Helpful Hints: Ways to Help Your Child Learn

1.  Keep learning time short and fun!  Ten to fifteen minutes daily is much better than forty-five minutes or an hour at a time.

2.  Review daily the letters (capital, lower case, and sound).  Also, please review the sight words we have studied.  Reading the little decodable readers that are sent home on Fridays is a great way to review sight words, sound out words, and practice blending (putting sounds together).  Let your child choose two or three each day.

3.  Play 'application' games daily.  Say a word or show a picture and ask your child what letter it begins with.  Try to use words and pictures that begin with letters we have studied.

4.  Establish the 'habit' of working a few minutes every single day with your child.

5.  Read stories daily with your child.  Children love to hear you read to them and it expands their vocabularies.  It also helps them to hear what a good reader sounds like.

6.  Make flash cards with sight words and number words to practice at home.  It is also great to look for these words on signs, in magazines, and on boxes or cans.