Getting Ready To Read: 4 and 5 Year Olds

Now that your child is a preschooler, you can take these tips from the National Institute of Literacy for helping your preschooleer get ready to read.

• Help your child hear and say the first sound in words (Boat starts with "B")
• Help your child notice different words that also start wtih that sound (boat and book both start with B)
• Introduce your child to new words. Use new, interesting vocabulary. This means no baby talk and no "dumbing-down" your language for your child.
• Talk to your child about the alphabet
• Talk about the letters you see in books
• Point out signs and lables that have letters, like street signs and food signs in the grocery store
• Encourage your child to enjoy reading
• Allow your child to choose what book you read most of the time
• Let your child pretend to read parts of the book as you read together
• Talk about the stories you read and help make connections to things that happen in your own lives
• Ask "What," "When," "Where," and "How" questions as you read
• Help your child write notes or make books (like an alphabet book), even if his writing looks like nothing more than scribbles

This list is definitely more involved than the one for the 2 and 3 year olds. Even so, it is still very doable. This list is full of ideas for literacy activities during your learning time during the week.