The ABC's, understanding same and different, counting, learning about sounds, rhyming...

Young children have a lot of learning to do! Discover how you can help the process along. You can get your child ready for academic success with simple and fun play ideas that you will find in A Parent's Guide to Readiness Skills. Check it out today!

When you read to young children, it's really important to help them interact with the text. As you read, try doing one or more of these other things:

--> Stop and have your child summarize the plot or action that has gone on before.

--> Stop and have your child try to predict what will come next (for a new book) or recall what will come next (for a familiar book).

--> Ask your child to find items in the pictures.

--> Ask your child to point out words that begin with a special letter or that have six letters or...

--> Ask your child to name items in the picture.

Engaging your child in the process in this way will help add even more value to your time together.

Kids just LOVE to see things grow. This winter, how about making a Book Chain? For each book that you share with your preschooler, add a link to a paper chain, like you make for Christmas. See if you can get your chain to stretch around the room, down the hall, or some other fantastic length.

Many people don't think of it, but oral language is foundational for reading skills. A student must be very, very good at talking before much of reading will make sense. Do your child a huge favor and be intentional about working on oral language development during the preschool years (and even during infancy!). Your youngster will be miles ahead of many if he or she has a super vocabulary and great listening skills when entering kindergarten. Here are a few ideas to get started with, and you can find tons more at my website: http://www.allinfoaboutreading.com.

Make lots of lists together. This is a cool idea for the car or for unexpected waiting times, because you don't need any materials. Just pick a category, like animals or colors, and off you go. How many can you think of? Take turns, or let your child run through his or her collection, then add a few new ideas to the end of the list.

Grow a few sentences. Start with a short clear sentence, and then take turns adding details. How big of a sentence can you build together? For example, if you begin with "He ran," you can move on to "He ran to the store," "He ran to the store over the hill," "He quickly ran to the store over the hill," and "He quickly ran to the store over the hill to get some milk." Try it! It's fun!

Listening is important, too. Try inserting a bit of nonsense (like an incorrect word, or a statement that is ALMOST correct) into your conversation or your reading. See if your listening detective can ferret out the word or phrase that isn't correct or that doesn't belong.

Have fun!