Remember the excitement and joy you felt when your child started
to speak? Sounds led to words, words to sentences, and sentences
to conversations. You encouraged their speech with interactions,
imitation, questions and communication. Being able to converse
with your child opened a new world for you both. It’s equally
exciting when your child learns to read! I teach my students
that, "First we learn letters, letters make words, words make
sentences, and sentences make stories." Breaking down reading to
this sequence lets your child know there is a pattern to
reading. Knowing the pattern removes some of the anxiety
children might experience when they are first learning to read.
Just as you helped and encouraged your child to speak, you can
help and encourage them to read. Here are four simple activities
to encourage reading: - Read together every night. The benefits
of as little as five or ten minutes of bedtime reading are
extraordinary. Let their interest generate what you read
together. If your child likes