A Strong Coffee

I am no expert in teaching my child to read. All I can do is tell you, the things that we have used with big man that we have found helpful. Big man is now 5 and has come on leaps and bounds since starting school. He is average at reading, but his enthusasm seems to be building which can only be a good thing.

It sounds obvious, but reading to your child is important. I am always shocked to recieve leaflets telling me to do this, which must mean that not everyone does. Our boys have had a bedtime story since they were very small, and sometimes eek it out to 2 or 3. But books aren't just for bedtime. They have rhyming books, picture books, bath books and big man is obsessed with science and nature so we have lots of these too.

At pre school he was taught Jolly Phonics, so we bought him a book and CD for him to play. It must have been sinking in as I remember him having a dream one night about having ants on his arm.

TV can be helpful too. Alphablocks is great and I am now encouraging middle man to watch this.

Word games can help with the learning of tricky words that can't be sounded out phonetically.

Practice makes perfect, so a little bit of reading every day seems to be working well too. We bought the Read with Biff, Chip and Kipper set as this compliments the books that big man reads at school.

What are your top tips for helping your little one to read. Have you got a great book of game that you would like to share?