When parents help their children learn to read, they open the door to a big, exciting world. As a parent, you can begin an endless learning chain like this: You read to your children, they develop a love of stories and poems, they want to read on their own, they practice reading, and finally, they read for their own information or pleasure. When children become readers, their world is forever wider and richer.

Reading homework tips for parents

• Have your child read aloud to you every night.  If your child is struggling with the current mini-book please help them read it and then have them practice past ones.  Be sure to mark the reading log as needs help.
• Choose a quiet place, free from distractions, for your child to do his nightly reading assignments.
• As your child reads, point out spelling and sound patterns such as cat, pat, hat.
• When your child reads aloud to you and makes a mistake, point out the words she has missed and help her to read the word correctly.
• After your child has stopped to correct a word he has read, have him go back and reread the entire sentence from the beginning to make sure he understands what the sentence is saying.
• Ask your child to tell you in her own words what happened in a story.
• To check your child's understanding of what he is reading, occasionally pause and ask your child questions about the characters and events in the story.
• Ask your child why she thinks a character acted in a certain way and ask your child to support her answer with information from the story.
• Before getting to the end of a story, ask your child what he thinks will happen next and why.
• Read aloud to your child: books, newspaper and magazine articles, the back of the cereal box, labels on cans, or directions.
• Read poems aloud together to learn about rhythm and repeated sounds in language.
• Point to the words on the page when you read. Move your finger from left to right.
• Listen to your child read homework or favorite stories to you every day.
• Go to the library together and check out books. Be sure to ask the librarian for good books or to help you find what you need.
• Have books, magazines, and papers around the house, and let your child see that you like to read, too.
• Encourage older children to read to younger children.
• Help experienced readers talk and write about what they read.

Over and Over Again

1. Pick a story or poem that repeats phrases. "Assign" your child a phrase to repeat each time you read a new part of the story.
2. Read a short portion of the story or poem, then stop and let your child repeat the phrase.
3. Encourage your child to act out the story
 

Make Sense of Sounds

1. Look for poems or tongue twisters that repeat sounds and letters.
2. Point out these sounds and letters, and explain that they often make the same sound whenever you see them with other letters on the page.
 

Read Together

1. Ask your child to read to you.
2. Take turns. You read a paragraph and your child can read the next one, or take turns reading full pages one after the other. Keep in mind that your child may be concentrating on how to read, and your reading helps to keep the story alive.
3. If your child has trouble reading words, you can help in several ways:

have your child skip over the word, read the rest of the sentence, and ask what word would make sense in the story; have your child use what is known about letters and the sounds they make to "sound out" the word; or supply the word and keep reading: enjoyment is the main goal.

To-With-By

It is not necessary to insist that your child read a whole book. You can achieve more if you choose a specific selection for your child to read. A short selection is one or two pages from an easy book or one paragraph from a higher level book.  If you choose a selection that is on the correct reading level for your child, he or she should make no more than one or two mistakes per twenty words. If you make your child read more, they will more than likely grow frustrated and be turned off to reading as a whole. Don't make him read it cold turkey either. We don't want your child to practice bad reading.  This is where you can use the To - With - By" method:
1. Read the short selection to him twice.
2. Read the same selection with him twice.
3. Finally, ask him to read it by himself twice.
To, With, and By is a useful reading technique that can help your child with their reading skills. It will help him learn and apply sight words more quickly, helps him to practice fluent reading and improves his comprehension-all the important skills of reading.

The Five Essential
Components of Reading
• Phonemic awareness–Recognizing and using individual sounds to create words.
• Phonics–Understanding the relationships between written letters and spoken sounds.
• Reading fluency–Developing the ability to read a text accurately and quickly, so that it sounds like natural speech.
• Vocabulary development–Learning the meaning and pronunciation of words.
• Reading comprehension strategies–Acquiring strategies to understand, remember and communicate what is read.
 
 
 

Reading Game