream cart. He will ask me “why?” over and over, but I just make up an outlandish reason each time and he loves that too.

b. Rename supporting characters after family members

We just bought The Spiffiest Giant In Town, a great Julia Donaldson book about a giant who gives away his fancy clothes to a goat, mouse, fox, dog and giraffe in need. The giant’s name was George, but the supporting characters didn’t have names at all – so we told him that they were Daddy, Mommy, Olive, Charlie and Val (a friend of his). He loves it, and I think it really helps keep his attention.

c. Point out random illustrations and tell your LO that they’re family members.

Charlie also loves to read Katy and the Big Snow. There are not really many characters in the story, so I pointed to some shadowy figures in Katy’s garage and said that it’s Charlie’s mommy, daddy, sister, grandma and grandpa, etc. He often corrects me and adds a long list of other people who are in the garage.

3. Get The Words Wrong

a. Get random words wrong

One time I was reading Charlie “The Gruffalo,” and I read this line out loud: “But who is this creature with terrible claws. And terrible teeth in his terrible jaws?”

Instead of creature though, I misspoke and said, “teacher.” Charlie chortled with laughter, and corrected me! The next time I read it, I made sure to get it right – but he insisted that I say “teacher” again so that he could correct me again.  This experience really taught me just how much Charlie loves to correct me.  I guess it makes sense: he spends all day getting corrected, so it must be fun to turn the tables on his old man!

b. Get words wrong every sentence.

After I learned the power of purposeful mistakes, I would sometimes read an entire book to him and purposefully get a word wrong in every sentence. Then I would look at Charlie and he would laugh and laugh, and correct me with the right word. It turned out to be an amazing way to enhance his enjoyment of the book, and incidentally was a great way to test how much of a book he remembers.

c. Rename the main characters.

If you really want to have fun with this, you can rename the main character in the book. I read Katy and the Big Snow to Charlie recently, and replaced Katy’s name with the name of his good friend, Levi. I think Charlie just about passed out from laughing so hard!

It backfired on me though, because now whenever I read him the book he corrects me every time I say Katy’s name. “No daddy, it’s Levi!!” It was funny the first 100 times… now, not so much.

4. Read it With Me

The Piggie and Elephant books by Mo Willems are almost always dialogue between two characters. Sometimes I will tell Charlie that he is the Elephant and that I am the Piggie, and then we will read our respective lines.  It’s great fun, and keeps the book experience interactive and involved.  This technique works best in a dialogue-heavy book like, “Listen to my Trumpet!”

5. Read it to me

One time Charlie wasn’t sleeping, so we told him to do Quiet Time in his room by himself. To my astonishment, he broke out “Should I Share My Ice Cream?” and recited the entire book word for word as he flipped through each page. He can’t read, so I guess he memorized the book!

Since then, I realized that I’ve vastly underestimated his ability to “read” a book out loud. So now after reading a book for a bunch of nights in a row, I will ask him to read it to me! He loves to “read” and if he doesn’t know a page, he just turns the page and pretends that he already read it or something.  I usually read those pages to him, so he has a chance to learn the whole thing.

—————

These tricks have really helped both of us enjoy books at bedtime so much more. I think our mutual enjoyment is helping cultivate a love of books. We’re really excited about that, because it’s really important to Mrs. Bee and me that our kids become lifelong readers!

I’d love to hear more about what tricks you guys use when reading to your little ones.  Please share your tips and tricks below!