Beginning Readers

  • Discuss favorite stories that you’ve read together.
  • Continue reading aloud to your child and encourage them to read to you at their level.
  • Tell your child what you are thinking about the story as you read it out loud.
  • Play with compound words with a word part left out: What word would you have if you took “foot” away from “football”? (ball)
  • Play with compound words by asking…”What word would you get if you put “hot” and “dog” together.
  • Share with your child’s teacher writing samples from home and what you notice about their reading.
  • Let your child see you reading (books, newspapers, mail, directions, recipes, e-mail…) and writing (grocery lists, notes, letters, e-mail…)
  • Visit the library regularly.
  • Make sure your child has lots of books available for them to read at home.
  • Make places for your child to read at home.
  • Encourage your child to talk about their reading and writing.
  • When sharing a book together ask higher-level thinking questions.
    *How did you know that was going to happen…?
    *If you were ____ what would you do, or what would you be thinking…?
    *What do you think will happen next?  Why?
    *Why do you think…?
    *Who is your favorite character?  Why?
    *Every story has a problem.  What was the problem in our story and how was it solved?
Additional Information: Source: Raising a Reader, 2017