Top tips
Here are our free tip sheets with advice on sharing stories and rhymes with babies and children at bedtime or anytime ...
We have provided a choice so that you can download the one best suited to your family and the age of the children.
Booktrust’s top tips for bedtime reading (Adobe Acrobat .pdf 45Kb)
Booktrust’s top tips for bedtime reading (short version) (Adobe Acrobat .pdf 44Kb)
Booktrust’s top tips for bedtime reading with babies (Adobe Acrobat .pdf 56Kb)
Booktrust’s top tips for bedtime reading with toddlers (Adobe Acrobat .pdf 54Kb)
Booktrust’s top tips for bedtime reading with children starting to read by themselves (Adobe Acrobat .pdf 65Kb)
Booktrust’s top tips for bedtime reading with independent readers (Adobe Acrobat .pdf 82Kb)
More top tips for reading with your child
Bookstart+: more things to do with books
This booklet shows how books can be used creatively to help build language skills, social skills and literacy skills. We hope your child will have fun trying out these ideas together with you and other family members and with the carers who spend time with your child. There is a great deal of pleasure and benefits to be gained from spending time sharing books with your toddler.
Download the Bookstart+ booklet (Adobe Acrobat .doc 1.37Mb)
Top Tips for Family Reading
Sharing a book with a child is fun – it's a time for closeness, laughing and talking together
Make time for books and reading together
You can share books anywhere, in a chair, in the bath, on a train, or at bedtime
Children who enjoy reading do better at school
Talk about what is happening in the pictures to help your child make sense of the story
Enjoy the rhyming words and laughing together at the funny bits
Help bring the books to life – draw pictures of your child's favourite characters and make up stories about them together
Finding out more
Tips to further enjoyment of reading poetry with your child
Expert advice from childhood specialist Prue Goodwin
Find out more about recommended books, features, authors, illustrators and more on Booktrust children's books website
For more information on why and how reading with your children can help them, not just in their reading, but in their confidence, self-esteem and education as a whole, visit the Family Reading Campaign site
View a Bookstart TV ad
