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Learning to read is not something that has a time or age assigned with it. It is a process that starts at birth, or maybe before. It should be natural, and can be incorporated by reading to the baby, singing songs, saying and doing little finger plays, patty cake, and many other rhymes. These all teach a love of words, expression, and rhythm.

Introducing letters can be ongoing, pointing them out when food packages show certain letters dominantly. Point to the letter, say the letter, say the name or brand of the food. Labeling different items in the house is a good way to gain recognition of words. Also, another method I like is to have mystery words. Either use magnetic letters, and spell a word on the refrigerator for your child to figure out, or use a mystery word box that they draw a card out of to decode. you can use an incentive chart to keep track of how many they sound out, or just make a big deal of it. Ring a bell, blow a whistle, or pop bubble wrap, or let the child make the noise, but just reserve it for a celebration of a word.

I like to put the ABC's up on the walls of their room. I usually make them about 6" high in both the upper, and lower case. Make them out of construction paper, and cover with contact, or laminate. The upper, and lower case "A" will be one color, the upper and lower case "B", another, and continue to alternate different colors for each set of letters through Z. The best height to post them is about your eye level. That keeps them from just being taken off the wall. Also, if you hold your child in your arms, take their finger, and trace the letters as you say the name, the sound, and an example of a word, they will learn a multitude of things at one time. My only caution is this: they will also learn to stay up from nap, or bedtime just a little longer to do their letters. Sometimes they will also stand in their crib saying their letters and sounds.

There are many games or aids you can make to help your child read, here is a brief description of a few. The main thing is that it is fun. Don't make it regimented, or a required time length to do it. You can make a word wheel: two circles out of poster board, connect one on top of the other with a brad, the inner circle has a notch, the bottom circle has "as", the top circle has different consonants such as m, s, p etc. When the top circle is turned, it makes different words that end with "ad". A word ring is words written on 3x5 cards that are cut in strips. The words can be words

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