1. Read aloud to your children every day! Read to them even though they can read! 

2. Get a library card.

3. Take your children to the library once a week.

4. Discuss children's books with your children.
5. Take your children to story times
6. Buy books that you know will interest your child.
7. Create a comfortable reading space for your child.
8. Visit the websites of favorite authors and illustrators. 
9. Once a week, cook together using a children's cookbook.
10. Buy your children a good dictionary and use it regularly.

 

TIPS FOR TEACHING YOUR CHILD ABOUT PHONEMES
Discover simple at-home activities you can use to help your child understand the connection between the letters of the alphabet and the sound associated with each letter.

As the parent of a young child, you probably have a sense that you should help your child learn the letters of the alphabet. As the foundation for all written words, letters are important because they are the symbols for the small actions your mouth makes as you say words. What's equally important, however, is that your child learns the sound associated with each letter. These individual sounds are called phonemes, and children who know about the connection between a letter and its phoneme have an easier time learning to read.

By: Reading Rockets

 

Certain sounds, such as /s/, /m/, /f/ are great sounds to start with.
Tip #1: Focus on one sound at a time.
These four tips were initially written for teachers but have been adapted here for parents. The sounds are distinct and can be exaggerated easily. "Pleasepassmmmmmmmmilk." "Look! There's a ssssssssssnake!" "You have fffffffive markers on the table." It's also easy to describe how to make the sound with your mouth. "Close your mouth and lips to make the sound. Now put your hand on your throat. Do you feel the vibration?" Once your child learns a few phonemes, it will be easier to keep talking about letters and sounds.

Tip #2: Make the learning memorable!
Have fun with the letters and sounds. Gestures, such as a "munching mouth" made with your hand can make the /m/ sound much more fun! "Slithering snakes" made with an arm or hand can make the /s/ sound easy to remember. Tongue ticklers, also called alliterative words, in which the sound you're focusing on is repeated over and over again, can be a fun way to provide practice with a sound. 
Try these!
For M: Miss Mouse makes marvelous meatballs! For S: Silly Sally sings songs about snakes and snails. For F: Freddy finds fireflies with a flashlight.

Tip #3: Help your child listen for the sounds.
One part of learning letters and sounds is determining if a word contains a particular sound. "Do we hear /mmmmmmm/ in the word mmmmmmoon? Do we hear /mmmmmmm/ in the word cake?" These activities, done orally with your child, can help him begin listening for and hearing sounds within words.

Tip #4: Apply letter-sound skills to reading.
Putting these skills to work within a book is a powerful way to help your child see the connection between letters, sounds, and words. As you're reading together, find places in the book to point out the letters and sounds you've been working on together. "Look! This page says 'Red fish, blue fish." There's the /fffffff/ sound we've been having fun with! It's at the beginning of the word fish."

These simple tips can help your child develop a very important awareness of phonemes which will serve him well as he begins to learn how to read.

This Growing Reader was based on an article written for teachers. To read the full article:
Murray, B. (2012). Tell me about Fred's fat foot again: Four tips for successful PA lessons. The Reading Teacher, 66(2), 139–144. And visit Dr. Murray's website, The Reading Genie. 


I was surfing the internet and found this information and decided it needed to be shared.
Copy and paste the following URL for the complete article and tips!

Gaetan Pappalardo (http://www.edutopia.org/blog/teaching-vocabulary-elementary-gaetan-pappalardo) begins with, "So, I'm sitting in a workshop on vocabulary development listening to a bunch of research as to why kids lack the language to comprehend and communicate effectively. The largest factor (found by this specific research) that determines a child’s vocabulary cache is . . . (Drum roll) . . . In-home communication between adult and child using rich language. No talking, no vocabulary -- makes sense, right? The more you hear it, the more likely you'll use it, the more you’ll "own" it. It’s the purest form of contextual usage. It’s life. This makes total sense to me. As a teacher, writer, and father of a three-year-old, I’m always exposing my son to a strong, healthy vocabulary. It’s not rocket science; it just takes some extra effort to recognize those special times to work on vocabulary (I’m not using the term "teachable moment" here because working on vocabulary really shouldn’t seem like a formal lesson; it should be as natural as a friendly conversation).

Let me give you a play-by-play to give you a sense of how I do it at home. 
Setting: Playing in the backyard.
Max: It's getting hot.
Me: Yes, the temperature is going up.
Max: It sure is.
Me: The temperature is increasing.
Max. Yup.
Me: Yeah, it's rising.

Now, Max is three and some change, so he's not really absorbing all of the words. I know that. I don't expect him to remember the words right away. I'm planting "word seeds" to grow over the years. He will eventually know that "going up," increasing, and rising, are all related. Vocabulary development doesn't happen overnight; with food and water, vocabulary will slowly grow like a big, old oak tree reaching up to the sky.