Tip #15 Playing “What If”

Play “What if” with your child or students. For example:

* What if Mori heard Lito and Elvis planning his surprise birthday party. How would the story be different?

* What if the hunter had told Little Red Riding Hood that there was a wolf inside her grandmother’s cabin. What would be different in the story?

* What if instead of Snow White finding the home of the 7 dwarfs, she found a bridge that a family of beavers lived under?

Get the idea? See what great story tellers your little ones are, and remember to have fun.

Tip #12 Charades

Charades is always a fun game. As an adult it allows you to act like a kid again. As a child it gives you a chance to show off your skills at portraying something without speaking.

To bring this back to taking a book beyond reading, act out things that happened in the story.

Write clues for older children, or if children are too young to read, whisper in their ear what they are to act out.

This works best with a group of at least two children. Don’t have two children? Invite a neighborhood child over and read the story to both of them. They will have fun and their mom will appreciate the alone time. Maybe she’ll even do the same for you one day and you can start a weekly story time with the kids in the neighborhood.

Have fun. See you tomorrow with another fun tip.

Tip #6 Counting Games

This one’s easy. Have your child or students count. They can count the pages in the book, how many times they see the main character, how many red cars, green leaves, rabbits, etc. they see in the book or on a certain page.

You can take it further and have them count how many red cars they see out the window, how many leaves have fallen and are scattered on the ground outside.

Send them on a scavenger hunt to find a certain number of red cars, green leaves, whatever. Be creative and get your child or students counting.

See you next time, in the mean time have fun and read a book to a child.