Read with your child each day.

Create a reading area for your child.

·        Store your child’s books in a special place that’s easy to reach such as a basket, drawer or on a low shelf.

·        Place a small rug or pillow in the area to create a cozy and comfortable place for reading.

·        Join your child and read together in this special place

·        Talk to your child about how to care for books including how to return books to their storage place

Give your child a variety of books for reading.

·        Visit your local library with your child.  Let your child look at the picture books in the children’s section of the library and select several books to take home.

·        Get a library card for your child

·        Look for other places to find books, such as garage or yard sales, friends or relatives, thrift shops, book clubs, or public library sales.

Set aside a special time each day to read with your child.

·        Read with your child in a special place such as a comfortable chair away from distractions.

·        Hold your child close to you when you read to help develop a positive attitude toward reading.

·        Read your child’s favorite books over and over.

Let your child participate in book reading.

·        While reading a book with your child, talk about the illustrations and information on the cover of the book:  for example the title, author (person who wrote the story) and illustrator (person who drew the pictures).

·        Ask your child to look at the illustrations on the cover of the book and predict  what he or she thinks the book is about.

·        Show your child how to start at the beginning of the book and how to turn the pages.

·        Ask your child to retell the story in his or her own words.

Additional ideas:  Bring along a book bag containing some of your child’s favorite books when you leave home.  Your child can read in the car, on the bus, at the Laundromat or at the doctor’s office.  You can read with your child as you wait together.

Websites for more information: 

http://www.scholastic.com/families

http://www.bornlearning.org

Activities you can do with your child:

·  Talk to your child about how to care for books.

·  Pick a week and look for things that are yellow that week.

·  Buy a set of magnetic numbers and letters for your child.

·  Play “I spy” (remember to include yellow objects).

·  Help your child write his/her name using sidewalk chalk.

·  Look for words that begin with the same first letter.

·  Play a board game or a card game with your child.

·  Show your child that we read from left to right, how to turn pages when we read and that we read a book from front to back.

·  Go for a walk with your child.

·  Pick a new book and encourage your child to guess what the story will be about by looking at the cover.

·  Look at the pictures in a book before reading it to your child.

·  Have your child count from 1 to 10.

·  Find food items or animals that begin with the same letter.

·  Read your child a story and have them act it out using a sock puppet.

Books suggestions for four & five year olds:

The Eentsy, Wentsy Spider by Joanna Cole

Clifford’s First School Day by Norman Birdwell

If You Take a Mouse to School by Laura Numeroff

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

Corduroy by Don Freeman

Abiyoyo by Pete Seeger

Nora’s Room by Jessica Harper