• Read to your child. Studies show this is the single most important thing parents can do to help their children succeed. Share books that you enjoyed at that age.Take the time to discover some of the wonderful books that have been written for children since you were 
  a child.
• You and your child can take turns reading aloud. Discuss what is happening in the story and try to predict what might happen next. 
• Encourage an older child to read to a younger brother or sister. This way, both are developing a habit of reading while they are forming a special bond. 
• Spend some quiet time reading together as a family. Everyone can read something they enjoy. 
• Provide a variety of reading materials for your child. Check out the public library, bookstores, school book clubs and book fairs, or shop the Internet. Looking for something good to read is part of the fun! 
• Make reading an enjoyable experience. Encourage your child to find a comfortable place to read. Reading can be fun in a beanbag, in a bed, in a hammock, on the couch, in the car, in the bathtub, in a rocking chair, in a tree house, or even on a boat. A snack and a drink also make a nice reading treat. 

"Words are the window to our thoughts" "Reading is a lifetime gift…share it with your child."

• Make pencils, ruled paper, crayons, markers, etc. available to your child and encourage their use. 
• Encourage your child to keep a journal, diary, or writing notebook. 
• Play spelling games like Scrabble, Boggle, Hangman, and Wheel of Fortune. 
• Encourage your child to write friendly letters to a penpal or a family member. 
• Cut up a comic strip and let your child put it back in order. 
• Begin a story. Invite your child to make up the next sentence in the story. Continue taking turns, adding to the story until it is complete. 
• Use your child's original drawing or an unusual picture from a magazine and write a story about it together. 

• Bake something together using measuring cups and spoons. 
• Compare prices while shopping at the store. 
• Drill and practice math facts every day. 
• Identify geometric shapes (cubes, pyramids, cylinders, cones, and spheres) in everyday life. 
• Use advertisements to help your child learn percentages and discounts. 
• Use real money and have your child count it or make change. 
• While cutting up a pizza, a pie, or a cake, talk about fractions. 
• Help your child identify patterns in music. 
• Estimate how much wrapping paper and ribbon is needed to wrap gifts. 
• Teach your child to tell time. 
• Use a clock and count by 5's, 10's, and 15's. 
• Make and solve math story problems from your everyday experiences. 
• Build something together using standard and metric measurement. 
• Use a calculator while shopping or to check math homework. 
• Create a simple graph to record information such as the daily temperature or weekly spelling grades.