10 Tips to Help Your Child Succeed in School

We all want our children to do well in school (and in life!) and when it comes to training your child to read, you want to start early. From the moment your baby starts forming, you want to provide him/her with quality nutrition and start interacting with your baby.

You can sing, read, or just talk with your baby to familiarize them with your voice and start to build a relationship. But since your child can't really communicate with you at this time, it's the perfect time to start reading and learning from other moms.

Because when your baby is born, that's when the real adventure begins. Both of my children are fantastic readers and read 4 or 5 grade levels above their ages, but it wasn't a straight line to the top.

Here are my top ten tips for making sure your child does will in school and becomes a great reader.

1. Make sure they always have proper nutrition, sleep, and play time.
2. Read to them often (daily or multiple times daily) and interact with them regularly (as babies, toddlers, and kids!)
3. Be involved with their school, their hobbies, and their homework.
4. Be flexible -when one method of teaching isn't working, try something new. There is more than one way to learn something and we each have strengths/weaknesses.
5. Make learning fun - use games, puzzles, videos, and rewards to keep it fun.
6. Teach them the rules for reading and math early in the preschool years and repeat them often as they start to use the rules.
7. Encourage them to read on their own and to explore books that interest them.
8. Make sure they understand that it's cool (and important!) to be smart.
9. Teach them to be responsible for their own success.
10. Keep reading to them - even after they know how to read on their own. They will enjoy this and associate reading with togetherness and fun.

I used a variety of props and techniques when I was teaching my children the rules for reading. I focused on phonics when they were really young (2-4 years old) and we regularly played with our phonics board and letter packs. (seen below)

We used this phonics board for games and letter/sound recognition. They could tack up each object to it's matching sound or use the pictures to help jog their memories. These are especially useful tools for visual learners.

Each baggie contains objects for a letter or combination "sound" - including sounds like "CH", "OW," "OY," and "TH"

A few of the "R" contents - rim, ram, ring, robot, rose, rock, raisin bran....

These items not only help them learn the phonics sounds, but they help build vocabulary and provide hands-on fun that children enjoy.

When it comes to actually reading, I highly recommend the Dick and Jane series of books for learning sight words and books that emphasize phonics arrangements for actual reading. Look for books that teach reading like this:

The best thing you can do is be involved. Teach the best way you know how and seek out information for things you don't know. By paying attention to your own child, you'll be able to find something that works for each of them (and they will most likely be different from each other.)

It's never too early to start training. Just remember to keep it fun. They have years of learning ahead of them and we want them to keep enjoying the process.

As a member of Clever Girls Collective, I was selected to participate in the Healthy Habits program sponsored by Kimberly-Clark and Colgate-Palmolive. The content and opinions expressed here are all my own. #healthyhabits #cgc
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