Read books that relate to your child's life experiences. Reading aloud is one of the most important activities you can do with your young child. As you sit with your child while reading a book, your child begins to associate reading with warmth and pleasure. Your child sees the way you turn the pages and begins to make the connection between your words and the words and pic-tures on the page. When students listen to stories or books read to them, they experience a richness of ideas and language too difficult for them to read alone, giving them a sense of the patterns of the written word, making them more motivated and more inclined to develop a love of reading.
Drawing is important to young children as they begin to express their ideas on paper.
When your child draws a picture, he or she is playing with language and ideas. Young children love to try to write, too, and they enjoy pre-tending to make lists, take messages, and send notes. Some children have experienced as many as 1,000 hours of informal reading and writing opportunities before they come to school. They have been read to, they have watched adults read and write, they have tried to write themselves, and they have talked about environ-mental print such as signs and labels. Know the parts of books and the function of each part.