Parent Activity

Environment for Reading and Phonics

You can set the stage for learning to read and for learning phonics skills from the early years of your child's life on through the elementary grades. Here are some activities whereby you set the example:

• Let your child see you read.
• Read to your child.
• Listen and respond to your child's questions.
• Encourage your child to write--then ask for the meaning of the message.
• Place books and magazines in prominent places.

On your travels around the neighborhood or across the city, look for ways to call attention to words and messages. Billboards, store signs, newspaper headlines, book titles, and TV ads all use written words.

Print Savvy Kids

You don't have to teach formal lessons. Just point out the words and the messages that you see all around you. You want your child to become aware of words and word sounds, and you can help your child become curious about language and how the English spelling system works by doing some of the following:

• Examine the first letter or the first part of the word. We read left to right.
• Note that many words start with the same letter (see, sun, sit, sad), and they all have the same initial sound when spoken.
• When words rhyme, the beginning sound changes, the rest of the sound/spelling does not change (bat, cat, hat, mat).
• Ask questions about words, especially strange words (lizard, habitat, plow).

(Ideas taken from Using phonics and other word skills, A practical guide for parents. 2000. Family Learning Association, Bloomington, IN)