KINDERGARTEN: 5 to 6 Years

Your kindergartener will love looking for words especially familiar ones. He will find them everywhere from "sale" signs to street signs, from books to buildings. You can help your child make the connection between letters and sounds in fun ways. Try leaving a message to your child on the refrigerator or place a love note in his lunch box. Writing and reading letters and notes will reinforce the power of print in a way that has meaning for your child.

Write down stories your child tells you. Why? Seeing his own feeling and ideas in print will build his reading confidence. He will also read from left to right and top to bottom and thoughts are separated by spaces.

Milestones:

Your kindergartener should:

• Enjoy being read to.
• Read familiar books alone, often by memory.
• write her own name (first and last) and some high use words (the, mom, dad, I, my)
• Understand that we read English from left to right and top to bottom and be familiar with other concepts of books.
• Know and be able to name uppercase and lowercase letters and make the connections between these letters and the sounds they make.

We work with this:

• Join your local library, this is a wonderful way to show how reading and writing are used in everyday life.
• Create a special shelf, one your child can reach, for all the books you borrow from the library.
• Write a story together.
• Show how people use reading and writing throughout the day.
• Have conversation with him, ask open-ended questions.
• Play with letters and sounds, like "Riddle, riddle, ree, I see something you don't see. It starts with the letter B", and he needs to find an object for you to see.

Books:

When choosing books for your kindergartener, look for:

• Plots that your child can relate to (going to school, family, friendship).
• Language that has natural rhyme and repetition.
• Plots that encourage your child to ask questions and explore her world.
• Illustrations that engage your child.