Ways to Help Your Child Succeed in School

Ideas from the National Institute for Literacy

Three Activities to do at Home:

• Talk often with your child to build listening and talking skills.
• Read to and with your child – often. Talk to them about the words and ideas in books.
• Pay attention to how much TV your child is watching. Set aside “not TV time each day and use that time to talk together.

Support what your child is learning in school about relationships between letters and sounds:

• Listen to your child read books from school. Be patient as your child practices. Let them know you are proud of their reading.
• Say the sounds of letters and ask your child to write the letter or letters that represent that sound.
• Ask your child to point out the letter-sound relationships they are learning in all of the things you are reading together – books, calendars, labels, magazines, and newspapers.
• Play word games. On cards, write words that contain the letter-sound relationships they are learning at school. Take turns choosing a card and blending the sounds to make the word. Then use the word in a sentence.

Encourage your child to spell and write:

• Say a word your child knows and have them repeat the word. Then help them write the word the way they hear it.
• Write a word on paper and cut the letters apart or use plastic or foam letters. Mix the letters and have your child spell a word by putting the letters in order.
• As you are reading with your child, point out words that have similar spellings, such as hop and pop. Ask them to write similar words, for example, top, mop, and cop.
• Encourage your child to write often – for example, letters and thank-you notes, simple stories, and grocery lists.

Help your child build vocabulary, knowledge of the world, and comprehension:

• When you read together, stop now and then to talk about the meaning of the book. Help them make connections between what’s happening in the book and their own life and experiences, or to other books you have read together. Ask them questions so that they talk about the information in a nonfiction book, or about the characters or events of a fiction book. Encourage your child to ask questions. Ask them to explain what the book was about, in their own words.
• Before you come to the end of a story, ask your child to predict what might happen next or how the story will end.
• Talk about new words and ideas that your child has read or heard. Ask them to make up sentences with the new words or use the words in other situations.
• Read magazines and newspapers together. Get them interested in what’s happening in other parts of the world in a positive way.