Tips to Teach the Love of Reading

We all want our children to love to read. To instill that love of reading, there are some things you can do. Hopefully, you're already doing at least some of these!

1. Read to your child. You don't need to wait until they're old enough to hold a book themselves. Get in the habit of reading to your infant or toddler. Make it a quiet time and a ritual. Some of my fondest memories are of reading to my children as we rocked in the rocking chair.

Involve your child with the story. Ask them questions about what is happening. Point out letters, colors, shapes and numbers on the pages and truly make reading time an interactive experience.

2. Set a good example. Let your child see YOU read. When your child sees you reading--whether it's a book, magazine or newspaper--they get used to it and most children like to imitate mom and dad. Pretty soon, they'll be picking up books on their own!

3. Buy board books or chunky books that are toddler/pre-school proof. Let them have their own books that they can "read" on their own over and over. We had a copy of "Goodnight Moon" that went everywhere with us for a long time. Luckily it was a board book, so it held up well!

4. Point out letters and sounds they make when you're out in the car. Point to street signs or business signs and say the letter. Pretty soon, they will start looking for letters on their own!

Save on Funetics

If you're looking for a great program to teach your kids how to read Funetics has a great coupon. Their program will instill a love of reading when you use it to teach your child to read.

Funetics has a great way to save on their reading program right now, too. Once you've checked their site out and decided this is the program to use to make sure your child is ready for Kindergarten, you can save 15%! Use code WINTER when you check out(there will be a box to input the coupon code) and you'll automatically save an extra 15% on Funetics

What to Look for in a Pre-K Curriculum

Lots of parents are starting to think about getting their kids ready for kindergarten these days. As the Spring months approach, you know that a firm foundation will be critical to getting your child off to a good academic start, and making sure your child has a sense of the fundamentals of reading and writing will be critical to this. So, if you like many others are looking for a curriculum to use during the process, keep the following tips in mind:

- Early learning (well, any learning, really) should be fun. It takes time to learn to read, and you want your child to be able to hang in there until the amazing light bulb of understanding goes off! Try to find a program or materials that will keep your child's interest. If it doesn't seem like fun to you, it probably won't be for your little one…

- Be sure to introduce all of the preschool fundamentals to your little one. Reading and writing are, of course, critical skills. But don't forget that there's a host of other things your child will need to learn to be ready for kindergarten. Try to find a curriculum or materials that will introduce counting, colors, even concepts like the days of the week and the months of the year if you can. Check out funetics.com for an example of one program that covers these preschool concepts and many more.

- Ask your kindergarten for a list of their entry expectations. Many schools can give you a list of skills they expect students to have mastered upon entry into kindergarten. You can use this as a guide to what your curriculum should cover. If your child's school doesn't have any entry guidelines, ask them for the kindergarten standards, and what your child will know at the end of kindergarten, You can use this to predict somewhat what skills would be necessary at the start of the year. You can also find standard on the Internet, although schools vary widely on what they expect.