Instead, read lots of books together. Focus on the sounds, holding the sounds and joining them together. Make it fun. Too many kids are put off reading and writing because it is made to be a horrible experience, a chore. Get your child to write shopping lists with you, letters to family and/or friends and short diary entries. Focus on correcting only a few words.. no more than 20% at a time or the child will feel like a failure. Praise and encourage. Display his writing around the house and show it to your friends and family in front of him… show him you are proud of his achievements rather than disappointed in his ability.

Practice sounds whilst driving, ie ‘I spy’ games, play games such as ‘lets see how many words we can think of that start with the sound of ..’ or play rhyming words. The idea is to practise without them realising they are practising! Write some letters down, (4 is a good number at any one time) and get him to cut out some pictures from old magazines of things that start with that sound and glue them on. Kids love cut and paste activities, it’s fun. Use flashcards to reinforce most common reading words that are difficult to sound out, such as ‘one, come, said, are, etc’. These words are best learned through repetition and sight.

When looking for worksheets, look for some that include some kind of art/craft activity, maybe reward stickers for completing pages. The pages must be colourful, fun and not too demanding. Keep revision time short and stick to one activity at a time… lots of worksheets have multiple sections, which is simply too much. 5 to 10min max of learning one on one with you, with unstructured time for art activities such as colouring in, cut and paste etc is plenty. For example, when practicing the letter ‘L’ you can provide him with a paper plate, glue and/or sticky tape, as well as crepe or coloured paper, then make a lion mask. Look for ‘L’ and ‘l’ letters in magazines to cut out and stick on the reverse side.

For practising letters, go through the alphabet using sounds. Explain that some letters have more than one sound, ie a for apple or a for plane.. but work on the initial sound first. You can take a look at ‘letterland’ for example, some children really take well to the program. There are plenty of books around for extra worksheet help.. look at your local educational shops, or ask your child’s teacher for resources, extra help or tips of where to get them from. This also ensures that you use the same strategies they use at school, at an appropriate level.

Hint: I made a mailbox for my own children, which we use to write letters or notes to each other daily. They love checking the box for letters, (great for reading!) and can’t wait to write something in return. Warning: This invariably will include lots of requests for treats, extra TV time and lots of ‘I love you’ notes.. but it gets them writing :)))

Here are some of my suggestions for online sources of printables:

Family Education Network

http://www.familyeducation.com/home/

Family Education Network, Printables Center

http://printables.familyeducation.com/

Writing Activities Printouts from Enchanted Learning.com

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/essay/writing.shtml

Yahoo!Kids

http://kids.yahoo.com/