Digital Parenting: Reading Critically with Elementary-Age Kids

Critical thinking skills are vital for kids in today’s world, that is saturated with media and advertising. The ability to evaluate content and the source of information will help your kids make good choices about what to believe, and be able to develop their own opinions about what they read. You can help your child decipher and understand fiction, parody, satire, metaphor, and point of view by reading together and talking about the action, setting, characters, and plot of a book.

Reading aloud with your elementary-age kids can help build critical reading skills. Here are a few strong choices for reading with your child—and a few sources for great information on developing critical reading skills.

1. The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster (Kindle Link)
2. The LIEography of Babe Ruth by Alan Katz (Nook Link)
3. Babe: The Gallant Pig by Dick King-Smith 
4. Stuart Little by E.B. White
5. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald

—Sarah