The Literacy Trust, Inc. 

1. Ask the teacher to send books home that are easy for your child to read and listen as s/he reads them aloud to you. Tell the child any unknown words and then ask him/her to reread the sentence, “To make sure it all fits.”

2. Every page or so, ask your child a question to check understanding.

3. Compliment your child when s/he reads smoothly or with expression, stops at a punctuation mark, corrects a mistake, goes back and rereads, or answers a question correctly.

4. If your child doesn’t know the answer to a question, show him or her the part of text where the answer can be found.

 Help your child write as often as you can (thank you notes, a shopping list); writing helps establish the connection between letters and the sounds they represent.