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Parents can involve their children while reading books aloud. There's so much more to a book than the words on the page. Children like to talk, share, and ask questions. When you let your kids help with reading a book, it becomes much better than without their help.  Yes, it can be difficult to let this happen when you have more than one child trying to share, or you have limited time. I

My opinion on this subject is . . . "Parents should only do what feels right and is comfortable for themselves and their children when helping a child learn to read."   This will not be a step by step post. I will not tell you there is only one way to get a child ready to read. You can follow your own path and enjoy the journey. I recently updated a page I wrote at Squidoo. It includes my

Parents can help their children read with understanding. It starts early and continues through teenage years. How can a parent improve a child's reading comprehension?     Clip Art from Phillip Martin      1. Provide books and other reading material. 2. Value reading time . 3. Read together with children of all ages. 4. Show that reading is about getting meaning.   1. Providing

Have you tried echo reading? It's a great way to get kids reading with expression.   If you want a fun reading activity, try echo reading. You can read a sentence once or twice from a favorite children's book. Then ask a child to echo you. Have fun and ham it up! Check out this fun three minute video of kids echo reading! Book apps from Oceanhouse Media have a read to me option that

Finding good books and reading often helps young children love reading! A love of reading starts early. It may seem silly to read to a baby, but babies love books! I read to my children often and early. We bought many of our books used and checked out books at the library. Some of my best memories are of times reading with my babies. I've been doing a little work organizing my family videos. I

Most early readers struggle with fluency and reading with expression. This is normal. Early readers are practicing reading skills. Children must learn to walk before they can run. Until they learn to run on their own. Show them what it feels like to "run while reading" by reading outloud often. Here's a link to some free online stories you can include in your family's busy life. I've set my

Readers need to correctly hear and make short vowel sounds. Teach short vowel sounds early. Many readers I've worked with who struggle with reading at the end of first grade have problems with short vowel sounds. I'm currently tutoring a third grader who makes the short a sound when she tries to make the short e sound. There are confusions with the other short vowels at times too. So, teach

Beginning readers should be read to often. A great way to get beginning readers interested in reading is to share read some books. Ask a beginning reader to jump in and read parts when he or she feels comfortable. Encourage a beginning reader to ask questions, talk about the story and pictures, and even share how a book is similar to another book or something that happened in his or her

I found an article written by Wiley Blevins that answers this blog post's question. Understanding Phonics by Wiley BlevinsI share quite a bit about teaching phonics and phonemic awareness on this blog. I found Wiley Blevin's article to be easy to understand and based on the latest research I've been reading. I hope you find it informative.  Here are some posts I labeled with phonics and phonemic

Are you having a fun filled busy summer? Are your kids reading as much as you think they should? Have you taught your beginning reader as much as you'd like?This post has ways to sneak in more reading and links to some of my best posts to teach a child to read. Here are a few ways to sneak in some extra reading time. Check out some audio books from your library. Many libraries let you

I searched the terms TEACH READING with google and found an amazing site to share with my readers.  Building Blocks for Literacy Click on the link to access the site. Parents, educators, and child care providers can watch videos to learn about ways to help young children acquire early reading skills. There are two options to sign up. You can register as a parent/other or educator/provider. I

Literacy Begins at Home: Teach Them to Read is a helpful publication for parents with checklists of what parents can do with toddlers, preschoolers, kindergarteners, first graders, second graders, and third graders. I love the simple format of this booklet. It directs you to a specific age. There are many programs available online to teach children to read. Many are computer programs with

Many phonics books have short vowel words. My last post shared a good phonics book set with short vowel words. There are 10 short vowel phonics stories in the Playful Pals book set. I added an extra way to practice reading short vowel words to that post. You may want to go back and check it out. You can find free online short vowel phonics books at Starfall, Progressive Phonics, and

Does your reader know letter sounds? There are many free online resources to learn letter sounds. Reading alphabet books can be fun and teach letter sounds and letter recognition.Many beginner reader books and phonics books start with words with short vowel sounds. It's good to get a reader comfortable with short vowel sounds and introduce long vowels and long vowel spelling patterns after some

The best thing a parent can do is read to a child starting at a young age. Many parents stop reading to their children as they get older. I'm guilty of reading less to my school aged children. Parents? Does your child avoid reading? Does your child say he/she can't find a good book to read? Your child might be struggling with reading comprehension. You can help. 7 Keys to Comprehension has been