You are the first person to influence your child’s interest in reading and writing.  Sharing reading moments with your child throughout the developmental stages between pre K and grade 2 can help to build a strong foundation of background knowledge which enriches reading and writing.  Did you know….

Your preschool child  enjoys listening to and discussing story books, enages in reading and writing attempts, and can participate in rhyming games?  You can engage you child in conversation by providing names for things, read and re read stories with predictable text and encourage your child to sing rhyming songs with you.

Your Kindergarten child enjoys being read to and can retell simple stories, understand left-to-right and top-to-bottom orientation when reading, and begin to write some letters of the alphabet?  You can engage your child by reading and re reading stories, play games that involve specific directions (Simon Says), and point out letters on signs.

Your Grade 1 child enjoys using strategies to read such as predicting, cross checking, and looking for small words within a word when reading, identify an increasing number of words by sight, and writes about topics that are meaningful to them?  You can engage your child  by encouraging them to write to a family member, encourage them to share what they have learned about writing and reading, and write with them.

Trehearne, M.  Learning to Write and Loving It, 2011.