Here are some everyday activities to raise a reader.

Talking:

Talk every day to your child. Discuss your plans for the day, what you did yesterday and what is on the agenda for tomorrow. Use both small words and big words to help expand both expressive and receptive language skills. Ask simple questions, Who, What, Where, Why

Reading:

Read picture books using inflection, read books with lots of rhyming, read picture books about animals and subjects that are not in your child’s every day environment, read the cereal box, read the milk carton, read the street signs, make sure your child sees you reading for information and enjoyment, read-read-read.

Playing:

Play with your child, use toys in a variety of ways, pretend play using a variety of topics, go outside and play, keep books in your child’s toy box, and ask your child what he/she wants to play and follow his/her lead while narrating the play.

Singing:

Sing together, serious songs, funny songs, songs that rhyme, songs and rhymes that use hand motions, songs and rhymes that can have large body movement, sit and sing, move around and sing. Your child doesn’t care if you can carry a tune or not — they just want to sing with you.

Writing:

Color with your child, make lines/shapes and have your child try and copy the lines/shapes, scribble all over the paper — making sure your child can easily cross midline (left hand goes over to the right side of the body, left hand can extend over to the right side of the body) use chalk on your drive-way, finger-paint, ask your child to help write the grocery list (child scribbles and you write what you asked your child to write). Use letter magnets and letter puzzles and make simple words. Find the letters in your child’s name in ads, books, signs.