Book It!
One of the most important things that parents can do is to read aloud to their child. My daughter, who is now seven months old, loves to crawl to her favorite board books that I have displayed on the floor so that she can chose the first one to be read to her.

When your child can read independently, continue reading to and reading with your child. This is because children need to hear good reading being modeled. Sometimes, once children can read, they may say that they want to do the reading. At this point, try \”buddy reading\” with your child so that you can continue to model strong reading skills. Your child can read a page, you can read a page, and then alternate this technique throughout the story.

Remember to ask questions before, during, and after reading. Dr. Debby Sciligano suggests that some pre-story questions and comments could include \”What do you think this book is about?\” and \”Tell me about the picture on the cover.\” Periodically throughout the story, ask questions about what is happening, what your child predicts might happen next, and what your child thinks about what is happening in the story. After you have read the story, ask your child what his/her favorite part was and why it was a favorite. Also, you can ask your child to come up with another ending for the story or what your child thinks could happen next.

Label It!
A literature rich environment is a key factor in early literacy skills. Labeling items in the home that the child has access to such as the door, window, table, etc can help them to associate the word and spelling of it with the object . Dr. Carianne Bernadowski who I interviewed for the article said about Max, “My son just loves this. He likes to help with the labeling.”

Play with It!
Write letters of the alphabet with permanent marker on a colorful beach ball. Take turns throwing it. Whatever letter the thumb lands on that person needs to identify a word that starts with that letter. For an added challenge, say the word and a word that rhymes with it.

Connect It!
After your child knows letters, there are many of fun ways to teach word families. Word families start with what is called an “onset” such as the consonant letter “b” in the word boy. The rime is the vowel and everything that follows the consonant such as “oy” in the boy example. Here are some fun ways to teach word families.

Easter Egg Onset/Rime
Buy plastic Easter eggs and write an onset (for example the \”c\” in cat) on one side, and the rime (as in the \”at\” in cat). Make many word families with interchangeable letters. For example: word families might include \”at\” \”it\” and the onsets might include c, s, and r. Have your child dump out the basket of eggs, take them apart, and try putting them together to make a variety of words.

Fishing for Words
Create paper fish with whole words. Cut the paper fish in half with the oneset on one half and the rime on the other. Place magnetic tape on the back. Make a fishing pole out of a ruler an attached piece of string with a magnet on the end. Go fishing for the word family matches.

Word Family Find
Make a game out of encouraging your children to find word families on cereal boxes, in newspapers, in magazines, or anywhere they can read text. You may want to cut a piece of poster board into house shapes and have them cut out word families so that they can live in the same house. For example, one house could be the “ink Home”. They could put the words or pictures of the words for pink, think, drink, and sink in this house.

The most important thing is to not force reading and writing. Make it a fun experience that your child will look forward to. Try writing notes to your child and placing them around the home for them to find and read these fun little surprises. Keep it light and vary the activities. Go snuggle up with your child and read a great book!

Author Bio: Dr. Shellie Hipsky is a Professor of Education at Robert Morris University. Her latest book \”Mentoring Magic: Pick the Card for Your Success\” is a powerful tool for students around the globe to network and find, form, and sustain a mentoring relationship. Please visit http://mentoringmagic.net

Category: Parenting
Keywords: Sciligano,Hipsky,Bernadowski,reading,learning to read,teaching,parenting,letters,early literacy