Ask your child to tell you a Bible story, about when he was sick, or why the moon has a face. Have her rhyme with you, sing a song to you, or tell how to make cinnamon toast. Not only will you share special moments together but also your child will be practicing language skills needed later on for reading.

Read to Your Child
How did Susie know the words to her favorite Bible story? Mom read it to her. Grandma did too—over and over!

Read books to your child with rhyming words, alliteration (words beginning with the same letter), and silly stories. She will like nonfiction stories about gorillas, Komodo dragons, and volcanoes. He will want to hear Jack Prelutsky poems, Bible stories about Daniel in the lion's den, and how Jesus healed the blind man.

Your child will want you to reread the same books over and over. One well-known reading professor often says, "Each child should enter kindergarten with fifty books memorized."² That is a lot of reading on the parent's part!

You may worry about the state of your own mind when you read, "Stand Back," Said the Elephant, "I'm Going to Sneeze!" (Patricia Wallace, 1990) for the twenty-ninth time. Your child, however, is going to love it. Better yet, she will be able to recite many of the words with you.

"Why is that valuable?" you may ask. "He's just memorized the words," and "What does that have to do with reading?" you may wonder.

Memorizing language will help your child liftoff into reading. As a child memorizes poems, songs, and stories, he learns syntax—the structure of language. She learns that sentences do not end with the words because or where. He becomes able to match the words he says with words he sees on the page. She becomes aware that words are made up of smaller sound bites: cat is c-a-t. This is the beginning of phonics; helpful when he sounds-out new words. Also, when your child recites words, she practices sounding fluent. Fluency is a necessary reading skill.

So read to your child. Read library books, road signs, restaurant menus, and the back of your child's favorite cereal box. Read until your voice is hoarse, your eyes itch, and pages fall out of your child's book.

One day, like Susie, your child will say to you, "Listen to me! I can read." Your fingers will tighten on the steering wheel. Then you will smile as your child lifts off into the wonderful world of reading.

Peggy M. Wilber is a teacher, author, and speaker with a mission of helping children learn to read well. She has been diagnosing and remediating elementary and middle school children's reading disorders since 1987. Her education includes a Masters of Education from Boston University and Certification in Early Childhood Reading Instruction from University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, specializing in integrating reading methodologies.  Peggy has worked alongside the team at Cook Ministries to create Rocket Readers a biblically based reading program designed to teach children to read using Scripture. Visit www.cookministries.com

1. Learn-to-Read Bible. Heather Gemmen, Cook Communications Ministries, 2003.
2. Dr. Barbara Swaby, director of the Graduate Reading Program, School of Education, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.