Helping Your Child Read Unknown Words:

1. Look at the picture clues
2. Ask:  Does it make sense?  Does it sound right?
3. Read past the unknown word.  Say "m," for the unknown word, then read to the end of the sentence.  Go back and see what word makes sense and matches the letters that are there.
4. Ask what word, that starts with these letters, would make sense.
5. Does it look like a word you already know?  Are there word chunks you know?
6. Reread the sentence.
7. Look for the magic "e."
8. The two vowel rule:  When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.
9. Take off any suffixes (-ed, -ing, -est, -er, -s)
10. Ask for help.

Parents are the first and most important teachers for their children.  Your encouragement and work with your children helps them enjoy reading and become a successful reader themselves.

Strategies to Help Your Young Reader:

• Set aside a regular time each day to share a book
• Read to your child with expression and pleasure
• Do not insist that they read aloud unless they are willing.  This should be a time of togetherness and warmth, not a time of teaching or testing.
• Choose some favorite poems to read aloud.  Have your child read the poems and acquire fluency.  Repeated reading can be fun and helpful if the poems are humorous.
• Recognize that reading is still a difficult and tiring task.  Be supportive and patient, appreciating the effort that it requires.
• As you read to your child, stop periodically and talk about the pictures in your imagination.  Ask your child what they picture, or "visualize."  Some children need more help turning words into mental pictures.
• Keep the faith.  Children have individual time-tables as they learn to be fluent readers.  They cannot fast forward that developmental schedule any more that they can grow to a desired height.  Hold onto the belief that your child will learn to read and pass that belief on to your child.  They are even more anxious than you to be a "star" reader.