If your older child can read on their own, ask them to take a turn as the reader for younger siblings. This creates variety in your routine, and gives the older child a chance to practice skills and build confidence.
Rotate who gets to choose the book. Encourage each child to share why they chose their pick.
Have each child choose a book they think another family member will enjoy, and ask them to share why they chose it.
Keep a few books in different rooms, in your bag, or in your car, so reading can happen naturally when there’s a few spare minutes.
Try asking each child different questions about the same book, based on their age. For a younger child, you might ask them to retell a certain part of the story. For an older child, you might ask how they would feel, or what they would do, if they were a character in the story.
Give each child a fun job during reading time, like page-turner, picture-pointer, book-holder, or character-voice-chooser. This helps keep everyone engaged.
If your family is multilingual, ask one family member to read in your native language, and another to read in English.
Try listening to an audiobook together while you’re in the car, or cooking dinner. This helps develop important literacy skills like listening comprehension.
Ask your children to act out a particular part of a story. Encourage them to use voices, expression, or movement to bring the story to life.
Look for books that are connected to something you’ve experienced together as a family, like a trip to the beach, a special holiday, or a day at the park. Ask your children to share their memories about the topic.
Try reading together in a new setting, like outside with a flashlight, or in front of an “audience” of stuffed animals or toys.
If English is a second language for your family, read together with your multilingual child in your native language. Building vocabulary, oral language, and listening comprehension skills in a child’s first language supports the process of learning the same skills in English.