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How to Help Your Child Set Reading Goals

Reading goals for students can enhance your child’s learning experience and give them a love for knowledge. Chances are, your child’s teacher already has solid reading goals in place, but you can set goals for your child at home, too. Here are a few tried and true ways to help your child meet their goals and select new ones. 

1. Age-Specific Reading Goals

Determining the correct goals is a large part of your student’s success. If you choose too easy of a goal, they won’t challenge themselves. If the goals you choose are too rigid, the child will become discouraged. It’s best to break goals into age groups, and involve your student in goal-setting conversations. 

Elementary: Minutes per Day Goals

Elementary students are still finding their niche and often need encouragement to stay reading. A worthy goal for this age group is to read for a certain amount of time each day. Many schools already do this, but you can do your part by providing your child with a large variety of books. LightSail has over 14,000 titles, both fiction, and non-fiction, linked to a reading tracker that automatically logs those minutes for your child. Don’t forget, audiobooks count, too!

Middle School: New Topics Goal

It’s easy for middle schoolers to get into a rut. This could mean a reluctance to explore new topics, or they may be reading material that’s beneath their grade level. Make it a goal for your middle-schooler to read about something new each week. You can use LightSail’s platform to recommend or assign a few possibilities to your student, and they’ll earn badges for reading new topics with our Gamification feature. We even have our Power Challenge that helps you to determine their independent reading level! 

High School: Classics per Year

This age group needs to challenge themselves before heading to college. A high-schooler’s reading goal could involve reading a certain number of classics in a year. LightSail has many classics, including Les Miserables, The War of the Worlds, and Anna Karenina. These books are both intriguing and challenging. 

2. Encouraging Your Child to Keep Their Reading Goals

Over time, your child’s motivation may wane. This is where you come in! Encourage your child to stay the course by setting goals and rewards that are specific to their level and personality. You can do this by: 

  • Creating a reward system (stickers, a small toy, candy, later bedtime, etc.)
  • See their progress in real-time, as you can with LightSail’s Reading Goal tracker
  • Reading with them
  • Sending them an encouraging message (Check out LightSail’s chat feature!)

Whether you’re trying to get your child to read more, or challenging them to comprehend at a higher level, LightSail has the resources to help them succeed. With over 100k resources that cover everything from cooking to bugs, your child is sure to find something that ignites their love of learning. 

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Posted on 10.Oct.21 in Reading at Home Tips

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How do I know what books are right for my child?

LightSail takes the guesswork out of choosing books for your child by tailoring each child’s library to their precise reading level.

By honing in on a child’s precise Lexile reading score, LightSail can match them with books that are at that “just-right” level to promote optimal reading progress.

And because LightSail contains such a wide-ranging array of content, there is always a vast selection of books for any topic or interest.

What ages/grades is LightSail for?

LightSail’s Premium and Standard subscriptions are designed for children in grades 3 through 12 (ages 8-18).

We also have a World Book Kids subscription for grades 1 through 2 (ages 5-7) and a World Book Early Learners subscription for PreK through K (ages 2-5).

Is LightSail different from an Amazon Kindle or other e-readers?

Unlike static e-readers, LightSail doesn’t just offer children books.

Every book and article in LightSail contains 6 layers of added features that let your child experience books.

By adapting to a child’s precise reading ability, offering them content that is at that “just-right” reading level to promote literacy growth, and providing a fully customizable, rewarding reading experience, LightSail unlocks the magic of reading in ways no physical book or static e-reader can.

What types of parental control do I have over my child’s activity and content?

In short, complete control.

LightSail contains an entire suite of parental control features that govern every aspect of the platform from video viewing, to chats, to what content can be seen and accessed.

Additionally, LightSail’s revolutionary ChildSafe Content Controls lets parents screen and block content according to dozens of nuanced subcategories based on maturity factors, family values, and religious topics.

How can I make reading fun for my child?

LightSail incorporates gamification features into every aspect of the platform, especially reading!

By integrating badges, goals and milestones, social sharing options, motivational messages, and the ability for parents to add customizable gift rewards, LightSail incentivizes reading, writing, and learning just like kids’ favorite games.

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