Learning to read can be one of the most rewarding and exciting experiences for your child but it can also be one of the hardest and most challenging.  These tips will help you with helping your child to be successful on their journey to reading.

Read to your child.  If you want a child that loves to read then you need to make sure that you spend time reading to them.  Children who are read to more become better readers and learn to read more easily than children who are not read to on a regular basis.

Use your child’s name on things.  One great way to start to teach children how to read is to have items labeled with their name from the time of infancy and toddler-hood.  This can really help children to start to “read” their names.

Play rhyming and word games with your child.  Teaching your child to read can be made into a fun game.  Playing these games can really help your child in developing their site word skills as well as in being able to better understand meaning.

Make books accessible.  Do not keep books in one room or in one area of your home.  Instead have book shelves or baskets of books throughout your home so that your child can easily pick up a book when they get bored.

Sing the alphabet song with your child.  While singing the song you can even have an alphabet chart where you point to the letters.  This can help your child to start to recognize the letter and what it looks like.  Teaching letter sounds to your child can be aided with a stronger emphasis on the sounds that each letter makes in a word.  Talk to your child and ask them questions when you are talking.  Say things like “What letter do you hear in the word elephant?”  This is going to encourage them to match letter sounds with the letters.

Take trips to the library.  Visiting the library is a great way for your child to be able to start to enjoy the love of reading.  It is important that you visit from the time that your child is young and that you continue to visit as they get older.

Tell stories to your child.  Encourage your child to make up an tell stories to you.

Read a children’s magazine together.  This can be a lot of fun with early readers and can really encourage a love of reading.  Share in the journey with your child and take turns reading pages or paragraphs.  Encourage your child to sound out big words that they do not know or to think about what the word might be so that it makes sense.  Teaching this to your child is also going to help them as they become a more advanced reader because they are thinking about comprehension.

Play with play dough and make letters together.  Making letters is a great way for children to learn their letters.  Then have children tell you the sounds that the letters make.  Next spell words with the letters and ask your child to read these words.

There are many additional things that you can do to help your child learn to read but these are among the favorites for my children…