Here's a tip - when they are reading, your child will still be coming across words they don’t know. When this happens, you could remind them to think about what they already know to do when they get stuck. If that doesn’t help you might ask "What word would make sense that starts like that?" or "What do you know about that word that might help?" If they still can’t work it out – tell them and praise their efforts.

If your child is stuck on a word wait a few seconds, give them a chance to think. If they are still stuck, help them to try to work the word out by saying "read the sentence again and think what would make sense". Ask "could it be…?" (and give a word that might fit). The pictures also help them check they have got the right word. If they still can’t work out the word, tell them and praise their efforts. Remember, reading should be fun.

Help your child to link stories to their own life. Remind them about what they have done when a similar thing happens in the story.

Make Reading Fun!

Reading at home needs to be fun and easy – something you both look forward to, a time for laughter and talk.

• find a comfortable, quiet place away from the TV for the 2 of you to cosy up and read for 10-15 minutes
• if you or your child start to feel stressed, take a break and read the rest of the story aloud yourself – keep it fun
• make some puppets – old socks, cardboard tubes, cut-outs on sticks – that you and your child can use to act out the story you have read. Or dress up and make it into a play
• play card games (you can make the cards yourself)
• read songs, waiata, poems and rhymes - sing them together, too.
• Share the reading, take turns or see whether your child wants to read or be read to today
• All children like to be read to, so keep reading to them. You can read in your first language
• Visit the library together and help them choose books to share
• Read emails from family or whānau aloud
• Play card and board games together.

Make writing fun

• Help your child write an alphabet letter, then go letter hunting in your house or in a book to find that letter
• Let your child see you writing – you can use your first language
• Encourage them to write shopping lists or make birthday cards
• Water and a paintbrush on a dry path and a stick on sand are fun ways to write letters and words.
• play with words. Finding and discussing interesting new words can help increase the words your child uses when they write. Look up words in the dictionary or on the Internet or talk to family and whänau to find out more about the meaning and the whakapapa (origins) of the words.

Make writing fun

• encourage your child to write – on paper or on the computer. It is OK for you to help and share the writing. Give lots of praise
• enjoy the message and don’t make your child anxious about spelling or neatness
• make a photo book and get your child to write captions
• scrapbooks are fun, too. Old magazine or newspaper pictures about a favourite subject, dogs, your family, motorbikes or the latest toy craze, pasted on to blank pages – with room for captions or stories, too

Here's a tip - talk a lot to your child while you are doing things together. Use the language that works best for you and your child.

Give them reasons to write

• Write to each other. Write notes to your child and leave them in interesting places, like their lunch box. Ask them to write a reply
• Help them email, text or write to family, whānau or friends
• Work with them to put labels on special things – like the door to their room or their toy box.

Here a tip - display their work. Put it on the fridge. Be proud of it. Share it with others.

Give them reasons to write

Help your child to:

• write lists – ‘Things I need from the shop’, ‘Games to play when I am bored’, ‘Things I want to do in the holidays’. The last one can be cut up and go into a box or bag for a lucky dip when the holidays finally arrive
• write out recipes or instructions for other people to follow (especially fun if the instructions are for an adult)
• keep a diary, especially if you are doing something different and exciting. Your child can draw the pictures or stick in photos. Their diary could be a webpage on the computer
• write letters, cards, notes and emails to friends and family and the Tooth Fairy – you might write replies sometimes, too
• cut out letters from old magazines and newspapers to make messages write secret messages for others to find in their lunch box or under their pillow.

Encourage writing

• Have felt pens, pencils, crayons and paper available
• Put magnetic letters on the fridge – ask what words they can make with the letters.
• Talk about their writing
• Make up a different ending for a favourite story together and get them to write it down
• Ask them to write about pictures they draw. Get them to tell you the story
• Keep writing fun and use any excuse you can think of to encourage your child to write about anything, any time.