Easy Ways to Grow a Great Reader

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Get your child ready to read and to succeed in the school years ahead!

• Read to your child and point out words and pictures. You are your child’s first teacher.
• Visit the library every week with the whole family. Everyone gets to pick out their own books.
• Get a library card at your local public library. It’s free!
• Sign your child up for Summer Reading at the local public library and enjoy free programs with fun activities, storytelling, crafts and more.
• When your child watches TV, join in and turn on the closed captioning so children see the words as they hear them.
• Talk together and tell stories with your child while cooking dinner, traveling, or shopping. Your child will learn lots of new words and ideas.
• Sing to your child while getting ready for the day or for bed.
• Encourage your child to set up a play library, restaurant, museum or school, complete with books, menus, maps, crayons. Children learn best through play!
• Write lists with your child - grocery lists, birthday present wish lists, or lists of your favorite books.
• Bring a basket of books for reading breaks from the sun, water, sand and all outdoor activities.
• Keep a list on the refrigerator of the books read to your child all year long.
• Read together at bedtime every night!