When you think of holidays in October, celebrating books probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind… but October is National Book Month! Here’s the Ello-Approved guide to making National Book Month extra fun and exciting for families with young readers.
Reading a books as a family is a fantastic way to decrease screen time, increase quality family time, and model positive reading habits for your children. Depending on your child’s age and reading level, you can either pick a chapter book to read aloud to them or pick a chapter book that you can take turns reading with your children. You can check out a couple of our recommendations here.
Make sure to encourage your child to ask questions and share their thoughts and ideas about the story. This activity promotes comprehension critical thinking skills in a way that doesn’t feel like a quiz or homework. And don’t forget to share your ideas as well!
Hands-on projects make a book come alive and increase a child’s understanding of the story, as well as reinforcing reading as a positive, entertaining experience.
This second idea could pair wonderfully with Family Book Club, but you don’t have to go crazy. By all means, if you want to make a cardboard pirate ship because you’re reading Treasure Island or Pirates Past Noon, go for it! But you could also just craft some fun new bookmarks with paper, markers, and stickers.
And for anyone who’s really up for a combination of holidays, book character-themed Halloween costumes are always popular and can usually be made at home pretty easily. This list over at Imagination Soup is a great place to get some inspiration.
National Book Month is the perfect time to expand your family’s reading horizons. Try a book of a different genre or theme each week. Adventure stories, fairy tales, fables, poems, graphic novels, tall tales, and non-fiction are some great genres to try. This variety will expose your child to different writing styles and perspectives, and you may find new favorite style of book to read!
You could also celebrate National Book Month by trying Read With Ello for just $5! An Ello subscription is one of the easiest ways to expand your child’s reading horizons with books at their reading level. Ello promotes confident, independent reading while it exposes your child to a wide variety of quality books.
Ello is a great addition to any child’s reading experience. It’s fun, motivating, low-pressure, and affordable.
This one is probably obvious, but any excuse for an extra trip to your local library or bookstore has to make it on our list. Allow your child to explore and select books that pique their interest. Encourage them to ask the librarian of sales person for recommendations based on their preferences.
Outing like this expose children to a wide range of titles, but also instill a sense of independence and ownership over their reading choices. And that can translate to motivation to read those books when they get home.
Our last idea may be a little less obvious, but it’s a great way to free up some space on the family bookshelves while getting you children in the spirit of thankfulness and giving that goes into full swing come November.
Conclusion: Most libraries happily take donations throughout the year both for their stacks and for book sale fundraisers, so give yours a call to see about the donation process. Family shelters are also a great place to donate books. You could even head to a used bookstore so your child can purchase a new-to-them book with the credit they earn from ones they don’t read anymore.
However you celebrate, National Book Month is a fantastic opportunity to cultivate a lifelong love for reading in your children by adding a little something extra to your usual at-home literacy routines. Incorporating books into your family's routine not only enhances literacy skills but also fosters strong parent-child relationships that will last a lifetime, so spend some more time in the world of books with your child this month and let the magic unfold!
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