Things Parents Can Do To Help Their Children At Home
by Julie Ruzicka and Beth Ford
February 02, 2006
Things Parents Can Do To Help Their Children At Home
Reading
- Read aloud to your child.
- Have your child read aloud to you.
- Encourage your child to try different strategies when they are struggling with unknown words.
- Ask your child questions about what they've read. When
stuck and can't remember anything, use the following prompts as
needed.
- Who was in the story?
- What happened at the beginning of the story?
- What happened in the middle?
- What happened at the end?
- Tell me more.
- What was the problem?
- How was the problem solved?
- Read as much environmental print as possible. (signs, menus, etc.)
Writing
- Have your child help make lists. (grocery, chores, etc.)
- Write letters to friends and family.
- Make thank you notes.
- Practice spelling sight words.
- Provide a diary or journal for your child to write in.
Word work
- Play word games like Boggle and Scrabble Jr.
- Work on sight words by;
- Using the sight words to build sentences.
- Build sight words by using magnetic letters.
- Trace sight words in sand or salt.
- Make sight words out of play dough.
- Highlight sight words in the news paper.
- Make word families. _at, _en, _ar, _ick
- Making words-create smaller words out of larger words. For example, how many words can you make out of Valentine, anywhere, farmers, cooperation, etc.
