Learning to read takes practice, practice and more practice.  I will describe what I will be doing at school to help your child.  I will also offer you guidelines for helping him or her at home.  Please feel free to ask questions about anything you are unsure of.

At home you can help your child learn to read by:

• Practicing the sounds of language.  Read books with rhymes.  Teach your child rhymes, short poems, and songs.  Play simple word games.  How many words can you make up that make the sound like the word bat?
• Helping your child take spoken words apart and put them together.  Help your child separate the sounds in words, listen for the beginning and ending sounds, and put separate sounds together.
• Pointing out the letter-sound relationships your child is learning on labels, boxes, newspapers, magazines and signs.