How You Can Help Your Child At Home

As a parent, time is often a worry or constraint that you have to deal with, so we have a list of suggestions that can vary from something you can quickly do as an integrated part of your family life to things like dedicated days out:

• Encourage reading, writing, listening, and speaking at home.
• Develop their confidence and self esteem by encouragement and praise.
• Surround your child with relevant literature, books, magazines, comics, etc.
• Use books from their school library or your community library.
• Read aloud to your child as often as possible.
• Read along with your child.
• Discuss their stories with them.
• Listen to their ideas and answer their questions.
• Involve writing and reading in everyday activities, eg.
  • Shopping lists
  • Newspaper
  • Food labels
  • Using a “note” system
  • Pin-up board, whiteboard, or chalkboard
  • Television programs
• When you listen to your child read:
  • Make it a positive, stress-free experience.
  • When your child stumbles on a word, tell them the word.
  • Ask your child to retell the story in own words.
  • Realize the value of silent reading.
• Help your child with projects and homework in an encouraging way:
  • Check their homework (eg. spelling words)
  • Take your child to interesting places and discuss the trip with them