Super Star Phonics Kids Corner Back Print

Tips For Reading To Your Child

• Read to your child every night. Bed time is always a great time to read to your child. I suggest a book with chapters. That way you can read at least 1 chapter per night.
• For beginning readers, drag your finger across the words while you read. That way they can distinguish that you are reading from left to right, that the words have meaning, and they also might pick up a word that they see often, such as the word "the".
• If you come to a difficult word, ask your child if he/she knows what that word means. If the child responds with a no, try the best that you can to explain the meaning of that word.
• After you are finished reading the book or chapter, ask your child questions about what you just read. Talk about things that just happened, what has already happened, and what you think might happen. This will help you know that your child is understanding what is going on in the book, and will also let your child's imagination flourish, thinking of what might happen next. It will also be exciting to find out if he/she is right.

Tips To Help With Your Child's Reading

• To be able to begin reading, your child should be able to recognize the alphabet letters, know the sounds of the alphabet, and also recognize and sound out combination sounds such as: TH, ING, CH and so on. We provide programs that will help your child to be able to do this. These programs are a great reinforcement to have, along with school curriculum. You might want to check out Letters and Numbers, Phonics 1a, Phonics 1b, and Phonics 2a, depending on what level your child is at.
• Buy some books that are at your child's current reading level. If you're not sure, ask your child's teacher. (Your child should bring home books from school to read as homework. If not, find out why.)
• Have your child point to the words as he/she reads along. More advanced readers will not need to do this.
• If your child gets stuck on a word, have them try to sound it out by themselves first. If you can, break the word into sections. Have each section broken down into a combination sound. For example:
  • TH-ERE
  • CH-IL-DR-EN
  • REA-D-ING
  Notice how the TH sound is separated from the ERE. Your child should be able to say each sound separately, and then say it together.