Parents often ask what they can do to help their children at home. Here are some suggestions on how you can support your child’s learning.

• Let your child know how much you love and value him/her.

• Provide opportunities for your child to see you reading, both for enjoyment and for information.

• Read to your child every day. Children love to hear their favorite stories over and over again. Get a library card and go to the library weekly. Discuss the books after you have read them.

• Encourage your child to ask questions. Answer them in language your child can understand.

• Talk with your child about daily activities, trips, and special events that happen in your child’s life.

• Display your child’s school work in a prominent place.

• Take your child as many places as possible – shopping, to the zoo, the airport, local parks, etc.

• Provide learning materials for your child such as books, paints, scissors, paper, crayons, and pencils.

• Encourage your child to wash, dress, and take care of his/her personal needs.

• Teach your child their birthdate, address and phone number.

• Supervise closely what your child watches on television. Violent and/or sexually explicit films (including the daily “soap operas”) are inappropriate for young children.

• Limit the time your child watches television.

• Provide rules that are fair, reasonable, and easy for your child to understand.

• Teach your child the letters in their first and last names and how to write them.

• Help your child learn their colors.

• Sing songs and say nursery rhymes.

• Play games (card games and board games as well as outside games)

• Count objects together.