Learning to read is a complex process that starts early in the preschool years.  Parents can help their children make faster progress in learning to read by regularly engaging in meaningful literacy-related activities.

Suggested activities to support reading growth at home

Listed below are some general suggestions for things that parents can do to help support the reading growth of their children. All of these suggestions come from research on the way children learn to read.  The activities that focus on building vocabulary and teaching children to think while they read, will also help your child be a much better reader than he or she might otherwise become.

Kindergarten

1. Create a special workspace and schedule a time every day for your child to do his/her homework from school. Be available to your child during this time to help, if needed.
2. Schedule at least 15 minutes of special time every day to read to your child. Before you start reading each book, read the title and look at the cover.  Open the book and look at the pictures inside. Ask your child what he thinks the book may be about (prediction). After reading the book, review his prediction. Was the prediction right? If not, what happened instead?
3. Go to the library once each week and read a new book together. After reading each book, talk to her about what happened at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the book.
4. Play rhyming games. Say two words that rhyme (e.g. cat, sat) and ask your child to say a word that rhymes with your words. Take turns. Ask your child to say a word and then you respond with a rhyming word. For example, if your child says, “cat”, you say “hat”; then your child might say, “chair”, and you say “pair.”
5. Think of two words that begin with the same sound and say them out loud.  Take turns thinking of new pairs. Examples: mom, moon; dog, door; fun, fast; paper, pet.
6. Play the “Say it slow/Say it fast” game. Say a word, one sound at a time, and have your child say the word at a normal rate. For example, you say each sound in the word cat, “/c/ /a/ /t/.” Then your child says the word at the normal speed, “cat.” Play this game with about five to ten common, short words each day.
7. Help increase your child’s vocabulary by using new and different words to describe a common object (i.e. sometimes use “huge” instead of “big”).  Also, stop and explain the meaning of any words in your reading that the child may not understand. The more you talk to your child, the faster her vocabulary will grow.

First Grade

1. Create a special workspace and schedule a time every day for your child to do his/her homework from school. Be available to your child during this time to help, if needed.
2. Schedule at least 15 minutes of special time every day to read with your child. Take turns reading a page at a time. Alternately, read a sentence and then have your child reread that same sentence until you read through the whole book.
3. Go to the library once each week and read a new book together. After each story is read, ask her to retell the story to you. Go back to the story to reread sections if she needs help retelling the story in sequence.
4. Play the “Say it slow/Say it fast” game. Say a word, one sound at a time, and have your child say the word at a normal rate. For example, you say each sound in the word cat, “/c/ /a/ /t/.” Then your child says the word at the normal speed, “cat.” Play this game with about five to ten common, short words each day.
5. Fold a piece of paper into three parts. Let your child draw a picture of something he did in sequence. Then help your child write one sentence under each picture explaining what he did first, next, and last.
6. Think of two words that end with the same sound.  Take turns thinking of new pairs. Examples: mom, some; dog, rug; fun, ran; paper, feather.
7. Help increase your child’s vocabulary by using new and different words to describe a common object (i.e. sometimes use “huge” instead of “big”).  Also, stop and explain the meaning of any words in your reading that the child may not understand. The more you talk to your child, the faster her vocabulary will grow.

Second Grade

1. Create a special workspace and schedule a time every day for your child to do his/her homework from school. Be available to your child during this time to help, if needed.
2. Schedule at least 15 minutes of special time every day to listen to your child read.
3. Go to the library once each week and read a new book together.   Read the title then look at the cover and pictures inside. Ask your child to predict what the book is about. After reading the book, review the prediction then ask about the characters, setting, problem, and solution.
4. Play the “Fact or Opinion Game”: Say a sentence to your child then ask him whether your sentence is a fact or opinion. Ex: The weather is nice. (Opinion) A dog can bark. (Fact)
5. Encourage reading fluency by having your child read and reread familiar books. It can also be helpful to have your child read a short passage several times while you record the time it takes. Children often enjoy seeing if they can improve their time from one reading to the next.
6. Choose a new vocabulary word from one of the books you are reading with your child. Talk about what it means then make up a sentence with the new word. Try to use the word again that week.

If your child is struggling with reading, contact us today to make an appointment for a reading evaluation.

Reference

Florida Center for Reading Research.  Curriculum Information for Parents.  Retrieved from http://www.fcrr.org/Curriculum/curriculumForParents.shtm