The major portion of the website contains activities that you can use with your child to strengthen her language skills and encourage her love of reading. However, these activities are only a starting point. We hope that you and your child will enjoy them enough to create and try many more on your own.
As a parent, you are your child's first and most important teacher. You don't need to be the best reader to help—your time and interest and the pleasure that you share with your child as part of reading together are what counts. If you would like more information about helping your child with reading, this booklet also provides lists of books and Web sites and the names of groups that you can contact.
We all know that older children can do things that younger ones can't. This is true for reading, too. To help show when children can take certain learning steps, this booklet ties the discussion and activities to four age groups:
Baby = birth to 1 year
Toddler = 1 to 3 years
Preschooler = ages 3 and 4
Kindergartner/early first-grader = ages 5 and 6
—Laura Bush
