Family Support: Emerging Reader (Ages 4–6)
Read aloud daily to your child.
Make a cozy place to read at home.
Talk about the books and materials you read with your child. Model reading.
Go to the library regularly and visit bookstores. The people who work there can often help you find just the right books for your child.
Check out books on tape from the library. Listen to them at bedtime or in the car.
Take books everywhere you go. Keep books in the car and in every room.
Write notes to your child (in his or her lunchbox, on the bed, on the mirror, or under the pillow) using simple words.
Read picture books with predictable patterns and rhymes and familiar stories.
Re-read favorite stories and poems.
Encourage your child to chime in as you read stories, sing songs, or recite poems.
Ask questions about what you read to help your child connect books with their life and experiences.
Ask your child to guess what will happen next as you read aloud.
Reinforce early reading attempts
without correcting mistakes
.
Celebrate early memorizing as reading (it's the first step!).
Point out words around you (such as signs, logos, commercials, and billboards).
Tell stories and ask family members and friends to tell stories.
Encourage your child to tell stories from pictures in magazines and newspapers.
Tape record your child telling a story. Send it to relatives or friends.
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