What to do with this activity?
"The Hand Book" is a free ebook all about our hands and how useful they are. The book is by David Whitney of billybogglesworth.com.
Read it out loud, following the words with your finger as you go. Afterwards, talk with your child about all the things we can do with our hands. Try doing stuff with your hands behind your back, and get your child thinking about how wonderful hands and fingers are.
Notice how many rhymes there are in the book. Often two lines are grouped together, and the word at the end of each line rhymes. For instance,
"Hands that like gloves"
"Hands that like doves"
You can show your child that often the words that rhyme have similar endings. The most important thing is just to enjoy the book together.
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Why am I doing this?
Reading aloud combines the benefits of talking, listening and storytelling within a single activity and helps to build the foundation for language development. From stories your child learns many things such as how to listen and concentrate, new words and understand why things happen. They also learn to put ideas in order, develop their memory skills, notice how spoken words relate to words on the page and learn how to predict. Reading gives your child a chance to develop their own opinions, build visual skills and learn how to handle books.
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How can I do more?
If you can spare 10 minutes a day to read with your child you can make a huge difference to their development. You don’t have to read a book, you could read a comic, magazine article or a story you have made up yourself. The most important thing is that you enjoy it, that way your child will too.
Remember a good storybook is one that you the reader and your child find interesting. It might be funny or entertaining. Ask yourself whether your child would enjoy it and be able to listen to it. Are the pictures well drawn? Is it well written? Do you like it? You may be the one reading it, over and over, and over!
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