What to do when you think your child has memorized a book

Reading should be fun and not stressful with your child. Read to them, allow them to read to you, model reading in front of them, books, magazines, pamphlets, newspapers, to recipes and grocery lists, point out this is all reading.   

There are many stages to reading and yes, memorization is one of them.  Here are some stages you may see your child go through.

• Point and label item in picture
• Look at the picture and create a story about that picture
• Look at the picture and create a story about that picture and connect the pages in the book (with the same story)
• Look at the picture and use actual words from the story (read like a teacher)
• Read the words in easy readers or memorize the stories
• Read the words and use the picture to solve unknown words
• Retelling stories

Celebrate any stage your child may be at and praise them for their hard work.  It is important to let them know all of these stages are reading.  A great way to end any book is to tell your child your favorite part and why or to make a connection to the book (This reminded me of when we took a family trip and we got a flat tire.  Invite them to share their connection with you).

Here is a video to give you a few ideas of how to interact with your child when they know a book so well it almost sounds memorized.   Once they finish you can have go back and solve a few words here and there for you or you can ask them to point under the words as they read.