Mrs. Alsaker
Reading Tips for Parents

A child's success as a reader begins much earlier than the first day of school. Reading, and a love for reading, begins at home.

I know how busy parents are! That's why I've put together some tips that offer easy ways for parents to help kids become successful readers.

• I read to you, you read to me
  Once your child can read, have him or her read aloud to you every day. You can take turns — you read one page and your child the next. It's just another way to enjoy reading together.
• Read at bedtime
  At bedtime, tell your child he or she can choose either reading or sleeping. Most kids will choose to read, as long as you don't offer something more tempting... like TV. Children enjoy this special time with parents. You can spend it either with you reading to them or them reading to you or both.
• Punctuate your reading
  When you read aloud, read with expression. Discuss how punctuation on a page represents ways of speaking. You can say, for example, "When we talk, we usually pause a little bit at the end of a sentence. The way we show this pause in writing is to use a period."
• Give your child a clue
  If your child is stumbling while trying to sound out a word, use your finger to point to the next letter and ask what the letter usually sounds like. This won't always work because many letters have more than one sound, but in the long run it is probably more helpful in building your child's early reading skills than using other types of "clues" like pointing to a picture on the page or guessing the word based on context.
• Dig deeper into the story
  Ask your child about the story you've just read together. Try questions that require your child to draw conclusions. Say something like, "Why do you think Clifford did that?" A child's involvement in retelling a story or answering questions goes a long way toward developing his or her comprehension skills.
• Play word games
  Use blocks or a chalkboard to play word games with your child. First write out a word like mat. Then change the initial sound. Have your child sound out the word when it becomes fat and then when it becomes sat. Next change the final sound, so the word changes from sat to sag to sap. Then change the middle sound, so the word changes from sap to sip. Make a game of it!
• Be patient
  When your child is trying to sound out an unfamiliar word, give him or her time to do so. If you've ever had to learn a foreign language, you know how difficult it can be to figure out a word you've never seen before.