3 Easy Ways to Promote Literacy at Home this Halloween
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As much as I love the costumes, candy and pumpkins of Halloween, I especially love taking advantage of the opportunity to promote literacy at home by reading themed books with my kids! Growing up, I would spend a ton of time reading and I especially loved reading scary stories. When I wasn’t reading stories, I was writing them myself!
Now that I have children of my own, it’s been a lot of fun sharing the same stories with them. We are a homeschool family and I am a veteran teacher, so you can bet we read and write a lot. Like, a lot a lot. It can be easy to get stuck in a rut and just do the same activities over and over again, but, luckily, we’ve figured out a few ways to keep literacy fun and engaging!
Here are 3 easy ways we promote literacy at home during the Halloween season!
Visit the Library
You’re probably thinking “duh, of course we visit the library!” I know, this one is pretty obvious, but look deeper into what your library offers! I’m willing to bet they’ll have a Halloween-themed book display filled with all sorts of wonderful stories to promote literacy at home, but…check out their event calendar! They may be hosting a reading contest for the Halloween season? Maybe they’re hosting a Halloween party complete with a read-aloud? Often times, the library is so much more than “just” books.
Write about Halloween
During our homeschool days, my kids start each day with about 20 minutes of writing in their journals. In October, we’ll use the National Days to Celebrate in October writing prompts to help us get in celebrating spirit!
Read Seasonal Books
One of the most effective ways I’ve been able to get my reluctant readers to read is to let them make their own book selections. Whether you borrow books at the library or purchase, let the kids have an active role in selecting the books. After all, you wouldn’t really want someone else choosing the books you’d read, would you? Empower your children to make these choices and I can pretty much guarantee it’ll be way easier to promote literacy at home. You never know! They may end up making some selections you would’ve have otherwise considered.
Amazon always has plenty of scary books to choose from. They’ll often go on sale, so keep an eye out for that!
There you have it!
I hope these quick suggestions have been helpful! Promoting literacy at home doesn’t have to be difficult or complicated. As long as you make learning activities fun and exciting, I’m willing to bet your kids will have a great time! I hope you and your children enjoy many moments of reading together and that those moments end up being some of their fondest memories.
Looking for more seasonal fun? Check out our tips for visiting the pumpkin patch with kids and tips for picking apples with kids articles! While you’re at it, might as well check out these ways to have fun on Halloween without trick or treating!
