• The absolute BEST way to help grow your child as a reader is to READ!!!  Have books in your house and read with them. 

K-2 Readers:

• If your child is just learning to read, point out letters and sounds, as well as groups of letters that make a sound ("ea" makes the long e sound, "ou" makes the sound /ow/, etc).  The letter sounds are THE foundation to reading, so helping your child master phonics will go an extremely long way to them learning to read.

•  Talk about the plot of the story, the characters, and the setting.  If it is an informational book, talk about the facts that were learned in the book.

• Encourage your child to sound a word out when they are reading instead of guessing.

• Play word games.  Take a word and stretch out all the sounds.  See if your child can put it back together. Switch roles.   Or you can mix up words.  "If I have the word map and I change out the /m/ for a /t/, what word will I have now?

3-8 Readers:

• Read different genres of books and texts

• After reading, analyze the text for theme, big ideas, character traits, author's perspective, etc.

• 3-8 Readers have moved away from spending much of their reading time decoding (figuring out how to say the words) and can now spend more time comprehending and discussing the big ideas.

----You can find more information reading milestones HERE.----

• The absolute BEST way to help grow your child as a mathematician is to BUILD NUMBER SENSE!!  Help your child learn to take numbers apart (18 is 10 and 8, or 5, 5, and 8) and to be flexible with them (instead of 9 + 3, I can look at it as 10+2).

K-2 Mathematicians

• Help your child be firm on counting and number sense, first and foremost. This is done by counting, counting, counting! You can help build number sense when you have hands on items.  For example, I can help my child sort their cars into groups of 10's or 5's.

• Challenge them with a word problem they have to do in their head.  Then have them talk you through how they solved it in their head.

• Always have your child prove their answer by sharing their reasoning instead of just automatically telling them if it is correct or not.

3-8 Mathematicians:

• This is where multiplication and division, along with fractions and decimals really come into play!  Fractions are great to teach when you are baking and using measuring cups. Decimals are great when using money.  

• Help your child see that multiplication is repeated groups by pointing out anytime anything is in a group, talking about how many groups, how many are in each group, and what the final total is.

• With division, help your child see that division is taking an amount and putting it into groups.

----You can find more information math milestones HERE.----