Getting Ready to Read: 10 Fun Ways to Turn Your Child into a Reader

Your child has started kindergarten, and you want to get her on the road to reading. On the other hand, you don't know how to help her without turning into a drill sergeant! Never fear! Here are 10 fun activities to help your child blossom into an eager reader

1. Make an alphabet book. Children love to make little books. Staple notebook paper into a booklet and write a letter of the alphabet on each page. Have your child draw a picture that begins with the same letter sound as the picture.

2. Alphabet Hunt! Get out old newspapers. Give your child a pencil, crayon, or washable marker. Let him hunt through the newspaper and circle a particular letter of the alphabet. This will help him learn to recognize both uppercase and lowercase letters.

3. Shaving cream letters. Get a can of generic brand shaving cream and spray a small amount on the kitchen table. Your child will love seeing the white cream oozing out of the can. Let your child use her finger to write alphabet letters in the shaving cream. She'll have a ball, and it won't damage the table. Instead, the shaving cream will help to clean it!

4. Play the Secret Picture Card Game. Buy or make a set of cards with simple pictures on them. For example, use index cards and draw a cup on one, a cat on the other, and so on. Don't let your child see the card. Tell him what sounds are in the word. If the picture is a cat, say the sounds /c/ /a/ /t/. See if your child can blend the sounds together. If he is successful, he can keep the card until the game is over.

5. Get out the play dough! Help your child mold the dough into letters and simple words. This is something every kindergartner loves because every five-year-old is crazy about squishy play dough!

6. Magnetic Playtime! Buy some magnetic letters from the dollar store. Let your child practice making words by arranging the letters on the refrigerator. See if she can make simple words just by hearing you make the sound of each letter in the word.

7. Hop to it! Use 26 pieces of construction paper, and write a letter of the alphabet on each one. Cover them with contact paper so that they are durable. Tape the letters onto the floor. Call out a particular letter. See if your child can hop on the correct one.

8. Magazine Mania! Go through old magazines and help your child cut out pictures of things that begin with a particular letter sound. Help her write the uppercase and lowercase letter on the paper. Next, help her glue the pictures beneath the letter.

9. A Hungry Puppet! Make a paper bag puppet with your child. Cut simple pictures out of magazines. Tell your child that the puppet only likes to eat things that begin with a particular letter sound. For example, tell your child that the puppet only eats items that begin with the /m/ sound. Your child has to determine if the puppet will eat the picture of the milk, house, moon, carrot, and so on. Let the child feed the /m/ pictures to the puppet.

10. Alphabet Match! Make an alphabet poster that only contains uppercase letters. Provide your child with lowercase letters written on fun cutout shapes. Let your child use scotch tape to match the lowercase letter to the uppercase letter.

These are just a few ways to help your child learn how to recognize letters, the sounds they make, and how to put them together to create words. Remember to make the learning activities fun. Spend no more than 15 minutes on a particular activity since little children have short attention spans. If you do these fun activities with your child on a regular basis, she will have so much fun she won't even realize she's learning!