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Help your preschooler get ready to read

You may not be able to teach your preschoolers how to read, but you can teach them some preliminary fundamentals. For instance, by pointing at the words as you read to your children, you’ll teach them that, in English, we read from left to right.
Here are some other ways to help prepare your children for the reading instruction they will receive in kindergarten.

The best way to help your children is also the easiest: Read to your children — every day if possible.

Use books or blocks or anything else with letters on them to introduce your children to the alphabet. (Teachers would like children to be able to recognize all the letters, in uppercase and lowercase, when they start kindergarten.)
Talk about the sounds of letters. For instance, you could say, “The word mouse starts with m. It sounds like mmm.”

Play simple games with letters. For example, you could trace letters on your children’s backs and ask them to guess which ones you traced.
Take your children to the library. “A visit to the library before age 6 is a life-changing event,” said reading expert Phyllis Hunter. “Research shows that children who visit the library before they enter school begin to think of themselves as readers and begin to think positively about books.”

SOURCE: 101 Simple Ways to Help Your Child With Reading (Jefferson County Public Schools, 2007.) and Expert from http://www.courier-journal.com/

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