How can you help your child learn to read at home?
Tips on Building Literacy at Home
How can you help your child with addition/subtraction?
- Tell your child to look at the picture. You may tell your child the word is something that can be seen in the picture, if that is the case.
- Tell your child to look for chunks in the word, such as /it/ in sit, /at/ in mat or /and/ and /ing/ in standing.
- Ask your child to get his/her mouth ready to say the word by shaping the mouth for the beginning letter.
- Ask your child if the word looks like another word she/he knows. “Does bed look like red?” for example.
- Ask your child to go on and read to the end of the sentence. Often by reading the other words in context, the child can figure out the unknown word.
- If your child says the wrong word while reading, ask questions like: Does it make sense? Does it sound right? Does it look right?
Tips on Building Literacy at Home
- Have books wherever the kids are - car, kitchen, room...
- Listen to and read with books on tape.
- Encourage reading lots of things: cereal boxes, road signs, newspapers, maps, grocery lists, the list is endless.
- Encourage writing, as it builds letter-sound knowledge and supports reading development.
- Enjoy rhyming books, nursery rhymes, and songs, as they build your child's ability to hear and manipulate sound patterns (phonemic awareness) - this really helps their reading and writing later.
- Puppet plays or acting out a story develops comprehension skills, fluency, and expression.
- Use some vocabulary from the read aloud books to build your child's speaking vocabulary - have fun with this - use some of the fun words or language from the story.
- Play letter and word games at home and in the car.
- Keep a variety of materials handy, such as: sidewalk chalk, crayons, pencils, paper, old magazines, and magnetic letters (not just for refrigerator doors, they stick nicely to cookie sheets and cookie tins).
- Most of all, keep a variety of library books on hand for your child to read alone or with someone or to just look at and enjoy.
How can you help your child with addition/subtraction?
- Use tangible objects to represent numbers. Coins or blocks are great options.
- Try "Touch Math" or number lines to help with counting up (adding) or counting down (subtracting).
- Flash cards and math games are fun to use. Make a family math night.