When your child has developed word awareness, begin breaking down words into individual letters. Although the alphabet song is the most classic means of teaching the alphabet, try getting creative. Explain each of the letters with their name, but don't worry about trying to incorporate the sounds the letters make yet. Teach lowercase letters first. Capital letters account for only five percent of all letters in writing English. Therefore, pay more attention to teaching the lowercase letters. lowercase letters are far more important in developing reading skills. Try making each of the letters out of play-DOH, playing a toss game (where the child tosses a beanbag/ball onto a specific letter on the floor), or fishing for foam letters in the bathtub. These are all interactive games that encourage development on multiple levels. One of the most important steps in teaching reading is associating a spoken sound with a letter or letter-pair. This process is known as phonemic awareness. There are 44 speech sounds created by the 26 letters in our alphabet, and each sound must be taught paired with its letter(s) counterpart. This includes the long and short sound produced by each individual letter, as well as the specialized sounds some combined letters make (like 'ch' and 'sh'). Focus on a single letter/part/sound at a time. Avoid confusion and build a solid foundation by working at a steady pace through all of the speech sounds. Give real life examples of each speech sound; for example, state that the letter 'A' makes the 'ah' sound, like at the beginning of the word 'apple.' This can be turned into a guessing game, when you speak an easy word (like apple) and have the child guess the letter that it starts with. Use games similar to those used when teaching the alphabet, that combine critical thinking on the part of the child in order to determine sound/letter correlations. See the aforementioned list for ideas, but substitute in sounds. It is easier for children to develop phonemic awareness when words are broken down into their smallest parts. This can be done with the clapping game (clapping out each syllable in a word) or by sounding-out words into their individual letters. Rhyming teaches phonemic awareness and letter recognition, in addition to the most basic English words. Read nursery rhymes to your child, and then eventually make lists of easy-to-read rhymes such as mop, top, flop, pop, and cop. Your child will begin to see the patterns of sounds that are made when certain letters are combined - in this case, the sound 'o-p' makes. Traditionally, children are taught to recognize a word based on its size, the first and last letters, and the general sound. This method of teaching is known as implicit phonics - working from the largest piece down. However, studies have shown that readable vocabulary dramatically increases (from 900 words to 3000 words by the third grade) when taught in the opposite fashion: breaking each word into the smallest parts, and building them up into a full word - explicit phonics. Help your child to begin reading by having them sound-out each individual letter without looking at the overall word first. Don't move onto explicit phonics until your child has developed adequate phonemic awareness. If they cannot associate sounds with letters or letter pairs quickly, they need a bit more practice before moving onto complete words. Classically known as 'sounding out' words, decoding is when a child reads a word by making the sounds of each individual letter, rather than trying to read the whole word at once. Reading is broken up into two primary parts: decoding/reading a word, and comprehending its meaning. Don't expect your child to recognize and comprehend words just yet; have them focus on decoding and sounding out word parts.. Don't use whole stories or books yet; have your child read from word lists or from a basic story (not focusing on the plot). This is another great time to use rhymes for practice. Decoding aloud is typically easier for the child (and you) to learn how to say the word. Have them break it into parts with clapping if necessary. Do not be rigid in how the child pronounces the sounds. Regional accents and weak auditory skills make it hard for children to say most sounds in an academically correct way. Accept a reasonable effort. Recognize that learning sounds is only an intermediate step to learning to read, it is not the goal. . Preschoolers, kindergartners, and first graders are very concrete in the way they think and cannot handle complicated concepts. By age four, most English speaking children already have an excellent grasp of grammar and in due time, they will learn all the formal grammatical rules. At this point, you need to concentrate only on the mechanical skill of reading, that is learning to decode new words and incorporating them in memory to build fluency. Certain words in the English vocabulary are spoken often, but don't follow the typical phonics rules. These words are easier to memorize by shape association than by sound, and are therefore known as 'sight words.' Some sight words include 'they,' 'she', 'an,' 'said,' and 'the.' The complete list of sight words, called the Dolch list, can be found online and broken down into sections to work through. Show your child sight words on a piece of paper. Le them copy it and after telling them what the word is, ask them to tell YOU what the words is.
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One-sentence summary -- Teach your child the alphabet. Develop phonemic awareness. Teach your child rhymes. Teach your child to read using explicit phonics. Have your child practice decoding. Do not worry about grammar. Build up an archive of sight words.

Older incandescent light bulbs do not contain liquid mercury. But, some newer energy-saving compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs do. Check the packaging that the bulbs came in for warnings regarding their mercury content. Energy-saving bulbs typically contain no more than 4 mg of mercuryjust enough to cover the tip of a pen. Even if the CFL bulb contains mercury, it might be in gaseous rather than liquid form. LED bulbs don't contain liquid mercury. Tilt switches (sometimes called "mercury switches") were used in older appliances to transmit an on/off signal. Appliances in the home that may contain mercury include chest freezers, televisions, thermostats, washing machines, space heaters, clothes dryers, and washing machines. Contact the appliance manufacturer or check your user manual to confirm if a given appliance has mercury. Contact an appliance recycler or your local hazardous waste collection center for information regarding the best way to dispose of these appliances. You might be able to locate up to 3 grams of mercury in thermostats. Most normal batteries do not contain mercury. However, the smaller "button cell" batteries that are used in watches, hearing aids, toys, pacemakers, and other devices still contain mercury. If you can find a device containing these small batteries, you've probably found liquid mercury. Certain pharmaceutical products might contain liquid mercury. Skin antiseptics, facial creams, contact lens solutions, and some vaccines could contain liquid mercury. To confirm that your pharmaceutical products contain liquid mercury, check the ingredients label or contact the manufacturer. Clocks from the 1600s or before often used liquid mercury as a pendulum weight. If you own such a clock, it probably contains liquid mercury.
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One-sentence summary --
Identify compact fluorescent light bulbs. Locate mercury in tilt switches. Find mercury in small batteries. Search for mercury in pharmaceuticals. Check antique clocks.