• Read to your child every day. Make it a special time when you both can relax, snuggle and enjoy books.

• Build a home library and fill it with your child's favorite titles.

• Sing nursery rhymes and finger plays to introduce an awareness of speech sounds and patterns.

• Visit your local library on a regular basis and borrow a wide range of books and audio materials. Take part in activities the library provides for young children.

• Use words to describe aloud what you are doing or what you see around your house and community.

• Learning depends on repetition. It is good when children ask for favorites to be read again and again.

• Encourage your child to "read" picture books to you.

• Be a good role model by reading for enjoyment and information yourself.

• When reading aloud, use lots of expression, different voices and sound effects when appropriate.

• Read books that play with language such as poetry, tongue twisters, rhymes, and riddles.

-Office of Commonwealth Libraries, Pennsylvania Department of Education

• Be sure your child has different types of writing implements such as pencils, crayons, markers, and lots of paper to use with them.

• Encourage your child to tell you stories. Write them down and have your child illustrate them.

• Create labels so your child can match them to objects throughout your home.

• Write a shopping list together. Have your child cross items off the list after you select them.

• Keep a journal with your child and have him/her summarize what happens each day while you write it down.

• Create scrapbooks about your family, special occasions, and trips.

• When you are writing notes or emailing, ask your child what he/she would like you to tell a relative or friend.

• Encourage print recognition in everyday situations such as street signs and local businesses.

• After a trip to a park, zoo, or other special place, have your child dictate what you did and what you saw as you write it down. Have your child add pictures to complete the story.

-Office of Commonwealth Libraries, Pennsylvania Department of Education