Parents

Reading and Writing With Your Child

You can encourage your child to engage in reading and writing at home in a wide variety of ways. Ask them to help you make the list of errands you have to run, ask them to retell what happened in a story you just read to them, encourage them to record their thoughts in a journal. At first, their writing will be a lot of pictures with some letters here and there. As the year goes on, the letters will turn into words, and the words into a sentence. Ask them to tell you what they have written and which sounds go with the letters they have written. When reading with your children, encourage them to point out words or sounds that they know. Help them to recognize the difference between a word and a letter.

*Discuss the parts of the book such as the title, author, illustrations, table of contents, etc.

*Have your child track the words with his/her finger as he/she reads them.

*Give him/her time to figure out an unknown word on his/her own before you help. Ask your child to look at the picture to see what would make sense. Then have your child look at the beginning letter and make the sound. If he/she is still having trouble, tell him/her the word and move on.

*Ask questions about the book when your child finishes reading to see if he/she understands what he/she has read.

*Practice fluency! Reading should sound like talking. Have your child re-read his/her book to make it sound smooth, like talking.

Most importantly, reading should be FUN!

Happy Reading!

Mrs. Boudreau